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Confidential Draft · Admissions 2026–2027Download .pptx.pptx
Prepared by CNL Media
Office of Undergraduate Admissions
University of California, Merced
Admissions 2026–2027 Recruitment Media Plan
Admissions 2026–2027 · Undergraduate Recruitment
Admissions 2026–2027
Recruitment
Media Plan.
A comprehensive media plan for UC Merced undergraduate recruitment — audiences, timing, channels, budget, and measurement for the Admissions 2026–2027 cycle.
01Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Enrollment is a networked decision — made by ten audiences across twelve months, each with distinct messages, channels, and moments of influence.
This media plan organizes UC Merced's Admissions 2026–2027 undergraduate strategy around those audiences and moments — showing who we are reaching, when they matter, what we say, where we show up, and how each touchpoint moves a student closer to enrollment.
What follows is a comprehensive enrollment media plan: audiences, timing, channels, budget, and measurement for the full cycle.
The plan at a glance
- 4 + 5
- Core students, ring of influencers
- 12
- Months of continuous activation
- 05
- Decision moments in the student journey
- 11
- Durable brand stories, always on
- $500K
- Working investment, Admissions 2026–2027
02Goal
Reach the right audience, with the right message, at the right time.
Tell UC Merced's story to prospective students and families — building early buy-in, connection, and continued communication through every stage of the enrollment funnel.
Enrollment funnel
Audience · Applications · Qualified Applicants · Admits · Yield · Reduce Melt
Gold band — where prospects become BobcatsWidths illustrative, not to scale
Macro admissions plan · 2026–2027
Fall 2026–2027 cohort — seniors & transfers
The twelve-month rhythm.
This calendar reflects the Fall 2026–2027 applicant cohort only — high-school seniors and transfer students. Underclass audiences run on a separate, always-on cadence.
AUG
SEP
OCT
NOV
DEC
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
Gold tick — Oct 31, UC application deadline
The arc
How the spend follows the student
Reach builds awareness. Precision drives action.
The first half of the cycle is dominated by reach and story — CTV, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Audio. As the student moves toward action, weight shifts to declared intent — Search, Meta, Snapchat, Display retargeting. Admit and yield re-open the aperture with Lemon8, YouTube outcomes, and peer-driven social — because the decision is emotional again.
01
Awareness
- CTV
- YouTube
- TikTok
02
Consideration
- YouTube
- Audio
- TikTok
- Snapchat
03
Application
- Search
- Snapchat
- Meta
04
Admit
- YouTube
- Lemon8
- Meta
05
Yield
- YouTube
- Search
- Snapchat
- Lemon8
- Meta
06
Melt-Prevent
- Lemon8
Assumptions
- Target admit volume (~13,000) and yield range (30–35%) are sized from historical UC Merced undergraduate admission cycles.
- Yield is defined as admitted students who submit a Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) by the deadline.
- “Melt” is defined as deposited students who do not enroll by fall census.
KPIs · measurement
How we'll know it's working
How we'll measure it.
One dashboard, one line of sight — reported monthly, reviewed quarterly. Every metric asks the same question: did it move a student closer?
01Aided awareness
02Website discovery
03Program page depth
04App starts
05App completions
06Admit engagement
07SIR rate
08Deposit yield
09Melt rate
10First-year retention
03Recruitment Journey
Recruitment Journey
Rising seniors move through this cycle's funnel. Transfers run the same rhythm on a distinct creative track. Sophomores and juniors sit in research all school year — future cycles being built now.
THE 13-MONTH CYCLE
APP DEADLINE
Oct 31
DECISIONS
March
SIR DEADLINE
May 1
AUG'26
SEP
OCT
NOV
DEC
JAN'27
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
TRACK 01
Rising Seniors
Class of Fall 2027 — this cycle.
Research From Day OneFuture of CaliforniaMost Financial Aid
APPLY PUSH
NURTURE IN REVIEW
DECISIONS · SIR
YIELD · ANTI-MELT
Apply Now
Applications · CPA
Explore Bobcat Life
Engaged Sessions
Submit Your SIR
SIR Rate · Yield %
Register Bobcat Day
Melt Rate
TRACK 02
Transfer Students
California Community College — distinct creative track.
Most Financial Aid#1 for Social Mobility
APPLY PUSH
NURTURE IN REVIEW
DECISIONS · SIR
YIELD · ANTI-MELT
Apply as a Transfer
Transfer Apps
Check Articulation
Portal Engagement
Submit Your SIR
Transfer Yield
Transfer Orientation
Transfer Melt
TRACK 03
Juniors & Sophomores
Classes of Fall 2028–2029 — always-on research, activating through the year.
