North Arkansas College Increased Enrollment 12%

Summary

Amid shifts in higher education enrollment, North Arkansas College partnered with Multiview to implement programmatic advertising, driving a 12% year-over-year increase in spring enrollment and one of the highest spring headcounts in its history.

Company Background

North Arkansas College (Northark) is a comprehensive community college in Harrison, Arkansas, serving over 2,000 students. For more than 50 years, the institution has supported traditional, dual-credit, and adult learners through affordable programs in health professions, skilled trades, IT, business, and transfer degrees.

The Challenge

Amid broader economic and societal shifts affecting higher education enrollment, North Arkansas College sought to strengthen its outreach and better understand what was influencing prospective students.

Much of the college’s advertising relied on traditional channels such as radio, billboards, and print — tactics that offered limited visibility into performance. Even when digital vendors reported impressions or high click-through rates, the connection to actual enrollment growth remained unclear.

“We didn’t really know if our ads were successful,” said Brandon Cone, Marketing Coordinator at Northark. “We didn’t know if it was causing potential students to go to our website and see what we had to offer.”

Without reliable attribution, confidently evaluating marketing impact or adjusting strategy was a challenge.

The Solution

As part of a broader shift toward digital marketing, Northark partnered with Multiview to introduce programmatic advertising and website retargeting into its mix.

These channels gave the college direct visibility into ad performance and website engagement. Campaigns focused on prospective students within Northark’s service area and expanded into surrounding regions. Unlike previous reporting that relied on surface-level metrics, these campaigns clearly connected impressions and clicks directly to website activity, providing transparent metrics that closely aligned with the college’s enrollment trends.

In the past, I saw reports with really high click-through rates that didn’t match what we were seeing in enrollment. What I appreciate about Multiview is that the analytics are realistic — and they actually line up with real results.  — Brandon Cone, Marketing Coordinator

The Results

As Northark expanded its digital strategy, including programmatic advertising with Multiview, the college achieved 12% spring enrollment growth year-over-year (Spring 2025 to Spring 2026), marking one of the highest spring headcounts in the institution’s history.

While enrollment growth reflects the impact of multiple coordinated marketing efforts, programmatic has been the first channel to consistently provide clear attribution between campaign performance and measurable engagement. The ability to align reported metrics with real enrollment lift has allowed the college to make more informed, confident decisions about future investments.