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EdTech · Performance Marketing

Stuck at 1.5X ROAS for months. We got them to 2X+ and kept it there.

A pan-Indian language-learning platform couldn't break past 1.5X ROAS despite increasing spend by 30%. First Launch rebuilt the campaign architecture from the ground up — and delivered consistent 2X+ ROAS across a full quarter.

2X+
Monthly ROAS Achieved ↑ From 1.5X baseline
4
Platforms Optimised Google Search · Display · Facebook · Instagram
MoM
Consistent Growth Sustained across a full quarter
01 — Brief

A platform with strong demand and a ROAS that wouldn't move

The problem wasn't budget — it was strategy. More spend kept producing the same stuck return.

A leading pan-Indian EdTech platform offering language learning through pre-recorded sessions, app-based learning, and live sessions had been running performance marketing campaigns across Google and Meta for some time. Despite the category demand and a growing budget, the platform had hit a ceiling: 1.5X ROAS, month after month, with no improvement — even after increasing ad spend by 30%.

The ask to First Launch was specific: achieve a consistent 2X+ ROAS on the current budget, every month, for a quarter. Not a one-month spike — sustained, month-on-month performance marketing discipline across Google Search, Display, Facebook, and Instagram across India, including regional language audiences.

Client
A leading pan-Indian EdTech platform
Industry
EdTech · Language Learning
Platforms
Google Search · Google Display · Facebook · Instagram
Geography
Pan-India incl. regional language campaigns
Services Delivered
Performance Marketing · Campaign Strategy · Google Ads · Meta Ads · CRM Integration
Goal
Consistent 2X+ ROAS month-on-month for a quarter
02 — Challenge

Spending more wasn't the answer — and they'd already tried that

The 1.5X ceiling wasn't a budget problem. It was a structural and strategic one.

The platform had already attempted the obvious lever: increase spend. A 30% budget increase produced no meaningful improvement in ROAS. This told us the problem wasn't demand — the demand existed. The problem was that the campaign architecture wasn't built to capture it efficiently. Budget was flowing into campaigns without a clear picture of which ones were actually driving revenue, which keywords were converting, and how ad platform data mapped to CRM outcomes.

Achieving a consistent 2X+ ROAS across a quarter also meant the approach had to produce stable, compounding results — not a single month optimisation that then regressed. The strategy needed to be built for durability: a framework the account could run on consistently, not a temporary spike from a one-time structural change.

A 30% increase in ad spend produced no improvement in ROAS. The budget wasn't the constraint — the campaign architecture was.
03 — Approach

Three phases. Analysis first, optimisation second, never stop.

The approach was built around one principle: no campaign changes without data, and no data without CRM verification.

Phase 1
Analysis & Benchmarking
Weeks 1–4
Challenge
No clear picture of which campaigns, keywords, or placements were actually driving revenue — Ads data and CRM outcomes had never been cross-referenced
Action
Audited 6–12 months of Ads data across keywords, intent, campaign types, placements, quality scores, and click-to-conversion rates. Cross-verified against CRM data for best courses, ticket sizes, locations, lead cycle, peak times, and revenue by channel
Impact
Clear benchmarks established — top-performing campaigns and assets identified, non-performing segments flagged for replacement

The analysis phase produced the strategic brief that made every subsequent optimisation decision defensible — data-led, not assumption-led.

Phase 2
Strategy & Optimisation
Weeks 5–8
Challenge
Transitioning the account to new campaigns without triggering a learning phase that would cause a temporary but damaging revenue drop
Action
Retained champion campaigns with targeted optimisations (negative keywords, match types, landing pages). Simultaneously launched new campaigns based on Phase 1 insights — new offers, regional language campaigns, and revised distribution across Search Partner and Display Partner Networks
Impact
Dual-track approach kept existing revenue stable while new campaigns ramped — no significant performance drop during transition

The two-stream strategy — champion campaigns with minor optimisations running in parallel with freshly structured campaigns — eliminated the usual transition risk.

Phase 3
Ongoing Analysis
Weeks 9+
Challenge
Maintaining ROAS consistency while continuously improving lead quality and average ticket size — preventing the performance from plateauing at the new baseline
Action
Weekly optimisation sprints covering lead-quality analysis, ticket-size analysis, user journey optimisation, and direct touchpoints with the sales team for deeper CRM insight on lead quality and conversion patterns
Impact
Consistent 2X+ ROAS month-on-month sustained across a full quarter — compounding improvements in lead quality each sprint

The weekly sprint discipline — pairing Ads platform data with CRM sales insight — is what turned a one-month result into a quarter-long trend.

04 — Results

Before the engagement. After the engagement.

The transformation across six dimensions of campaign performance.

Before
Pre-Engagement
Monthly ROAS1.5X (ceiling)
Budget trend+30% spend, no improvement
Campaign structureUndifferentiated
CRM integrationNone — Ads and CRM siloed
Keyword targetingMatch types unoptimised
Regional reachEnglish-only campaigns
After
Post-Optimisation
Monthly ROAS2X+ (consistent MoM)
Budget trendSame budget, sustained 2X+
Campaign structureChampion + new campaigns split
CRM integrationCRM data cross-verified weekly
Keyword targetingIntent-based, negative keywords refined
Regional reachRegional language campaigns live
The engagement in numbers
6–12
Months of historical data analysed
3
Optimisation phases
2
Parallel campaign streams
Weekly
Sprint cadence for ongoing analysis
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06 — FAQ

Questions about performance marketing and ROAS growth

Common questions about First Launch's performance marketing strategy, Google and Meta Ads management, and ROAS optimisation for EdTech brands.

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  • Our performance marketing service covers the full campaign lifecycle — audit and benchmarking, campaign strategy, account restructuring, ongoing optimisation, and regular reporting. For this engagement we managed Google Search, Google Display, Facebook, and Instagram Ads across India, including regional language campaigns. We also integrated Ads data with the client's CRM to cross-verify lead quality and revenue attribution.
  • The issue wasn't budget — it was structure. A 30% budget increase had already failed to move the ROAS. The breakthrough came from auditing 6–12 months of campaign data, cross-referencing it with CRM data, and using those insights to run two parallel tracks: retaining champion campaigns with targeted optimisations and replacing non-performing campaigns with new ones built on real data. The combination of structural cleanup and ongoing weekly sprints is what produced consistent 2X+ ROAS across a full quarter.
  • Ad platform metrics tell you what happened inside the platform — clicks, conversions, cost per lead. CRM data tells you what happened after the lead was generated: which courses converted, which ticket sizes closed, which locations drove revenue. Without aligning these two data sources, optimisation decisions are based on an incomplete picture. Our CRM cross-verification gave us a ground-truth view of which campaigns were driving actual revenue rather than just cheap leads.
  • The key was the two-stream approach. Rather than replacing all campaigns at once — which would have pushed the entire account into a learning phase and caused a revenue drop — we retained the best-performing campaigns with only minor, targeted optimisations. New campaigns were launched in parallel. This kept existing revenue stable while the new campaigns ramped up, ensuring no significant performance gap during the transition.
  • Yes. This engagement specifically covered pan-Indian performance marketing including regional language campaigns — an important lever for EdTech platforms targeting learners across Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and other language markets. We understand both the performance marketing mechanics and the audience behaviour specific to the Indian EdTech category.
  • We manage campaigns across Google Search Ads, Google Display Ads, YouTube Ads, Facebook Ads, and Instagram Ads. For this engagement we ran all four major platforms simultaneously — coordinating strategy, budgets, and optimisation across Google and Meta to achieve consistent ROAS across the full account, not just within a single platform.

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