In the highly dynamic, competitive and uncertain environment of tertiary education, universities nowadays have to intensify marketing communication to address potential applicants. This study seeks to explore the advertising scheduling of university advertisements in selected media, to analyse the differences in the advertising strategies of public and private universities and to study the relationship between universities' advertising activity and the number of applicants. Empirical research results indicate that advertising seasonality exists in tertiary education, as the advertising activity differs in different quarters. Moreover, the difference in advertising strategies between private and public universities was confirmed. Ultimately, a positive correlation between advertising activity and the number of applicants was found in private universities. These findings have implications for marketing research in tertiary education and for universities seeking to increase the number of applicants through advertising.