--- title: "AUBG Case Study | 82% more applications started | VertoDigital" description: "AUBG's blended GA4 + CRM data approach mapped paid touchpoints to actual enrollment. 82.64% more applications started, 29.30% lower cost." url: "https://vertodigital.com/case-studies/aubg" image: "https://vertodigital.com/images/site/og-default.png" --- # 82% more applications started. A blended GA4 + CRM data approach that mapped paid touchpoints to actual enrollment. 82.64% more applications 29.30% lower cost per application 1 blended data source [Get Your Free Pipeline Assessment](https://vertodigital.com/assessment) [See all case studies](https://vertodigital.com/case-studies) The company ## About AUBG. The American University in Bulgaria (AUBG) is a private liberal arts university offering American-style undergraduate and graduate degrees in southeast Europe. The institution sits inside the international higher education category - competing for students with European and American universities - on the strength of its English-language curriculum, accreditation, and value relative to US tuition. The customer is the prospective international student and their family. The marketing motion is performance-driven: paid acquisition feeding application starts, with success measured not by traffic or even leads, but by completed applications and admitted students. At a glance Industry Higher Education Engagement Inbound + Pipeline Intelligence Timeframe Multi-quarter program The problem ## The problem. AUBG sought a two-fold goal: expanding their applicant pool while optimizing digital advertising spend with a constrained budget. Traffic was happening; mapping it back to actual admitted students was not. Without a closed-loop view of which channels drove actual enrollment, budget optimization was blind. The work ## What we built. We analyzed admitted students' touchpoints with paid campaigns to identify the most profitable channel and paid initiatives. To get a comprehensive view of the customer journey - from initial paid touchpoint to application status in the CRM - we blended two data sources in Looker Studio. We recorded user IDs in the client's Google Analytics account, used as a join key to map application statuses from the CRM to paid campaign sessions from GA. The analysis of admitted students' touchpoints with paid campaigns helped identify the most profitable channels and initiatives. The outcomes ## What changed. 82.64% more applications. Started applications grew 82.64% as budget concentrated on the channels actually driving enrollment. 29.30% lower cost per application. Cost per started application dropped 29.30% with the closed-loop CRM-attributed view. 1 blended data source. A single Looker Studio dashboard joining GA4 sessions to CRM application statuses via user ID. The services ## Services behind the work. Service 01 ### Inbound Pipeline Growth Closed-loop attribution from paid touchpoints to admitted students. Service 02 ### Paid Search Channel and initiative optimization based on enrollment-attributed signal. Service 03 ### Pipeline Intelligence GA4 + CRM blend in Looker Studio with user ID as the join key. ## Related work [All case studies](https://vertodigital.com/case-studies) Native Spaces Event Marketplace 258% ROAS lift Native Spaces: 258% ROAS with VBB [Read case study](https://vertodigital.com/case-studies/native-spaces) Quantive Strategy SaaS 420% self-service pipeline Quantive: 420% self-service pipeline growth [Read case study](https://vertodigital.com/case-studies/quantive) BuildFire Mobile App Platform 5× CPA decrease BuildFire: 5× lower CPA on Facebook [Read case study](https://vertodigital.com/case-studies/buildfire) Free · 5 business days · No commitment ## See whether your pipeline could move like this. The Pipeline Assessment is the same diagnostic we ran with AUBG before the engagement. Five days. Senior specialist. Senior debrief. [Get Your Free Pipeline Assessment](https://vertodigital.com/assessment)