The week of Oct 26 was Q4's biggest MQL week: 34 MQLs (▲1,033% WoW) on 52 leads, 26 of them from the AAC&U conference booth. It also closed $7,920 across 4 deals, mostly Land & Expand at NC A&T and UNC system schools. New pipeline was thin ($640 from 1 opp). Paid Social spend jumped to $6,603, up from ~$1.4K–$4.4K a week, for 3 MQLs, which pushed total weekly spend to $7,843. MQLs YTD reached 890 of 960 (93%), ahead of pace with ~84% of the year elapsed and ~70 MQLs left to goal. A fresh HubSpot pull (11/4) puts Closed-Won YTD at $234.7K across 50 Higher-Ed deals (47% of goal, 6 new wins since 10/21) and Pipeline Created at $1.26M (63%). CAC per new professor ($5,289 YTD, $3,476 rolling 26-week) is still as of 10/22.
Cost / MQL
$316
Q3 final · $73 cost per lead
CAC / new prof · YTD
$5,289
49 new professors · 26-wk $3,476
Closed-Won YTD
$234.7K
of $500K goal
Pipeline Created
$1.26M
of $2M goal · 2026
Demand & funnel · this week
Lead → MQL 65.4%
MQL → SQL 8.8%
Downstream: 1 Opp · $640 new pipeline (vs. $11,440 last week) · $7,920 closed-won (4 deals: Land & Expand $6,840, including NC A&T $5,000, UNC Greensboro $1,200 and UNC Pembroke $640, plus Events–Conferences $1,080 at UNC Greensboro). MQLs rose from 3 to 34. The AAC&U conference booth produced 26; the rest came from a webinar (3), Paid Social (3), Outbound (1) and Other (1). All 3 SQLs (Organic 2, Other 1) were course-catalog demo requests that skipped the MQL stage. Paid Social spend jumped to $6,603 for 12 leads and 3 MQLs, and the sheet flags new campaigns to check. Weekly CPL $151 · CPM $39 · CPC $5 on $7,843 spend (Paid Ads, Paid Social, LinkedIn).
Context: 10/19 had 23 leads, 3 MQLs, 2 SQLs, 3 opps, $11,440 pipeline and $2,880 closed-won (Minnesota State Mankato and NC A&T, $1,440 each) on $5,792 spend. The sheet now shows 10/12 as 42 leads, 17 MQLs, 8 SQLs, 4 opps, $9,200 pipeline and $9,000 closed-won (Referral); the two Conference closes ($3,920) shown last update are no longer in that week. 11/2 is in progress, with 2 leads and $50 spend so far.
Funnel velocity · HubSpot (fresh pull · 2026-09-18)
MQL → Opportunity
14 days median
avg 43 days · long tail to ~285d
▲ Typical MQL reaches opp in ~2 weeks
Deal Created → Closed Won
36 days median
avg 90 days · 40 won deals
▲ Half of won deals close within ~5 weeks
Basis: both pulled live from HubSpot on 2026-09-18. MQL → Opportunity = days between a contact entering the Marketing Qualified Lead stage and the Opportunity stage, for the 62 contacts that reached Opportunity in 2026 via a genuine transition. 95 additional contacts were stamped into both stages within the same hour (HubSpot backfilling lifecycle dates on import / direct-create) and are excluded — they are not real funnel journeys and would pull the average to near zero. Deal Created → Closed Won = HubSpot's days_to_close (create date → close date) for the 40 Higher-Ed (pipeline 753473109) deals closed-won with a 2026 close date — the same basis as Closed-Won YTD. Median leads because a few slow deals stretch the mean well above the typical case.
