ERIC Number: EJ1274160
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020
Pages: 26
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0884-1241
EISSN: N/A
Buying Search, Buying Students: How Elite U.S. Institutions Employ Paid Search to Practice Academic Capitalism Online
Taylor, Z. W.; Bicak, Ibrahim
Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, v30 n2 p271-296 2020
While academic capitalism pervades many facets of US higher education, this study analyzes paid adwords as a method of academic capitalism in the online marketplace. This article presents findings from a five-month quantitative analysis of paid adwords of the 2018 top "US News & World Report" top 100 national universities. Capturing the Fall 2017 application season, this study investigated how many, when, and what adwords institutions purchase and how cost efficient these adwords were by words-per-click and price-per-click. Data indicate private institutions buy more adwords and pay a greater amount than public institutions but do not generate more traffic from these adwords. Regression analyses find better-ranked institutions generate more traffic from adwords than lower-ranked peers, but similar analyses predicting adwords and cost were not statistically significant. These findings suggest a stratified Internet marketplace, with better-ranked institutions practicing academic capitalism to drive web traffic toward their websites during application season.
Descriptors: Student Recruitment, Advertising, Universities, Cost Effectiveness, Private Colleges, Public Colleges, Internet, Reputation, Search Engines, Information Retrieval
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A