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Growth hacking and web analytics in education

Gustavo Goncalves
Gustavo Goncalves

Published in: Aug 28, 2024

Updated on: May 5, 2025

The Power of Growth Hacking and Web Analytics in Education
11:27

Growth hacking has gained ground as experiment-oriented marketing, capable of leading to above-average growth, in a short time and at lower costs. What do you already know about this strategy that can be used to increase enrollment quickly?

Attract and attract new students It is a common need for educational institutions. The education market is competitive and the educational institution that discovers what to do to enhance its recruitment results and boost new enrollments comes out ahead.

Recently, studies have highlighted the importance of growth hacking as a methodological approach that promotes the use of experimentation throughout the business value chain, being essential for educational institutions seeking to boost their growth.

If you already follow our blog, you know that we often highlight the importance of data analysis and we will do it again, presenting in this post the relationship between growth hacking and web analytics. Follow along and discover the path to success for your institution!

What can you expect from this post?

We hope you find this post informative and valuable!

What is growth hacking for educational institutions

Growth hacking for educational institutions is a way to promote rapid growth of the institution through the adoption of strategies chosen based on hypotheses and experiments.

Bearing in mind a vital objective for any educational institution, attracting students, growth hacking marketing in education can be used precisely to supplement the process of attracting and converting new students to increase the number of enrollments quickly.

After a strategic analysis and clear definition of the company’s goal,educational institution, how to increase enrollments by X times, a process called the growth hacking life cycle begins:

  • Brainstorming ― what growth hacking seeks is to find ways to achieve the objective quickly and at low costs. To do so, it needs to be based on ideas and suggestions of what can be done to achieve the defined goal;
  • Setting priorities ― any idea aimed at increasing the number of school enrollment educational institutions is valid, but it is necessary to choose the one that should have execution priority. This choice is made looking for the idea that involves the least effort and has the potential to achieve a good result;
  • Experiment documentation ― growth hacking is understood as experiment-oriented marketing because it depends on this experimentation to better direct the institution’s actions. Therefore, it is important that the entire process is properly documented so that it can serve as a reference later;
  • Carrying out tests — there is a concept called MVT, an acronym for minimum viable test or minimum viable test that derives from the definition of MVP or minimum viable product. The idea is to define the simplest way to test a growth hacking hypothesis for educational institutions and find out the results;
  • Results analysis - finally, it is necessary to analyze these results to apply the strategy or identify errors that need to be corrected in order to actually be able to achieve the objective defined by the educational institution. 

The relationship with web analytics and the importance of it all

As you can see, growth hacking is not a traditional marketing strategy. From defining your goal educational institution, through raising hypotheses and analyzing results, growth hacking for educational institutions needs to be based on solid data

Without this data, the entire process is based on "guesswork" or hypotheses that are poorly supported or even proven, which makes it difficult to achieve above-average results in a short space of time. In other words, it goes against growth hacking.

Current trends in web analytics include the integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning for predictive analysis, providing deeper insights into user behavior and enabling real-time adjustments to student recruitment and retention strategies.

Web analytics represents the entire organization and data analysis with the aim of guiding more assertive decision-making, optimizing a strategy from its planning, through implementation, to achieving results. Do you understand the relationship with growth hacking?

Furthermore, the application of learning analytics has proven effective in personalizing learning, allowing educational institutions to adapt their pedagogical strategies based on concrete data on student performance and behavior.

Without analytics, it is not possible to prove that the actions taken increase the number of enrollments quickly.

Also, take a look at these additional resources:

Why is all this important?

The maxim "time is money" has become even more significant since technological advances facilitated access to the internet and changed the relationship between consumers and the market. Something that also applies to the relationship between students and educational institutions, which now compete for attention in a more competitive market that demands the most powerful strategies

In other words, without this focus on experiment-oriented marketing, an educational institution has less chance of increasing enrollment. More than that, achieving the results you want in a short time and spending little.

Hand using a digital pen on a tablet with floating graphics, representing growth hacking and web analytics strategies applied to education.

Caption: Hand using a digital pen on a tablet with floating graphics, representing growth hacking and web analytics strategies applied to education.

