An outsourced marketing team that compounds year after year

Generating thousands of student enrolments each year takes more than campaigns: it takes long-term planning, agility and a real understanding of the student journey, with acquisition costs falling while volume grows. After record registrations in 2020-2021 driven by the pandemic boom in online learning, BAA then faced the harder problem: standing out in a crowded online landscape once the boom subsided, and keeping quality lead volume growing without letting costs climb with it.

The operating model is the foundation. Strategy is set annually with BAA’s leadership and worked in weekly WIPs and monthly sprints, with dashboards in Salesforce and Google Sheets giving real-time visibility of lead volumes, sales performance and recruitment numbers. Advertising runs brand, lead generation and nurture campaigns segmented by course and state, Marketo nurtures map to every Salesforce stage with dynamic content, and custom lead prioritisation logic tells Course Advisors who to call first. In 2020 that machine grew registrations 31.92% year on year while cutting cost per registration 30%, with automation re-engagement alone driving 32% of August 2020’s registrations.

2023 added the sharpest levers yet. Shifting lead generation from Facebook’s stock forms to custom landing pages boosted leads 108% since 2022, with a deliberate value exchange weeding out low-quality enquiries and lifting paid lead volume 48% year on year. Conversion rate optimisation improved conversion rates by between 10% and 12% across the year, a full brand refresh cut cost per lead 8% and lifted video views 47%, a UGC strategy carried the refreshed brand across organic and paid, and segmented nurtures drove call-back requests up 94% year on year.

In 2023, student registrations rose 65% while the cost to acquire each student fell 25%: the best year of a partnership that has now compounded for over six years, built on an engine that keeps finding its next gear.