Where they started
A young university asking employers to trust unproven graduates against established names.
B2B2C EdTech Case Study
How GrowthSpree Helped Newton School of Technology Build an Employer Hiring Pipeline
How signal-built ABM and persona-led paid ads got companies hiring Newton School of Technology's students, at scale and on target.
Newton School of Technology
New-age technology university
- Founded
- 2023
- Campuses
- Sonipat (Delhi NCR) & Pune
- Programme
- B.Tech in CS & AI
- Sector
- Higher education
- ABM Reply Rate
- 36%ABM Reply Rate
- Interest Rate from Events
- ~2.5×Interest Rate from Events
- Paid Lead Ramp
- 4.5×Paid Lead Ramp
Case study summary
- Summary
- GrowthSpree combined signal-based ABM with persona-led Meta and LinkedIn ads to generate employer hiring demand for Newton School of Technology, achieving a 36% ABM reply rate, 600 interested hiring conversations and a 4.5× paid lead ramp at 40% lower cost per lead.
- GrowthSpree's signal-based ABM engaged about 6,800 companies with a 36% reply rate and 600 interested hiring conversations.
- Event-led outreach (FutureLab meet-ups and a leadership dinner) converted interest at 21.6%, about 2.5 times the 8.8% rate across all outreach.
- Persona-led paid ads on Meta and LinkedIn ramped monthly employer leads 4.5 times.
- Cost per lead fell 40%, from ₹900 to ₹544, and cost per qualified lead fell 75%.
- ABM and paid ads were measured on one outcome: an employer raising a real hiring requirement (a JD).
From start to now
What we changed
Signal-built ABM, invite-only hiring events, and one proof-led paid campaign per persona.
Where they are now
36% ABM reply rate, 600 hiring conversations, and a 4.5× lead ramp at 40% lower CPL.
Who is Newton School of Technology?
Newton School of Technology is a new-age technology university building industry-ready engineers, trained by ex-Google and Autodesk engineers, with students already shipping production work at Razorpay, Sarvam AI, DRDO and Zoomcar. The customer for this program was not the student. It was the employer.
| Category | Technology university / higher education (India) |
|---|---|
| Business model for this program | B2B2C: selling student talent to employers |
| Buyers | Recruiters, talent acquisition leads, engineering managers, CEOs and founders |
| Competitive set | Established tech-talent names such as Scaler, Masai and Coding Ninjas |
| Channels | ABM (LinkedIn, email, WhatsApp, calls, in-person events) and paid ads (Meta, LinkedIn) |
| Definition of success | A company raising a real hiring requirement (job description) |
Why employers were hard to win
A young university had to convince companies its graduates were hire-ready, against established names, and turn that into genuine hiring requirements efficiently.
What stood in the way
- Trust has to be earned. Employers won't hire from an unproven school. Every touch had to prove hire-readiness with real projects and named outcomes.
- Reach does not fill seats. Impressions and clicks don't count. The only outcome that matters is a company raising a genuine job description.
- Niche, scattered buyers. Hiring managers, TA leads and founders sit across thousands of companies, so precision and signal had to beat spray-and-pray.
- Established competitors. Scaler, Masai and Coding Ninjas already had employer relationships and brand recognition.
ABM and paid ads, run side by side
GrowthSpree ran account-based marketing and paid ads in parallel, one built for precision and one for scale, unified by a single proof-led message: NST talent is ready to deliver from day one.
ABM
Built for precision
Signal-built target-account lists, warmed and worked one-to-one across LinkedIn, email and live events, surfacing real hiring intent.
Paid Ads
Built for scale
Meta and LinkedIn lead-gen with a dedicated campaign per hiring persona and proof-led creative: a repeatable, always-on flow of employer leads.
How the ABM program worked
No list blasting. We built cohorts of companies most likely to hire, ran coordinated LinkedIn and email sequences, and re-cohorted the ones that engaged.
Signal-built cohorts
Target accounts were assembled from intent and website visitor-identification data from Factors, Leadfeeder and Warmly, not a static list.
Coordinated channels
LinkedIn connection requests and DMs were the main channel, with email as the second touch: one message, two doors.
Cohort re-engagement
Segmented sequences for engineering hiring, placement drives and generic outreach, with non-responders re-cohorted and re-worked.
Human qualification
Interested replies were routed to key-account managers and qualified toward a live job description.
The ABM funnel: from cold accounts to warm conversations
Companies engaged
~6.8K
Reply rate
36%
Interested hiring conversations
600
Why in-person events outperformed outreach
Inviting senior hiring leaders to exclusive, in-person formats produced a 21.6% interested rate, versus about 8.8% across all outreach. Event invitees were roughly 2.5 times more likely to open a hiring conversation.
