Push partnered with The Education Group (TEG) to launch the UWS International Student Find campaign in January 2024. The mission was to drive qualified international student leads and enrolments for the University of the West of Scotland’s London Campus.
Historically reliant on agent-based recruitment, TEG needed to prove that digital channels could directly deliver high-quality student enrolments across diverse markets.
The Challenge
The campaign faced several obstacles:
- Lead Quality Issues Strong volumes but poor progression to qualified students.
- Regional CPA Variation High cost disparities across markets.
- Underperforming Lead Formats Meta instant forms were failing to convert.
Our Approach
We designed a full-funnel, multi-channel strategy underpinned by Offline Conversion Tracking.
- OCT Integration
Connected HubSpot CRM with Google and Meta to feed back lifecycle data, allowing bid strategies to optimise towards Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) and paying students.
- Market-Specific Creative
Dynamic assets were localised (e.g., Egyptian roadshows, Pakistani student testimonials) with USP-led calls to action.
- Lifecycle Media Planning
Campaigns segmented by bursary vs non-bursary, course type (PhD, MBA, IT), and market, ensuring granular insights and efficiency.
- Channel Diversification
- Google Ads: PMAX, Demand Gen, Display & Search
- Microsoft Ads: Search + DSA for South Asia
- Meta: Advantage+ and Catalogue Ads with localised creative for LATAM
Looker Studio dashboards provided global oversight, breaking down lead volume and cost per conversion by region, device, and course.
The Results
By integrating offline conversion tracking and a multi-channel strategy, the campaign delivered significant improvements across key performance metrics.
- +273% Increase in Customers
- -46% Decrease in CPA
- -57% Meta MQL Cost
- -80% Google MQL Cost
- -81% Meta Customer Cost
- -43% Google Customer Cost
- +34% Over Target on enrolments
- 28% Under Budget
Conclusion
This campaign proved that with the right data integration and creative localisation, digital channels can deliver real student enrolments at scale. By linking Offline Conversion Tracking directly to media strategy, we shifted focus from vanity metrics to genuine business outcomes.
The result was a highly effective, accountable campaign that outperformed targets, cut acquisition costs nearly in half, and provided a new model for international student recruitment. Recognised at the UK Agency Awards 2025, it won the Campaign Effectiveness Award for delivering measurable impact in a challenging policy environment.
