Two Audiences, Two Starting Points
How Families Engage Differently
Parents and students are not only motivated by different values they search differently.
- 73% of parents start with a web query before visiting a college site.
- 59% of students begin with family, friends, or teachers.
From there, their journeys diverge: parents turn to institutional websites, aid calculators, and trusted data platforms, while students flow through TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
➜ Students live in social loops; parents live in search loops.
➜ Segmentation is strategy, not style.
➜ Meeting each audience where they start turns curiosity into conversion.
Where Students Notice You
Students pay the most attention to:
- Social media (66%)
- Email (58%)
- College fairs and events (58%)
Their top platforms are TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. If your team isn’t fluent in short-form storytelling and the rhythm of the hook, you’re not reaching them where they live.
Where Parents Look
Parents are more pragmatic searchers. They rely on search engines, ranking sites, ROI calculators, and institutional pages. If your program isn’t optimized for AI-enhanced discovery, you’re invisible when it matters most.
What This Means for Marketers
- Design dual pathways: Separate parent and student funnels.
- Build parallel creative: ROI-driven for parents, peer-led and authentic for students.
- Integrate AI-readable content to ensure visibility in both search and chat-based discovery.
Download the full report: See the complete data on where families really start their search—and how AI is reshaping their journey.
Download the white paper today
Download
3rd Annual Parent & Student Survey
The New Rules Of Higher Education Marketing
How AI and Shifting Family Priorities are Reshaping Student Recruitment
Top motivators for both parents and students
Workbook ideas and prompts for all types of higher ed institutions
90-day framework for implementation
OUR LATEST WHITEPAPER
3rd Annual Parent & Student Survey
The New Rules Of Higher Education Marketing
How AI and Shifting Family Priorities are Reshaping Student Recruitment
AI isn’t new. It’s normal. Students and parents alike are increasingly using LLMs for research – for everything from homework help to their best options for higher education. If families already use AI to choose, the question is: how is your institution meeting them there? Our latest whitepaper outlines how to publish AI-readable answers to the most asked questions, making your value legible to both humans and machines.
