Driving Enrolment Growth: How NEGS Armidale Achieved a 15% Increase Through Strategic Paid Media & Creative Excellence
Digital Performance Director
Ardent Communications
This project was a clear example of what can be achieved when data-driven media strategy, creative excellence, and SEO come together with a clear purpose. By deeply understanding NEGS’ audience and aligning every campaign element to clear business goals, we didn’t just generate leads—we helped drive real enrolment growth. That’s the power of integrated performance marketing.
Increase in total school enrolments
%
Low CPL, well below industry benchmarks ($)
The Client
NEGS Armidale is a leading regional independent school in New South Wales, offering day and boarding education for girls from Kindergarten through Year 12.
With over 125 years of history, NEGS blends tradition with innovation, providing a nurturing environment that champions academic excellence, equestrian leadership, and holistic development.
The Challenge
In a competitive education market, NEGS sought to grow student enrolments, with a strong focus on two distinct segments: local students and boarding students.
The school partnered with Ardent to develop and implement a data-led paid media and creative strategy designed to increase visibility, attract qualified leads, and ultimately, boost enrolments.
With limited internal marketing resources, NEGS needed a partner who could manage full-funnel media execution while also delivering consistently high-performing creative that resonated with its diverse audience segments.
Our Strategy
Ardent’s Paid Media and Creative departments worked closely to deliver an integrated, performance-driven solution. Our approach focused on three strategic pillars:
1. Full-Funnel Meta Strategy
We implemented a comprehensive funnel strategy across Meta platforms to drive awareness, consideration, and conversion.
- Awareness: Targeted video view campaigns introduced the NEGS story to new audiences using inspiring and emotive video content.
- Consideration: Micro-conversion campaigns drove deeper engagement on-site, helping us identify high-quality audiences most likely to enquire.
- Conversion: Meta lead generation campaigns delivered a steady stream of high-intent leads. Using a proprietary lead capture technique, we achieved exceptional cost efficiencies — acquiring leads for as low as $10 CPL.
2. Data-Driven Creative Excellence
The Creative team developed a suite of high-performing assets across formats — video, single image, and carousels — tailored to each funnel stage. We tested multiple iterations of each concept to identify top-performers, optimising live campaigns based on real-time performance insights from the Paid Media team.
This ongoing feedback loop between departments allowed us to pivot quickly, prioritise winning creative, and scale what worked.
3. Organic Search (SEO) Optimisations
Upon assuming the account, Ardent SEO identified that NEGS’s website organic visibility was compromised by a combination of technical and content-related issues.
A primary technical obstacle was the use of #! (hashbang) URLs to host critical content. This structure severely limited their organic visibility for key search terms.
The Ardent team subsequently recommended the creation of dedicated pages, followed by rigorous testing and measurement of their performance. This strategic intervention led to a substantial increase in organic impressions and clicks to the website, which directly correlated with a rise in enrollment enquiries for the school.
4. Quarterly KPI Alignment
Our media planning aligned tightly with NEGS’ quarterly goals. Budgets were distributed strategically across audience segments and funnel stages to ensure media spend was efficient, measurable, and fully aligned with business outcomes.
The Results
In less than 12 months, our collaborative efforts with NEGS delivered standout results:
- 15% increase in total school enrolments
- Lead costs as low as $10 CPL, well below industry benchmarks
- Highly qualified leads, with improved lead-to-enrolment conversion rates
- Stronger visibility across key audience segments — particularly boarding families, a high-priority target
Most importantly, the results have translated beyond digital metrics into meaningful business impact: more students walking through the gates at NEGS.
The Takeaway
Our work with NEGS Armidale showcases the power of combining strategic paid media execution with creative agility and data insights. By understanding the nuances of NEGS’ audience and aligning every media dollar to tangible outcomes, we were able to contribute directly to the school’s growth and long-term success.
Whether you’re an education provider or a brand in another sector, performance-focused media and creative can be a catalyst for powerful business results.