The official TikTok For Business Case Study published Uni Compare and 360 OM’s Clearing campaign success story after it achieved a global 8th-place ranking on Results Day, surpassing giants like TikTok, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
Tariq Mohammed, Founder of 360 OM, commented, “We’re absolutely delighted with TikTok’s decision to publish our work with Uni Compare. This is a major milestone, showcasing the high standards of work at 360 OM. It provides fresh impetus for the 360 OM team to help more advertisers achieve their marketing goals with TikTok Ads. It gives confidence to brands who are looking to activate TikTok as a channel, we are the right partner for them.”
The goal for the Clearing 2023 campaign was to craft TikTok ads that simplified the Clearing process for prospective students. We aimed to employ a problem-to-solution approach, showcasing our app as the remedy for students’ Clearing challenges.
The TikTok campaign ran from July 1st to August 17th, 2023, with 10 video assets in our broad and retargeting campaigns.
Here’s the success story shared by TikTok in its Business Case Study series.
The Challenge
Finding the right university and course can be a frustrating journey. Owen O’Neill experienced this firsthand, taking three tries before landing the perfect fit. In 2014, he channelled this challenge into a solution: Uni Compare, a website and app that empowers students to research and compare universities.
To reach more people, Uni Compare (@unicompare) started sharing engaging videos on TikTok that cover everything — right from tips from grads and university life hacks to finding the best campus meal deals.
Recognising the annual stress of Clearing for UK students (where universities fill empty spots), Uni Compare conducted a student survey to identify their biggest challenges. These insights fueled a targeted ad campaign that directly addresses those concerns, solidifying their position as the go-to student resource.
Their goal was to drive app installs and Uni Compare wanted to streamline Clearing with content that addressed student pain points. They leveraged the power of machine learning on TikTok to achieve this.
The Solution
Taking their strategy a step further, Uni Compare partnered with agency 360-OM to utilise Automated Creative Optimization (ACO) on TikTok. This allowed them to target a broad audience – all genders aged 18-24 in the UK – with App Profile Page ads. These fast-loading ads take users directly to a dedicated landing page, accelerating the app install journey by up to 11x.
ACO’s machine learning magic came into play by analysing 10 videos and 5 headlines, automatically identifying the most effective combinations. This eliminated the need for manual A/B testing, saving both time and resources. Moreover, the App Install ads also included interactive elements like download cards and countdown timers.
We targeted students who were aged between 16 to 25 and who had experienced Clearing in the previous year. Some of their key pain points were:
- Lack of Information and Guidance
- Phone Call Anxiety
- Isolation and Limited Support
- Course Availability Issues
Uni Compare prioritised authenticity and partnered with carefully chosen, education-focused TikTok creators whose content resonated with their 18-24 year old target audience. These creators leveraged trending sounds and formats on the platform to deliver engaging User-Generated Content (UGC) that felt genuine. The expert guidance of the 360 OM team on budget allocation and scaling strategies proved invaluable, propelling Uni Compare’s campaign towards transformative results.
For instance, we integrated the countdown feature into our retargeting ads, building organic excitement for A-level Results Day without causing undue stress. Moreover, we curated our videos with a mix of familiar TikTok sounds and raw voice-overs, tailoring the sound to each video’s intent and content.
The seven different TikTok creators, handpicked for their authenticity and alignment with our target demographic, infused our campaign with genuine and relatable content.
The Result
The results were best-in-class with a 32.72% interaction increase, 38.18% more installs, and a 43.29% boost in registrations year on year. Compared to 2022, the cost per install (CPI) was 53.96% lower.
Here are the outstanding results:
- User interactions: 74,651 engagements (32.72% increase) ↑
- Total installs: 54,380 installations (38.18% increase) ↑
- Registrations: 32,239 registrations (43.29% increase) ↑
- Cost Per Install (CPI): From £3.28 to an enviable £1.12 (53.96% YOY decrease from 2022) ↓
- Cost Per Registration (CPR): From £2.39 to £1.34 (43.93% YOY decrease) ↓
- Cost Per Interaction (CPI): From £1.30 to £0.80 (38.46% YOY decrease) ↓
TikTok’s dynamic platform helped the small biz effectively reach, relate and interact with their audience while tracking campaign success. And if that was not enough, Uni Compare’s Clearing campaign was the only one to top the Education category on Apple’s App Store, and even ranked 8th globally on Results Day.
In Uni Compare’s words, the Clearing campaign was a “game changer” and provided the blueprint for future approaches. Owen O’Neill, Founder of Uni Compare said, “Our Clearing campaigns help tens of thousands of students discover something that will solve a key pain point for them when they receive their exam results. Our creatives are modern and direct, and allow potential users to see the benefits of our product. At first, we spoke to our users to understand the problems they are facing and the benefits of our product, we then used this as a direction to create our ads. Our ads are always created by students and focus on the right influencers attracting the right audience.”
The significant year-over-year improvements in user interactions, installations, and registrations, combined with the enviable CPI, CPR, and CPI, demonstrate the impact and cost-effectiveness of our TikTok campaign.
360 OM celebrated back-to-back wins at the UK Digital Excellence Awards with two awards for their innovative campaign, ‘360 OM & Uni Compare — Clearing 2023 TikTok Campaign’ and walked triumphantly away with trophies for ‘Paid Social Media Campaign of the Year’ and ‘Best Use of TikTok’.
Want 360 OM to craft a winning TikTok campaign for your brand? Let’s talk.
At 360 OM, we specialise in helping businesses take their marketing efforts to the next level. Our team stays on top of industry trends, uses data-informed decisions to maximise your ROI, and provides full transparency through comprehensive reports.
.png)
