Where do colleges advertise? Demographic targeting by U.S. colleges

Abstract

In this paper, we assess the correlation between advertising spending by U.S. higher education institutions and metropolitan area demographics. We explore whether demographic targeting by colleges differs by sector (for-profit, not-for-profit, and public colleges), as well as for predominantly online institutions and multi-campus chains. Our data include spending on television, radio, Internet, print, and outdoor advertising by degree-granting institutions in the United States. We find that advertising spending is positively correlated with the share of Black residents in a local area for all types of institutions. For-profit institutions advertise in communities with larger shares of military service members and Hispanic residents, relative to their public and private not-for-profit counterparts. Campus location plays an important mediating role in college advertising, but cannot fully account for the patterns we observe. More research is needed to understand the welfare implications of our findings, but they raise concerns in light of research showing relatively poor outcomes for students in for-profit institutions.