AHEC-27900-D MSU Denver Advertising Addendum 1.pdf

AHEC-27900-D MSU Denver Program Specific Digital Advertising Addendum 1 Questions received by the deadline and corresponding answers Documented Quote due date and time is now 08/12/2026 at 2:00 PM MDT

1. Q: Section IV states a 12-page limit. Does this include the cover sheet, section dividers, team resumes/bios, or the sample reporting dashboard, or are any of those treated as attachments outside the page count?

A: Cover sheet, section dividers, and required forms (e.g. W-9) are not included in the 12-page limit. All examples, including team bios and resumes, reporting dashboards or sample reports, technical specs, and pricing narrative should be included in the 12-page limit.

2. Q: Does the twelve-page limit include the cover sheet, W-9, and any required forms?

A: See answer to question 1.

3. Q: Can you confirm whether or not the required documentation (i.e. Sample reports, W9, cover sheet) counts towards the 12-page limit?

A: See answer to question 1.

4. Q: Confirm whether the 12-page quote limit applies only to the technical and pricing narrative or if it includes the signed Cover Sheet, W-9, and the Voluntary Business Characteristics certification forms.

A: See answer to question 1.

5. Q: Section 1.5 notes AHEC may award to up to two vendors. Would each awarded vendor be assigned specific colleges/campaigns, or would both vendors be considered for all six campaigns with work allocated on a rolling basis?

A: Each awarded vendor would be assigned specific colleges/campaigns.

6. Q: Section 2.2 references Slate CRM as part of MSU Denver's analytics environment. Is direct integration with Slate a requirement for the awarded vendor, or is compatible reporting (e.g., via GA4) sufficient, with Slate managed on MSU Denver's side?

A: Slate integration is not a requirement. GA4 reporting will be sufficient and Slate will be managed on MSU Denver’s side.

7. Q: Section 7.1 lists five evaluation criteria "in no particular order." Is there a weighting or point allocation among these criteria, or are all five weighted equally?

A: All five (5) are weighted equally.

8. Q: The RFQ does not specify whether each of the six college/school campaigns (CBUS, SOE, CACED, CHHS, SOH, CLAS) targets undergraduate, graduate, or both.

Could you clarify degree level by college, if that varies?

A: The colleges/schools are still in the selection process and preference per college/school will vary.

9. Q: How many programs per school are you interested in promoting?

A: One program selection per school/college—a total of six (6) campaigns total.

10. Q: Section 2.3 references "other approved digital advertising platforms." Is there a pre-approval process for adding a platform not explicitly named, or is approval assumed once proposed within the vendor's strategic plan?

A: There is not a pre-approval process for adding a platform not explicitly named.

However, we will need to approve whatever the awarded vendor(s) suggests as a strategic plan for each program.

11. Q: Does the $120,000 allocation include both paid media placement and agency service/production costs?

A: Yes. This cost is all in.

12. Q: Section VI states MSU Denver is allocating up to $120,000 for program-specific digital advertising. Is this amount the total across all six school/college campaigns for the initial term, or a per-campaign allocation? Additionally, is there an expected split between professional service fees and paid media expenditures?

A: The $120,000 budget is an all in cost including all six (6) campaigns and the agency fees and media expenditures, production, etc.

13. Q: Can MSU Denver confirm whether the $120,000 budget represents the total anticipated budget across all program campaigns over the initial contract term, inclusive of agency fees, production, and paid media?

A: See answer to question 12.

14. Q: Is the $120,000 allocation intended to be divided evenly across all six (6) program-specific campaigns, or will allocation be weighted/prioritized by program based on enrollment goals or institutional priority?

A: Yes, the plan is to have the budget divided evenly between all campaigns.

15. Q: Is the $120,000 budget an estimated budget per individual campaign or program?

A: See answer to question 12.

16. Q: From this budget, how many programs are sharing the budget and are being promoted at the same time?

A: Six (6) programs are sharing the $120,000 all-in budget. There will be three programs promoted at the same time in Fall 2026 and three programs promoted at the same time in Spring 2027.

17. Q: Does the $120,000 USD include the hard costs for the paid media itself?

A: Yes. See answer to question 12.

18. Q: Does the $120,000 include media spend, or is budget for paid media in addition to this amount? If yes, about how much budget has historically been spent on Net ("working") media dollars for each of the programs highlighted in the RFP.

A: See answer to question 12. We have found a $20,000 budget per program for a 3 to 4 month campaign yields additional requests for information (RFI) and applications. Anything less has yielded no ROI.

