USC Price
AI SEO & Digital Advertising Proposal
A focused plan to improve online MPA/MHA demand generation, lead quality, AI/organic visibility, and paid media performance.
What's inside
A focused proposal built from the standard Search Influence template, with custom context limited to the most important decisions.
How USC Price can improve visibility and demand generation for online MPA/MHA prospects.
Lead quality, online program differentiation, targeting, exclusion data, and measurement.
Standard strategy, setup, ongoing optimization, reporting, and two conversion landing pages.
Recommended plan modeled on UNT Health pricing.
The Opportunity
Where USC Price can improve AI/search visibility, lead quality, and the online program story.
The AI Search Opportunity
Prospective students use search engines and AI tools to compare online public administration and healthcare administration programs early in the decision process.
Search and AI experiences answer comparison questions about format, fit, outcomes, flexibility, credibility, and student experience.
Those answers draw from repeated signals across program pages, FAQs, schema, video, third-party citations, reviews, and authoritative mentions.
The online MPA/MHA story should be explicit enough for both humans and AI systems to understand when USC Price is the right fit.
This slide focuses on the AI/search visibility layer that shapes early consideration. Paid media and landing pages carry that demand into dedicated conversion paths.
Lead quality should guide the demand-generation plan.
Working hypothesis to test: shifting more prospects into inquiry-first paths should improve lead quality and reduce low-value application starts.
Prospects are pushed too quickly to Apply now, creating blank starts and weak read on true demand.
Use landing pages, conversion tracking, nurture signals, and feedback loops to qualify intent before optimizing spend.
More viable inquiries and applications, with reporting that separates empty activity from enrollment potential.
The online USC Price story needs to be explicit.
The online MPA/MHA experience is different from campus programs, and the website & campaign experience should make that distinction easy to understand.
- Online MPA and MHA are the current online Price programs.
- Online and campus programs have different calendars, faculty models, cohort coaching, culture, and program codes.
- Online does not mean pandemic-era emergency remote learning.
- Student experience, live interaction, cohort culture, and personal support.
- Online vs campus fit and the consequences of choosing the wrong path.
- Student testimonials, video, YouTube, FAQs, and program-specific proof.
Targeting and exclusion data are foundational.
Campaign quality depends on clean first-party signals from prospect data in Salesforce and WebAdmit.
Disconnected systems make it hard to suppress admitted/enrolled students or build reliable audience signals.
Weak exclusions and limited quality feedback can waste spend on the wrong people and distort performance reporting.
Create a practical audience and exclusion strategy using CRM-derived lists, platform pixels, UTM discipline, and available funnel feedback.
Goal: build measurable demand for online MPA and MHA programs.
Search Influence will connect AI/organic visibility, paid media, landing pages, and analytics into an ongoing optimization process focused on qualified prospects.
Make the online program experience, online vs campus choice, and program value easier for prospects to understand.
Use paid search, Meta, LinkedIn, geography, audiences, exclusions, and first-party data to reduce waste.
Build dedicated conversion paths for inquiry and application intent instead of relying only on the main site.
Use campaign, landing page, search, AI visibility, and funnel feedback to improve quality over time.
Search Influence Strategic Process & Scope of Work
The following section outlines how Search Influence will plan, launch, manage, and report on the work.
SCALE the Search Influence Way
A practical operating model for strategy, campaign launch, reporting, and ongoing optimization.
For USC Price, SCALE means starting with outcome definitions, building the right visibility and campaign foundation, and using monthly performance data to improve lead quality over time.
Onboarding & Goal Setting
Confirm the goals, stakeholders, access, timelines, and reporting expectations needed to start cleanly.
- Website/CMS process
- GA4, Google Search Console, GTM, Google/Meta/LinkedIn ad accounts
- Salesforce, Pardot, WebAdmit, Slate exports or reporting inputs
- Current agency reports and budget breakdown
- Stakeholder introductions
- Day-to-day contacts and reviewers
- Publishing, campaign, and landing-page approval workflow
- SMART goal setting
- Funnel definitions and KPI hierarchy
- Launch milestones and monthly reporting cadence
AI SEO Initial Analysis & Strategy
Initial analysis connects entity, content, technical, authority, and baseline visibility work into an actionable roadmap.
Entity, keyword, and topic research for online MPA/MHA demand, AI prompts, and program discovery.
Review program content, online experience content, competitor pages, search results, and AI answer patterns.
Technical website analysis: crawlability, structured data, indexation, architecture, and internal linking.
Link profile and citation analysis; SEO baseline: organic rankings and AI visibility for targeted prompts.
Custom AI and organic SEO plan with targeted entities, keywords, content priorities, and near-term/long-term initiatives.
Execute AI SEO Strategy
Specific tactics are customized to USC Price's goals, access, and implementation model.
