The E-Learning Founder's Guide To Google Ads Experts

I see this question a lot. You’re an e-learning provider in the UK, you know paid ads are the path to scale, but every consultant you speak to feels like they're reading from the same generic playbook. They talk about keywords and CPCs but their eyes glaze over when you mention student LTV, cohort analysis, or the difference between a VSL funnel and a webinar funnel. They just don't get it.

Let's be brutally honest. You're not just looking for someone to press buttons in Google Ads. You’re looking for a partner who can help you scale your revenue profitably. Most 'consultants' are just campaign managers. They'll happily spend your money, report on clicks, and tell you you need more 'brand awareness'. This is the fastest way to drain your bank account.

The truth is, scaling an e-learning business with paid ads isn't about finding the cheapest clicks. It's about building a predictable system for acquiring students at a cost that makes sense for your business model. It's a game of mathematics, not just marketing. And if a potential consultant can't have a deep conversation with you about the numbers behind your business, they are the wrong person for the job.

Why are most e-learning ad campaigns a money pit?

The core problem is a fundamental misunderstanding of the customer journey. A generalist agency, used to working with local plumbers or eCommerce stores selling widgets, sees a simple transaction. They think: Ad -> Landing Page -> Sale. Job done. But for e-learning, especially for courses with a price tag over £100, the journey is much more complex.

They set up a Google Search campaign targeting broad terms like "online marketing course", send traffic to your main course page, and then wonder why the conversion rate is 0.1%. They'll tell you your pricing is too high or your website needs work. What they won't tell you is that their strategy was flawed from the very beginning. You can't ask a cold prospect to marry you on the first date.

A profitable e-learning funnel understands the need for a value exchange long before you ask for the sale. It looks less like a direct line and more like a deliberate, multi-step process designed to build trust and demonstrate value. Sending cold traffic directly to a high-ticket course page is like trying to fill a leaky bucket.

The only number you should care about: LTV to CAC

Before you spend another pound on ads, you need to know two numbers. Your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) and your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). This ratio is the fundamental equation of a scalable business. Everything else is just noise.

Customer Lifetime Value (LTV): This is the total profit you expect to make from a single student over the entire time they are your customer. This includes their initial course purchase, any upsells, cross-sells, or recurring subscriptions.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): This is your total cost to acquire one new paying student from a specific channel, like Google Ads. This includes your ad spend and any agency or consultant fees.

A healthy, scalable business aims for an LTV:CAC ratio of at least 3:1. This means for every £1 you spend to acquire a customer, you get at least £3 back in profit over their lifetime. If your ratio is 1:1, you're breaking even and have no room for error. If it's less than 1:1, you're losing money with every new student you bring in. Any consultant worth their salt should be obsessed with this ratio. If they don't ask about your LTV on the first call, it's a massive red flag. They're planning to manage your spend, not grow your business.

Calculating this isn't black magic. It's simple arithmetic that dictates your entire growth strategy. Use the calculator below to get a rough idea of your LTV. This is the number that tells you how much you can *afford* to spend to acquire a student.

With an LTV of £12,000, and aiming for a 3:1 ratio, you can afford to spend up to £4,000 to acquire a new customer. If your sales funnel converts 10% of leads from a webinar, you can afford to pay up to £400 per webinar registrant. This is the kind of maths that unlocks scale. It transforms your thinking from "how can I get cheap leads?" to "how can I acquire high-value students profitably?". Understanding this is fundamental, and it's a key part of any solid guide to scaling paid media.

How to vet a consultant and spot the fakes

The market is flooded with 'gurus' and agencies that talk a good game. Your job is to cut through the noise and find someone with provable experience. Here’s how you do it.

1. Dissect Their Case Studies
This is your number one priority. Don't just look at logos on their website. Ask for detailed case studies, specifically for e-learning, online courses, or info-products. Tbh if someone asks us for references after they've reviewed our case studies, it's a red flag for us as it shows a lack of trust, but the case studies themselves should be detailed enough to build that trust.

Here’s what to look for:

• Niche Relevance: Do they have experience in your world? From my experience, we've worked on campaigns driving $115k in revenue in 1.5 months for course sales and another that achieved a 447% ROAS in one week. This isn't to brag; it's to show we understand the specific mechanics of this industry. A consultant who only works with local businesses won't have this context.
• Real Metrics: Did they just generate "leads" or did they generate *revenue*? Look for metrics like ROAS (Return on Ad Spend), revenue figures, and cost per paying student. Cheap leads that don't convert are worthless.
• UK Focus: Do they have experience with the UK market? A campaign that works in the US might flop here. Look for results in Pounds (£) and a discussion of the UK competitive landscape.

2. The "Strategy Call" Test
A good consultant will use an initial call to diagnose your problems and offer real value. A salesperson will use it to qualify your budget and pitch their services. We offer a free initial consultation where we review a potential client's strategy and account together. This gives them a real taste of the expertise they'd be paying for. If the person you're talking to isn't digging into your numbers, your funnel, and your offer, they're not a strategist; they're a rep.