19. Q: Is the expectation that the direct media cost itself is also included within the $120,000 budget, or would the cost of media be separate?

A: See answer to question 12.

20. Q: Does the $120,000 budget include commission or planning/management costs for running the media? I.e. the cost for negotiating, contracting, trafficking, optimizing, reporting, etc. Is that what is meant by "service fees" in Section VI

COSTS?

A: See answer to question 12.

21. Q: Can you please provide detailed budget allocations for the $120,000 budget?

A: See answer to question 12. The plan is to have the budget divided evenly between the six (6) campaigns.

22. Q: Please clarify how vendors should assume the budget is distributed for the purpose of proposing a cost structure.

A: See answer to question 12. The plan is to have the budget divided evenly between the six (6) campaigns.

23. Q: How many vendors do you plan on onboarding through this procurement process?

A: No more than 1 to 2 vendors.

24. Q: If two vendors are awarded, how will the $120,000 be allocated between them, and how are individual campaigns assigned?

A: The cost would be split evenly between the two awarded vendors. There will be three (3) programs promoted at the same time in Fall 2026 and three (3) programs promoted at the same time in Spring 2027. We would move forward with one vendor in the Fall and one vendor in the Spring.

25. Q: If two vendors are awarded, how will campaign assignments be divided between them?

A: See answer to question 24.

26. Q: If two vendors are selected, how does MSU Denver anticipate dividing campaign assignments, schools or colleges, and available budget between the vendors?

A: See answer to question 24.

27. Q: Given that AHEC intends to award to up to two (2) vendors, may a vendor submit a quote to service a subset of the six campaigns (e.g., 2–3 programs) rather than all six? If so, how should partial-scope quotes be structured and evaluated relative to full-scope quotes?

A: It is our preference if a vendor submits for the full scope of the project. If the vendor would like to consider partial scope, it should be included in the 12-page documentation in addition to the full scope.

28. Q: Should a vendor price for all six campaigns, or scope a per-campaign rate against an unknown number of assignments?

A: See answer to question 16. The plan is to have the budget divided evenly between the six (6) campaigns.

29. Q: What is the anticipated flight length for a typical campaign?

A: 3 to 4 months.

30. Q: What form should "pricing structure" take — hourly rate card, fixed fee per campaign, or percentage of media spend? Is a percentage-of-spend model acceptable?

A: A retainer fee or fixed fee would be preferred as the budget is set at $120,000.

Therefore, the media buy, hourly rate, production, etc. need to come from this budget.

31. Q: What would you like to see from a pricing perspective structure? Are you looking for a rate card, or a retainer model, or something else?

A: See answer to question 30.

32. Q: Will MSU Denver share historical campaign performance data (prior CPC, conversion rate, cost per inquiry) with respondents?

A: It depends if we have done a campaign on this program in the past. We may not have data other than website data, which we would be happy to share. We also have general brand awareness data we could share, however, that data may be too broad to assist with program-specific advertising.

33. Q: Who will own the advertising platform accounts — MSU Denver or the agency partner?

A: Ideally MSU Denver. We are open to partnership permissions on social platforms if we can see the data on the platform.

34. Q: Is digital video production expected within the quoted fees, or scoped separately per campaign?

A: Digital video production is not included in the scope of these campaigns due to production costs and time. We prefer only static options for creative for efficiency in launching these campaigns.

35. Q: The RFP states that campaigns should be designed to increase awareness, engagement, and prospective student inquiries. Can MSU Denver elaborate on how it defines success for each of these categories?

A: Our top key performance indicators (KPI) should be new users on the website (prospects), submitting RFI forms, and submitted applications (completed application in Slate CRM). As noted above, it’s likely the programs we’re selecting have never had an advertising campaign before—so much of what we can do is set goals based on data that currently exists (e.g. goal examples could be: 10% increase of web visits, 5% increase of RFIs and 3% increase of applications year over year) and benchmark this campaign data for future campaigns.

36. Q: Are there priority KPIs the selected vendor should optimize toward, such as lead generation, engagement, awareness, website traffic, or another primary outcome?

A: See answer to question 35.

37. Q: The solicitation requires at least five (5) years of higher education marketing and student recruitment experience. Would a vendor with five or more years of student recruitment and enrollment marketing experience in the education sector (K-12 charter school enrollment campaigns), combined with more than ten (10) years of digital advertising experience, satisfy this requirement? Or must all five years be specifically within higher education institutions?

A: Our preference is for higher education experience.

38. Q: What is the current marketing/advertising spend (if any) for each of the six schools/colleges (CBUS, SOE, CACED, CHHS, SOH, CLAS)?

