EduPlatform Student Acquisition

The Challenge

EduPlatform, an online learning marketplace offering professional certification courses, was running broad Google Ads campaigns that generated traffic but poor enrollment. Their cost per enrolled student had ballooned to $190 — well above the $80 target set by their finance team. YouTube ads were running untargeted, burning budget on irrelevant audiences.

The enrollment funnel itself was also broken: prospective students landing on course pages were abandoning at a 74% rate before completing sign-up. The platform needed both smarter acquisition and a better funnel experience.

Our Strategy

• Intent-Based Campaign Architecture: Restructured Google Ads into course-category campaigns with exact-match, high-intent keywords. Created 14 tightly themed ad groups aligned to specific professional outcomes (e.g., "get PMP certified", "data analytics course online").
• YouTube Remarketing Sequences: Built a 3-video YouTube series targeting users who had visited course pages but not enrolled. Videos 1–3 followed a Problem → Solution → Proof narrative arc.
• Enrollment Funnel Redesign: Simplified the course sign-up flow from 8 steps to 4. Added progress indicators, social proof (enrolment counts, graduate outcomes), and urgency triggers (cohort close dates).
• Performance Max Integration: Deployed Performance Max campaigns fed with high-quality creative assets and first-party audience signals from enrolled students.

The Results

8,500 new students enrolled over 6 months — a 3.4x increase on the same period prior year. Cost per enrolled student dropped from $190 to $104. The YouTube remarketing sequences alone recovered 2,200 students who had previously abandoned.