The K-12 Enrollment Marketing Hub

October through July. A submitted application cost $103 in Meta ad spend from October to March and again from April to July. It cost $151 in August and $247 in September.

Method. Meta ad spend divided by applications marked submitted in our CRM, across 20 charter school accounts and 150 school-months, counted only in months with at least $300 in ad spend. Applications are counted in the month their status changed. Data pulled October 1, 2026. Full method on the benchmark.

What this means for your calendar. Families who apply in September are mostly late decisions for a school year that already started. Families choosing for next fall start in the fall. A school that advertises from October through the spring lottery season buys applications at the lowest cost of the year.

1. How to Increase Charter School Enrollment: the steps that move submitted applications, in the order they matter.
2. Charter School Marketing Budget: how much to spend on enrollment advertising, and how to tell if it is working.
3. ESA Marketing for Private Schools: how private schools reach families using education savings accounts.
4. Charter School Lottery and Application Timeline: when applications open, when lotteries happen, and the month-by-month marketing calendar.
5. How to Market to ESA Families: what ESA families need to hear, when to say it, and what a private school must never promise.
6. How Taylor Wiz Uses AI in Parent Outreach: what AI texting does in the first minute, what it never says, and when a person takes over.
7. Declining Enrollment Recovery Plan: how to find the stage where your school loses families and fix the cheapest one first.
8. Charter School Advertising Compliance: the enrollment rules charter school ads must match in 7 states, plus election ads, student photos, and website accessibility.
9. School Open House Marketing: when to hold an open house, how to fill it, and how to turn visits into submitted applications.
10. The School Enrollment Funnel: the seven stages from first contact to a student in a seat, what each costs, and where families drop out
11. How to Market a Private School: seven steps from your advantages to a submitted application, with the NAIS and parent survey data behind each
12. Private School Marketing Budget: what independent schools budget for marketing, what those budgets leave out, and five steps to set yours from open seats
13. School Website Conversion Optimization: seven fixes that turn school website visitors into inquiries and tours
14. Working With Your Enrollment Marketing Vendor: what to agree before you sign, from how success is measured to who owns the accounts
15. School Re-Enrollment and Student Retention: a six-step plan to keep the families you have
16. How to Market a New School: a seven-step pre-opening plan with seat targets by grade, state enrollment milestones, and fast follow-up
17. All guides

1. Cost per submitted application (CPSA): total marketing spend divided by completed, submitted applications. Taylor Wiz measures it with Meta ad spend.
2. Yield: the share of submitted applications that become enrolled, attending students. Each school measures its own.
3. Cost per enrolled student: cost per submitted application divided by yield.
4. Speed to lead: the time between a parent's inquiry and the first contact from a real person at the school or its outreach team.
5. Enrollment window (open enrollment): the period when a school accepts applications for the next school year.
6. Lottery: a random selection a charter school uses when it receives more applications than it has seats. State law sets the rules and the preferences allowed, such as siblings and returning students.
7. Weighted lottery: a lottery that gives some groups of applicants better odds, where state law allows it.
8. Waitlist: applicants not selected in the lottery, offered seats in order as seats open.
9. Charter authorizer: the body that approves a charter school and holds it accountable, such as a state charter board, a school district, or a university, depending on the state.
10. CMO and EMO: a charter management organization or education management organization that runs several schools. Standalone charters have neither.
11. Average daily membership (ADM): a count of students weighted by the days they are enrolled. Several states fund schools on it.
12. Education savings account (ESA): a state-funded account parents use for approved education costs, including private school tuition. EdChoice counts 18 states with an ESA program, serving more than 500,000 students (Schooling in America 2026).
13. Voucher: state money paid toward private school tuition for an eligible student.
14. Tax-credit scholarship: a scholarship funded by donations that earn the donor a tax credit. A federal version starts January 1, 2027, in states that opt in; at least 27 had opted in as of June 8, 2026 (IRS, IR-2026-76).
15. Summer melt: students who apply or accept a seat in spring but do not show up on the first day.
16. Re-enrollment and attrition: re-enrollment is the share of current students who return next year; attrition is the share who leave.