A: It differs per school/college and by program too—which is why we are testing out a new advertising scope to give each college an equal amount of money.

39. Q: What are the current baseline metrics for awareness, engagement, and prospective student inquiries for each of the six programs?

A: See answer to question 35.

40. Q: What does MSU Denver consider a successful outcome for each campaign?

A: See answer to question 35.

41. Q: Are there specific inquiry, application, or enrollment targets tied to this initiative, and if so, are they defined per program or in aggregate?

A: See answer to question 35.

42. Q: Could you let us know if you have a local preference or are you open to a Canadian agency specializing in education marketing and that has done similar work with clients across the United States A: We are open to international agencies/vendors.

43. Q: Is the expectation that we may have campaigns (or even distinct ad groups) for multiple individual programs within each of the schools, as well?

A: Ideally, it’s one campaign per college/school –we’re trying to stay away from multiple ad sets per campaign to keep the program campaigns cost effective.

44. Q: Is this RFP intended to focus exclusively on the University's program-specific needs, or are you expecting the chosen partner(s) to also serve University brand-level campaign needs from within this scope, too? Would any University-level / brand-level campaigns be funded by a separate budget or from within the $120,000 noted in the RFP?

A: This is exclusively for program-specific campaigns and will not include the University-level/brand-level campaigns.

45. Q: In terms of creative production, is there an existing overarching campaign creative concept in place for us to leverage when producing creative assets, or rather, is the expectation that a new creative concept (concept development, message development, etc.) will need to be determined?

A: Yes. We even have templates that can be used for efficiency.

46. Q: Is there a current vendor performing this work, and is that vendor expected to respond?

A: We have worked with a few vendors in the past to assist with one-off requests for program-specific advertising and all are welcome to apply to this documented quote (DQ).

47. Q: Is there an incumbent vendor or agency currently providing program-specific digital advertising services to MSU Denver's University Communications and Marketing office? If so, is that vendor eligible and expected to respond to this solicitation?

A: See answer to question 46.

48. Q: Is there an incumbent media buying agency currently supporting MSU Denver? If so, are they included in this RFP?

A: See answer to question 46.

49. Q: If an incumbent exists, what services are working well and what gaps is MSU Denver seeking to address through this procurement?

A: Gap: Our small team has been stretching services between too many vendors and internal staff placing ads and the general inconsistency is showing with campaign optimization, time constraints, and data reporting and sharing with clients (i.e., programs/departments and schools/colleges). Overall, it would be great to have a vendor(s) to be a third party to help have unbiased and direct conversations with clients who maybe don’t understand the data and the why around the way we do things the way we do.

Strength: The vendors we have worked with have larger teams and are able to spend more time with research, building assets, and answering questions in and outside of meetings than our small team can.

50. Q: Why is this RFP being conducted, is it driven by procurement requirements, a desire for new capabilities, performance concerns, or organizational changes?

A: This DQ is being conducted because it is a MSU Denver goal to promote more programs via paid advertising and our team has a desired goal of treating each college/school equally with advertising spends instead of the former first-come, first-serve model we have been doing for the past four (4) years. This also gives schools/colleges the opportunity to specifically target a program that they believe needs to increase enrollment. Overall, this is a strategy shift, not an organizational change.

51. Q: Will the awarded agency be the sole provider of media buying services under this contract, or within a pool of agencies that the MSU Denver team can choose from to support MSU Denver and their increasing portfolio of organizations? If the latter, will there be subsequent RFPs to respond to for individual projects, assuming there will still be a competitive exercise to be selected for individual projects regardless of RFPs?

A: The awarded vendor(s) for this DQ will not be the sole provider of media buying services under this contract. Awarded vendor(s) will be responsible for program-specific advertising only.

52. Q: How many active campaigns are expected in the coming FY2026/FY2027 year?

A: For this DQ, the total number of active campaigns will be six (6) total for FY27 (July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027). This does not include our brand awareness campaigns which will be running simultaneously and are managed by another agency.

53. Q: Can MSU Denver provide historical utilization data from any previous media buying contracts?

A: If there is data available on the program that is selected, we’re happy to share that data with you. However, it is likely the only data that’s available is web data from GA4 and application data from Slate. It’s likely the programs being chosen will have no other data available.

54. Q: Will there be minimum spending commitments for individual participating MSU Denver programs?

A: Both University Communications and Marketing and the programs will be putting money into these efforts. With the $120,000 all-in budget, each of the six (6) campaigns should have a minimum of $20,000.

