At Echo-Factory, we know marketing has the power to reach a niche audience and elevate brand messaging. And in the case of our recent campaign with IE Success, it helped open doors for thousands of Inland Empire students by connecting them to the financial aid resources they need to get to college.
Too often, outreach efforts around higher education fall flat. Students get overwhelmed by deadlines. Parents miss key information. Messaging gets buried in static. That’s why IE Success turned to Echo-Factory: to build a campaign that could cut through the noise and make applying for financial aid feel simple, urgent, and possible.
Strategy: Meet Audiences Where They Are
We started with a simple truth: students and parents weren’t just on one channel — they were everywhere. So we built a cross-platform campaign designed to saturate attention, in both English and Spanish, to ensure the campaign’s messaging was reaching all diverse communities in the Inland Empire. We developed key messaging strategies across different ad placements and platforms that met our target audience at the right time:
- Meta (Facebook & Instagram): Dynamic formats like Reels and Stories spoke directly to parents, driving strong traffic to application resources.
- TikTok: UGC-style, vertical videos outperformed expectations, showing parents that “It only takes 10 minutes to apply.”
- Spotify: Audio ads held a 95.6% completion rate, proving especially effective for Spanish-language messaging.
- Programmatic Display & Native Ads: Targeted placements reinforced awareness with engagement rates over 14%.
Just as important: 95% of all campaign traffic came from mobile devices. Every ad, every landing page, and every call-to-action was optimized for mobile-first behavior.
Creative That Resonated
The creative insight was clear: parents were the decision-drivers. So we built messages that made their role explicit.
- “You Hold the Key for the Future” (Meta)
- “10 Minutes Could Change Your Child’s Future” (TikTok)
- “Pensando en la universidad” (Spotify, Spanish)
- “Unidos por su futuro” (Programmatic, Spanish)
And it worked. Dynamic video and parent-focused messaging consistently outperformed static ads, especially in Spanish-language executions.
Results: Turning Attention Into Action
Across a two-month window and a $100K media spend, the campaign delivered results that show the power of intentional media strategy:
- 21.9M impressions and 5.1M people reached
- 61.6K clicks to FAFSA and CADAA resources
- 4.7M engagements at a 22.34% engagement rate
- 50.8K website sessions, with 161K total tracked events
And it worked. Dynamic video and parent-focused messaging consistently outperformed static ads, especially in Spanish-language executions.
Channel highlights included:
- TikTok: lowest CPM ($7.98) and strongest CTR (~2%)
- Meta: parent-focused ads drove the most landing page traffic
- Spotify: near-perfect audio ad completion (95%+)
- Programmatic: engagement rates over 14%, reinforcing the message beyond a single touchpoint
These weren’t just vanity metrics. They represented real families in Riverside, San Bernardino, and across the Inland Empire, taking steps toward securing their educational future.
What Other Marketers Can Learn
This campaign wasn’t just a win for FAFSA awareness. It’s a case study in how the right strategy can transform outreach:
- Video Wins — UGC-style, vertical, and dynamic content beat static ads every time.
- Cultural Relevance Matters — Spanish-language content outperformed English across platforms.
- Parents Drive Action — Parent-focused messaging created the biggest lift in traffic and conversions.
- Mobile-First Is a Must — With nearly all traffic coming from mobile, optimization isn’t optional.
A Smarter Way to Market for Impact
The IE Success campaign proves that paid media can do more than promote — it can empower. By pairing smart targeting with culturally relevant creative, we helped an entire region of students and families take real action toward their futures.
That’s what excites us at Echo-Factory: using the tools of advertising to create measurable, meaningful change.
Ready to Build Your Next Success Story?
Whether your goal is to drive awareness, generate leads, or inspire action, we’ll help you craft a campaign that doesn’t just reach your audience — it resonates.