Pacing to plan · YTD vs annual goal (~84% of year elapsed)
MQLs YTD
890 / 960
93% of annual · 80/mo target
▲ Ahead of pacePipeline Created 2026
$1.26M / $2M
63% of goal · Higher-Ed, ex-UA
▼ Behind paceClosed-Won YTD
$234.7K / $500K
47% of goal · 50 Higher-Ed deals
▼ Behind paceFirst-term rev : CAC
~0.43 : 1
$2.3K avg first term ÷ $5.3K CAC
▼ First term under CAC
Targets: 960 MQLs, $2M pipeline, $500K revenue (annual). Pipeline Created, Closed-Won YTD, and CAC are HubSpot-sourced from the Higher-Ed pipeline (753473109), fresh pull 2026-11-04. Pipeline Created = 2026-created deals excluding University of Alabama (the 5 UA-Tuscaloosa deals — the $2.5M "Culverhouse Wide" plus four Douglas Alberston course deals, $2.51M in all — are excluded) — $1,262,088 across 139 deals. Closed-Won YTD = 50 deals with a 2026 close date, $234,737 total (avg $4,695, median $2,000). Pace = share of annual goal vs. ~84% of the year elapsed (thru 11/1). MQLs YTD are from the sheet, thru wk 10/26.
CAC per new professor: YTD CAC is $5,289 — $259.1K marketing spend (thru wk 10/12) ÷ 49 new professors closed thru 10/18 ($4,701 excluding spend rows flagged N/TBD). A professor is new if they have no paid or pilot Courses-tab row (CX Dashboard) in an earlier term; HubSpot Deal Type is ignored. Department / school-wide deals count each instructor listed in Courses, which is why the count (49) is above the 44 Higher-Ed deals; second courses, extra sections and returning instructors don't count, and training engagements (Hartford, LSU) are excluded. Rolling 26-week CAC is $3,476 ($142.5K ÷ 41) — the trend line to watch, since spring conference spend converts into fall adoptions. By quarter: Q1 $106.9K ÷ 5 = $21,380 · Q2 $59.2K ÷ 10 = $5,923 · Q3 $87.7K ÷ 33 = $2,656 · Q4 QTD $5.4K ÷ 1 = $5,362 (single quarters are noisy). New this week: Mark Sciuchetti, Jacksonville State (10/13, $2,080). First-term net revenue per new professor averages $2,265 (median $747), ~0.43× CAC. No LTV figure yet, so no LTV:CAC.
Deal size vs. goal · HubSpot (Higher-Ed · fresh pull 2026-11-04)
Avg deal size
$4,695 / $40K
12% of goal · 50 deals, $234.7K
▼ ~8.5× below goalMedian deal
$2,000
Typical win is a single course · largest $33.6K (UNCG ISM 280)
▼ 0 deals at $40K+Per institution · YTD
$6,707 avg
35 schools · median $2,080 · only UNCG ($45.5K) over $40K; next UNA $32.3K, Auburn $30.9K, SHSU $30.0K
Deal size mix
Under $2.5K · 30 deals · $36.1K
$2.5K–$10K · 14 deals · $75.1K
$10K–$20K · 3 deals · $43.7K
$20K–$40K · 3 deals · $79.8K
$40K+ · 0 deals · $0
Is a $40K average realistic? Not with the current motion. Most deals are one instructor's course — roughly $16–$112 per student × 10–150 students — so a single course rarely clears $10K, and reaching $40K at a typical ~$56/student takes ~700 students in one deal. The deals that get close are multi-instructor or department / school-wide (UNCG, UNA, Auburn, SHSU): the 6 deals over $10K are 12% of wins but 53% of dollars. A $40K target fits a department / school-wide deal tier or an annual per-institution goal; for the overall average, ~$7–10K is a realistic stretch. At $40K the $500K revenue goal would need only ~13 deals vs. 50 won so far. Excludes University of Alabama (Culverhouse Wide, $2.5M, separate pipeline).
