Hey there, education marketer!

This week we’re skipping the theory and going straight into the messier side of marketing — what happens when campaigns stall, leads dry up, or the funnel’s just... weird.

Here are three very real challenges that universities and education brands brought to us this year, and what we did to solve them. If you’ve experienced even one of these, it might be time to have a word with your agency 👋

“We want to recruit in new countries, but we’re invisible there.”

Solution: International SEO
A global edtech client was investing in student recruitment across Southeast Asia and the Middle East — but wasn’t ranking anywhere. Why? No country pages, no search intent alignment, and all their translated content was tanking.

We fixed it by:

• Designing a scalable, modular country page strategy
• Running a keyword mapping exercise in local languages
• Collaborating with native-language copywriters to write pages from scratch (no Google Translate allowed)

→ Result: Rankings improved within 3 months.

Thinking about expanding globally?
🔗 Talk to us about your current site

“Our ad performance in DACH has dropped & CPL is creeping up.”

📈 Solution: Localised creative + channel split testing

A German university running performance ads in Germany, Austria and Switzerland was seeing engagement plateau. The cost per lead was unsustainable, especially for postgrad.

We reviewed everything from targeting to creative and uncovered a few common culprits:

• Messaging wasn’t tailored to the regions’ different cultural, social, economic aspects
  
  
• Poor CTR on search ads — wrong phrasing, wrong intent
  
  
• Lack of interactivity throughout the funnel leading to drop-offs
  

We rebuilt the campaign by:

• Running DACH-specific lead magnets with local language versions
• A/B testing vertical video ads with real student footage
• Messaging makeover to appeal to Gen-z student journeys

 → Result: CTR doubled, and CPL dropped. 

“We get the leads. Then nothing happens.”

🔍 Solution: Quiz-style funnels + better nurture

Another global client had strong TOFU results and high lead volumes but conversion beyond the first touchpoint was poor. The problem? Their CRM journey was a single nurture email and then... silence.

We rebuilt the mid-funnel like this:

• Created a lead magnet quiz that qualified students by course + country
• Synced quiz results with dynamic email sequences
• Introduced ambassador-led nurture 

→ Result: Open rates went up and so did bookings for virtual events.

Not everyone needs a quiz. But everyone needs a stronger middle.

Need help with one of these?
Or just want to check if you’re making any of these mistakes?

<a href="https://www.pink-orange.co.uk/speak-with-education-marketing-experts" class="finsweet-edvertise-cta" target=“_blank”> 🔗 Book a free strategy audit</a>

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Until next time, 

Your friends in education marketing

Jayde & Ridhima