American University in Bulgaria
Verified Outcome
+55%
Application Growth • 7-Yr Record
Scaling international student acquisition across 21 markets.
Performance campaigns across 21 markets turned AUBG's online recruitment into a repeatable acquisition engine, delivering the university's best results in seven years.
- Client
- AUBG
- Category
- Higher Education
- Focus
- Student Acquisition, Performance
- Published
The Challenge
AUBG's challenge wasn't volume. It was consistency. Each market behaved differently, budgets were fragmented, and previous recruitment efforts relied on one-off campaigns that could not scale year after year.
My brief was to design and operate a recruitment engine that respected local nuance while scaling globally: align budgets to market potential, tailor messaging to audience motivations, and keep the funnel efficient from first touch to submitted application.
Operating Realities
01
Media consumption varied significantly across all 21 international recruitment markets
02
Messaging had to be localised without fragmenting the overall institutional strategy
03
Competition within international higher education was intense and heavily funded
04
Success meant converting cross-border interest into completed applications, not just inquiries
Key Architectural Decisions
Decision 01
Centralise intelligence, localise execution
Market weighting, segmentation, and data-driven budget logic ensured every euro worked harder in high-propensity regions.
Decision 02
Design one acquisition engine, not 21 campaigns
Unified funnel logic and multi-channel orchestration allowed me to manage complexity without losing local relevance.
Decision 03
Optimise for completed applications, not clicks
Conversion optimisation, continuous funnel testing, and lead quality scoring focused efforts on students actually likely to enroll.
Implementation
Market Analysis
Market analysis & segmentation
Built a market-weighting model across 21 countries using behavioural and demand signals to guide budget allocation.
Multi-Channel
Multi-channel execution
Ran coordinated social, search, and programmatic campaigns using shared messaging frameworks and market-specific creatives.
Conversion
Funnel optimisation
Continuously tested landing flows, retargeting cadence, and lead handling to maximise completed applications.
The Results
Best performance in seven years.
The programme marked the university's strongest recruitment cycle in seven years, winning a Gold Bright Award for best digital campaign.
Fragmented international recruitment was replaced with a scalable acquisition system the university could repeat year after year.
55%
Application Growth
7-year record performance
21
Markets Activated
International markets
Bright Awards Gold
Award
Best digital campaign
Best in 7 Years
Performance
Strongest recruitment cycle
Selected Proof • Further Reading
Explore more case studies
517% Revenue Growth
IPO Milestone
Built market credibility and demand generation supporting an IPO listing.
787 Live Attendees
World Record
Omnichannel growth campaign contributing to a Guinness World Record.
18.75x Blended ROAS
$1.49 Blended CPA
International DTC expansion across four European territories.
Repeatable Systems / Global Recruitment
Ready to build a repeatable acquisition system?
Most growth programmes fail because they're built to run once. Let's design something that compounds.