Spend efficiency
Cost / MQL
$316
Q3 final · Q4 QTD $328 (58 MQLs)
Cost / Lead
$73
Q3 final · Q4 QTD $130 (146 leads)
CAC · rolling 26 wk
$3,476
$142.5K ÷ 41 new profs · 4/20–10/18
Spend · YTD
$272.8K
sheet · thru wk 10/26 · incl. $28.0K tools
Channel ROI · YTD (marketing sheet · all channels)
LinkedIn Outbound$4.0K spend · $11.6K won
+194%
Events – Virtual$3.6K spend · $9.0K won
+151%
Other$10K spend · $16.8K won
+68%
Events – Conferences$106.9K spend · $121.3K won
+13%
Paid Ads$42.3K spend · $0 won
−100%
Paid Social$78.0K spend · $0 won
−100%
◀ negative ROI · 0 · positive ROI ▶
LinkedIn Outbound (+194%) and Events–Virtual (+151%) are still the top-return channels. Conferences are at +13% on $121.3K won: the restated sheet moved $3,920 out of week 10/12, and Minnesota State Mankato ($1,440) and UNC Greensboro ($1,080) were added. Channels with no marketing spend keep producing closed-won revenue: Land & Expand $59.5K (up $8.3K on four late-October closes), Referral $43.0K, Organic $5.0K and Workforce Development $3.9K. Referral also carries $360K of pipeline. Paid Ads and Paid Social have spent ~$120.3K with $0 closed-won YTD, up from $106.8K on 10/12 after Paid Social's $6.6K week. Paid Ads does carry $180K in pipeline. Tools & Services ($28.0K) is overhead with no attributed pipeline, so it's left off the chart.
Blended YTD: $272.8K spend → ~$1.27M attributed pipeline (sheet, thru wk 10/26) · $270.2K closed-won on the sheet's own tally, roughly break-even (−1%). Against HubSpot Higher-Ed closed-won ($234.7K, 11/4 pull) it's about −14%, or −4% excluding Tools & Services spend. The sheet's new HubSpot Deal Source cut shows $744.9K of pipeline and $176.8K closed-won across 30 wins as marketing-sourced, a marketing-sourced CAC of ~$9.1K per win.
Basis: weekly funnel and channel figures come from the live 2026 Marketing Metrics Google Sheet (01_Channel_Input tab, pulled 2026-11-04) for reporting week 10/26, the latest full week; 11/2 is still in progress. Closed-Won YTD and Pipeline Created come from a fresh HubSpot pull on 2026-11-04 (Higher-Ed pipeline). HubSpot shows 6 wins since 10/21 totaling $10,800 (Mankato, NC A&T ×2, UNC Greensboro ×2, UNC Pembroke), matching the wins logged in the sheet. Data caveats: (0) The sheet restated week 10/12 from 6 opps, $19.3K pipeline and $12,920 closed-won to 4 opps, $9,200 and $9,000. The two Conference closes ($3,920) were removed, which is why Conference closed-won dipped. (1) The sheet flags several leads that skipped the MQL stage: 4 catalog-demo SQLs (Harper College, FTU, Uniandes/TBS, SELU) plus the Hartford opp and 8 University of Kansas contacts, who went straight to Opportunity on 10/29. Treat MQL→SQL conversion with care. (2) The 10/26 MQL spike is mostly one conference booth (AAC&U, 26 MQLs on 24 leads), so Lead→MQL for the week is inflated. (3) Paid Social spent $6,603 in week 10/26, versus a ~$1.4K–$4.4K weekly run-rate, and the sheet notes new campaigns to check. (4) Q3 cost/MQL and cost/lead use full-quarter Q3 totals ($87.7K ÷ 277 MQLs; ÷ 1,195 leads). Q4-to-date covers 10/5–10/26 ($19.0K spend). (5) Weekly CPM/CPC use paid media spend only. (6) For CAC per new professor (as of 2026-10-22), 3 Auburn/UAB instructors with a Summer 2026 course before their fall deal are counted as returning; counted as new, the result would be 52 new professors and $4,984. Its YTD figure still uses $259.1K spend thru wk 10/12. Reporting week 10/26/26.