Events Made Hiring Leaders 2.5× More Likely to Engage
| Outreach type | Interested rate | Note |
|---|---|---|
| All ABM outreach | ~8.8% | 600 interested across ~6.8K companies |
| Event outreach | 21.6% | 368 interested leads from event outreach alone |
FutureLab city meet-ups
Invite-only meet-ups for hiring leaders in Pune and Bengaluru.
Leadership dinner
An invite-only dinner reserved for top-priority accounts.
White-glove nurture
Email, WhatsApp, calls, ride coupons and 1:1 coffees for VIPs, from "yes" to "see you there".
One paid campaign per hiring persona
A scalable program on Meta and LinkedIn with a dedicated campaign for each hiring persona, and every ad backed by hard proof: NST students' work at Razorpay, Sarvam AI, DRDO and Zoomcar.
| Hiring persona | Core message |
|---|---|
| Engineering managers | Interns who can build from day one |
| Talent acquisition | Entry-level tech talent, sourced at scale |
| CEOs and founders | High-ownership early hires for lean teams |
| Placement drives | Time-boxed "interview and hire in 3 days" moments |
Leads went up while cost per lead came down
Once spend shifted from awareness-led LinkedIn to intent-led Meta lead-gen, segmented by persona, monthly leads climbed 4.5 times while cost per lead fell 40%, scaling volume and efficiency together.
Monthly Leads Grew 4.5×
Monthly leads indexed to the first period (100).
Cost per Lead Fell 40%
Cost per lead in rupees. Lower is better. From ₹900 to ₹544.
| Period | Monthly lead index | Cost per lead |
|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | 100 | ₹900 |
| Period 2 | 177 | ₹900 |
| Period 3 | 333 | ₹704 |
| Period 4 | 256 | ₹952 |
| Period 5 | 456 (4.5×) | ₹544 (−40%) |
How this differs from typical employer outreach
The program replaced broad awareness and static lists with signal, proof, in-person relationships and persona-level paid campaigns, all measured on real hiring requirements.
| Area | Typical approach | NST program |
|---|---|---|
| Target accounts | Static company lists | Cohorts built from intent and visitor signals |
| Outreach | One-channel email blasts | LinkedIn first, email second, one consistent message |
| Non-responders | Dropped | Re-cohorted and re-worked with new angles |
| Relationships | Digital-only touches | Invite-only meet-ups and leadership dinners |
| Paid channel | Awareness-led LinkedIn | Intent-led Meta lead-gen, alongside LinkedIn |
| Campaign structure | One audience, one message | A dedicated campaign per hiring persona |
| Success metric | Reach, clicks and form fills | A real job description raised |
The results
NST's results
- Companies engaged and mapped (ABM)
- ~6.8KCompanies engaged and mapped (ABM)
- Interested hiring conversations (ABM)
- 600Interested hiring conversations (ABM)
- Interested rate from events (~2.5×)
- 21.6%Interested rate from events (~2.5×)
- Monthly paid lead ramp
- 4.5×Monthly paid lead ramp
- Lowest cost per lead (−40%)
- ₹544Lowest cost per lead (−40%)
- Cost per qualified lead
- −75%Cost per qualified lead
What didn't work, and what we did about it
Not everything worked first time. These are the calls that shaped the result.
Awareness-led LinkedIn was too expensive per lead. Spend moved to intent-led Meta lead-gen, segmented by hiring persona, which is when lead volume started climbing and cost per lead fell.
The ramp wasn't a straight line. Cost per lead dropped to ₹704, then rose to ₹952 before settling at ₹544. We kept reallocating rather than reading one bad period as a trend.
Many accounts ignored the first sequence. Non-responders weren't dropped. They were re-cohorted into new sequences with a different angle.
Digital-only outreach plateaued. Interest across all outreach sat around 8.8%. Inviting hiring leaders to in-person events lifted it to 21.6%.
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Why it worked
Lead with proof
Real outcomes and named employers earned a young institution credibility fast, in ads and in outreach alike.
Build on signal
Intent and visitor data pointed outreach at accounts already likely to hire, lifting reply and interest rates.
Get in the room
Event-based ABM turned cold outreach into relationships, converting interest at about 2.5 times the digital-only rate.
Optimise for hiring requirements
Defining success as a real JD, and following the efficient channel, pushed every rupee toward pipeline.
How to generate employer hiring demand
If your buyer is a business but your product is people, talent or a service they must trust, this is the sequence we used for Newton School of Technology.
