Snapchat ads for school enrollment: what does $0.12 a swipe really buy?

For a school of choice, a six-month Snapchat flight delivered roughly 4MM impressions and more than 54K swipes at a cost of $0.12 per swipe. That buys inexpensive, repeated attention from prospective students on the app many of them use every day, and real visits to your website. It does not buy enrollment on its own, so the value depends on what happens after the swipe.

What is a swipe on Snapchat?

Snapchat ads run as full-screen vertical videos or images between friends' Stories and in other content on the app. When a viewer is interested, they swipe up (or tap, depending on the placement) to open the attachment, which is usually a landing page on your website. A swipe is the Snapchat equivalent of a click, and cost-per-swipe is the metric we use to judge how efficiently the ads are earning that action.

What did $0.12 a swipe deliver for a school?

Over a six-month flight for a school of choice, our Snapchat campaign generated about 4MM impressions and more than 54K swipes at a $0.12 cost-per-swipe. That means tens of thousands of visits from prospective students and families to the school's own pages, at a cost well below what most schools expect to pay for website traffic.

Snapchat works best as one channel in a larger plan. In a separate full-funnel program that combined paid and organic social, YouTube Live, display, website and email retargeting, and direct mail, a school of choice reached record enrollment, its highest in 20 years, with inquiries under $20 a lead. I mention this because the swipe cost alone is not the point. The swipes fed a system that followed up with those visitors until they were ready to inquire.

Who should schools target on Snapchat?

Snapchat is strongest at reaching students directly, which is valuable because students have a real voice in the decision about where to go to school. We target by age and geography around the school's draw area and build creative that speaks to students first. Parents are better reached on other channels, so we plan Snapchat as the student-facing side of a campaign rather than the whole campaign.

What kind of creative works on Snapchat?

In our experience, the creative that performs best looks like it belongs on Snapchat. That means vertical, fast-moving, sound-on video that feels native to the app, with a clear message in the first couple of seconds and a simple reason to swipe. Polished brochure-style video tends to get skipped.

Student-created content is especially effective. Ambassador content created by student teams we built and trained reached 1.5 million prospects from a single post and was recognized by TikTok for the best paid content in the client's vertical. The same principle applies on Snapchat: real students talking honestly about their school earn more attention than staff talking about programs.

How do you turn swipes into enrollment inquiries?

This is where most of the value is won or lost. I would recommend these steps before you launch:

1. Send swipes to a mobile-friendly landing page built for that audience, not your home page.
2. Keep the inquiry or visit form short enough to complete on a phone.
3. Install the Snap Pixel and your analytics tagging so you can see what visitors do after the swipe.
4. Retarget visitors on other channels, including email and display, with a clear next step such as a visit or a live event.
5. Judge success by cost per inquiry and enrollment, not by cost-per-swipe alone.

How does Snapchat compare with other low-cost channels?

Snapchat is not the only platform that can deliver efficient traffic for schools. On X (Twitter), $5K drove 88.5K clicks at an 18.5% CTR for a school of choice. Results like these show that the less crowded platforms can be very cost-effective when the targeting and creative fit the audience, and I would encourage schools to test beyond the usual Facebook and Instagram mix rather than assuming those are the only places families can be reached.

How Grimm can help

We plan and manage Snapchat, TikTok, X and Meta campaigns for schools as part of complete enrollment programs, including the landing pages, retargeting and student ambassador content that turn attention into inquiries. If you would like to talk about whether Snapchat belongs in your enrollment plan, let's start a conversation.

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