Numbers, not adjectives
These are real results from flight training campaigns our team ran over 12 months. We show what worked and what didn't, because that's how we'll report to you.
Results from flight training campaigns our team ran between April 2025 and March 2026, taken from Meta Ads Manager, Meta Business Suite and TikTok analytics. Every school's results depend on its market, budget and offer.
1,700+ people raised their hand
Each market ran its own Meta lead campaigns with a local hook: aircraft rentals, summer flying, advanced ratings, and real student stories. The specific offers produced the cheapest leads, as low as $4.04 each on a campaign that brought in more than 100 leads.
Broad seasonal campaigns reached more people, but cost two to three times more per lead. Today we'd cut those faster and move the budget to the specific offers.
| Campaign type | Cost per lead |
|---|---|
| Local Instagram campaigns | $4–$6 |
| Aircraft rental offer | under $5 |
| Seasonal "learn to fly this summer" | $6–$7 |
| Advanced ratings (commercial add-on) | about $9 |
| Broad awareness pushes | $12–$15 |
An airshow week turned into a million views
We spent EAA AirVenture interviewing pilots and touring cockpits: tanker boom operators, fighter pilots and an aerobatic helicopter team. Twenty-six reels from that week drew 533K Instagram views and 1,565 new followers, and the same footage carried TikTok through the summer.
- 1.22M TikTok video views and 3,200+ new followers in nine months
- 977K Instagram views and 677K accounts reached
- 2.7M Facebook views, with link clicks up 535% and page visits up 203% year over year
Views by month
TikTok views per month, and lifetime views of Instagram posts published that month.
The content that worked
A behind-the-scenes look at a refueling tanker. 7,200 likes and 1,286 new followers.
Short, relatable student-pilot humor. 2,300 likes.
One photo, one proud moment. Milestone posts got a median of about 4,000 views each.
Specific, local and real
- Separate campaigns for each market beat one big campaign.
- Concrete offers brought the cheapest leads.
- Real people and real aircraft, never stock footage.
- One event week created a month of content.
Track every lead to enrollment
- Cut expensive broad campaigns within two weeks, not two months.
- Follow every lead to a booked flight and a new student, not just a form fill.
- Text every lead within a minute.
- Show all of it to the school in the ONAV portal.
Data from Meta Ads Manager, Meta Business Suite and TikTok analytics exports, April 2025 – March 2026. Results depend on market, budget, offer and how quickly leads are contacted, and past results don't guarantee future ones.
Want numbers like these for your school?
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- Your site tested on a phone, the way students see it
- Where you rank on Google and Maps, and who beats you
- Whether ChatGPT and Google's AI name your school
- The three changes that would book the most flights