Career education marketers are drowning in data, but often not the right data. In our recent client survey, 94% said they struggle to connect CRM and marketing data, 71% lack visibility into cost per enrollment, and 71% spend hours wrangling spreadsheets that are outdated before they’re useful.
The result? Budgets are wasted, campaigns are optimized on vanity metrics like CPL, and schools miss opportunities to grow enrollments efficiently.
In our latest Enrollment Growth Lab, we shared three real-world scenarios that show how focusing on real time enrollment data changes decision-making, saves budget, and drives better results.
Scenario 1: Revenue Under Pressure
Budget cuts happen. When they do, most marketers look at cost-per-lead (CPL) to decide what to trim. But this can backfire, because we know that leads do not always equal enrollments.
- Typical CPL-only approach: Cut “expensive” keywords with high CPLs. On paper it looks smart, but in this scenario you lose 14 enrollments because those leads were converting at a high rate.
- Better approach: Instead of CPL, look at cost-per-enrollment. Cut the keywords that generate clicks and leads but fail to convert into students. You save the same budget, but in this example you only lose 4 enrollments.
Why it matters: Without enrollment data, you’re guessing. We know that leads do not equal enrollments, and so you need to know exactly which campaigns are worth keeping so you can cut waste without hurting results.
Scenario 2: Market Share Battle
Programs like Medical Assistant and Cosmetology are highly competitive, sometimes with eight or more schools bidding on the same students. The natural response is to fight harder: raise bids, chase the same prospects, and pour more into broad keywords.
But deep data insights show a different story:
- The students who actually enroll often look very different, older, working adults, motivated by pay increases, but blocked by time and family obligations.
- Instead of chasing the same crowded keywords, you pivot to niche, high-intent searches like “evening medical assistant programs” or “flexible training near me,” and build messaging around career mobility and schedule flexibility.
Why it matters: Competing head-to-head drives up costs and lowers efficiency. Shifting focus to the audience segments that really enroll gives you lower costs, higher conversions, and a differentiated message.
Scenario 3: Growth Investment Challenge
When marketing teams ask, “Where should we spend our next dollar or hour?”, the answer depends on what you measure.
- Traffic Volume Strategy: This example shared below would indicate that we need to double down on Google Ads (high volume) and SEO (lots of traffic). Email looks too small to matter.
- Lead Quality Strategy: By looking at leads that actually convert to enrollments, in this example, we see that email actually has the highest enrollment rate, and organic traffic performs best when content is tailored for AEO (AI-driven search). By investing in email nurture campaigns and AI/SEO content, schools doubled the enrollment lift compared to the “traffic volume” strategy.
Why it matters: Channels that look weak by volume can be your most profitable when measured by enrollments. Ignoring them means leaving growth on the table.
Explore the Full VA6 Walkthrough
While these three scenarios show some ways to use our data insights, Virtual Adviser 6 has much more under the hood.
You can explore the full Virtual Adviser 6 release here.
Prospect Intelligence: Personalization at Scale
Virtual Adviser 6 Prospect Intelligence helps schools go beyond demographics to understand psychographics, motivations, and barriers, then tailor campaigns at scale. You can segment by age group, program, or career field, and adjust messaging based on what really drives
AI Studio: Turning Insights into Action
Virtual Adviser 6 AI Studio helps you act on those insights immediately. It’s not generic AI, it’s fueled by your enrollment data and Prospect Intelligence.
- Blog Generator: Researches keywords, pulls credible sources, and produces SEO and AEO-ready drafts in minutes.
- Email Generator: Builds targeted nurture emails around real objections and motivations, tailored to the funnel stage.
- Image Generator: Creates program-specific, on-brand visuals instantly, no stock photo hunts required.
Watch the Full Webinar
These scenarios are just the highlights. To see the full walk-through of Virtual Adviser 6, including Prospect Intelligence and AI Studio in action, watch the complete session here.