- Align content with key entities and search intent
- Optimize title tags, headings, and metadata
- Strengthen entity connections through internal linking and structured data
- Differentiate with subject matter expert insight
- Lean into content freshness
- Secure backlinks and citations
- Optimize directories and industry listings
- Publish digital PR with strategic links/language
- Optimize/create YouTube videos and LinkedIn articles
- Implement schema
- Improve crawlability, speed, and mobile health
- Improve navigation, internal linking, and URL structure
Google Paid Search Setup & Management
Show up for high-quality online MPA/MHA searches and drive qualified prospects through dedicated conversion paths.
- 4-6 weeks from kickoff
- Keyword research
- Campaign and ad group strategy
- Setup campaigns and ad groups
- Responsive search ads for each ad group
- Ad extensions: callout, sitelink, location, etc.
- Connect Google Ads & Analytics
- UTM tracking
- Google Ads conversions / import GA goals or key events
- Integrate available lead-quality feedback into optimization decisions
- Campaign analysis and updates
- Conversion optimization recommendations
- Ad copy and landing page testing/tuning
- Budget pacing and lead-quality review
Social Advertising
Reach priority and secondary social audiences while keeping spend accountable to lead quality.
- 4-6 weeks from kickoff
- Audience targeting research
- Campaign and ad group strategy
- Campaign creative: ad copy and imagery
- Targeting groups, including custom audiences from first-party data
- Select landing pages
- Conversion tracking
- Platform pixels and UTMs
- Audience exclusions for admitted/enrolled students where data allows
- Lead-quality feedback loop
- Campaign analysis and updates
- Monitor performance relative to goals
- Ongoing optimizations
- Creative and audience rotation when appropriate
Conversion Optimized Landing Pages
Two campaign landing pages to align ad intent with focused inquiry and application paths.
- Focused calls to action
- Lead generation elements
- Messaging aligned with online MPA/MHA intent
- Design/development of up to 2 campaign landing pages
- Conversion-focused pages separate from the main website
- Conversion-optimized copy and title tags
- Key calls to action
May include contact form placement/design, inquiry-first paths, or clear application options based on funnel strategy.
Dashboard, Analytics & Reporting
Reporting should connect strategy, completed work, visibility, traffic, and lead/funnel signals in language the team can use.
Analytics assessment, GA4, GSC, Bing Webmaster Tools, conversions, events, and Looker Studio dashboard setup.
SMART goal attainment, inquiries, keyword rankings, overall and organic traffic, and content performance.
AI traffic, AI visibility, prompt/citation trends, pages cited in AI answers, and other sites appearing for tracked prompts.
Emailed insights report by the 15th, completed deliverables/tactics, and a monthly meeting to review results and discuss optimizations.
AI Visibility Tracker
Track presence in AI-powered conversations and identify where content, citations, and authority signals should be strengthened.
Overall presence in AI-powered conversation and visibility across tracked AI platforms.
Presence, position, sentiment, and competitive context for priority prompts.
Pages cited in AI answers and other sites that appear for tracked prompts.
Recommended Investment and Media Plan
Recommended plan with setup, campaign management, media, and annual budget shown separately.
| Budget component | One-time setup | Recommended monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Onboarding & Goal SettingOne-time kickoff, access, goal setting, and launch planning | $2,500 | n/a |
| AI & Organic SEOAI/organic search strategy, technical and content optimization, entity/schema guidance, and visibility improvements | $4,200 | $7,000 |
| Google Paid SearchSetup plus monthly media + management | $4,200 | $10,000($8,000 media + $2,000 mgmt) |
| Priority SocialSetup plus monthly media + management | $4,200 | $10,000($8,000 media + $2,000 mgmt) |
| Secondary SocialSetup plus monthly media + management | $4,200 | $5,000($4,000 media + $1,000 mgmt) |
| Dashboard / ReportingDashboard/reporting, AI visibility tracking, and monthly insights | $3,640 | $940 |
| Conversion Landing Pages2 campaign landing pages | $3,350 | Included |
| TotalOne-time setup plus recurring monthly investment | $26,290 | $32,940/mo |
| Annual Budget - Year 1Setup plus 11 months of campaigns | $388,630 | |
| Annual Budget - Year 212 months of campaigns | $395,280 | |
Payment Terms & Billing Practices
Standard Search Influence billing terms, with university payment exceptions available when required.
- Payments are made by credit/debit card
- Credit card authorization is standard, though exceptions to pay by ACH or check are available for universities
- One-time/setup charges are billed upon contract signing
- Digital advertising monthly charges near campaign launch, then on the 1st monthly thereafter
- First partial month ad spend/management fee prorated with minimum $1,000 management fee
- Third-party providers such as Google, LinkedIn, Meta, and CallRail are billed directly where applicable
- Monthly reporting and strategy review are included in the recurring engagement
Why Search Influence
Search Influence brings higher ed digital marketing experience, AI search leadership, and practical reporting discipline.
Experience supporting institutions and programs where inquiry quality, application movement, and enrollment matter more than traffic alone.
Research-backed perspective on how prospective students use AI and search during program discovery.
Strategy, tracking, dashboards, and monthly optimization designed to clarify what is working and what needs to change.
Thank You
Search Influence
We look forward to helping USC Price strengthen online program visibility, improve campaign quality, and connect marketing activity to enrollment outcomes.