55. Q: What is the typical creative budget for ongoing creative assets and optimization?

A: The creative budget needs to be included in the $120,000 all-in budget. We have templates that can be used for static campaigns.

56. Q: Will the selected agency be expected to proactively identify opportunities for MSU Denver, or will they only respond to campus-initiated requests?

A: The awarded vendor(s) should only need to respond to campus-initiated / program-specific advertising requests.

57. Q: Who will serve as the executive sponsor and primary decision-maker for the contract?

A: Emalie Whan-Traylor, Director of Advertising and Whei Wong, Associate Vice President of Marketing, Brand and Digital Strategy at MSU Denver

58. Q: What are MSU Denver's highest priority objectives over the next two years:

a. Undergraduate enrollment

b. Graduate enrollment

c. Adult learners

d. Workforce development

e. Brand awareness

f. Transfer recruitment

g. International recruitment

h. Other

A: Based on the options above: Undergraduate enrollment and Workforce development.

59. Q: Which geographic markets are considered priority recruitment markets?

A: The seven (7) county metro area in Colorado, followed by the state of Colorado, followed by new out of state markets: Wichita, KS, San Antonio, TX, Albuquerque, NM, and Contra Costa County, CA

60. Q: How does MSU Denver define success for this engagement beyond enrollment growth?

A: See answer to question 35.

61. Q: Are there established enrollment, application, inquiry, or brand-awareness KPIs the selected agency will be accountable for?

A: See answer to question 35. However, we will confirm goals with colleges/schools once they have been selected.

62. Q: Will the selected agency receive access to the CRM platform?

A: Unlikely as Slate is managed by Admissions which is under Enrollment and Student Affairs.

63. Q: Will the selected agency receive access to first-party audience data for targeting and measurement?

A: We can give you access to our GA4 platform as an analyst; however, we cannot give out any student information due to FERPA.

64. Q: Is there any privacy, FERPA, or data-sharing limitations that may affect campaign measurement and optimization?

A: See answer to question 63.

65. Q: Does MSU Denver currently utilize multi-touch attribution, media mix modeling, or incrementality testing?

A: As of now, we have only been using first touch as attribution. We have tried incrementality testing for certain campaigns, notably for orientation sign up, however the limitation is a student can still search this page on our website.

However, to answer your question, no we have not used multi-touch attribution or media mix modeling, although we have considered it and will continue to consider it for future University-level campaigns.

66. Q: Will MSU Denver require media mix modeling and multitouch attribution and/or other predictive analytics?

a. If yes, will MSU Denver be able to provide enrollment/conversion data including the following list back to the selected agency for optimization and attribution?

i. Identifiers (required)

1. Person/prospect GUID

2. Application ID (per cycle)

3. Entry team/cycle/academic year

4. Program or major (and MSU Denver organization if applicable)

ii. Dates (required for granularity)

1. Record created

2. RFI/inquiry first date

3. Application started date

4. Application submitted date

5. Admin decision date (or status change date)

6. Deposit or enrollment date

iii. Sources (if available)

1. Origin/RFI source (required)

2. Application start source (if exists)

3. Application submit source (if exists)

iv. Status/Outcome (required)

1. Application status

2. Decision

3. Deposit flag + amount (if available)

4. Enrollment flag

v. Geography

1. Country, state, ZIP

vi. Optional (valuable if available)

1. International v. domestic

2. First generation or ethnicity

3. Scholarship and/or aid tier

A: No. See answer to question 65.

67. Q: Is the agency going to be working in agency-created ad platform accounts or will they be given access to MSU Denver-managed/owned accounts? Will there ever be an instance where the answer could be both?

A: Can be both. Preference would be to have social media ads run out of MSU Denver accounts and partnership-level access so we can see the data in the platforms. See answer to question 33.

68. Q: What percentage of requests are typically:

a. Planned campaigns

b. Rapid-response opportunities

c. Enrollment-driven campaigns

d. Brand campaigns

A: Within the DQ parameters, awarded vendor(s) will only need to concern themselves with the program-specific ad campaigns that are pre-selected by the Deans of each college/school. We will be planning and executing them together. The goals are overall MSU Denver awareness to drive more traffic to the website, additional RFI form fills, and the main goal of an application submittal. We don’t have access to bottom funnel tactics (e.g. email marketing) and no access for enrollment-specific tactics as that’s managed by another department.

69. Q: Are there expectations for on-site support?

A: No. Virtual is fine and preferred.

70. Q: Should respondents assume each campaign will promote a school or college as a whole, or will each school or college select one or more individual academic programs to advertise? Is there an anticipated budget allocation between the six colleges?

