A third of the budget, twice the revenue per lead

A third of the budget, twice the revenue per lead

Sign-ups · Training academy

A training academy runs about fifty short courses and fifteen diplomas, from fashion design to architecture software, for students and young graduates. When we started, it posted around eleven promotions a day with borrowed photos, had no website and an Instagram account with 111 followers.

610course bookings in the first 32 daysunder $3 each
2,993leads in four months
4.8×revenue per dollar of ad spendfrom 3.2× in the first tracked month
−68%monthly ad spend by month fouras each lead brought in twice the revenue

The situation

Busy feeds, empty seats

Three competitors, the closest in the same district, fought on price, and the academy did the same: more posts, more discounts, more noise. Names, hours and the address were inconsistent across channels, and there was nowhere to send a student who was ready to book.

What we did

A system instead of more posts

  1. Audit, positioning and three student types

    A first-year student, a mid-degree student and a fresh graduate looking for job-ready skills, each with their own reasons to enrol.

    Strategy
  2. One booking hub

    A course website with a booking form feeding a sheet the team called from, plus a page for every course and diploma.

    WebsiteBooking flow
  3. A rule for promoting every course

    Promotion starts two weeks before a course, with a budget of 10% of its fee, and stops when it fills.

    Media Buying
  4. A last-minute rule for empty seats

    Three days before a course with free seats, a dark ad shows the price and the start date and sends people straight to booking.

    Performance Creative
  5. Conversations instead of likes

    Engagement campaigns gave way to messaging campaigns, and eleven content types replaced the stream of promotions.

    Social Media Marketing

Revenue per dollar of ad spend

3.2×1.9×2.7×4.8×Month 1Month 2Month 3Month 4
3.2×1.9×2.7×4.8×Month 1Month 2Month 3Month 4
Academy-reported revenue divided by ad spend, by tracked month (tracking started a few months into the work).

Results

Less money, better students

Spending less, earning more per lead

Month 1Month 4Monthly ad spend$1,875about $594Revenue per leadabout $4.43about $9.16
Month 1Month 4Monthly ad spend$1,875about $594Revenue per leadabout $4.43about $9.16
The first tracked month against the fourth.

What made the difference

The academy did not need louder promotion. It needed rules: when to promote, how much to spend, what to do with empty seats, and one place every student could book.

Sign-ups at the Foundation level start with one reliable path from ad to enrolment, exactly like this.

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