Confidential (Russell Group university, UK-based)
Multi-campus UK university driving 3.5x uplift in international enrolment enquiries through precision PPC and funnel redesign.
About the Client
This well-known UK university operates across multiple campuses and serves over 30,000 students. With a globally recognised brand and multiple postgraduate research centres, it remains highly competitive across domestic and international admissions.
As UK higher education continues to compete globally for top-tier international students, the university turned to Elevated Clicks to design a data-led PPC strategy that could scale interest and enrolments across priority programmes and target markets — while maintaining the academic integrity of their brand.
What We Did
This project wasn’t about vanity traffic. It was about driving real student enrolments from high-intent, high-value regions.
Restructure and Scale
Our focus was:
- Targeting international students across high-value countries (India, Nigeria, USA, UAE)
- Driving conversions for postgraduate programmes, short courses, and online degrees
- Improving funnel performance from ad to enquiry to application
We delivered a clean build across Google, Meta, and LinkedIn — supported by a full audit of site UX, attribution systems, and CRM handoff processes. This ensured that not only were leads flowing — they were trackable all the way to application and enrolment.
Global PPC Architecture
- Campaigns built with country-level customisation (time zone, language, mobile performance)
- Keywords tailored to intent (e.g. “UK MSc Computer Science with placement” vs. “top universities UK”)
- Asset groups aligned to subject area, stage of decision-making, and type of degree (undergrad vs postgrad)
- Clear split between lead generation (brochure downloads, prospectus requests) and direct applications
Meta and LinkedIn were deployed for top-of-funnel awareness and retargeting — particularly targeting mature students and professionals returning to study.
Conversion Rate Optimisation & Funnel Fixes
Working alongside the university’s internal digital team, we redesigned the ad-to-enquiry flow to remove friction and increase engagement:
- Introduced regional landing pages with translated content where relevant
- Improved load speed by 42% and mobile-first form usability
- Removed unnecessary form fields to reduce abandonment rate
- Introduced automated email nurture sequences post-enquiry
Key performance pages were A/B tested with versions tailored for international vs domestic student expectations.
Attribution & Reporting
We built a transparent attribution system that linked every paid click to CRM stage progression — enquiry, application, offer, acceptance — via Google Tag Manager and the university’s central CRM.
This enabled ROI calculation based not just on CPL but on cost-per-application and cost-per-enrolment — a game-changer for decision-making.
The Result
This project wasn’t about vanity traffic. It was about driving real student enrolments from high-intent, high-value regions.
3.5x increase in international enquiries YoY across four key countries
Cost-per-enquiry reduced by 38%
Application conversion rate from enquiry rose by 44%
24% increase in offer-to-acceptance ratio for PPC-originated leads
Clear visibility across every touchpoint of the funnel — ad to enrolment
Education marketing is high-stakes. Decisions are long, trust-led, and expensive to get wrong.
Elevated Clicks brought commercial discipline to a sector that often over-relies on reputation. We paired precision targeting with funnel fluency, giving the university the tools to invest in PPC with full confidence.
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