Cost per lead (CPL)
Top-of-funnel acquisition cost for a clearly defined source and reporting scope.
- Formula
- Eligible marketing spend ÷ eligible leads
- Interpretation caution
- Platform leads and CRM-confirmed leads may use different event and deduplication rules.
Cost per application (CPA)
Acquisition cost measured at the CRM-confirmed application stage.
- Formula
- Eligible marketing spend ÷ eligible applications
- Interpretation caution
- State whether started, submitted, complete, or accepted applications qualify.
Cost per enrolled student (CPE)
Cost required to produce one CRM-confirmed enrolled student under a documented attribution rule.
- Formula
- Eligible marketing spend ÷ eligible enrolled students
- Interpretation caution
- Align spend, enrollment status, source eligibility, cohort maturity, and reversals.
Lead-to-application rate
Share of eligible leads that progress to the defined application stage.
- Formula
- Applications ÷ leads
- Interpretation caution
- Use consistent people/event deduplication and adequate cohort maturity.
Application-to-enrollment rate
Share of eligible applications progressing to the defined enrollment status.
- Formula
- Enrollments ÷ applications
- Interpretation caution
- Application and enrollment definitions must represent the same population.
Lead-to-enrollment rate (LTE)
End-to-end conversion from eligible lead to CRM-confirmed enrollment.
- Formula
- Enrollments ÷ leads
- Interpretation caution
- Young cohorts understate eventual LTE; compare cohorts at equal maturity.
Yield
Share of admitted students reaching the institution’s chosen yield outcome.
- Formula
- Enrolled or deposited students ÷ admitted students
- Interpretation caution
- Institutions use different denominators and deposit/enrollment definitions.
Attribution coverage
Share of the outcome population that supports source-level attribution analysis.
- Formula
- Outcomes with usable source ÷ total eligible outcomes
- Interpretation caution
- Publish coverage beside channel efficiency; do not silently allocate unknowns.
Platform conversion
Conversion counted by an advertising or analytics platform under its identity and attribution rules.
- Formula
- Platform-defined conversion events
- Interpretation caution
- It is not automatically equivalent to a unique CRM lead, application, or enrollment.
CRM-confirmed outcome
Institutional funnel outcome based on the CRM or student-system definition.
- Formula
- Records meeting a documented CRM status rule
- Interpretation caution
- Document duplicates, test records, reversals, and status-history treatment.
Period reporting
Operational view that counts activity by when each event happened.
- Formula
- Events occurring during selected dates
- Interpretation caution
- Current-period outcomes may originate from prospects acquired earlier.
Cohort reporting
Acquisition-quality view that follows a population sharing an entry rule or window.
- Formula
- Defined entrants followed through later outcomes
- Interpretation caution
- Always disclose entry criteria, maturity age, and observation cutoff.
Pace index
Ratio showing whether spend or outcomes are progressing against a linear or seasonal plan.
- Formula
- Actual to date ÷ expected to date
- Interpretation caution
- A 100% pace index is only meaningful when the expected curve is credible.
Budget utilization
Share of the approved budget consumed so far.
- Formula
- Spend to date ÷ total budget
- Interpretation caution
- It does not indicate whether spend is on pace unless cycle timing is included.
Year-over-year change
Relative change from a comparable prior-year measure.
- Formula
- (Current − prior) ÷ prior
- Interpretation caution
- Align cycle position, weekdays, definitions, program mix, and cohort maturity.
Variance
Absolute difference between observed and reference performance.
- Formula
- Actual − expected
- Interpretation caution
- Show absolute and relative variance; percentages can exaggerate small denominators.
Match rate
Share of records connected across systems using the selected identifiers and rules.
- Formula
- Matched eligible records ÷ eligible records attempted
- Interpretation caution
- Define the denominator and distinguish deterministic from modeled matches.
Unknown-source rate
Share of outcomes that cannot be assigned to the governed source taxonomy.
- Formula
- Outcomes without usable source ÷ total outcomes
- Interpretation caution
- Unknown does not mean organic and should remain visible.
Cost per click (CPC)
Average media cost for an advertising-platform click.
- Formula
- Media spend ÷ clicks
- Interpretation caution
- Click quality and downstream progression matter more than CPC alone.
Click-through rate (CTR)
Share of impressions generating a recorded click.
- Formula
- Clicks ÷ impressions
- Interpretation caution
- Platform placement, format, and measurement differences limit cross-channel comparisons.
Conversion lag
Elapsed time between an acquisition or interaction event and a later funnel outcome.
- Formula
- Outcome date − entry or interaction date
- Interpretation caution
- Use distributions and maturity curves rather than one average alone.
Source mix
Distribution of eligible volume across governed source categories.
- Formula
- Source outcomes ÷ total outcomes
- Interpretation caution
- Mix shifts can change topline efficiency without within-source performance changing.
Program mix
Distribution of enrollment activity across academic programs.
- Formula
- Program outcomes ÷ total outcomes
- Interpretation caution
- Different demand, capacity, tuition, and cycle length affect comparisons.
Marginal cost
Additional cost associated with producing an additional unit of outcome.
- Formula
- Incremental spend ÷ incremental outcome
- Interpretation caution
- Descriptive averages do not establish the causal increment.
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