Find Your People#1 for Social MobilityFuture of California
CONTINUOUS RESEARCH
MORE INFO
CAMPUS TOURS
Learn More
Reach · Awareness
Request Info
Info Requests
Book a Tour
Tour Signups
Intensity
low
steady
high
peak
04Audience Map
Who we're reaching — and who reaches them.
Four applicant audiences, five rings of influence. This matrix shows which voices matter most for each student — read a row to see who to reach around them, read a column to see where each influencer shows up across the funnel.
Parents | Counselors | Teachers | Peers & Alumni | CBO Partners | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SENIORS Apply Now | |||||
JUNIORS Consider | |||||
SOPHOMORES Discover | |||||
TRANSFERS Bridge |
05Annual Timing
Audience Activity by Month
Ten audiences do not move through the year at the same pace. Select any audience to see who they are, when they matter, where we reach them, and why. Hover a month to isolate the audiences in play.
Now viewing
Prospective — Juniors
Early pipeline
Audience 01 of 10
WHO
High school juniors, weighted to California residents and first-generation students.
WHEN
Low-intensity all year, ramping into spring as they begin the college search.
WHERE
TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Lemon8, Snapchat.
WHY
Plants brand memory 12–18 months before application, when consideration sets form.
Primary PillarsFind Your People#1 for Social Mobility
Intensity
Dormant
Light
Active
Peak
Oct 31 · UC application deadline06Budget
Budget Allocation
Working investment for Admissions 2026–2027, allocated by channel and audience. Social carries two-thirds of media; Programmatic now leads reach, with Search capturing reduced but focused declared intent.
Total
$500,000
Media 90%
Creative & Alternative Media 10%
Channel
Soph / Jr
Seniors
Transfers
Total
SOCIAL
$75K
$165K
$60K
$300K
SEARCH
$8K
$35K
$17K
$60K
PROGRAMMATIC
$22K
$50K
$18K
$90K
Media subtotal
$105K
23%
$250K
56%
$95K
21%
$450K
90%
Offline & Alternative Media6%$30K
Creative Development4%$20K
Total investment$500K
07Decision Moments
Key Decision Moments
Each decision moment has its own audience, timing, channel, and strategic reason for showing up.
01
Consideration
Establish fit
- WHO
- Juniors, rising seniors, parents
- WHEN
- Aug – Sep
- WHERE
- CTV, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram
- WHY
- Build unaided awareness before app opens
02
Application
Reduce friction
- WHO
- Seniors, counselors, CBOs
- WHEN
- Oct – Nov
- WHERE
- Google Search, Meta, Snapchat, PR
- WHY
- Convert intent into a completed app
03
Admit
Affirm belonging
- WHO
- Admitted students & families
- WHEN
- Feb – Mar
- WHERE
- Email, Text, Lemon8, Video, Meta
- WHY
- Turn admission into identity
04
Yield
Prove ROI
- WHO
- Admits comparing offers
- WHEN
- Mar – Apr
- WHERE
- Retargeting, YouTube, Landing, Text
- WHY
- Answer objections at the deciding moment
05
Melt
Sustain momentum
- WHO
- Committed students & families
- WHEN
- May – Aug
- WHERE
- Text, Community, Peer content
- WHY
- Preserve deposits through summer
08Message × Market
Message–Market Fit
Every pillar maps to the regions where it lands hardest. This is how the message meets the market — not one campaign for California, but six aimed shots.
#1 for Social Mobility
A UC that measurably moves students and families up — proof that outcomes are engineered, not promised.
Regions
East LASouth LAInland EmpireImperial ValleyCoachella Valley
Most Financial Aid / Affordability
The most-aided UC — the answer to families weighing cost first.
Regions
East LAInland EmpireImperial ValleyCoachella Valley
Find Your People
Belonging as the through-line — the reason a student stays after they arrive.
Regions
All regionsSouth LA (emphasis)First-generation audiences
Future of California
For students who see themselves building what California becomes next.
Regions
San DiegoOrange CountySan Fernando Valley
Outdoor Lifestyle & Sustainability
Place, climate, and coast — a lived environment as much as an academic one.
Regions
VenturaSanta BarbaraCoastal communities
Region
Audience
Statewide
09How We Find Them
Precision Targeting.
Through CNL Media's exclusive data partners, every dollar reaches a named, verified audience — not a guess. Six signal types feed one activation layer, so the message meets the right student at the right moment.
