Education

The decision is slow and made by more than one person

Almost nobody enrols on the first visit. Education is researched over weeks, often by two people — a student and whoever is paying — with different questions. Campaigns optimised to the first conversion event in that sequence learn to produce enquiries from people who were never going to enrol.

So the target is enrolment, imported back from whatever system holds it. Until that loop exists, cost per lead is the only number available and it is the number most easily improved by making things worse.

Outcome claims

"Graduates earn X" and "guaranteed job placement" are the highest-converting lines in the category and the ones that need the most support. They are advertising claims about a person's future income, which platforms scrutinise and which several regulators treat as consumer protection matters. Where real placement data exists it is worth more than any creative idea. Where it does not, we write around it.

Content is the channel

Nobody buys a course without reading about the subject first. Curriculum detail, honest comparisons with alternatives, what the first week is like, who teaches it — this is the highest intent traffic in education and it arrives free once written. It also happens to be exactly what an assistant summarises when somebody asks which course to take, which is a growing share of the decision.

Seasonality

Intake dates concentrate demand into a few weeks a year. A flat monthly budget overpays outside them and runs out inside them.