Marketing Results 2025/26
International School
October 2025 – September 2026
Russian-Language Social Media · Russian & English Paid Acquisition
2025/26 — Executive Summary
Russian-language social media
A Russian-language Facebook and Instagram presence was built from a zero-audience starting point.
Annual Facebook views
Instagram followers
Facebook followers
Published posts
Russian-language paid acquisition
Leads
Spend
Weighted CPL
English-language paid acquisition
Leads
Spend
Weighted CPL
The main performance story
The two paid acquisition streams demonstrated different strengths.
Russian campaigns delivered high cost efficiency. English campaigns demonstrated much greater scaling potential, but at a substantially higher acquisition cost.
The data also indicates that English campaign efficiency declined as budgets were scaled aggressively.
Three Workstreams — Different Operating Models
Russian-Language Social Media
October 2025 – September 2026
Content strategy, content production, publishing and ongoing Facebook and Instagram presence.
Russian-Language Paid Advertising
Main lead-generation activity: February – September 2026
Our team managed:
- campaign strategy
- media buying
- targeting and optimization
- advertising concepts
- creative production
English-Language Paid Advertising
May – September 2026
Our team managed:
- media buying
- targeting
- campaign optimization
Advertising creatives were supplied by the client.
Why this distinction matters
Russian and English advertising should not be treated as identical operating models.
For Russian campaigns, creative development and performance optimization were managed as one integrated process.
For English campaigns, media optimization was performed around an existing set of client-supplied creatives.
Russian-Language Social Media — From Zero to an Owned Audience
Both Facebook and Instagram were developed from a zero-audience starting point.
Audience built
309 followers · 132 publications
381 followers · 130+ publications
Facebook — Full Academic Year
Views
Viewers
Content interactions
3-sec video views
Instagram — Recent 90 Days
Views
Viewers
Audience growth
Views from non-followers
What worked
Student stories, interviews and first-person experiences consistently created engagement beyond passive viewing.
The strongest content showed Bar-Ilan through real people — their studies, decisions and university experience.
Paid Acquisition — Overall Results
Russian-Language Campaigns
February – September 2026
Leads
Spend
Weighted CPL
Impressions
Additional boosted-content activity generated: 2,668 link clicks at approximately ₪0.48 per click
English-Language Campaigns
May – September 2026
Leads
Spend
Weighted CPL
Impressions
Two different strengths
Russian: strong acquisition efficiency
English: substantially greater lead volume and ability to scale
A lead represents a prospective inquiry, not an enrolled student.
Russian vs English — A Like-for-Like Comparison
Comparable full-month period: May – August 2026
What this means
English campaigns generated approximately 2.6× more leads.
To achieve this scale, they used approximately 7.3× more advertising budget.
Russian lead acquisition cost was approximately 65% lower.
The correct interpretation
This does not mean that one market was simply "better" than the other.
The campaigns operated with:
- different audience sizes
- different competitive environments
- different program mixes
- very different budget levels
- different creative production models
Russian campaigns were more cost-efficient. English campaigns were able to generate much greater absolute volume.
How Performance Changed as English Campaigns Scaled
May – August 2026
Leads by Month
CPL by Month (₪)
English campaigns
Lead volume increased dramatically: 32 → 160 → 437 → 494
But CPL increased at the same time: ₪38.84 → ₪58.57 → ₪77.84 → ₪87.79
July and August produced 931 English leads, more than 80% of the May–August volume. However, additional scale came with progressively lower marginal efficiency.
Russian campaigns
Russian CPL remained comparatively stable through May–August, while maintaining meaningful monthly lead volume.
September — different reporting windows
Russian — full September: 143 leads at ₪16.69 CPL
English — September 1–7 only: 45 leads at ₪48.13 CPL
These September figures are not directly comparable because the reporting periods are different.
Russian Campaigns — Where the Results Came From
Integrative Programs
511 leads · ₪24.88 CPL · Largest Russian-language lead source.
Open Day
185 leads · ₪19.02 CPL · Strong combination of volume and efficiency.
