The client
IESE Business School, a renowned institution in the world of business education, faced the challenge of modernizing and diversifying its student recruitment strategy for its focused programs. The school was looking not only to increase the number of leads, but also to optimize its advertising investment in various digital channels.
The challenge
At that time, the method of attracting targeted programs had consisted of launching SEM campaigns. They had not exploited other acquisition channels such as social networks or other advertising formats within Google such as video or display. The need to deepen and diversify their acquisition channels became evident in order to reduce the cost per lead and increase their international reach.
How we did it
- Multichannel optimisation: diversifying ad spend across Meta, Google and LinkedIn, with more creative, targeted campaigns.
- Multi-touch funnel: several campaigns running in parallel for a single program, reinforced with remarketing (engagement-based on social and for website visitors) to guide the candidate through the whole funnel.
- Innovative creative: attractive, effective ad material to maximise leads at a low cost, with competitor analysis and study of the best-performing creatives. We produced horizontal videos and adapted them to vertical for social media.
- Looker Studio dashboard: a control panel to monitor conversions and campaign performance in real time.
- Usability and CRO: conversion-rate optimisation techniques to improve the website experience and campaign effectiveness.
- Salesforce sync: every campaign tagged with Salesforce-specific UTMs, for detailed per-channel attribution and a holistic, real-time view of performance and ROI.
Results
The multichannel strategy transformed IESE’s acquisition in its first year, with more leads at a lower cost:
- +120% in leads in the first year of launch, exceeding the initial objectives.
- -46% in average cost per lead, driven by multichannel optimisation.
- Effective campaign management: the Salesforce integration enabled precise real-time control and adjustment.
- Data-driven continuous improvement: Looker Studio dashboards, CRO tests and creative-CTR analysis fuelled constant optimisation.
“Thanks to the new multichannel strategy, we not only doubled our leads, we optimised our ad spend like never before.”
