Case study · Early learning (B2C) · Meta & Google · Aug–Oct 2026

A newly acquired centre, launched from zero: $196 per enrolment in month one.

Before → after · Aug – Oct 2026

Paid enquiries12 weeks

087

Enquiries → tours → startslaunch month

24 → 16 → 6

Cost per enrolmentmonth one

$196

Client: Early learning centre, regional QLD
Channels: Meta Instant Form, Google Search
Budget: ~$1,000/month media
Period: 1 Aug – 23 Oct 2026

The challenge

No digital footprint at all.

A multi-site operator acquired the centre in mid-2026. No ad accounts, no Facebook Page, booking links pointing at sister centres, and no enquiry tracking.

The goal

Tours and enrolments from local families.

Fill places in a ~3 km catchment on a $1,000/month budget, with every enquiry counted and followed up.

What I did

01Built the foundation before spending. Ad account and Page under the group's portfolio, booking links fixed, "Book a Tour" set as a Lead event.
02Hyper-local Meta lead gen. ~$25/day, residents-only ~3 km radius, Instant Form tested against a website form.
03Three creative themes. Now Enrolling, Nature, Kindy: photo-led, under six words of overlay, 4:5 and 9:16.
04Conservative Google Search. Two phrase-match ad groups, AI Max off, capped CPC until conversion data existed.
05Compliance and lead handling. Funding claims kept general pending sign-off; every lead fed to a live sheet reconciled daily.

The insight that moved the numbers

Parents on mobile won't leave Facebook. So don't make them.

In the first month the native Instant Form delivered leads 7.5× cheaper than sending parents to a booking page. Budget moved to the form, which went on to deliver 74 of the centre's 87 paid leads, and the finding became the rule across the operator's other centres.

Cost per lead, August 2026Same audience, same budget, two ways to enquire.

7.5× cheaper

Website form

$85.16

Instant Form

$11.37

Meta Ads Manager, August 2026.