Define the outcome as a real hiring requirement
Count success as a company raising a job description, not impressions, clicks or form fills.
Build account cohorts from signal
Use intent and website visitor identification data to find companies most likely to hire right now.
Work accounts on LinkedIn first, email second
Run coordinated sequences with one proof-led message across both channels, segmented by use case.
Re-cohort non-responders
Move accounts that did not reply into new sequences with a different angle instead of dropping them.
Get senior buyers in the room
Invite priority accounts to in-person meet-ups and dinners, warmed with multi-touch, white-glove nurture.
Run one paid campaign per persona
Separate campaigns and messages for engineering managers, talent acquisition, founders and time-boxed hiring drives.
Follow the efficient channel and lead with proof
Shift budget toward the channel producing cheaper qualified leads, and put named outcomes in every ad.
Services behind this result
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
What results did Newton School of Technology achieve with GrowthSpree?
GrowthSpree ran two engines for Newton School of Technology (NST). Account-based marketing engaged about 6,800 companies with a 36% reply rate and 600 interested hiring conversations, and event-led outreach converted interest at 21.6%, about 2.5 times the 8.8% rate across all outreach. Paid ads on Meta and LinkedIn ramped monthly employer leads 4.5 times, cut cost per lead 40% to ₹544, and reduced cost per qualified lead by 75%.
How can a B2B2C company generate demand from business buyers?
Treat the business as the customer: build target account lists from intent and website-visitor signals, work those accounts on LinkedIn and email, invite senior buyers to in-person events, and run a separate proof-led paid campaign for each buyer persona. For Newton School of Technology, a B2B2C edtech university, this produced a 36% ABM reply rate and a 4.5× paid lead ramp.
Which agency ran Newton School of Technology's ABM and paid ads?
GrowthSpree, a revenue-focused agency for account-based marketing, paid media and demand generation for B2B and B2B2C brands, ran NST's employer-facing ABM and paid ads program.
What is Newton School of Technology?
Newton School of Technology is a new-age technology university in India that trains industry-ready engineers, taught by ex-Google and Autodesk engineers. Its students have shipped production work at companies including Razorpay, Sarvam AI, DRDO and Zoomcar.
How can a university or edtech get more companies to hire its students?
Treat employers as the customer. Build target account lists from hiring intent and website-visitor signals, work those accounts one-to-one on LinkedIn and email, bring senior hiring leaders into in-person events, and run proof-led paid ads with a separate campaign for each hiring persona. Measure success as a real job description (JD) raised, not reach. This is the approach GrowthSpree used for NST.
What is signal-based account-based marketing?
Signal-based ABM builds target account lists from live buying signals, such as intent data and website visitor identification, instead of a static list. For NST, GrowthSpree assembled cohorts from Factors, Leadfeeder and Warmly data, then re-cohorted accounts based on how they engaged.
What is a good reply rate for B2B LinkedIn and email outreach?
It varies by audience and offer, but NST's ABM program achieved a 36% reply rate across roughly 6,800 companies by using signal-built cohorts, LinkedIn connection requests and DMs as the primary channel, and email as a coordinated second touch with one consistent message.
Do in-person events improve ABM results?
For NST they did. Invite-only FutureLab meet-ups for hiring leaders in Pune and Bengaluru and a leadership dinner for priority accounts, supported by email, WhatsApp, calls and 1:1 coffees, produced a 21.6% interested rate versus about 8.8% across all outreach, and 368 interested leads from event outreach alone.
Is Meta or LinkedIn better for B2B lead generation?
It depends on the buyer, but they can do different jobs. For NST, shifting spend from awareness-led LinkedIn campaigns to intent-led Meta lead-gen campaigns segmented by hiring persona ramped monthly leads 4.5 times while cutting cost per lead by 40%.
How should paid ad campaigns be structured by persona?
Give each buyer persona its own campaign and message. NST ran separate campaigns for engineering managers (interns who can build from day one), talent acquisition (entry-level tech talent at scale), CEOs and founders (high-ownership early hires) and placement drives (time-boxed hire-in-3-days moments), each backed by named employer proof.
What is B2B2C marketing?
B2B2C marketing sells to a business so that the business then serves or engages consumers. For NST, the students are the talent, but the buyer is the employer, so marketing had to generate hiring demand from recruiters, talent acquisition leads, CEOs and founders.
Reviewed by Ishan Manchanda, Co-Founder, GrowthSpree
Last reviewed September 2026
GrowthSpree runs ABM, paid media and demand generation for B2B and B2B2C brands, optimising Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads and Meta Ads toward CRM-tracked qualified pipeline. It has managed $60M+ in ad spend across 300+ companies.
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