Jakes Divinity School: Building Enrollment with Strategic Digital Marketing

Founded in 2019 by Bishop T.D. Jakes, Jakes Divinity School (JDS), located in Dallas, Texas, wanted to quickly establish itself as a leader in theological education. With a mission to prepare students for excellence in ministry, the school needed to grow enrollment through targeted marketing and lead generation.

The Challenge: Building From the Ground Up

As a new player in a competitive landscape, Jakes Divinity School faced a critical challenge: building brand awareness and generating qualified leads from scratch. “One of the primary challenges JDS faced was building brand awareness from the ground up,” explained Dr. Felisha Ford, president of JDS. “Without an established reputation, the school needed to find ways to introduce itself effectively to potential students and stakeholders. In addition, there was a pressing need for robust digital marketing strategies. It was clear that relying solely on internal strategies wouldn’t be enough. The school needed a proven, high-quality partner to help them connect with prospective students.

The Solution: A Strategic Partnership

To meet this challenge, JDS teamed up with RNL. Using RNL’s Digital Lead Generation service, the two organizations worked together to increase online enrollment through targeted digital ads across four key programs:

• Theology & Ministry
• Theology & Leadership
• Marketplace Ministry
• Executive MBA.

“With so many institutions vying for the same pool of students, and the added pressures of changing student expectations and digital trends, it was clear that relying solely on internal marketing and recruitment strategies wouldn’t be enough. That’s why we turned to RNL,” stated Ford.

The Results: The Power of Partnership

The success of Jakes Divinity’s digital campaigns proves the power of a long-term partnership. A successful digital marketing campaign is a marathon, not a sprint. Over time, RNL and Jakes continuously analyzed campaign performance and made data-backed adjustments. This collaborative, iterative process fine-tuned every part of the campaign, ensuring every dollar spent generated the maximum number of high-quality leads for the school.

Overall Performance Highlights

Year-Over-Year Campaign Performance 2022-2024 Summary

Over the past three full campaign years, JDS’s digital lead generation efforts have shown marked improvement in both reach and efficiency. Total conversions rose from 2,129 in 2022 to 4,058 in 2024, an impressive 90% growth, while cost per lead decreased year over year, improving ROI.

Notably, 2024 delivered a breakthrough in engagement, with click-through-rates (CTRs) nearly doubling the previous years. This reflects refinements in creative, audience targeting, and platform optimization. Meanwhile, CVR remained consistently strong above 4%, reinforcing that increased interest translated into action.

These metrics underscore the value of multi-year optimization: performance scaled without sacrificing efficiency. JDS is now well-positioned to continue this upward trajectory in 2025 and beyond.

Additional Insights

• Facebook/Instagram has been a reliable engine for high-volume results. This channel led all others in total click and conversion. For example, campaigns promoting Theology & Leadership achieved CTRs above 3% in recent years, with cost-per-conversion staying in the $20–$40 range.
• Google Paid Search delivered exceptional results from high-intent audiences. While impression counts were lower compared to social platforms, Google Search campaigns consistently achieved CTRs above 5%, significantly beating industry averages.
• Program-level optimization refined over time: Year-over-year data for the individual campaigns show a compounding effect of long-term testing. CTRs trended upward in key years, while conversion costs dropped, demonstrating the consistent refinement of creative, targeting and spending pay off.

A True Partnership: Transparency and Trust

The partnership between Jakes and RNL thrives on transparency, open communication, and a collaborative approach. “One of the standout aspects of our partnership is RNL’s transparency—they consistently share the results of our collaboration on our monthly calls and are proactive in discussing how we can further strengthen our outcomes,” added Ford. “We’ve appreciated how open their team is to feedback, especially when it comes to refining their marketing and lead generation processes. They don’t shy away from suggesting improvements or rethinking the way they deliver their services, which has been invaluable as we figure out what works best for Jakes Divinity School.”

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