A: Each school/college will decide what they want to promote. It’s likely most of them will select only one program to promote, as that was the request. However, it could be possible a school/college may want to generally promote at a higher level to show the breadth of what they offer. As of right now, we are still confirming what the colleges/schools want to promote.

The $120,000 is an all-in budget and the goal is to distribute that equally between the six (6) colleges/schools, making it $20,000 per campaign.

71. Q: What primary objectives and conversion actions will MSU Denver use to evaluate campaign success—for example, prospective student inquiries, event registrations, application clicks, application starts, completed applications, deposits, or enrolled students?

A: See answer to question 35.

72. Q: Will the selected vendor receive access to historical campaign performance, media spending, audience, inquiry, application, and enrollment data for the participating schools, colleges, or programs?

A: See answer to questions 32 and 53.

73. Q: Are any of the six schools or colleges currently running program-specific digital advertising campaigns, or have you worked with an agency or incumbent agency on these college campaigns? If so, will MSU Denver provide information regarding the current channel mix, budgets, performance benchmarks, creative, and lessons learned?

A: We are not currently running any program-specific campaigns. We have worked with other vendors/agencies in the past to run these campaigns and have also placed them internally with our small team. If there is advertising data available on the programs selected (e.g. channel mix, budgets, performance benchmarks, and creative), we will give you as much as we can. It is likely that the programs selected will not have had a prior advertising campaign.

Also, see answer to question 49.

74. Q: Will campaigns be executed within MSU Denver-owned advertising accounts, newly created university-owned accounts, or vendor-owned and managed accounts?

A: See answers to questions 33 and 67.

75. Q: Will the selected vendor receive appropriate GA4, Google Tag Manager, website, and Slate access to implement and test campaign tracking, or will implementation need to be coordinated through MSU Denver staff?

A: We can give you access to GA4 (as an analyst) and GTM (as a user), however we cannot give you website (WordPress) or Slate access. Website and Slate would need to be coordinated by MSU Denver.

76. Q: Are there specific audience populations MSU Denver expects to prioritize across the six campaigns, such as traditional undergraduate, transfer, graduate, adult, online, certificate, or out-of-state students?

A: Yes. We prioritize traditional undergraduate prospects, non-traditional and adult learners as well as out of state students. Online messaging should be part of our campaign if that’s an option for the programs chosen.

77. Q: Does MSU Denver have predetermined geographic recruitment markets for each school, college, or program, or should geographic recommendations be developed through the vendor’s research?

A: See answer to question 59.

78. Q: Is there an anticipated number of creative concepts, campaigns, ad sets, asset sizes, copy variations, or refreshes expected for each school or college?

A: Since these campaigns are so small, I don’t anticipate more than one creative concept per campaign. With a campaign that runs 3 to 4 months, we don’t anticipate a creative or copy refresh.

See answer to question 43.

79. Q: Should vendors include original video production or editing as well as stock imagery for photos within their proposed pricing, or should respondents assume all video/static image advertising will use existing footage/photography supplied by MSU Denver?

A: MSU Denver can supply all existing photo and video footage and b-roll.

See answer to question 34 on video.

80. Q: Who will have final approval authority for strategy, messaging, creative, budget changes, and campaign launch—the central UCM team, the individual school or college, or both?

A: Both.

81. Q: Will paid media expenditures be funded directly by MSU Denver, or should vendors assume they will pay media platforms and invoice MSU Denver? If vendor paying, do you object to advanced payments for your media buys?

A: At MSU Denver, we typically pay after goods have been received.

82. Q: Confirm whether the five evaluation criteria listed in Section 7.1 are weighted equally in the final scoring, or if certain factors such as Relevant Experience or Cost carry a higher percentage weight.

A: All 5 are weighted equally.

83. Q: Regarding the strategic planning requirement to 'Analyze no more than four (4) competitive institutions,' confirm if MSU Denver will provide the preferred competitor list for each of the six schools or if the vendor must identify them independently.

A: We (University Communications and Marketing and the program) are happy to provide the awarded vendor(s) with competitors of each program.

84. Q: Clarify the vendor's role regarding Slate CRM; specifically, confirm if the vendor is responsible for technical API mapping/integration or if the requirement is limited to providing UTM-tagged assets for MSU Denver staff to implement.

A: For tracking we will need to implement UTMs. It is unlikely the awarded vendor(s) will receive Slate access. We currently have GTM tags on certain Slate pages that allow us to track our admissions funnel in a separate dashboard.