Psychology
141 leads · ₪20.66 CPL · Consistently efficient acquisition.
September Open Day
39 leads · ₪15.56 CPL · Lowest program-level Russian CPL.
Grant Campaign
15 leads · ₪66.64 CPL · Clear efficiency outlier compared with the other Russian campaigns.
Key conclusion
The strongest Russian results were not concentrated in only one campaign type. Both ongoing academic programs and event-driven campaigns produced efficient lead acquisition.
English Campaigns — Lead Drivers and Cost Efficiency
Psychology BA
409 leads · ₪66.57 CPL · Largest English-language lead source.
MA Programs
244 leads · ₪82.13 CPL
First Year in English BA
160 leads · ₪86.68 CPL
Full BA in English
142 leads · ₪100.43 CPL · Highest CPL among the major degree campaigns.
Open Day BA
66 leads · ₪60.30 CPL
Open Day Landing Page
53 leads · ₪50.74 CPL · Strongest CPL among the main English campaign types.
Key conclusion
Psychology BA was the main volume driver. Open Day activity generally achieved stronger cost efficiency than the larger degree-program campaigns. The Full BA in English campaign represents a clear optimization opportunity for the next academic year.
English Campaigns — Did Higher Spend Go Too Far?
The final weeks provide an important clue about the relationship between budget scale and acquisition efficiency.
Daily Spend vs CPL
Traffic Quality Metrics
Aug 24–30 vs Sep 1–7
Daily spend fell by approximately 84%.
Daily lead volume fell by only approximately 68%.
CPL improved from: ₪95.10 → ₪48.13 — almost a 50% reduction.
The most important detail
Traffic itself did not become materially cheaper. The improvement came primarily from better conversion after the click, not from cheaper traffic.
Interpretation
This pattern is consistent with diminishing returns at higher spend levels.
At very high daily budgets, Meta continued to generate additional traffic and leads, but part of the additional audience converted less efficiently.
This does not prove that the Israeli market was saturated.
The proximity of the September 7 Open Day may also have contributed to the stronger September conversion rate.
But the data strongly supports testing for an efficient spending range, rather than assuming that maximum possible spend will produce the best economics.
What May Explain the CPL Gap?
The difference between approximately ₪23–28 Russian CPL and approximately ₪77–78 English CPL is unlikely to have a single cause.
1. Different scale
English campaigns were operated at substantially larger budgets.
The August and September data suggests that higher spend produced diminishing marginal returns.
2. Different audiences
The size, intent and competitive environment of Russian-speaking and English-speaking audiences are different.
These differences can materially affect acquisition cost.
3. Different program mix
Campaigns for Psychology, Open Day, MA programs and full degree programs demonstrated very different CPL levels.
The overall average therefore depends heavily on which programs received the most budget.
4. Different creative operating model
For Russian campaigns, our team managed both: creative development + media buying
For English campaigns: creatives were supplied by the client; media buying and optimization were managed by our team
The integrated Russian workflow allowed creative messaging and media performance to be optimized together.
This may be one contributing factor to the lower Russian CPL. It should be treated as a hypothesis to test — not as proven causation.
Key Learnings for 2026/27
Preserve what is already working
Russian-language paid acquisition demonstrated strong and repeatable cost efficiency.
The integrated creative + performance model should be maintained.
Scale English campaigns more progressively
English campaigns can generate significant volume.
However, the 2026 data suggests that efficiency deteriorates when spend increases beyond the most responsive part of the available audience.
Future scaling should be progressive rather than abrupt.
Measure marginal efficiency
Do not evaluate scale only through total leads and average CPL. At each budget increase, monitor:
- incremental lead volume
- marginal CPL
- click-to-lead conversion
- CPC
- CTR
The goal is to identify the point at which additional spend stops producing proportional additional results.
Test the creative model
Run controlled English-language tests using: client-supplied creatives versus agency-developed creatives under comparable targeting and budget conditions.
This would allow Bar-Ilan to measure whether integrated creative + media optimization can improve English-language acquisition efficiency.
Bar-Ilan University