More applications on less spend, without losing lead volume
The client asked us to increase application numbers while reducing spend, holding the existing lead volume steady.
SOTAPO · EDUCATION
It worked.Mostly.
Every campus runs on something that mostly works. SOTAPO grows your institution, and in education, we can help you run it too.
One institution.Four jobs.Zero slack.
Education is the one industry that has to recruit, teach, serve and prove itself at the same time. When acquisition costs rise, intake dips, or a review cycle arrives, each of those jobs breaks at once.
- 01
Acquisition costs
The price of finding each applicant keeps climbing.
- 02
International student volatility
Visa rules, currencies and policy move intake from one cycle to the next.
- 03
Enrolment cliffs
Shrinking cohorts turn a full intake into a scramble.
- 04
Accreditation scrutiny
Review cycles ask for evidence the institution has to be ready to produce.
- 05
Outcomes
Boards, regulators and families all want proof that students got somewhere.
Nobody planned for this.
Chapter I
Nobody planned for this
Westfield grew. Not dramatically, just enough. A new program, a new system, another spreadsheet, another vendor, another process nobody officially owned. Complexity became part of the culture before anyone named it, and it reached the Vice Chancellor's desk having already consumed everyone below her.
Moment 1Chapter II
It started with small things
Timetables. Escalations. Emails. Questions nobody owned. The Registrar had three monitors, printed schedules across two walls, and four years of Saturdays. Forty-seven percent of applications started at Westfield were never completed. Processing took twenty-eight days. The institution down the road took five.
Moment 2
Photography by Dayne Topkin, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).
Westfield University is a fictional institution we built to illustrate a pattern we see across real campuses. Any resemblance to an actual institution is coincidental, but the pattern usually isn't.
Chapter III
Then someone ran the campus like a system.
In most industries, SOTAPO helps you grow your business. In education, we can help you run it too. Behind Westfield's turnaround sits MSM CampusOS: the operating platform built over fourteen-plus years inside real campuses, from first enquiry to alumni.
SOTAPO brings it with us.
Not a team learning the sector.
Fourteen-plus years working in education exclusively. Fifty-plus schools. Five hundred-plus institutions served. The people running MSM CampusOS earned that record at one of India's most respected education-focused agencies.
That same bench now runs on global technology infrastructure across twenty-nine countries. Marketing, creative, curriculum, faculty development, and evaluation, connected as one system rather than run as separate engagements.
The MSM CampusOS record.
What the team behind MSM CampusOS has delivered, across markets and campuses.
- Years in education marketing
- 14+
Years in education marketing
- Institutions served
- 500+
Institutions served
- Countries
- 29
Countries
- Partner campuses
- 1,500+
Partner campuses
- Students helped
- 190,000+
Students helped
- Certified recruitment agents
- 6,000+
Certified recruitment agents
- Clients served
- 800+
Clients served
- India admissions revenue driven for clients
- ₹750 Cr+
India admissions revenue driven for clients
The four jobs a campus needs done.
A full-stack engine wired from first impression to first cheque.
Brand and reach
Brand strategy, architecture, and voice. Awareness campaigns and social presence across Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
Discovery and capture
SEO and organic, performance media on Google and Meta, an SEO-first website, and lead-generation funnels tuned for conversion.
Nurture
CRM-integrated journeys, trigger-based automated flows, and re-engagement loops that keep applicants moving.
Convert and measure
GA4 and dashboard-level attribution, with weekly channel insight and a monthly board-ready ROI view.
Twelve services.One operating system.
The full institutional lifecycle, from first enquiry to alumni, run as one system rather than fourteen disconnected ones. Start with one function, then add the rest as you scale.
Acquire
Operate
Engage
Infrastructure
The platform
One system of record for the whole campus.
MSM Aventra is the platform behind our Infrastructure work: CRM, student information and learning management in a single, integrated system built for academic institutions, so enquiries, enrolments and outcomes stop living in separate tools.
- Unified CRM, SIS and LMS
- One student record, first enquiry to alumni
- Built for academic institutions
Institutions the team has worked with
100+ institutions worked with
These reflect the body of work MSM CampusOS's leadership has led over a fourteen-year marketing and communications career, not all exclusively MSM CampusOS engagements.
Education engagements
28%
Drop in cost per application, year on year
32%
Drop in spend
JD Institute
Cutting cost per lead while applications kept rising
30%
Drop in cost per lead (2024–26)
8%
Increase in applications (2024–26)
RICE Education
Lowering acquisition cost while lead quality climbed
25%
Drop in customer acquisition cost, year on year (2025–26)
15%
Increase in qualified leads, year on year (2025–26)
Adamas University
Applications up, cost per acquisition down, two years running
11%
Increase in applications, year on year (2025–26)
27%
Drop in customer acquisition cost, year on year (2025–26)
DSU International
More international applications, at half the acquisition cost
7%
Increase in applications, year on year (2025–26)
50%
Drop in customer acquisition cost, year on year (2025–26)
What institutions say
“Partnering with MSM CampusOS has strengthened Reliance Animation Academy's digital presence. Their SEO and social strategy brought fresh ideas and sharp execution, lifting engagement by ~50% in two months, a partner that moves fast as we scale RAA into a pan-India franchise.”
“We have been associated with the team for a few years, and they understand digital marketing well. I interact with some of the best people, who bring unique, effective campaign ideas. The team is dedicated, always in touch, and tailors every campaign to our requirements.”
“Digital platform helped us achieve our goal at a third of the cost of traditional media. The team has done amazing work for our brand, RICS Amity University has worked with them for three years, and digital advertising's flexibility and precise targeting is exactly what we value.”
LSC London
“The quality of service and solutions from our first contact was highly impressive. Every aspect exceeded expectations, a well-planned strategy with a sharp digital approach. It's one of the best experiences we've had working with any digital marketing company.”
Engagement model
Institutional audit
Map current enrolment funnel, brand position, curriculum, and evaluation workflow before proposing anything.
Pilot campus
Prove the approach on one campus, programme, or department before committing to a wider rollout.
Performance review
Weekly channel insight, monthly board-ready reporting, assessed against agreed outcomes before scaling spend.
Scale
Extend what worked across campuses and departments, with accreditation and compliance built in from the start.
Compliance, wherever you operate
Four commitments hold in every market. The frameworks change; the standard does not.
- 01
Curriculum and accreditation work is built to be defensible at review, not just presentable in a pitch.
- 02
Student and faculty data used in evaluation infrastructure and CRM journeys is handled under institution-controlled agreements.
- 03
Assessment integration connects to your existing exam workflow rather than replacing it. Your scoring rubrics stay yours.
- 04
Every accreditation, compliance, and outcomes claim is reviewed against your own documentation before it goes near a regulator.
Markets we work in
India
- NEP 2020
- NAAC
- AICTE
- UGC
Indian higher education is under active regulatory change: NEP 2020 implementation, NAAC reaccreditation cycles, AICTE and UGC compliance, outcome-based education mapping.
Operating elsewhere?
Tell us which regulator and accreditation body you answer to. We build the plan around those requirements.
The right approach depends on your institution type, accreditation status, and state or national regulatory requirements. We build the plan around those requirements.
Ready to build what Westfield needed?
Tell us about your institution, your accreditation cycle, and where operations are quietly breaking.