38 Education Marketing Statistics for 2026
Data on higher education and EdTech marketing, student acquisition, digital enrollment funnels, and content strategy for universities and educational technology companies.
Sources include: Empire325 proprietary research, Gartner, McKinsey, HubSpot, Forrester, and industry-specific research firms. Empire325 original statistics are released CC BY 4.0 — free to cite with attribution.
95% of prospective college students research schools online before requesting information — with Google searches accounting for 67% of first discovery touchpoints.
Source: Google Higher Education Research · 2024
Universities ranking in position 1-3 for 'best [program type] program' terms generate 43% more organic application inquiries than those on page 2+.
Source: Empire325 Research · 2025
EdTech B2B companies that publish curriculum, methodology, and outcomes research generate 3.1× more school district and university procurement inquiries.
Source: Empire325 Research · 2026
Higher education institutions spending over 5% of enrollment marketing budget on content marketing (vs. paid advertising) achieve 23% lower cost-per-enrollment.
Source: EAB Higher Education Marketing Benchmark · 2024
Video testimonials and student outcome stories increase online graduate program enrollment inquiry rates by 41% compared to text-only program descriptions.
Source: Empire325 Research · 2025
EdTech company CAC via content marketing is 68% lower than via paid acquisition channels, reflecting high-intent, research-led buying behavior by education administrators.
Source: HolonIQ EdTech Market Report · 2024
83% of corporate learning and development buyers research EdTech solutions for 4+ weeks online before speaking with a vendor sales representative.
Source: Fosway Group Digital Learning Research · 2024
Universities with comprehensive academic department SEO (every program, specialization, and research area with dedicated indexed pages) capture 2.9× more organic enrollment inquiries.
Source: Empire325 Research · 2026
Methodology & Citations
Statistics on this page are drawn from Empire325 proprietary research (published in our State of AI Search 2026 and Marketing Benchmark reports), and from third-party research cited with source and year. Empire325 proprietary statistics reflect analysis of client engagements, website audits, and controlled program measurement. Third-party statistics are cited as reported by their original sources. All statistics reflect the year indicated and should be verified against original sources for publication in academic or regulated contexts. Empire325 original data is released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) — free to reproduce with attribution.
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