Plan Campaigns Around Intake Dates, Not the Calendar Month
Funded courses fill against fixed start dates. Running ads on a flat monthly budget ignores that, and wastes money in the weeks that matter least.
Most agencies run education campaigns like any other account: a monthly budget, spent evenly, reported on the 1st. But your learners don’t enrol on the 1st. They enrol before the intake closes.
Work backwards from each start date
For every cohort, map out:
- The start date and the last day a learner can realistically enrol.
- How long your process takes: eligibility checks, assessments, paperwork.
- How many places are left to fill.
That gives you the real window for each campaign, and how hard it needs to push.
Shape the spend in waves
- Early: build awareness and capture interest from people planning ahead.
- Middle: push hardest, while there’s still time to process applications properly.
- Late: reminders and urgency to people already in your pipeline, not cold traffic you can’t process in time.
Nurture to the deadline
Email and WhatsApp sequences should count down to each intake: what’s needed, what’s left, what happens next. Applicants who haven’t committed yet often just need a nudge and an answer.
Weekly adjustments against intake dates and capacity were a core part of how one provider got to 200 enrolments in under three months.
Planning your next intake? Let’s map it together.