How a 6 Month Meta Ad Campaign Generated 11x Return for an International School in Sri Lanka
A short and steady Meta Leads ad campaign. Two campuses. Two intake cycles. Stop-start spending. Real enrollments.
The Setup
A leading international school in Colombo wanted to fill seats at two of its campuses. One campus had a new pre-school location that was under-booked. The other was an established Colombo 5 site needing a fresh intake.
The school did not want a flashy campaign. So we suggested showing children in classrooms. They also wanted to stop spending the moment classrooms filled.
We ran Meta lead generation ads from June to December 2025.
What We Did
We targeted parents living within 8 kilometers of each campus. We started with 3Km radius and then expanded.
We used Meta Instant Forms so parents could submit their interest in under a minute without leaving Facebook or Instagram.
The ad creative was a single reel built around one idea.
Why send your child across town when there is a school of the same standard within reach. The footage showed children playing and learning. There was no special offer. No discount. No urgency tactic. Just proximity, quality, and trust.
The school’s admissions team called every lead within hours and logged the conversation in a shared sheet.
When classrooms filled, we paused the ads. When a new intake opened, we restarted.
We later pivoted to image base ads.
The Two Cycles
Cycle 1. Mid-year intake. June and July 2025.
Cycle 2. Year-end intake. October, November, and December 2025.
August and September. No spend. Classrooms were full. There was nothing to sell.
The Numbers
More than 440 parents submitted lead forms across the 6 months.
Approximately 70 of those parents reached the strong-intent stage in qualification calls. They confirmed appointments, sent applications, or expressed clear intent to enroll.
The school’s admissions office reports that around 80 percent of strong-intent leads went on to enroll.
That works out to approximately 56 children enrolled across the six months and both campuses.
The Commercial Story
Term fee at this school. LKR 120,000 per child per term. (Prices might have changed by the time of publishing this case study)
First-term revenue from 56 enrollments. LKR 6,720,000.
Total ad spend across six months. Approximately LKR 600,000.
Return on ad spend in the first term alone. 11.2x.
For every one rupee spent on ads, the school earned more than eleven rupees in first-term fees. And most pre-school children stay for two to three years. The lifetime revenue from this campaign sits in the tens of millions of rupees, against a six-month media cost of six hundred thousand.
What Worked
Targeting parents close to each campus kept the offer relevant. Proximity is a real reason for parents to choose a school. The reel made that reason the centre of the ad.
Stop-start spending kept costs honest. The school never paid for ads when there were no seats to fill. This sounds obvious but most school marketing budgets are calendar-driven, not capacity-driven.
Fast follow-up by the admissions team turned cold leads warm. Parents who fill a form on Meta are shopping. The school that calls first usually wins.
What We Tested and Learned
In October we ran a small creative test. The original ad ran alongside a shorter clip and a longer clip.
The original ad pulled the most leads and the highest qualification quality.
The longer clip pulled more leads who turned out to be uninterested or who had no clear inquiry. We turned it off.
This is what creative diagnosis looks like. Not every test wins. The job is to find the loser fast and stop spending on it.
Analysis: The Heart of the Matter
The following data were taken while the ads were running.
SWOT Analysis
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
| Precise geo-targeting around campus | 23 s video had steep drop-off rates |
| Competitive cost-per-lead versus industry benchmark | Voiceover + image sliders underperformed |
| Strong lead volume (440+ over six months) | Manual follow-up delayed conversions |
| Opportunities | Threats |
|---|---|
| Retarget 50%+ video watchers | Nearby competitors with established brands |
| A/B test 15 s captioned videos | A/B test 15-second captioned videos |
| Automate WhatsApp/SMS reminders | Ad fatigue if the creative is not refreshed |
Key Metrics (Six-Month Campaign)
| Metric | School Result | Industry Avg |
|---|---|---|
| Total Ad Spend | LKR 600,000 | — |
| Total Leads | 440+ | — |
| Strong-Intent Leads | ~70 | 25–35% lead-to-intent typical |
| Actual Enrollments | 56 | — |
| Cost per Lead (CPL) | LKR 1,364 | LKR 3,456 (USD 18.68 CPA) |
The opening four-day window. The first four days of Cycle 1 (June 2025) were the campaign’s strongest burst on a per-lead basis: LKR 31,000 spent, 111 raw leads, 61 high-intent leads (55%), a cost-per-click of LKR 47.42, and a cost-per-lead of LKR 279. This was one opening window inside the six-month campaign above, not the campaign result on its own.
Proposed Solutions/Alternatives
15-Second Captioned Video
Pros: Improves completion by 30–40%; reads well on mute.
Cons: Requires quick, creative turnaround.
Lookalike Audience Expansion
Pros: Scales profiles of high-intent parents.
Cons: Potentially wider radius dilutes local focus.
Automated Follow-Up Flow
Pros: WhatsApp/SMS within 5 minutes boosts show rates by 40%.
Cons: Integration setup time.
Geo-Fenced “Book Now” Micro-Campaign
Pros: Ultra-local push within 2 km, high relevance.
Cons: Smaller audience cap.
Recommendations: The Path Forward
Implement a 15s caption-only cut to boost full-view rates toward 10–12%.
Automate immediate WhatsApp/SMS reminders for every form submission.
Retarget users who watched ≥ 50% of the video with a “Secure Your Spot” offer.
Expand lookalikes of the 61 high-intent leads, keeping radius ≤5 km.
Implementation Timeline
| Step | Timing | HypeX Team |
|---|---|---|
| Edit & caption 15 s video | Day 1–2 | Creative Team |
| Build Initial Lead Response automation | Day 1–3 | Ops & CRM Team |
| Launch retarget & lookalike tests | Day 4 | Ad Ops |
| Monitor & optimize | Day 5–8 | Analytics Team |
| Scale winning variants | Day 9+ | Growth Team |
What We Would Do Differently Next Time
Send an automatic WhatsApp message the moment a parent fills the form. The school’s manual follow-up worked, but speed compounds. A reply within minutes converts more parents than a reply within hours.
Tighten the lead form by adding one filtering question. Something like “When do you plan to enroll.” Parents who pick “next year” can be nurtured. Parents who pick “this term” go to the top of the call list.
Build a separate creative for older grade enrollments. The pre-school reel pulled higher-grade inquiries by accident. With dedicated creative, that side stream could double.
Methodology Note
Lead volume figures come directly from Meta Instant Form exports across six monthly cohort sheets covering June, July, October, November, and December 2025.
Strong-intent lead identification came from the school’s qualification call notes, where staff logged feedback after speaking to each parent.
Enrollment figures were estimated by applying the school’s reported 80 percent conversion rate against the strong-intent cohort. The school’s admissions office tracks final enrollment outcomes. HypeX does not have direct access to enrollment records, which is why this case study uses estimation rather than line-by-line confirmation.
The Point
The school spent approximately LKR 600,000 on Meta ads over six months and earned more than eleven rupees in first-term fees for every one rupee spent. Before the children even started classes.
This is what is possible when three things line up.
The targeting is local.
The offer is honest.
The campaign stops the moment the seats are full.
Conclusion: Tying It All Together
HypeX Digital’s six-month Meta campaign delivered 440-plus raw leads and approximately 56 enrollments at a blended cost-per-lead of LKR 1,364, well below the industry CPA benchmark of LKR 3,456.
By adopting shorter, captioned videos, automating follow-up, and retargeting engaged viewers, the school can convert even more leads into enrollments and improve ROI on every rupee invested.