The Signal Stack
01Signal
CRM / 1P Data
RFI submitters, application starters, admits, tour and event registrants — activated as targetable, suppressible, expandable audiences.
LiveRampSalesforceHubSpotSnowflakeExperian
02Signal
Lookalike
Behavioral twins of UC Merced's prospective-student audience — modeled from 1P and custom segments to scale reach without losing intent.
03Signal
Custom Segments
Proprietary NLP indexes hundreds of millions of pages per week to isolate users demonstrating live intent on the topics that matter.
04Signal
Contextual
Real-time page-context AI reads sentiment, intent, and meaning — so ads land beside content that already carries the message.
05Signal
Retargeting
Site visitors, CTV viewers, and OLV viewers segmented by engagement quartile — re-engaged with next-step messaging further down the funnel.
06Signal
Third-Party
Access to 750,000+ audience segments across 200+ data providers — curated into bespoke combinations for each pillar and region.
Custom Intent Segments
Live-indexed keywords
Research From Day OneFuture of California
College Planning / Admissions
college admissionsUC applicationcollege essay tipscollege searchCalifornia collegescollege checklistcollege comparisoncollege tourschoosing a college
Most Financial Aid
Financial Aid & Affordability
FAFSACal Grantcollege scholarshipsaffordable colleges in Californiain-state tuitioncollege cost calculatorpaying for collegeaid for first-generation studentsdegree value
#1 for Social Mobility
First-Generation / Social Mobility
first generation collegecollege accessupward mobilityeducational equitycollege readinesscollege mentoringcollege for low-income studentsUC Merced social mobilitystudent support services
Research From Day One
Research / STEM / Innovation
undergraduate researchresearch from day oneSTEM majorsengineering careerscomputer science degreeenvironmental scienceUC research opportunitieshands-on learninginnovation
Most Financial Aid#1 for Social Mobility
Transfer Pathways
community college transferUC transfer requirementsTAG programtransfer admission guaranteetransfer creditsMerced College transferCentral Valley community collegesbest UC for transfertransfer student support
Find Your People
Campus Life / Belonging
college campus lifestudent organizationscollege communitystudent belongingfirst-gen student communitycollege wellnesscampus traditionscollege orientationcollege fit
Verified Third-Party Reach
US audience size
ShareThis
Life Event · College Applications
126.8Mreachable
123Push
Households w/ Prospective Students
39.2Mreachable
Precision Audiences
Undergraduate Admissions (Expanded)
36.8Mreachable
Cybba
Parents of College-Bound Teens
30.6Mreachable
123Push
Parents of College-Bound Kids
26.6Mreachable
Captify
Starting College / University
23.5Mreachable
Drawn from 750,000+ audience segments across 200+ data providers — activated selectively through CNL Media, never sprayed.
10Channel Orchestration
Ten channels. One sequence.
No channel does the whole job. Each has one right role at one right moment. Read the grid across a row to see a channel's arc through the year; read a column to see the full stack at a single stage of the journey.
Prime
Support
Retarget
—
Click any cell for the channel's role at that stage.Select a channel row, a stage column, or any cell to see the orchestration detail.
11Channel Plan
Channels and Their Roles
WHO
All ten audiences, mapped by purpose
WHEN
Continuous, weighted to the cycle
WHAT
One idea per purpose, no channel duplication
WHERE
CTV, YouTube, Audio, Search, Social, Text
WHY
Every channel earns its place by moving a student
01
Inspire
- CTV
- YouTube
- Audio
02
Inform
- Google Search
- Display
- PR
03
Engage
- TikTok
- Snapchat
04
Convert
- Meta
- Retargeting
- Landing pages
05
Affirm
- Lemon8
- Video
06
Retain
- Text / SMS
- Community
- Peer content
Featured publishers
Local NewsESPNDisney+HuluParamountSpotifyiHeartPodcasts
The Commitment
Each unique cycle.
One system built to recruit them.
Accountable to
—
Highly qualified applicants
Rich, accurate audience built from first- and third-party signals
13,000
Admits
Target admit volume for Fall 2027
32%
SIR Yield
Midpoint of the 30–35% historical band
<2%
Summer Melt
Lowest anti-melt rate in five years
Admissions 2026–2027 · Recruitment Media Plan
Prepared by CNL Media · Confidential draft
Prepared by CNL Media for the Office of Undergraduate AdmissionsUC Merced · Admissions 2026–2027 Recruitment Media Plan