Go Elite
GoElite: Expanding International Student Recruitment for U.S. Colleges
GoElite, an educational consultancy located in Pasadena, assists U.S. universities in attracting international students who are already in the country, specifically targeting older Indian and Chinese students pursuing a second master's degree. They serve as an enrollment extension for their university partners, with their revenue linked directly to student enrollments. When we started working with them, GoElite had good SEO performance (with three out of four properties ranking in the top three on Google) and promising results from paid advertising, but growth had stagnated. Their cost per lead (CPL) was consistently at $175, while their social media presence was scattered across platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Red Book, resulting in minimal organic growth. My objective was to assess all channels, pinpoint areas for growth, and quickly reduce CPL. Throughout this collaboration, I worked with 12 team members from SEO, paid advertising, conversion rate optimization (CRO), and organic channels to:
- Lower CPL by over 50% (from $175 to $55) on Google Ads by reorganizing campaign objectives, keywords, and landing page structure.
- Introduce quiz funnels to prequalify leads, cutting down the time the sales team spent on unqualified candidates.
- Implement effective creative strategies and audience testing on Meta, which doubled ad engagement and enhanced lead-to-qualified rates.
- Achieve a 149% quarter-over-quarter rise in impressions and a 108% increase in clicks on the CPTDog website through coordinated CRO and SEO efforts.
- Raise the lead-to-qualified rate from 53% to 61% by refining calls to action and utilizing behavior-triggered nurturing sequences.
As a result, GoElite now benefits from a more defined channel strategy, reduced lead costs, and a stronger influx of high-potential international student leads.