The number of internet users in India is expected to reach 500 million by June 2018, as per a report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Kantar IMRB. The number of internet users stood at 481 million in December 2017, an increase of 11% over December 2016.

Internet penetration in urban India was 65% in December 2017 as compared to 61% last December. In comparison, rural internet penetration has grown from 18% in December 2016 to 20% in December 2017. The report also finds that an estimated 281 million daily internet users, out of which 183 million or 62% access the internet daily in urban areas, as compared to 98 million users or 53%, in rural India. Read more here
The rapid progression of technology and fast internet has led to an enormous growth in the number of smartphone users in India making it the second largest smartphone market in the world. The number of smartphone users in India is expected to grow by over 15% to reach 337 million in 2018.It is the highest estimated growth rate posted by any country in the world. Read more here

In 2015, the British Council conducted a survey amongst 1,200 Indian students where the results indicated 60% surveyed students use the internet to gain information on a. Hence in order to communicate with the right target audience, an online presence is of prime importance.

We have carefully designed specific campaigns, keeping in mind university needs where they can promote specific courses and scholarship programmes to reach their target audience and generate relevant leads. We have also created a brand management campaign which will ensure a sustained presence in India for universities who need more visibility or want to create a brand recall and can interact with your relevant audience.

The four campaigns are:

Benefits of the campaign

• Campaign Reach: Reach the most relevant audiences interested in studying abroad. The campaign will be targeted to students and their parents and will generate qualified leads and increase your chances of conversion.
• Brand visibility: Students in India rely on the institution’s online presence to determine its credibility. Communication through multiple digital channels will improve chances of your institution’s online presence on relevant platforms such as Google search, education portals and social media as well as on British Council owned platforms.
• Time-bound: Reach students and parents at the beginning of the recruitment cycle. This campaign can also build up to meeting students at the November 2018 and February 2019 Study UK exhibitions  
• Tailor made campaign:  We have designed a digital campaign to promote scholarships which can be tailor-made to suit your institution’s specific requirements.
• Lead Generation: Promoting your scholarships and courses online through a targeted campaign will enable your institutions to gather interest from potential students at an early stage. You can build a pool of prospective students, thus increasing the probability of conversions.

Notes:

• Timeline to avail these campaigns: October 2018 to March 2019.
• We will need specific images, promotion material and web URLs from participating UK institutions
• In order to get maximum benefit from the campaign, we recommend the institutions to provide us with a leads collection form. If the institutions do not have a lead collection form, clicks will be diverted to the appropriate landing page
• For Facebook boosted posts, the institution will need to provide us with post text, one high resolution image for each post and a landing page.
• We will need one high resolution image and a logo along with the content to design the template for the e-mail shot
• For the display ads we will need creatives in .JPG, GIF or .PNG format, file size not exceeding 150 KB. Dimensions: 300 x 250 pixels, 728 x 90 pixels and 160 x 600 pixels. One set of creatives per campaign
• The campaign cost doesn’t include designing of third party adverts. Institutions will have to provide the adverts as per the specifications. We are happy to design the adverts based on individual requests which will be charged on actuals

• Measurability: If you use Google Analytics to track traffic on your website, you will be able to know the exact number of visits to the landing page through the campaign. At the end of the campaign, British Council will share a report highlighting the campaign performance across all platforms. For Facebook boosted posts, the report will include:
  
  • Reach
  • Impressions
  • Number of Likes
  • Number of Shares

For third party campaign, the report will include:

• Impressions
• Clicks
• Click through rate (CTR)

The institutions are requested to share the number of leads generated through the campaign, as feedback. We will not ask for any personal data of the leads.