Case Study
Northeastern University
How We Shifted Northeastern University’s International Acquisition Engine From Lead Volume to Student Quality
Northeastern University is a global university with a strong experiential-learning proposition, built around integrating academics with real-world professional experience. Its global footprint spans campuses across the U.S., U.K. and Canada, alongside learning and professional experiences across the world. (Northeastern University)
For its student acquisition efforts across Southeast Asia and South America, however, the performance challenge wasn’t simply generating more enquiries.
International student acquisition has a long consideration cycle. Program relevance, career outcomes, university credibility and the commitment involved in studying abroad all influence whether an enquiry eventually becomes a serious applicant.
Optimising media towards inexpensive form submissions could therefore make the campaigns look efficient while sending admissions teams more prospects with limited enrolment intent.
Key Business Challenge
Build a full-funnel acquisition system that could expand international demand while simultaneously increasing the proportion of Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) - making lead quality, not simply lead volume, the real performance metric.
Campaign
Education - Southeast Asia & South America
Industry
Higher Education
Key Growth Levers
Before Re-architecting, We Diagnosed
Where Efficient Lead Generation Wasn’t Enough
Existing Demand vs New Demand
Multiple Markets = Multiple Student Personas
The Funnel Broke After the Click
From Lead Generation to
A Full-Funnel Acquisition Engine Optimised for Student Quality
Google = Capture Existing Education Intent
CRM Events Closed the Quality Loop
#ROI
Landing Pages Optimisation
Continuously worked on landing-page journeys and website conversion rates so that stronger traffic translated into more enquiries.
Meta = Create Demand
Market-Level Learning
We connected media, messaging, landing-page behaviour and CRM outcomes into one performance system. Google and Meta were given different jobs, while deeper-funnel MQL data was fed back into acquisition decisions.
Within 4 Months of Launch
Here Were Our Results
The strongest outcome wasn’t that MQLs increased or that CPL declined independently. They moved in the right direction simultaneously.
The system generated more than 4,000 enquiries while increasing qualified lead volume by 44% and reducing CPL by 28% – demonstrating that international education campaigns don’t necessarily have to choose between acquisition scale and student quality.
Our Learnings
We Don't Just Scale Leads
We Scale Admissions By Optimising for the Students, Admissions Teams Actually Want