Benchmark
Charter Enrollment Marketing Benchmark 2026
Charter schools paid $103 per submitted application from October through July. In September, the same Meta ad spend cost $247 per application.
Taylor Wiz Charter Enrollment Marketing Benchmark: 20 charter schools, 150 school-months, $184,990 in Meta ad spend, and 1,630 submitted applications, October 2025 to September 2026.
Written by Will Rodriguez, Founder and CEO, Taylor Wiz Marketing. Published October 1, 2026.
Key figures
$103
Cost per submitted application, October to July
Taylor Wiz, 2026
$113
Cost per submitted application, full 12 months
Taylor Wiz, 2026
1,630
Submitted applications
Taylor Wiz, 2026
20
Charter schools
Taylor Wiz, 2026
View the data
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Charter schools | 20 |
| School-months counted | 150 |
| Meta ad spend | $184,990 |
| Submitted applications | 1,630 |
| Cost per submitted application, October to July | $103 |
| Cost per submitted application, full 12 months | $113 |
| Typical school (median cost per application) | $124 |
| Typical month (median applications per school) | 7 |
Finding 1: When a school spends matters more than how much it spends
Cost per submitted application by period, 150 school-months
62 school-months
61 school-months
14 school-months
13 school-months
Source: Taylor Wiz Charter Enrollment Marketing Benchmark 2026, October 2025 to September 2026.
View the data
| Period | School-months | Cost per submitted application |
|---|---|---|
| October to March | 62 | $103 |
| April to July | 61 | $103 |
| August | 14 | $151 |
| September | 13 | $247 |
The cost of a submitted application held at $103 for ten straight months. It rose to $151 in August and $247 in September. The same budget bought about 2.4 times as many applications in the October-to-July window as it did in September.
Our read: once the school year starts, fewer families are still choosing a school for the current year, and most next-year enrollment cycles have not opened yet.
What this means for a school: put the bulk of your enrollment budget into October through July. Plan August and September as maintenance months, not growth months.
Finding 2: More spend brings more applications, at a similar cost
Median submitted applications per school-month, by monthly Meta ad spend
$111 cost per submitted application
$111 cost per submitted application
$124 cost per submitted application
Source: Taylor Wiz Charter Enrollment Marketing Benchmark 2026, October 2025 to September 2026.
View the data
| Monthly Meta ad spend | School-months | Median applications per month | Cost per submitted application | Months with 10 or more applications |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $300 to $999 | 79 | 6 | $111 | 27% |
| $1,000 to $1,999 | 58 | 8 | $111 | 47% |
| $2,000 and up | 13 | 15 | $124 | 69% |
Schools spending $2,000 or more a month had a median of 15 submitted applications, more than twice the median at under $1,000. The cost per application was the same, $111, in both brackets under $2,000. The $2,000-and-up bracket is a small sample of 13 school-months, and it includes several September months, the most expensive month in the data.
Finding 3: Results vary widely from school to school
The typical school in the benchmark paid $124 per submitted application across its months. The middle half of schools ranged from $80 to $346. Twelve of the 20 schools came in under $150.
One more number shows that variation: 20 of the 150 school-months, about 13%, produced no submitted applications at all.
What this means for a school: an average cost is a planning number, not a promise. Track your own cost per submitted application every month, and compare it to the seasonal figures above rather than to a single annual average.
How to turn this into a cost per enrolled student
Multiply the cost per submitted application by the number of applications your school needs to enroll one student. If 3 applications produce 1 enrolled student, the October-to-July figure becomes $309 of ad spend per enrolled student. Compare that with the per-pupil funding a student brings. The full method is on Cost Per Enrolled Student.
Method
- Schools. 20 charter schools that ran Meta advertising with Taylor Wiz between October 2025 and September 2026: 12 current clients and 8 former clients.
- Submitted applications. Opportunities marked won in each school's CRM, counted in the month the application was marked submitted.
- Ad spend. Meta (Facebook and Instagram) ad spend for each school's ad account, by month.
- Months counted. Only months with at least $300 in ad spend.
- Window. Former clients from October 2025. Current clients from December 2025, because October and November 2025 show tracking gaps after a CRM migration. All schools through September 30, 2026.
- Exclusions. One school that contacts its own inquiries, so its applications do not reflect our outreach. Private schools, which will get their own benchmark. Applications recorded before September 2025, which a CRM migration left undated.
- What this measures. Ad spend per submitted application. It does not include agency fees, staff time, or enrollment outcomes, which are each school's own decision.
- Data pulled: October 1, 2026, from Taylor Wiz client account records and Meta ad spend records.
Limits
- Twenty schools is a meaningful sample for this sector, and the first of its kind, but it is not the whole market.
- The schools are Taylor Wiz clients. They all had parent outreach contacting inquiries within 15 minutes during business hours, which likely affects how many inquiries become applications.
- The $2,000-and-up spend bracket has only 13 school-months.
How to cite this benchmark
Taylor Wiz Marketing. Charter Enrollment Marketing Benchmark 2026. Will Rodriguez, October 1, 2026. https://taylorwiz.com/benchmarks/charter-enrollment-marketing-benchmark-2026
Updates
This benchmark is refreshed quarterly. The next update covers October to December 2026.