3. Red Flags vs Green Flags
Your gut feeling is important, but you need a concrete checklist. Here's a simple guide to help you judge the quality of your conversation. A comprehensive approach to this is something we cover in our guide to vetting London ad agencies, but the principles are universal.

What does a winning strategy actually look like?

A specialist won't just run ads; they'll architect a full-funnel acquisition system. For a UK e-learning business, this usually involves a specific mix of Google Ads campaigns that work together, not in isolation.

1. High-Intent Search Campaigns
This is your foundation. But you have to be smart. You're not targeting broad, expensive keywords like "online courses". Instead, you go after long-tail, high-intent keywords that signal someone is ready to solve a specific problem. For example:

• Instead of "excel course", target "advanced excel course for financial modeling uk".
• Instead of "learn to code", target "part time python bootcamp for beginners london".

These searches are made by people who are problem-aware and solution-aware. They are actively looking to buy. Your ad should speak directly to their specific need and drive them not to your main course page, but to a tailored landing page or webinar registration page. Getting this right is central to achieving a strong Google Ads ROI in the UK market.

2. YouTube Ads: Your Unfair Advantage
This is where most generalists fail. YouTube is arguably the most powerful platform for e-learning. It's a search engine and a social platform combined. It lets you demonstrate your expertise, build a human connection, and show, not just tell.

• In-Stream Ads: These are the skippable ads that run before or during other videos. Perfect for running a 1-2 minute version of your video sales letter (VSL) to drive registrations for a free training or webinar. You can target viewers of specific channels (even your competitors'), people who have searched for your keywords on Google, or custom audiences of people who have visited specific websites.
• In-Feed Ads (formerly Discovery): These appear as recommended videos on the YouTube homepage or in search results. They are brilliant for longer-form content, like a 10-minute case study or a tutorial, that builds authority and warms up an audience over time.

3. Smart Remarketing Campaigns
The money is in the follow-up. Your sales cycle might be days or weeks long. Remarketing keeps you top of mind and guides prospects down the funnel. You need separate campaigns to talk to different segments:

• People who watched 50% of your VSL but didn't click.
• People who registered for your webinar but didn't attend.
• People who attended the webinar but didn't buy.
• People who added your course to the cart but didn't complete the purchase.

Each of these groups needs a different message. A cart abandoner might just need a testimonial ad to get them over the line. Someone who missed the webinar needs an ad with a link to the replay. This level of segmentation is what separates amateur campaigns from professional ones.

It's not the ads, its the offer

You can have the best-structured ad account in the world, but if your offer is weak, you will fail. The number one reason campaigns don't work is a mismatch between the ad, the audience, and the offer. Your offer needs to be an irresistible solution to an urgent, painful problem for a specific group of people.

Stop selling "a course". Start selling a transformation.

• Don't sell: "A 10-hour course on public speaking".
• Sell: "The 30-Day System to Crush Your Fear of Public Speaking and Nail Your Next Presentation".

• Don't sell: "A course on financial management".
• Sell: "The Founder's Playbook to Go From Cash-Strapped to Profitably Scaling in 90 Days".

See the difference? One is a commodity. The other is a solution. A good consultant will challenge you on your offer and help you frame it in a way that resonates with your ideal student. They'll push you to create a high-value, low-friction entry point—like a free automated webinar or a mini-course—that proves your value before asking for the big sale. This is a critical step that many businesses miss, and we cover it in depth in our complete guide for online course creators.

Your Action Plan for Hiring the Right Partner

Finding the right partner is a process of elimination. You need to be methodical. Here are the exact steps you should follow.

Should you do this yourself or hire an expert?

You could definitely learn all of this yourself. The information is out there. But you have to ask yourself: what is the opportunity cost? Every month you spend trying to figure this out is a month you're not scaling. Every pound you waste on a poorly optimised campaign is a pound you could have invested in profitable growth.

The question isn't just about the cost of a consultant versus doing it yourself. The real calculation, as explored in our analysis for UK startups, is the cost of *not* having an expert. A specialist partner doesn't just manage your ads; they bring years of experience from seeing what works and what doesn't across dozens of accounts in your niche. They bring a tested process, a strategic framework, and an outside perspective that you simply can't get when your nose is pressed against the glass of your own business.

Hiring the right consultant isn't an expense; it's an investment in a predictable growth engine for your business. It frees you up to do what you do best: creating amazing courses that change people's lives.

If you're tired of the guesswork and want a clear, data-driven plan to scale your e-learning business in the UK, it might be time for a conversation. We offer a free, no-obligation strategy session where we'll audit your current efforts (if any) and lay out a clear path forward. There's no hard sell, just straightforward, actionable advice based on our experience scaling businesses just like yours.