TOTUM: More sign-ups, less spend
How smarter targeting and creative paid strategies drove a student brand’s surge
Executive summary
TOTUM, the UK’s leading student discount card and app, came to Embryo with big ambitions: grow membership numbers at scale while controlling spend and increasing efficiency. Targeting students, professionals, and apprentices, we needed to cut through a noisy online space and deliver TOTUM measurable growth, not just clicks.
We created a tightly segmented paid media strategy, blending PPC and Paid Social, to drive higher-value memberships, reduce waste, and open up new audience pipelines.
- Here’s what happened next:
- 50% increase in PPC conversion value, adding over £110,000 in revenue
- 61% increase in ROAS on Meta with an 18% reduction in spend
- Cost per conversion for students reduced by nearly 59%
- ROAS of 5.44 from Dynamic Search campaigns alone
- 1.2M new users reached and 2,247 conversions through smart audience segmentation
Ready to scale your paid media strategy? Contact our team today.
About TOTUM
TOTUM is the UK’s most trusted student discount platform, helping millions of students and professionals access exclusive deals on essentials, including travel, tech, and takeaways, to name but a few. With an easy-to-use app and card, they’ve built a household name in student finance and lifestyle support.
However, like many fast-scaling consumer brands, TOTUM wanted to go further and faster, without compromising budget efficiency. That’s when they turned to Embryo.
The challenge
TOTUM’s growth targets were ambitious. However, at the time, their paid media performance had plateaued. Spend wasn’t scaling efficiently, and broad targeting tactics resulted in campaigns lacking the relevance required to drive paid memberships, their most valuable customer action.
Building on this, TOTUM’s generic audience targeting across platforms hindered their ability to deliver personalised and compelling messaging, which ultimately limited the effectiveness of their paid advertising.
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Change was necessary, but not just around growth, TOTUM needed to:
- Increase sign-ups across multiple audiences (students, professionals, apprentices)
- Improve conversion rates while reducing wasted ad spend
- Reach new audiences to keep the sales funnel fed
Our strategic approach
Rather than just optimising ads in isolation, we stepped back to answer a bigger question: “What would make a student, professional, or apprentice choose TOTUM right now and what’s stopping them from signing up?”
From there, we mapped a full-funnel digital media strategy that aligned messaging, targeting, and budget around high-intent users. Every decision was focused on one thing: delivering higher-value memberships at a better ROAS.
- This meant:
- Segmenting by membership type with bespoke creative
- Swapping broad targeting for signal-based optimisation
- Switching bidding models to prioritise revenue, not just volume
- Enhancing Meta performance through testing, creative innovation, and retargeting
PPC: Driving revenue with smarter signals
Our PPC approach started with TOTUM’s data, segmenting users into students, professionals, and apprentices. For each group, we created customer match lists, built tailored asset groups, and aligned messaging to motivation.
Rather than relying on Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), we pivoted to Target ROAS bidding, helping Google’s algorithm optimise for users most likely to buy paid memberships, not just sign up for free trials.
We also ran Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) to uncover untapped keyword niches. These campaigns became some of the strongest performers, producing a 5.44 ROAS and generating £17,000+ in additional revenue.
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50%
increase in conversion value (£110,000+ in new revenue)
-
16%
increase in ROAS
-
165%
increase in average order value
-
17%
increase in ad spend - but significantly more efficient output
Paid social: Segmenting, scaling and storytelling
While PPC helped us convert high-intent users already in the funnel, our paid social strategy focused on reaching and engaging new audiences earlier in their journey, sparking interest, building relevance, and ultimately driving them toward membership. We built the social strategy around two key campaign streams:
Primary audience targeting
Bespoke creative aligned to each audience: students, professionals, and apprentices. Each had its own messaging, visuals, and CTA, designed to reflect their unique reasons for joining. By targeting this audience, we generated the following results.
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58.9%
decrease in student conversion cost
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£45,000
worth of revenue from professionals
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87%
increase in revenue from apprentices, despite an 88% reduction in spend
Wider prospecting and retargeting
To fuel acquisition, we broadened targeting using Meta’s creative-based delivery, leaning into engaging formats that allowed the algorithm to find lookalikes. We paired this with retargeting to convert warm users from the TOTUM site.
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1.2M
new users reached
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2,247
total conversions
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£47,000
additional revenue generated
Overall Meta YOY results
Across Meta, our campaigns delivered impressive year-on-year improvements.
Despite an 18% reduction in overall spend, we achieved a 61% increase in return on ad spend (ROAS), highlighting how efficiently the campaigns converted.
Click-through rate (CTR) also rose by 50%, showing that our revised creative strategy and tighter audience segmentation significantly improved engagement.
These results not only demonstrate increased performance, but they also suggest a more resonant message-to-audience match that cuts through.
Client testimonial
What the Client Said
Having worked with Embryo at previous companies, I knew they were the agency I wanted to manage TOTUM’s paid media. Their innovative strategies and creative ideas have led to some amazing results and really helped scale the company. Working with the team, I know our campaigns are in safe hands and that they will go above and beyond to achieve our goals. I wholeheartedly recommend Embryo and look forward to continuing to work with them.
Simon Wild, Head of Marketing and Membership, TOTUM
From wasted spend to profitable growth
This wasn’t just about more impressions or reach, it was about doing more with less. By combining smarter segmentation, audience-first creative, and results-focused optimisation, we helped TOTUM reduce spend, scale ROAS, and reach new users without compromise.
From students to professionals to apprentices, each audience was met with the message they needed, and the result was a healthier, more scalable membership funnel.
Whether you’re selling software, subscriptions, or services, this case proves that when a paid media strategy is aligned with business outcomes, incredible growth is possible, even on a tight budget.
| Metric | Change |
|---|---|
| PPC conversion value | +50% |
| PPC ROAS | +16% |
| Paid Social ROAS | +61% |
| Cost per student conversion (Meta) | -58.94% |
| Revenue from pros on Meta | £45,000 |
| Total users reached (Social) | 1.2M+ |
Ready to see similar results?
If you’re ready to get smarter about your paid media strategy, let’s talk. Start your growth story with Embryo.
