The Situation
Michigan Virtual competes with national online learning providers that have marketing budgets orders of magnitude larger. Running the same playbook, just with less money, was never going to work. We needed a different theory of winning.
Ours: speak educators' language, show up in their calendar at exactly the right moment, and be relentlessly useful. Position Michigan Virtual not as a vendor selling virtual courses, but as a partner invested in student outcomes. Do that consistently, three enrollment windows a year, and trust compounds into enrollment.
The budget per enrollment period was roughly $10,000. That covered Facebook and Instagram paid social, email, and video production. It was a lean operation, and that constraint pushed creative decisions that turned out to be strengths.
The System
The school year has three enrollment periods, and each has a different feel. Fall means back-to-school energy and fresh planning. Spring is about catching students who need course recovery or acceleration. Summer has its own urgency. We built campaigns that matched the rhythm of each window rather than running the same creative year-round.
Across all three periods, email reached school contacts responsible for virtual enrollments. Facebook and Instagram campaigns targeted Michigan educators and families with awareness and remarketing creative. Short-form videos demystified online learning and showed the surprising breadth of courses available, including things families wouldn't expect, like Guitar, taught by a Michigan-certified instructor.
Campaign Spotlight
This was the right message at the exact right moment. AI was everywhere in the news, and our competitors, the faceless national platforms, had no real answer for it. Michigan Virtual did: every course is led by a Michigan-certified teacher. A real instructor. Every time.
We leaned into it directly. While everyone else was figuring out what to say about AI, we said it plainly: we have AI, actual instructors. The play on words landed. District leaders shared it. Parents noticed. People in the education space said "that is a really good idea" because it was true and it cut right through the noise.
The best campaign we ran didn't need a big budget. It needed the right insight at the right moment and the confidence to say something direct.
The Results
The numbers below represent the combined results across all three enrollment periods in one fiscal year. Total impressions, link clicks, and reach were generated from Facebook campaigns running at roughly $10,000 per enrollment window.
CTR and CPC performed competitively against education-sector benchmarks while delivering statewide reach on a fraction of what competitors spend. Enrollment targets were met consistently across periods.
Email was equally strong. One representative send, timed to the post-break planning window when school counselors and administrators are actively thinking about student course loads, hit an open rate roughly double the education industry average.
View a representative send ("It's About That Time"), timed to post-break planning season:
Open Email →