Freedom of Information request: advertising for clearing

The request was partially successful.

Dear Birkbeck, University of London,

Under the Freedom of Information Act, can you please tell me how much money you spent on advertising for clearing in 2019.

Can you please provide subtotals for the following categories (feel free to break them down further if that's appropriate):
1. Facebook
2. Instagram
3. Google - that is, search advertising
4. YouTube
5. Snapchat
6. Twitter
7. Other social networks (please specify)
8. Amazon
9. Online - that is, on websites excluding social networks, or those websites those listed above (this includes advertising using Google's ad network)
10. Television
11. National newspapers
12. Local newspapers
13. Magazines
14. Posters and billboards
15. Radio
16. Public transport billboards

Can you also provide an example of an ad in each of the above formats.

For the online forms of advertising, can you also tell me how many clicks each advertisement received. Can you also provide any other data you have which indicates the engagement with each ad.

For Google advertising, can you list which keywords you advertised against. Can you please indicate the cost-per-click in each case.

For Facebook, can you please supply
- A list of the interests and/or demographics you targeted
- If you used custom audiences, where you derived the data to make that custom audience from

Can you please provide this information in an Excel format.

Thanks for your help!

Yours faithfully,

Rowland Manthorpe

Freedom of Information, Birkbeck, University of London

Dear Rowland Manthorpe,

This is to confirm receipt of your Freedom of Information enquiry. I apologise for the delay in sending this acknowledgement.

We will aim to respond to your request for information by the due date of 7th October 2019.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information
Birkbeck, University of London

www.bbk.ac.uk

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Freedom of Information, Birkbeck, University of London

Dear Rowland Manthorpe,

This is a response to your recent Freedom of Information (FOIA) request.

Birkbeck works work with an advertising agency and we pay for a total campaign with clear objectives.

We spent £96,933.75 on a clearing campaign with an objective of increasing year-on-year calls to the clearing line, and increasing the number of referrals (acceptances) .

We do not break down the spend by channel and the agency manage our spend where channels are being effective so we cannot give any more specifics than that other than to say our campaign was successful ; calls were up 10% year on year and our referrals up 15%.

Please note that Birkbeck College, University of London is an evening University and as such we have a high number of part time students a large number of these are at Postgraduate level and an even larger number are mature students. Birkbeck is therefore not comparable to traditional universities who have large cohorts of young school leaver undergraduates.

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you may wish to contact the Freedom of Information Office in the first instance to see whether your concerns can be resolved informally. You also have the right to request a formal internal review that will consider the way in which your request has been dealt with. Requests for an internal review should be submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original communication and should be addressed to [Birkbeck, University of London request email].

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information
Birkbeck College
London WC1E 7HX

www.bbk.ac.uk

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