Straight answers, including the uncomfortable ones.

None, and neither can anyone else. What I will commit to is a cost-per-admission ceiling and a monthly enquiry target, both agreed after the audit. Admissions depend on your fee structure, your reputation in the catchment, and how fast your counsellors call back. Those are three things a marketer does not control. Anyone guaranteeing a number is either guessing or planning to blame you later.

Usually within seven to ten days of launch, once tracking and creative are live. Meaningful cost per admission takes longer, because it only becomes visible after a full enquiry-to-admission cycle: typically six to eight weeks for a school, two to four for a coaching batch.

For a single-campus K-12 school in a Tier-2 city, meaningful testing starts around Rs. 40,000 to 60,000 a month through the season. Colleges and multi-centre coaching institutes run considerably higher. Below the floor, there is not enough data to optimise on and you are better off spending on content and reviews first. I will say so during the audit rather than take the retainer.

A flat monthly fee for retainers, a fixed fee for projects, agreed after the audit. Ad spend is always excluded and paid by you directly to Meta and Google. I do not charge a percentage of ad spend, because that gives me a reason to want your budget higher.

You do, all three of them. Campaigns run inside your own Meta and Google accounts, leads go into your CRM, and creative files are handed over. If the engagement ends, nothing walks out of the door with me.

No. Category exclusivity within a catchment is part of the agreement. If a competing institution in your radius approaches me during our engagement, they get declined.

They still work in some markets, and I will tell you if yours is one of them. The difference is measurement: a hoarding cannot tell you which fifty parents enquired and which four enrolled. Most institutions should run both, with the split decided by data after one season, not by opinion.

Start with an audit of their work, which is free and which you can then use however you like, including to make them better. Plenty of institutions do not need a new agency; they need someone senior reviewing what the current one reports every month.

No. The work spans Tier-1 to Tier-3 cities across India, plus institutions outside it. Campaigns, calls and reviews run remotely; campus visits happen for larger mandates and at the start of a season.

A consultant. EduMark Growth Lab is my independent practice. For production-heavy work I bring in School Saarthi as an agency partner, which is stated openly rather than hidden behind a bigger-sounding we.

Read-only access to your ad accounts and analytics, an export of recent enquiry data, and one person on your side who can answer questions and approve creative. Most delays in this work are access delays.

Three months for a retainer, because a shorter run means paying for the setup period without seeing the benefit. Projects and audits have no minimum.