Student acquisition
Flip the funnel. Buy student value, not student volume.
A fifteen-point diagnostic of the go-to-market and student acquisition journey for a leading Australian university delivered through OES. The core recommendation was to reweight targeting and budget toward value rather than lead volume.
- Scale
- 50,000+ students supported
- Diagnostic
- 15 assessment points
- Recommendation
- Flip the funnel toward value
The situation
OES partners with universities, including Swinburne Online, Federation University and QUT, to run online degree programs end to end, from marketing and recruitment through to graduation. More than 50,000 students have been supported across those partnerships.
Front Foot was invited to assess the go-to-market and student acquisition journey for a leading Australian university delivered through OES. The question was not whether the machine was producing leads. It was whether the leads it produced were the right ones.
The approach
- 01
Run a fifteen-point diagnostic
Alignment to the brand position, the objectives and the strategy. Alignment across business units. The connection between messaging and each course value proposition. Nothing was assumed to be working because it was busy.
- 02
Look at the data and the technology honestly
Martech sophistication, the data footprint available for targeting, lead quality and the degree of personalisation actually being delivered rather than described.
- 03
Test budget allocation against return
Where the money went, why it went there, and what it returned. Rigour in allocation matters more than the size of the budget.
The client's view
The Front Foot Team did an outstanding job in assessing our go-to-market and customer journey marketing program. Throughout the entire process, Anton demonstrated an exceptional level of expertise and dedication, bringing a wealth of knowledge and insight to the project.
The result
- The core recommendation was to flip the funnel: reweight media targeting and budget allocation toward student value rather than lead volume alone.
- A parallel push for student-centric, emotionally relevant messaging across every touchpoint, not just the top of the funnel.
- A single, evidence-based view of where acquisition spend was working and where it was buying the wrong students.
Who was involved
What this work is
Customer Value Analysis, in practice
The OES engagement is one example of how this kind of work runs. The approach is sized to the decision, not to a retainer.
See how customer value analysis works →Read next
All nine pieces of Selected Work →Recognise any of this in your own business?
No brief required. Start with the situation you're facing.