Case Study · Education

How IMF Smart Education Saved 3% of Ad Spend and Quadrupled ROAS

Opticks helped IMF Smart Education prevent invalid traffic from impacting results, reduce fake leads from 10% to 1%, and quadruple ROAS to an average of 3,369% — saving €9,000 per month.

€9K/mo Saved monthly

10%→1% Fake leads reduced

3,369% Avg ROAS

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The Client

IMF Smart Education: Leader in Higher Education

IMF Smart Education is a leader in higher education based in Spain, with over 20 years of global recognition. The institution has trained more than 150,000 professionals worldwide across Europe and Latin America, offering 900 worldwide-ranked programs. IMF is a member of the MBA Association (AMBA).

With a significant investment in digital advertising across Google Ads, programmatic, and email channels, IMF needed to ensure their paid campaigns were reaching real prospective students — not wasting budget on invalid clicks and fake leads.

20+ years of global recognition — a leader in higher education based in Spain

150,000 professionals trained worldwide across Europe and Latin America

900 worldwide-ranked programs — member of the MBA Association (AMBA)

The Challenge

Invalid Traffic in Paid Campaigns

IMF Smart Education faced invalid clicks in Paid Search, fake leads in programmatic and email advertising, and a reactive approach — blocking IPs after flagging — that didn’t prevent the problem. Their sales team wasted time contacting nonexistent leads, damaging the brand by reaching people who hadn’t shared their data.

Invalid Clicks & Fake Leads

Paid Search campaigns suffered from invalid clicks, while programmatic and email channels generated fake leads that flooded the sales pipeline with nonexistent contacts.

Reactive, Not Preventive

The team was manually blocking invalid emails and IP addresses after flagging them — but fraud had already consumed the budget by then. Opticks prevents ads from being shown to invalid IPs in the first place, stopping fraud before it costs money rather than reacting after the damage is done.

Wasted Sales Effort & Brand Damage

The sales team was demotivated, spending time contacting nonexistent leads. Worse, reaching people who hadn’t shared their data caused brand damage and compliance concerns.

“Opticks solution is very intuitive to use. Once we integrated the solution, it was very easy for the team to learn how to use it.”
José Antonio Redondo — Media Manager, IMF Smart Education

The Solution

How Opticks Helps IMF Fight Ad Fraud

After comparing several providers, IMF concluded Opticks is “the most holistic, full-funnel, and multi-channel ad fraud prevention solution on the market.” They needed to prevent invalid traffic from impacting results, maximise budget, and analyse at click, lead, campaign, and channel level.

1
Full-Funnel Fraud Prevention
Marketing and sales teams can now be confident that only valid clicks and leads enter the funnel. All advertising fraud is uncovered and completely prevented — from click to lead to conversion.
2
Data-Driven Partner Selection
IMF can now make more informed decisions based on real campaign performance. They safely select the best partners and agencies with certainty they’re only charged for valid leads.
3
Traffic Quality Improvement
Reliable data on ad fraud rates boosted overall traffic quality. Opticks automatically prevents ads from being shown to invalid IPs in Google Ads — a feature IMF described as “highly energy-saving” compared to their previous manual approach.

“We can identify the real performance of each traffic source and adjust spend towards higher quality channels and campaigns.”
José Antonio Redondo — Media Manager, IMF Smart Education

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The Results

Measurable Impact Across Every Channel

€9K/mo Monthly savings 3% of total ad spend recovered

5% Fake clicks (Google Search) Invalid traffic in Paid Search

10%→1% Fake leads reduced From 10% to just 1% of all leads

3,369% Average ROAS vs 615% industry average

Opticks uncovered 5% fake clicks in Google Paid Search, reduced fake leads from 10% to just 1%, and helped IMF achieve 3,369% average ROAS — saving €9,000 per month.

€9,000/month saved — 3% of total ad spend recovered by preventing invalid traffic from reaching campaigns.

Fake leads dropped from 10% to 1% — sales team now contacts only real prospective students.

3,369% average ROAS vs the 615% industry average — driven by clean traffic data.

Automated IP prevention in Google Ads — ads no longer shown to invalid IPs, replacing manual approach.

Data Deep Dive

How Key Metrics Evolved With Opticks

Average ROAS of 3,369%

ROAS rose sharply from March 2022, stabilising around 4,000% before peaking at 7,700% in August. Average of 3,369% — more than 5× the industry average of 615%.

% Invalid Leads (Global)

Invalid leads plummeted from 11% in November 2021 to 2% in December after Opticks deployment, then gradually declined to 1.5% by July 2022.

