today, we are going to talk about an incredible case study for a client in the educational niche. this american higher education institution, located in florida, does an outstanding job offering master’s and doctoral programs in various professional fields and different languages. the target audience for this campaign was brazilians living in florida who already had a higher education degree and were looking to advance their professional opportunities through more advanced academic training.
we were tasked with creating a campaign that would generate leads for the institution. the limited budget was a challenge within the strategy. after all, how could we deliver a significant volume of leads at a low acquisition cost without exceeding the client’s budget?
after an initial performance and growth planning, we aligned the most strategic acquisition channel for the client’s objectives and realities. we defined the campaign objective with a focus on maximizing leads, as well as the creatives and copy for the campaigns.
at the start, we identified a high acquisition cost and low lead volume in the first days of the campaign. we reviewed the campaign settings, audience segmentations, and developed hypotheses for creative testing.
now let’s dive deeper into the numbers. we analyzed a sample of the campaign between august 12th and September 11th.
initially, lead generation was low, with sporadic peaks, but it started to rise significantly from august 22, reaching its highest point on september 10. at the same time, the cost per lead (CPL) fluctuated, being quite high when lead numbers were low. However, as the volume of leads increased, especially after august 28, the CPL steadily decreased and stabilized at lower levels for the remainder of the campaign.
the CTR (click-through rate) started low and stabilized around 1%. however, starting from august 28, there was a significant jump in CTR, reaching a peak above 3.5%. our creative changes lead the campaign to more engaging ads. even after a slight decline, the CTR remained higher than early campaign levels, reflecting sustained positive results from these optimizations.
here’s our million-dollar tip: the secret to meta ads campaigns lies in the creative. you can (and should!) optimize audience targeting or follow meta’s recommendations for budget allocation based on strategic metrics. but your most significant performance improvements will come through creative optimizations.
tips to implement in your creatives:
INCREASE FROM 29 TO 114 LEADS, WITH THE SAME BUDGET
the screenshot below is from meta’s ads manager dashboard. now, we want to show a comparison between a specific period, focusing on lead volume and acquisition costs. see how creative optimizations enabled the increase from 29 to 114 leads, with the same budget.
another important metric mapped in the strategy was the cost of acquiring each lead. we adjusted the campaign’s creative communication to better align with the audience, and the result is truly remarkable: a $9 saving per lead, representing a reduction of over 70% in acquisition costs.
increased lead acquisition
costs reduction
leads in 30 days
the HOTTEST decision to generate impact
based on a clear plan aligned with the client, we moved forward with our campaign implementations. our goal was very clear, and we worked on all aspects of communication to drive the acquisition of new leads.
after just over 7 days of the campaign being live, we had our first performance data. we analyzed it and, based on the data and a growth marketing framework, we created hypotheses and KPIs to improve results.
creative optimizations led to a 70% reduction in cost per lead, decreasing from $12.83 to $3.74, during the period from August 25 to September 6 (compared to the previous period). Additionally, the lead acquisition volume increased by 293% during the same period.
if you want a tip from us: Focus your team’s energy on building creative hypotheses to accelerate your results. establish clear KPIs to measure and make data-driven decisions. by implementing these tips, your results will surely see significant improvements.
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