Case Study · Fly Legacy Aviation
Two Markets. One Brand. 36+ Months Of Sustained Enrollment Growth.
How A Flight School Across Pompano Beach And Philadelphia Built Brand Awareness, Captured Discovery Flight Demand, And Drove Qualified Pilot Training Inquiries.
Service: Google Ads management · Industry: Aviation training · Region: Florida + Pennsylvania · Tenure: 3+ years
March 2026 · 93 enrollments · $36.93 cost per enrollment · Best single month on record
Before
How They Found Us — And What The Brief Was.
Fly Legacy Aviation came to us through a referral. The flight school had just been acquired by a new owner, and a colleague who'd worked with Peripheral Media before recommended we have a conversation.
The starting brief was clear: enhance their online presence, raise awareness for the brand, and drive search-based inquiries for specific courses — pilot licenses, flight training programs, and the broader catalog of aviation education they offered.
We started with one location. Philadelphia.
A few months in, the work was producing enough that the conversation expanded. They wanted us to take on their second location — South Florida, based in Pompano Beach — and run paid search across both markets simultaneously. Same brand, two metros, very different audiences and very different competitive landscapes.
That's where the real campaign architecture started taking shape.
The Work
Discovery Flights Were The Unlock.
Most flight schools market the way you'd expect — pilot license courses, professional flight training, certification programs. Highly specific, high-intent searches. The problem with that approach is that most of the audience isn't there yet.
People who already know they want to be a commercial pilot are searching for that. But they're a small slice of the demand. The much larger pool is people who've thought about flying for years, never acted on it, and don't know how to start.
That's the audience the discovery flight was built for.
A discovery flight is exactly what it sounds like — a no-experience-required introductory flight. The student takes the controls under a certified instructor's supervision. It costs less than a serious lesson but delivers the experience that gets people committed. For a flight school, it's the top of the funnel — the cheapest, most effective way to convert curiosity into enrollment.
We built a paid search and brand awareness campaign specifically around discovery flights. The targeting was different from professional training campaigns: aviation enthusiasts, gift-buyers, people researching 'things to do' in the metros. The ad copy was different — emotional, experiential, about the moment of taking off rather than the credential at the end. The landing pages were optimized for one action: book the discovery flight.
The discovery flight campaign did two things at once. It generated direct revenue from flight bookings — and it built a pipeline. People who took a discovery flight and loved it were dramatically more likely to come back for actual flight training six, twelve, or eighteen months later. Brand awareness built through low-commitment experience.
The professional training campaigns ran in parallel — search campaigns targeting students who already knew what they wanted (private pilot license, instrument rating, commercial certifications). These were higher cost per click but higher intent. Together, the two campaign types covered the full demand curve: people who didn't know flying was for them, all the way to people ready to enroll today.
Geographic targeting got tightened over time. Pompano Beach became an 18-mile radius. Philadelphia became a 9-mile radius. The radii weren't picked at random — they reflected actual student commute willingness for a flight school. Driving 90 minutes each way to flight training is unsustainable; we stopped paying for clicks from too far out.
We also added branded search to capture students who'd seen a Display or YouTube ad, gone home, and searched 'Fly Legacy' specifically to learn more. Branded search converts at a much higher rate than generic terms — but you only get those searches if you've earned them through awareness work elsewhere. The two layers fed each other.
01
Discovery Flight Funnel
Built a top-of-funnel campaign around the most accessible entry point — no-experience introductory flights — to capture latent demand.
02
Two-Layer Campaign Mix
Discovery flight campaigns for awareness; professional training campaigns for high-intent enrollment. Different audiences, different ad copy.
03
Geo-Tightening
Pompano Beach: 18-mile radius. Philadelphia: 9-mile radius. Stopped paying for clicks beyond reasonable commute distance.
04
Branded Search Layer
Captured searchers who'd seen Display or YouTube ads and looked up the brand directly. Higher conversion, lower cost.
The Numbers
Sustained Performance Across The Most Recent 8 Months Of Reported Data.
The Results page leads with March 2026 — the best single month on record. Here's the broader picture, including the months that came before and the regression that followed. The data window below covers 8 months of recent reported performance (Sept 2025 - Apr 2026), drawn from the most recent stretch of a 3+ year working relationship.
Q4 2025 (Oct–Dec 2025) · 242 conversions · $11.9K spend · The strongest sustained block. October 2025 alone delivered 117 conversions on $6.28K — the volume baseline for what consistent performance looks like.
Q1 2026 (Jan–Mar 2026) · 178 conversions · $9.5K spend · The trajectory rebuild. After a softer December–early Q1 period, performance climbed back: Jan 38 → Feb 47 → Mar 93. March 2026 was the breakthrough month.
April 2026 · 36 conversions · $2.91K spend · The honest follow-up. April normalized as we tested branded campaign expansion. Cost per enrollment moved up to $80.85. We don't hide regression — variance is part of paid search reality.
| Period | Clicks | Conversions | Spend | Cost/Conv |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 1,123 | 68 | $3,127 | $45.99 |
| Oct 2025 | 2,305 | 117 | $6,275 | $53.64 |
| Nov 2025 | 1,163 | 57 | $2,482 | $43.55 |
| Jan 2026 | 636 | 38 | $2,660 | $70.00 |
| Feb 2026 | 733 | 47 | $3,450 | $73.41 |
| Mar 2026 | 633 | 93 | $3,433 | $36.93 |
| Apr 2026 | 560 | 36 | $2,907 | $80.85 |
| TOTAL | 7,153 | 456 | $24,334 | $53.36 avg |
Across 8 months of recent reported data: 456 enrollments delivered, 7,153 clicks driven, $24,334 in ad spend managed. Cost per enrollment averaged $53.36.
Current State
New Campaigns. New Aircraft Types. Building For 2026 Enrollment Cycles.
The current campaign mix is expanding — building on what worked for the standard training catalog and adding new program types as Fly Legacy's offering grows.
We're actively testing campaigns for specific course types: not just the standard Piper Warrior single-engine training that's been the backbone, but also twin-engine aircraft programs for advanced students. Different audience, different price point, different conversion expectations.
Each new course type requires its own campaign architecture. The keyword research has to start from scratch — twin-engine students aren't searching the same way single-engine prospects are. The ad copy has to speak to a more advanced student who understands aviation language and is making a more deliberate investment. The landing pages need to address the specific certifications and use cases relevant to twin-engine training.
This is what 3+ years of working with the same flight school produces: the ability to expand the campaign portfolio in step with the business itself, instead of running the same campaigns against the same audience indefinitely.
3+
Years Working Together
Through ownership transition and multi-location expansion
2
Active markets
456+
Total enrollments delivered
$36.93
Best cost per enrollment (Mar 2026)
What This Shows
Long-Term Account Work Looks Different From Three-Month Engagements.
Three years isn't a metric. It's a relationship.
What three years actually produces: campaign expansion in step with business growth, full institutional knowledge of what's been tested and what's been ruled out, the ability to spot regression early because we've seen what 'normal' looks like across many seasons, and the willingness to be honest about months that don't look like wins.
April 2026 was a softer month. We don't hide it. The work over a long timeline isn't to make every month a record — it's to make sure the floor keeps rising and the trajectory holds. That happens through patience, consistent measurement, and the kind of partnership where the agency and the client both stay focused on the same long game.
That's what 3+ years of Fly Legacy Aviation campaign management looks like.
Looking For An Agency That Stays For The Long Game?
If you want a partner who'll grow with the business — not just run a campaign — let's talk.
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