Key Findings from 2024 UPCEA Marketing Survey
As more and more institutions face internal and external pressures to identify and cultivate new revenue streams, many are turning to online and professional continuing education to attract new learners and address fiscal shortfalls. While this continued increase in supply undoubtedly benefits the student, it makes an already saturated market even more competitive. UPCEA’s 2024 Benchmarking Online Enterprises study found that while 67% of institutions expect to obtain greater market share of the online marketplace over the next three years, only 24% of online leaders believe their institution’s approach to marketing online programs is better than their competitors. Additionally, with the increasing influence and permeation of artificial intelligence, and the associated evolving search behaviors of potential students, marketing has become even more indispensable for institutional survival.
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The average annual total gross revenue for online or professional education units was $28,433,649 with a median of $8,000,000. Not surprisingly, annual gross revenue increased as institution size increased.
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On average, institutions’ overall annual marketing budget was about $1.2M with a median of $644,000. The average annual marketing budget as a percentage of unit revenue was 11.9% with a median of 5.3%.
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In 2024, institutions averaged 7.74 full-time or full-time equivalent employees in their marketing departments compared to 6.88 FTEs in 2022, an increase of 0.86 FTEs. There were 5.0 in 2020, 6.40 in 2018, and 6.10 in 2014.
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Only a third of marketing leaders (32%) agreed that their marketing budget is robust enough to meet the goals of their institution. Additionally, only 28% anticipated their marketing budget will increase year over year for the foreseeable future. Even with this current and anticipated shortfall, 80% agree that their marketing unit will target new segments of students over the next three years. There is some belief (38%) that AI and other emerging technologies will allow marketing teams to stretch marketing budgets over that same time frame.
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