Building a Repeatable Lead Engine for Higher Education – How We Boosted Pakistan’s First International University’s Enrollments by 51.6%

/Provided Services

The Challenge

The University of Bolton Islamabad (UOBI) is the first and only international university campus in Pakistan. It offers globally recognized degrees in Business, Computing, Law, and Cybersecurity — all delivered right here in Pakistan.

So far, they had spent over USD 7000+ on digital ads to build awareness, gauge market interest, and potentially capture some early sign-ons for their January 2024 intake. Not a single student converted. The cost per lead ended up being over USD 10.44 — and most of the inquiries were cold, unqualified, or nowhere near aligned with pricing expectations.

On top of that, they barely had any presence on Google. They weren’t showing up for high-intent searches. Their social media was irregular and had no connection to their paid efforts. It was fragmented, inefficient, and leaking money.

Our goal was simple: drive more qualified student enrollments for the September 2024 and January 2025 intake, bring down the cost per lead, and give the brand a stronger, more consistent presence across digital channels.

The Approach

49.7%

Decrease in CPL

177.47x

Return on Ad Spend

+4,453%

Instagram Reach Growth

Paid Media Strategy

We ran ads across multiple funnel stages — from broad awareness to lead generation. This included reach-based campaigns to build visibility, traffic ads to drive landing page sessions, and long-form lead ads for high-intent conversions. Targeting was structured using multiple variables: behavior, education level, device type, and platform activity — with custom segmentation by city and program interest. No one-size-fits-all setups. We used different creative angles for different campaign goals: academic credibility for TOFU, faculty/student-driven proof for MOFU, and direct program benefits and outcomes for BOFU. All lead forms were structured with qualifying fields to help admissions pre-filter submissions before contact.

Ads were run specifically in high population density cities, with separate A/B tests running across creatives, form lengths, placements, and CTA formats. We also used retargeting across all funnel stages and built lookalike audiences from lead form engagement and custom data sets. Campaigns were reviewed weekly — CPL, lead quality, and follow-through rates were tracked in sync with the admissions team. This let us adjust budgets in real time, cut what wasn’t working, and scale only the combinations of copy, creative, and targeting that were delivering the strongest leads.

SEO & Content

The primary focus was to make the website SEO-friendly and increase its visibility across search engines. Structured content was added across key sections — including admissions, campus life, events, facilities, and faculty — to give the site more depth, improve crawlability, and help it rank for a wider range of relevant searches. Navigation was simplified, layouts were cleaned up, and the site was made fully mobile-responsive and optimized for performance. These basics were missing before — slow load times, cluttered layouts, and limited mobile compatibility were all hurting visibility, so this became a necessary part of the foundation.

On the technical side, we implemented on-page SEO best practices — including internal linking between key pages, descriptive metadata (titles and meta descriptions) that aligned with search intent, schema markup for better indexing, and a clear heading hierarchy across all content blocks. A supporting blog strategy was also put in place, targeting high-volume academic keywords tied to real student queries, to grow long-term traffic and expand topical authority.

Alongside this, we handled off-page SEO fundamentals by building backlinks through a mix of reputable university directories, local education-related listing platforms, and contextual mentions on high-domain education blogs and forums. Combined, these changes improved rankings, boosted on-site engagement, and delivered a consistent stream of organic leads — all without touching the ad budget.

Social Content

We stopped social media posting just to stay active and started sharing well curated content that people could actually resonate with and get a feel of the institution — student life clips, classroom moments, quick faculty intros, campus events. Reels and stories always have the strongest performance, so we focused on creating the types of content that naturally gained traction. The organic content strategy was focused entirely on storytelling, building credibility, and creating awareness — giving people a real, day-to-day sense of what UOBI offered. We switched the social media strategy from “random posting” to structured, consistent communication that made the university feel relatable.

Funnel + CRM

A marketing and sales funnel was built to attract the right prospects — not just generate volume. Each campaign was tied to a specific targeted audience, so when a lead came in, we already knew what they’d seen and where they were coming from. That gave the admissions team clarity from the first call. But more importantly, it gave the marketing team visibility into which audiences were converting, which regions were delivering the best leads, and where budgets were being wasted. As admissions logged lead quality, conversion outcomes, and region-level performance in the CRM, we were able to reallocate budget towards targeted audiences that were actually driving enrollments.

Results & ROI

The leads weren’t just cheaper — they were highly interested. Each step of the funnel was cleaned up. Organic traffic went from an afterthought to a major pipeline. Social content started driving real engagement. SEO strategies made the brand more visible on search engines. And paid ads were doing what they were supposed to: drive quality leads without burning the budget.

Lead Generation & Top-of-Funnel:

Cost per lead: $0.57 (down 49.7%) – 2,773 paid leads
1,171 organic leads from SEO + social
Instagram Reach: +4,453% (up from 3,081 → 140,302)
Google Organic Clicks: +133% (up from 3,950 → 9,200)

Conversions & Efficiency:

Enrollments increased to 79 (up from 0)
Cost per conversion: $20.11
Total ad spend: $1,580.34 (down from $7,000+)

Returns & Business Impact:

YoY revenue generated: $281,940
LTV projection: $844,000+
ROI: 17,652%
ROAS: 177.47x

What We Learned

Broad campaigns inflate numbers, not results. When an ad speaks to everyone, it resonates with no one — and that’s exactly what was happening. Thousands of leads, zero conversions. So we stripped the strategy down to what actually drives enrollment: relevance. Each campaign was built around a specific program, targeted to regions where intent matched affordability, and designed to qualify interest before the form was ever submitted. Lead volume dropped — intentionally. But cost per lead fell, ad spend shrank, and conversion rates finally showed up. It wasn’t about generating more leads. It was about generating the right ones.