4X ROAS on a School Admission Campaign

School admissions run on a calendar that doesn't negotiate.

There's a narrow window each year when parents decide, and a campaign that finds its footing in month three has effectively missed the year. You don't get a second attempt until the next intake.

Broad awareness advertising is especially wasteful here. The audience that matters is small and specific: parents of children of the right age, close enough to realistically attend, actively looking at schools right now.

We spent the budget on precision and accepted a much smaller reach number.

Targeting focused on households genuinely in the decision set, correct age bracket, realistic catchment, rather than blanketing the wider area and paying to reach people with no child to enrol.

Creative spoke to what parents weigh up when choosing a school. And we paced the whole thing deliberately against the admission window, so the campaign peaked while decisions were being made instead of after.

4X return on ad spend across the drive.

Concentrating a fixed annual budget on real decision-makers inside the weeks that mattered turned admissions into something the school could plan around and repeat, instead of a yearly gamble.