Growing MIT Executive Education revenue 65% year over year
MIT Executive Education's objective was simple: grow revenue year over year. With full access to the media plan and fiscal budget, spend was allocated to top performers through co-management across search, social, and programmatic, driving 65% revenue growth, 16,357 LinkedIn leads at a $4.78 cost per lead, 22% more enrollments, and $13M in revenue.
- Revenue growth YoY
- 65%
- Revenue generated
- $13M
- LinkedIn leads at a $4.78 CPL
- 16,357
- More enrollments
- 22%
The challenge
One objective across many moving parts
The brief was a single line: grow revenue year over year. The complexity sat underneath it, spread across channels, budgets, and campaigns that each pulled in their own direction.
A goal that clean only works when the whole plan is pointed at it, which means someone has to own the trade-offs rather than optimize each piece in isolation.
The strategy
Co-manage the media plan toward revenue
- Full media-plan co-managementFull access to the media plan and fiscal-year budget made strategic allocation possible across the whole program.
- Spend moved to top performersBudget shifted to the channels and campaigns producing revenue instead of being spread evenly.
- Tracking tied to revenue, not vanity metricsThe GPS foundation measured every allocation decision against the same question the client asked.
- LinkedIn carrying the lead volumeThe executive audience lives on LinkedIn: 16,357 leads at a $4.78 cost per lead, feeding the enrollment funnel alongside search and programmatic.
How it ran on GPS
Every allocation decision answered the same question
Co-management only works when both teams argue from the same number. The GPS foundation tied every channel and campaign back to revenue, so moving budget was a data decision, not a turf negotiation.
That is what made the single-line brief workable: when everything is measured against revenue, the trade-offs make themselves.
The results
One objective, hit from every angle
- Revenue growth, year over year
- 65%
The single number the whole plan was pointed at.
- Revenue generated
- $13M
Attributed through the co-managed media plan.
- LinkedIn leads at a $4.78 CPL
- 16,357
The executive audience, reached where it actually is.
- More enrollments
- 22%
Volume grew alongside efficiency, not instead of it.
Measured against the client's own revenue definition through the GPS foundation.
A goal that clean only works when someone owns the trade-offs.
The core shift
From an e-commerce model to a buyer journey
- What the previous model didOptimized for last-click purchase only, with no top-of-funnel awareness, no lead capture before purchase intent, no nurture between interest and enrollment, and a static budget split across all 35 courses.
- What replaced itTheme campaigns building awareness at the top, lead generation capturing prospects months before they buy, webinars, events and remarketing carrying them through the middle, attribution from first touch to enrollment, and budgets that moved with real-time enrollment data.
Why it mattered
Executives do not buy the way the model assumed
An executive education purchase involves weeks or months of research, deliberation, and internal approval. The model in place was built for impulse buying, so it systematically undervalued every touchpoint above the last click.
Balancing enrollment across 35 programs made that worse. Courses that were already full kept consuming spend while under-enrolled programs went without exposure, because budget allocation was not responding to enrollment data.
Lead generation
What the top of the funnel produced
- LinkedIn content download leads
- 16,357
Generated at a $4.78 cost per lead, against a professional audience.
- Revenue from course promotion emails
- $516K
81 transactions at the start of FY23 Q1, built on leads captured earlier in the funnel.
Meta was introduced specifically as a lead generation platform, with cost per lead varying by course: $5.17 on EDP, $5.67 on AMP, and $11.73 on ABT.
What carried the result
Three things worth taking from this program
- The model has to match the decisionRespecting how long an executive education decision actually takes was the single most consequential change made here.
- LinkedIn earns its budget for professional audiences16,357 leads at $4.78 from content downloads is a strong result against this audience, and argues for more allocation than it usually gets.
- Early leads compound into later revenueThe $516K from email was built on a pipeline captured months earlier. Optimizing only for last click writes off the stage where that value is created.
