Stabilizing Growth & Improving Lead Quality at Scale

Industry

Education

Client

Anderson College

Service

Growth & Funnel Optimization (Paid Acquisition)

Impact

6,000+ qualified leads

Anderson College is a Canada-based private career college offering diploma programs across healthcare, business, and technology. The institution relied heavily on paid acquisition, spending over $350,000 monthly on ads to meet enrollment targets. Despite high spend, the admissions team consistently raised concerns about poor lead quality, making growth inefficient and difficult to scale.

CHALLENGES

From a product perspective, the core challenge was inefficient lead acquisition and poor funnel signal quality:

• A significant portion of incoming leads were irrelevant or low-intent
• High acquisition cost made scaling unsustainable • Lead volume fluctuated heavily during slower intake periods
• Admissions teams lacked confidence in the quality of leads generated

This resulted in wasted spend, operational friction, and misalignment between acquisition and downstream teams.

MY ROLE

Execution was carried out by a team, while strategy, prioritization, and direction were owned by me.

I acted as the Product Owner for growth and lead quality, where I:

• Owned funnel strategy and success metrics
• Led cross-functional alignment with marketing and admissions teams
• Defined priorities to balance cost control with volume growth
• Guided optimization efforts across audiences, messaging, and funnel stages

APPROACH & KEY PRODUCT DECISIONS

Funnel Reset & Strategy Realignment

• Reviewed existing acquisition strategy to identify inefficiencies and signal noise
• Reset priorities to first control lead cost, then scale volume sustainably
• Cleaned up fragmented campaigns and eliminated underperforming setups

Audience Definition & Messaging

• Refined audience targeting to filter out irrelevant users early
• Aligned ad messaging with high-intent user motivations and program fit
• Ensured clearer expectation-setting before lead submission

Incremental Optimization at Scale

• Optimized each campaign and ad group individually instead of applying broad changes
• Continuously balanced cost efficiency with lead quality signals
• Maintained performance stability even during slower enrollment months

THE OUTCOME

$400 → $53

Reduction in cost per lead

6,000+

Qualified leads

Lead quality complaints