Education · Test preparation
Filled the batch with 38% fewer enquiries than the previous season
The institute was generating thousands of cheap leads that counsellors could not reach. We cut volume deliberately and rebuilt the follow-up around the first ten minutes.
Enquiry funnel, ad click to attended appointment
90-day window, joined to the CRM
- Client
- Competitive exam coaching institute
- Industry
- Education · Test preparation
- Region
- Haryana & West UP
- Engagement
- Admissions campaigns, two intake cycles
- Ad budget
- ₹2.2 lakh monthly during intake
The challenge
What was actually going wrong.
Usually not the thing the business thought it was.
The previous season had produced roughly 4,800 enquiries at about ₹70 each, a number the institute was proud of. Six counsellors were expected to work all of them inside a six-week window.
They could not. Around 40% of enquiries were never contacted at all, and the median time to first call was over 30 hours — by which point most parents had already visited two other institutes.
The lead forms were the cause. Meta instant forms optimised for volume, asking for a name and phone number, produced exactly what they were optimised for: the cheapest possible submissions, many of them students filling forms out of curiosity.
Admissions were also seasonal and unforgiving. Miss the window and there is no second attempt for a year.
The approach
What we did, in sequence.
Services involved
- 01
Changed what counted as a conversion
The optimisation event moved from form submission to a booked demo class. Cost per event went up roughly four times and cost per admission went down, which is the trade the whole engagement rested on.
- 02
Put a real qualifying step in the way
A landing page asking class, target exam and preferred branch replaced the instant form. Volume fell sharply and the enquiries that survived were parents, not browsers.
- 03
Automated the first ten minutes
An immediate WhatsApp message with the demo class schedule and a booking link, sent within seconds of an enquiry. Nothing else in the engagement moved the numbers as much for as little.
- 04
Gave counsellors a queue instead of a list
Enquiries scored and ordered by exam, class and demo booking status, so the six counsellors worked the most convertible first rather than working top to bottom.
- 05
Built the retargeting audience out of season
Video content ran through the quiet months at low cost, so the intake window opened with a warm audience already familiar with the faculty rather than a cold start.
The result
What moved, and what caused it.
The batch filled with about 3,000 enquiries against 4,800 the previous season. Confirmed admissions held within 4% of the prior year on a similar budget.
Enquiry-to-admission rate improved 2.6x. The single biggest contributor was the automated WhatsApp response — median time to first contact went from over 30 hours to under two minutes.
Cost per enquiry rose from about ₹70 to roughly ₹260, which looked like a failure in month one and required a difficult conversation. Cost per confirmed admission fell by just under a third.
Counsellor overtime during the intake window dropped noticeably, because six people were working three thousand ordered enquiries rather than drowning in five thousand unordered ones.
Measured outcomes
- fewer enquiries, same admissions
- 38%fewer enquiries, same admissionsIntake cycle compared against the same cycle a year earlier, with confirmed admissions holding within 4% while enquiry volume fell.
- improvement in enquiry-to-admission rate
- 2.6ximprovement in enquiry-to-admission rateDriven mainly by automated first response and a demo class booking step added between enquiry and counsellor call.
“The first monthly report showed our cost per lead had nearly quadrupled. It took real nerve to sit through that meeting and keep going.”
Next step
Bring us a problem shaped like this one.
Forty-five minutes, no slide deck. We will tell you which of these engagements yours most resembles, where we think the bottleneck sits, and what it would realistically take to move it.
Or call +91 93060 49784 and email support@exponentialy.com — we reply within one working day.
What the call is
- 01
45 minutes, no slide deck
You talk to the person who would run the work, not a salesperson.
- 02
Your numbers on the table
What a customer is worth, where enquiries come from, and what you have tried.
- 03
A written plan afterwards
What we would fix first, and in what order. Yours to keep either way.