Cambridge English

Established in 1913 and part of the University of Cambridge, Cambridge University Press & Assessment is a world-leader in assessment, education, research and academic publishing. 

Cambridge English, a part of Cambridge University Press & Assessment, empowers people across the world to learn English and develop their skills through their renowned English language courses.

Prior to working with Climb Online, Cambridge English had limited experience with TikTok paid advertising, which was a fairly new channel for the brand compared with more familiar platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. Climb Online were asked to support them with their paid social activity across TikTok, building brand presence and tapping into this powerful channel to create awareness and consideration, helping them reach appropriate audiences at scale.

Our strategy was built around two key objectives – an international reach campaign and a complementary international traffic campaign utilising interest and retargeting ad sets. 

Overcoming challenges around some advertising exclusions in certain countries, we reworked our geo-targeting to focus on European countries and ensure a large enough audience. 

Next, we conducted in-depth research into the current landscape of similar ads, aligning these with the client’s objectives. The decision was made to keep all ads in English for several strategic reasons. Firstly, it reduced the cost associated with ad production, and secondly, it provided a soft audience qualification, as those unable to understand the English ads were unlikely to be suitable candidates for the courses on offer. This ensured our campaigns were focused on targeting qualified audiences. 

Our activity began with a reach campaign, enabling us to establish where the most activity was being received at the lowest possible cost. From here, we transitioned into our traffic campaign in line with the client’s objective of driving audiences to their main landing page. Utilising the data we collected during the reach campaign, we were able to structure our traffic campaign out of interest and retargeting ad sets, allowing us to focus our ads on audiences most likely to engage with them. 

Throughout, we continually tweaked and optimised ad creatives based on our data and campaign results, resulting in a combination of professionally produced content and creatives that leveraged a user-generated feel, helping to boost engagement while providing valuable information to pique interest in the offering.