How to apply growth hacking in your educational institution

When we explain the growth hacking for educational institutions, we present the cycle to be followed and it is in it that your educational institution needs to be based. Therefore, it is necessary:

  • Define what problem your institution needs to solve or goal to achieve;
  • Open space for the creation of many ideas aimed at increasing enrollment numbers. Something that can be done based on identifying flaws in the processes currently adopted by the educational institution and with the participation of the institution's team to point out suggestions for actions that can be tested;
  • Identify which ideas can be more easily tested and capable of leading to better results to prioritize them;
  • Choose the tools and ways to test the chosen hypotheses (and remember that it is necessary to document all these issues so that they can be consulted before defining other tests);
  • Analyze the results and apply them if they are positive and significant to promote the achievement of the objective of increasing enrollment. If they are not good enough, the educational institution can resume the process and make necessary corrections or test other hypotheses.

For all this to happen, two important issues need to be highlighted. The first is that your educational institution must establish a routine and its own rules for frequency of meetings, documentation and execution of the process. And the second is that it is necessary to count on a team of experts dedicated to sales growth.

It is worth mentioning that growth hacking is not a traditional marketing strategy. Therefore, you need to have professionals prepared to interpret data and develop a concise analysis to support the entire process.

The effective implementation of growth hacking and web analytics strategies requires a data-driven organizational culture, where decisions are made based on concrete evidence, promoting a more scientific and less intuitive approach to educational management.

It is common for an educational institution to feel that it does not have the necessary resources to implement a growth hacking strategy on its own.

Summary: Growth hacking for educational institutions is a strategy based on rapid testing and guided by data, such as web analytics, to increase enrollments quickly and at low cost. With predictive analysis and a data-driven culture, it is possible to experiment, correct and scale effective actions.

Therefore, it is interesting to know that it is possible to count on external help, hiring a company like 4RevOps as a consultant or responsible for leading actions to increase enrollment quickly.

Did you like the post? Read to too the 6 data analysis tools for educational institutions!

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How to apply growth hacking to student recruitment?

What is growth hacking in educational institutions?

Growth hacking is a strategy focused on rapid, data-driven experiments to generate accelerated growth — such as increasing enrollment numbers — at low cost. It is based on minimum viable tests (MVT), analysis of results, and rapid adaptation.

How does the growth hacking cycle work in education?

The process involves: defining the goal (such as increasing enrollments), brainstorming ideas, prioritizing actions with high impact and low effort, simple and rapid tests (MVT), and analysis of results to decide whether the strategy will be scaled or adjusted.

What is the relationship between growth hacking and web analytics?

Web analytics provides the data needed to validate growth hacking hypotheses. Without this data, decisions would be based on guesswork. With analytics, it is possible to measure each action, correct routes, and scale strategies that have been proven to work to attract students.

How to use web analytics to attract more students?

With tools like Google Analytics 4, it is possible to understand visitor behavior, track traffic sources, identify exit pages, measure engagement, and map the conversion funnel — all of which helps adjust campaigns focused on enrollment.

Does growth hacking replace traditional educational marketing strategies?

It does not replace them, but it complements them. Growth hacking accelerates results with quick tests, while traditional strategies focus on long-term positioning. Together, they form a more robust plan for student recruitment and retention.

What is the role of the team in this growth hacking process?

The team must actively collaborate in raising hypotheses, testing, and analyzing data. It is also necessary to create a meeting routine, document everything, and have qualified professionals to conduct the tests and interpret results.

Does my institution need a consultancy to apply growth hacking?

Not necessarily, but having experts can accelerate results. Consulting firms like MKT4edu offer the structure, tools, and experience to apply the full growth hacking cycle, from data analysis to campaign execution.

Why is growth hacking important to increase enrollments quickly?

Because it identifies, tests and scales actions with the potential to generate impact in the short term. In competitive markets, such as education, this is essential to get ahead and capture students' attention at the right time for decision-making.

Check out the best data analysis tools now!

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Technologies we use

The world changes all the time and technology is no different! Here at Mkt4Edu, technology is in our DNA, we work with many different softwares to make the whole process of automation and artificial intelligence work more efficiently and achieve more results.

Here, new softwares are tested all the time. Modern tools and new functionalities are tested all the time, there were already more than 200 tests so you can have the best result in your institution.


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