Stepful

The objective

Improve Stepful's Lead to enrollment rate on TikTok

Stepful is a leading education platform dedicated to providing accessible and flexible training programs for aspiring healthcare professionals. With a focus on career advancement, Stepful sought to improve lead quality and optimize their lead-to-enrollment rates on TikTok. Their goal was to ensure that inquiries generated through TikTok were more likely to convert into enrolled students, ultimately driving stronger ROI and program participation.

The solution

Introducing TikTok Deep Funnel Optimization

To achieve better lead quality and conversion rates, Stepful leveraged TikTok’s Deep Funnel Optimization (DFO) feature. This innovative approach allowed Stepful to optimize campaigns beyond just lead submissions, incorporating a secondary event deeper in the funnel—program payments. By doing so, TikTok’s algorithm could better identify and prioritize high-intent leads that were more likely to enroll in a Stepful program. This is particularly valuable for businesses like Stepful, where potential students often have a long consideration period before starting a program. Deep Funnel Optimization ensures that lead ads attract and nurture high-intent users who are more likely to move forward in the program enrollment process.

The results

Improving quality and scale

During a two-week test, Stepful’s ad group leveraging Deep Funnel Optimization delivered standout results, achieving an -8% decrease in Cost Per Lead and a -61% decrease in Cost Per Qualified Lead. These improvements highlighted the impact of Deep Funnel Optimization in surfacing high-intent users more efficiently. By refining targeting and optimizing for actions deeper in the funnel, Stepful significantly improved lead-to-enrollment conversion—reinforcing TikTok as a powerful channel for driving scalable, quality student acquisition.

Tips & Takeaways

• Leverage Deep Funnel Optimization to prioritize high-intent actions like program payments, not just leads.

• Refine your audience targeting to attract users with a stronger likelihood of converting.

• Test performance over a short window to validate impact and scale winning strategies efficiently.