A Chennai engineering college's counseling team was working an enquiry pool that ran dry weeks before intake closed. Here's how course-intent campaigns filled the pool early and fed 430+ confirmed admissions at a cost-per-enquiry the college had never seen.
A Chennai engineering college
Multi-branch private engineering college
Enquiry pool ran dry pre-intake
Generic "Apply Now" ads, no course-specific targeting
One full admission season
Calendar-timed campaign, now an annual retainer
Performance Marketing
Course-intent targeting, counseling-team handoff
The college's previous campaigns ran one generic "Apply Now" ad set across all branches and courses, with no differentiation between a student researching computer science and one researching mechanical engineering. Enquiry volume looked fine on paper early in the season, but quality was inconsistent and the pool ran dry weeks before counseling season peaked — leaving the admissions team scrambling with a shrinking list of leads just as competing colleges ramped up their own campaigns.
Mapped every branch and course against its own search and social intent signals, instead of one blended audience.
Separate ad sets per branch with course-specific creative — placement stats, lab facilities, faculty credentials relevant to that course alone.
Budget weighted toward the early weeks of the season to build the enquiry pool well before peak counseling demand.
A structured lead-handoff process so counselors called every enquiry within hours, not days.
Retargeting campaigns for enquirers who hadn't yet confirmed, timed around counseling call-backs.
Full enquiry-to-admission reporting by course and channel, feeding directly into next season's budget split.
Course-level targeting changed everything. Splitting one blended campaign into course-specific ad sets cut cost per enquiry by over a third — because the creative finally spoke to what each student actually searched for.
A full enquiry pool that lasted the entire counseling window, not just the first few weeks.
Course-specific targeting meant enquiries converted at a meaningfully higher rate.
Splitting campaigns by course cut cost per enquiry versus the prior season's blended approach.
"For the first time we could see the full picture — from ad to confirmed seat. They filled our enquiry pool before competitors even started, and the counseling team finally got leads worth calling."
Enquiry and admission figures come from the college's CRM, tracing every campaign lead through to confirmed seat. Cost-per-enquiry is compared against the same institution's prior admission season on Google Ads and Meta. Timeframe and starting baseline stated above, as with every case study we publish.
We'll analyze last season's funnel, benchmark your visibility against three competing institutions, and map exactly where enquiries are leaking — with a calendar-timed plan to fix it before the next intake.
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