Meta Ads vs. MeetYourClass: How “Class of 2030” Communities Deliver Better ROI in Enrollment Marketing
In a 2024 college survey, the Primary Research Group found that 4‑year colleges spent on average approximately $130,000 per year on Meta (Instagram and Facebook) advertisements (Source). A similar 2022 study by Ruffalo Noel Levitz found that private institutions on average allocate 19% and public institutions allocate 9% of their marketing and recruitment budgets to digital advertising and lead generation (Source).
Traditional Meta advertising can certainly reach large audiences, but each impression comes at a high cost, and often with limited visibility into who is being reached. In contrast, this article explores how your university can proactively gather student-generated content and use it to generate free, organic impressions on Instagram—providing a more affordable and effective approach to driving applications and aiming for higher yield.
The High Cost of Paid Impressions in Higher Ed Marketing
Paid social media ads work on a pay-per-impression model—universities pay for each view or click their content receives. On Meta platforms like Instagram, the cost per thousand impressions (CPM) has averaged $12.43 per 1,000 views for well-targeted campaigns (Source).
These advertisements are not only remarkably expensive, but the exposure stops when the budget stops—you’re essentially renting attention. Every new admissions cycle or marketing push means renewed ad spending to maintain visibility. In short, buying impressions can be an expensive and continuous effort, with costs scaling linearly for each additional prospective student reached.
Calculating ROI—MeetYourClass: Organic Reach through Student-Generated Content
MeetYourClass takes a very different approach. Instead of paying for each view, the university gains an owned, “class” social media community (e.g. an official “Class of 2030” Instagram page managed by MeetYourClass). In these communities, our platform automatically features students who have expressed interest in or are committed to the university. Each time a student is featured on the Instagram account, it generates significant buzz without any paid boost. Across all MeetYourClass Instagram communities this past admissions cycle, each student feature reached roughly 362 unique Instagram accounts and accumulated over 6,100 impressions on average per post.
Note: You do not need MeetYourClass to create a student-driven community on Instagram. To learn how you can get started yourself, visit our recent blog post: “How to Create a “Class of 2030” Instagram Community.”
For a university with 2,000 admitted students, this historical data suggests that they could expect to reach roughly 724,000 unique accounts and accumulate approximately 12,200,000 impressions. These impressions are essentially free, and they occur because the content is engaging and shareable, not because advertising dollars put it in front of someone’s eyes.
By contrast, for a university to buy approximately 12,200,000 impressions in a well-targeted campaign, they could expect to pay $151,646 in advertising dollars.
How MeetYourClass Content Garners so much Organic Visibility
When a student is featured on a class community, each piece of student generated content can get in front of other prospective students for one of three reasons:
1. Students Actively Follow the Community
A student who follows the community will see nearly all posted content. This bucket typically accounts for approximately 30% of total content viewership, and importantly, these are hand-raisers—students who have proactively chosen to follow the page, signaling genuine interest in the institution. For pre-application students, the content they see serves as repeated touchpoints and as an ongoing reminder to apply to the school. For admitted students, the content they see serves as ongoing reinforcement about their college options and can play a critical role in yield strategies and summer melt prevention.
2. Instagram’s Algorithm Suggests It
Social media algorithms amplify relevant, popular content. Individual posts within a class community can get picked up by Instagram’s algorithm, appearing in the Explore feeds of other prospective students interested in similar content. The platform does the work of distribution, at no cost to the university.
3. Students Broadcast Content to their Personal Networks
Most powerfully, students featured in class communities often share content of themselves to their personal networks—dramatically widening the reach. For instance, when a student is showcased, they typically re-post their feature to their personal Instagram story and might even add themselves as a collaborator on the original post. This means all of their followers see the content too. Each feature, therefore, can tap into the personal networks of the student, reaching not just fellow applicants but also friends, former classmates, siblings, and others. Such viewers often include younger peers (e.g. friends of the student’s younger siblings, or underclassmen from their high school) who may not be in the college decision process yet but are potential future applicants.
Our platform's integration with social apps allows for a single piece of student-generated content to create a halo of impressions with the university’s name and authentic student stories, purely through social sharing and algorithmic relevance.
It’s Not Just About the Cost of Impressions, It’s About Authenticity
Beyond the raw numbers, not all impressions are equal. An impression from a glossy paid ad and an impression from a friend’s Instagram Story do not have the same impact. Student-generated content carries a level of authenticity and trust that branded advertisements often lack. In fact, 81% of consumers say they trust user-generated content more than content created by brands or even influencers (Source). Prospective students scrolling through Instagram are more likely to stop and engage with a post from a real fellow student than a polished university ad. It feels real and relatable—a peek into the lives of actual peers rather than marketing messaging.
With a class community, prospective students are exposed to a steady stream of authentic posts—featuring peers sharing why they’re excited to apply, why they chose to attend, showcasing their personalities, or connecting with future classmates. This consistent visibility builds social proof—the phenomenon where people are influenced by seeing others’ experiences. If a student sees “a bunch of positive reviews, testimonials, and success stories about a specific institution,” it can significantly sway their decision (Source).
Insights Down to Individual CRM Records, Not Just Vanity Metrics
What’s more, engagement with MeetYourClass content is not in black box—it’s actionable and trackable, unlike the vanity metrics that often come with traditional advertisements. Every student who joins the MeetYourClass platform or follows the class Instagram is a known individual (since MeetYourClass verifies identity and ties social accounts to real prospective students). This allows for admissions and enrollment leaders to trace interactions back to their CRM records.
For example, you can see that Student A followed your Instagram community two months ago but shortly unfollowed after clicking on your institution’s net price calculator—all synced to your Slate or Salesforce. In contrast, a Facebook or Instagram ad might tell you how many people clicked a link, but it won’t tell you which specific admitted students are warming up to your school unless they explicitly fill out a form.
Conclusion
We are not suggesting that universities reallocate their entire digital advertising budgets to MeetYourClass. Admittedly, “Class of 20XX” communities are more focused in the mid- and late-funnel stages, where peer engagement and social validation drive deeper consideration and conversion. However, instead of relying solely on ads, we believe institutions should consider establishing a dedicated “Class of 2030” community on Instagram during the upcoming admissions cycle, and using ads more strategically to fill gaps in top-of-funnel awareness.
👉To learn how to get started on this yourself, check out our recent blog post: “How to Create a “Class of 2030” Instagram Community.”