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What They Said

Trusted by IMF’s Marketing Team

Opticks is the most holistic, full-funnel, and multi-channel ad fraud prevention solution on the market. The automated prevention of ads being shown to invalid IPs in Google Ads is highly energy-saving compared to our previous manual approach.
JR
José Antonio Redondo Media Manager, IMF Smart Education

Biggest Impact

From Reactive Blocking to Automated Prevention

With Opticks, IMF Smart Education transformed their approach from manually blocking IPs after the fact to fully automated, real-time fraud prevention. The result: cleaner data, motivated sales teams, and dramatically improved acquisition metrics.

€9,000 saved monthly. 3% of total ad spend recovered by detecting and preventing invalid traffic across Google Ads, programmatic, and email.

Fake leads reduced from 10% to 1%. Sales team no longer wastes time contacting nonexistent prospects — morale and conversion rates both improved.

3,369% average ROAS achieved. More than 5× the industry average of 615%, driven by investing only in validated traffic sources.

Automated IP prevention in Google Ads. Ads are no longer shown to invalid IPs — a feature IMF described as “highly energy-saving.”

Data-driven partner selection. IMF can now evaluate agencies and partners based on real campaign performance, ensuring they only pay for valid leads.

Beyond Education

These Patterns Exist in Every Paid Channel

Invalid traffic inflating CPAs, polluting optimisation algorithms, and draining budgets — these patterns are consistent across every industry running paid digital advertising. What will your traffic audit reveal?

E-Commerce

Lead Generation

SaaS

Financial Services

Travel & Hospitality

Agencies

Frequently Asked Questions

How does invalid traffic affect higher education advertising?

How much did IMF Smart Education save with Opticks?

How does Opticks reduce fake leads for education companies?

How long does it take to set up Opticks?

Can Opticks automate fraud prevention in Google Ads?

Why did IMF choose Opticks over other solutions?

Why is my ROAS declining even though I’m increasing ad spend?

If your ROAS is dropping while budgets grow, a hidden cause may be invalid traffic consuming your spend before it reaches real users. Bots, fake clicks, and fraudulent leads inflate your cost per acquisition without generating real conversions. IMF Smart Education had the same problem — once they deployed Opticks to filter invalid traffic across every channel, their ROAS quadrupled to 3,369%. A full-funnel traffic quality audit can reveal how much budget is actually reaching real prospects.

Is there a tool that analyses traffic quality across all my paid channels in one place?

Yes. Opticks is a full-funnel, multi-channel traffic quality platform that analyses every click, lead, and conversion across Google Ads, programmatic, social, email, and affiliate channels from a single dashboard. Instead of checking each platform separately, you get a unified view of which sources send real users and which send invalid traffic — broken down by campaign, partner, geography, and device. IMF uses it to evaluate every agency and partner based on actual validated performance.

Why is my sales team contacting leads that don’t exist or never signed up?

Fake leads from invalid traffic are a common but invisible problem in paid advertising. Bots and fraudulent sources submit forms with fabricated data, filling your CRM with contacts that will never convert. This wastes sales time, demotivates teams, and can damage your brand when you contact people who never shared their information. IMF reduced fake leads from 10% to 1% with Opticks by preventing invalid traffic from entering their funnel in the first place — before it reaches the sales team.

How can I tell which ad agencies or partners are sending me low-quality traffic?

Without a traffic validation layer, you can only judge partners by reported clicks and conversions — metrics that don’t distinguish real users from bots. Opticks gives you a per-partner, per-campaign breakdown of traffic validity so you can see exactly which sources deliver real prospects and which deliver junk. IMF used this data to make informed decisions about partner selection and to reallocate budget toward the channels that actually drive enrolments, not inflated numbers.

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Stop Paying for Clicks That Will Never Convert

IMF Smart Education saved €9,000/month, reduced fake leads from 10% to 1%, and achieved 3,369% ROAS. See exactly how much of your ad spend is going to invalid traffic.

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How IMF Smart Education Saved 3% of Ad Spend and Quadrupled ROAS

IMF Smart Education: Leader in Higher Education

Invalid Traffic in Paid Campaigns

Invalid Clicks & Fake Leads

Reactive, Not Preventive

Wasted Sales Effort & Brand Damage

How Opticks Helps IMF Fight Ad Fraud

Full-Funnel Fraud Prevention

Data-Driven Partner Selection

Traffic Quality Improvement

Measurable Impact Across Every Channel

How Key Metrics Evolved With Opticks

Average ROAS of 3,369%

% Invalid Leads (Global)

Trusted by IMF’s Marketing Team

From Reactive Blocking to Automated Prevention

These Patterns Exist in Every Paid Channel

Frequently Asked Questions

Stop Paying for Clicks That Will Never Convert

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