Building the Foundation With Tracking and Targeting
We started by setting up GA4 and HubSpot to ensure accurate end-to-end tracking and lead attribution. Then we audited Holston’s existing Summer School campaign and shifted our focus to high-intent search campaigns and improving rankings in organic search, developing a content strategy focused on high value keywords, almost immediately seeing impact on key areas of the site like the Tuition page and the Course Catalog.
Refining the Approach to Drive Better Results
Through summer and fall 2024, we continued to push on our content strategy, and refined our paid advertising strategy, reallocating budget to proven search queries and pausing underperforming social ads. Our data analysis revealed that full-time enrollment and homeschool-focused queries were most effective, so we leaned into those areas from both a paid and organic angle. We also standardized Holston's lead funnel in HubSpot to ensure accuracy across both teams, clarified internal definitions for lead stages, and created a seasonal shared campaign calendar to align efforts with the school-year enrollment cycle.
Both Organic and Paid Strategies Come to Fruition
By early 2025, we had been publishing 2-3 search optimized articles per month and momentum was building. Traffic was up 90% year over year, and we saw steady growth in organic leads. In addition, our full-time enrollment search campaign delivered 139 leads at 10% below target CPA. Social media efforts, while slower initially, began to contribute to awareness and were mentioned increasingly in lead attribution forms.
Lead Volume and Enrollments Take Off
March brought 38 organic leads, while the summer search campaign drove leads at $92, ⅓ of the initial target CPA. April saw 49 organic form submissions and 24 full-time enrollment search ad leads within the target CPA, and new school year social ads drove a huge amount of visibility and traffic. In May, Holston received 202 leads total, with 90 from organic and 21 new enrollments — up from just 6 the prior July.
Set Up For Success
With strong systems, consistent content, and a refined paid strategy, Holston now has a replicable engine for driving enrollment. We’re proud to help them grow in an evolving education market.
