How Online Courses Australia Scaled Revenue by 40% in 5 Months
Online Courses Australia (OCA) partnered with Candlefox to grow enrolments without sacrificing lead quality or blowing out costs. A multi-channel strategy spanning lead generation, cost-per-click, SMS campaigns, and paid Meta across Australia and New Zealand delivered 40% revenue growth and over 2,000 enrolments in five months.
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Overview
Outcome: 40% revenue growth and 2,152 enrolments from 16,198 leads across five months (Jan–May 2026).
Approach: A multi-channel strategy combining cost-per-click, lead generation, dedicated SMS campaigns, and paid Meta.
Partnership Value: A multi-channel engine built for profitable, stable growth, not just lead volume.
Business Challenges: Growing enrolments without sacrificing lead quality or driving up costs.
The Candlefox Partnership: A true growth partner, adding new high-performing channels as OCA scaled, without disrupting what already worked.
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Meet Online Courses Australia
Online Courses Australia (OCA) helps you gain real skills, real confidence, and real credentials without putting your life on hold. With 100+ courses across 25 industries, OCA gives you access to practical, outcome-driven learning built for real-world application. Whether you’re starting fresh, changing directions, or levelling up, their flexible online learning is designed to fit around your lifestyle so you can keep moving forward while you study.
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Challenge
OCA needed to grow enrolments without growing risk. That meant finding a partner who could deliver high-volume leads without compromising on quality or cost. Like many providers, OCA felt the trade-off that comes with chasing volume alone: spend climbs, but quality and consistency don’t always keep pace. OCA needed a partner who could solve for both.
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How Candlefox Helped
Candlefox’s partnership with OCA started with lead generation, the core service that gave OCA a reliable, steady stream of enquiries to build on. As the relationship grew, CPC was added to scale that reach further, driving high-intent traffic directly to OCA’s course pages.
With that foundation in place, Candlefox and OCA moved into a new phase of the partnership, testing dedicated SMS campaigns and Paid Meta to unlock further growth.
Dedicated SMS campaigns were the standout performer. Targeted, subject-based sends generated around 1,000 leads and more than 200 enrolments, converting at upwards of 20% and driving close to $300,000 in revenue. This channel gave OCA a direct line to high-intent prospects and a repeatable engine for fast, predictable growth.
Paid Meta campaigns are the newest addition to the mix, a partnership between OCA and ShortCourses (shortcourses.com.au) testing paid social across a range of subject areas. Since going live, the channel has gradually shown early signs of success, contributing positively to OCA’s revenue growth.
As the partnership matured, Candlefox expanded OCA’s presence from Australia into New Zealand, opening a second market for growth.
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Results
Over five months, this multi-channel approach delivered:
- 200,000 sessions
- 16,154 leads generated
- 2,152 enrolments
- 13.3% conversion rate
- 40% revenue growth
“We’ve worked with Candlefox for several years now, and they’ve played a meaningful role in supporting Online Courses Australia’s growth journey over that time. Over the last 12 months, CFOX has grown our lead volumes & revenue by over 40%!
The partnership has consistently delivered value through increased lead volume, broader channel diversification, and scalable acquisition opportunities across multiple course categories.
What’s stood out most has been the collaborative nature of the relationship. The Candlefox team has always been proactive, responsive, and genuinely focused on building a commercially sustainable long-term partnership rather than chasing short-term wins. As both businesses have continued to grow, they’ve remained flexible and solutions-focused, which has made them an easy and trusted partner to work with.
We’ve really valued the relationship over the years and appreciate the way Candlefox continues to look for opportunities that create mutual value and support ongoing growth for both organisations.”
—Cheryl Quang, Co-Founder & CEO, Online Courses Australia.
Real growth doesn’t mean choosing between more leads and better leads. OCA’s results show what’s possible with the right channel mix: a multi-channel strategy that delivered consistent, high-quality enrolments while keeping costs under control, even as it scaled into a new market.
Providers who get this balance right don’t just grow faster; they grow with confidence, knowing their lead flow is reliable and their spend is working hard. For OCA, that meant 40% revenue growth in five months, without the cost or quality trade-offs that often come with scaling fast.
We help providers build a channel mix that grows with them. Talk to us today for expert insights into your next market opportunity.
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