Case Study
American Fabrication Academy
Enrollment growth from a cold start, with trust and follow-through built in
American Fabrication Academy launched in 2018 with no website, no social accounts, and no enrolled class. By 2023 the Essentials of Fabrication program reported 130 students enrolled, roughly 49% year-over-year growth. We built the site in two phases, ran paid and organic search, and routed every inquiry straight into an admissions conversation.
Proof at a glance
The numbers that mattered
- 130students enrolled2023 Essentials cohort
- ~49%YoY enrollment growth2022 → 2023
- Mid-90s on-time completionby cohort, per published reporting
- High-80s to low-90s placementin-field employment by cohort year
- .edu domain migrationdeeper program and aid pages
Client context
Who they are and what they needed
American Fabrication Academy (AFA) trains students for metal fabrication and welding careers, with hands-on programs aimed at industries that depend on skilled trades. Founded in 2018 by Jason Saunders, AFA started without a website or enrolled class. Busic Digital has been the marketing and digital partner from the beginning, outside of teaching and school operations.
The challenge
What was holding growth back
The specific problems you may recognize from your own business.
Cold start
No enrolled pipeline, no brand recognition, and a competitive education market.
Multiple audiences, one site
Veterans, young adults, and career changers each needed clear, trustworthy information.
Trust matters as much as tuition
Accreditation and financing stories had to be easy to find and read as professional.
Doing it by hand would not last
Inquiry volume would outgrow a shared inbox and a notepad fast.
Two phases, not one big build
A full .edu site could wait until the school proved people would enroll.
The strategy
What we focused on
Three things we set out to do, and why each one mattered here.
A brand that matches the trade
What we didSeparate copy per audience, and a look that matches the work.
Why it matteredStudents compare schools on trust as much as price.
Ship in two phases
What we didA lean site first, then the full .edu site.
Why it matteredProve people will enroll before building the permanent home.
Paid and organic search
What we didGoogle Ads on program searches, plus articles for career questions.
Why it matteredBoth kinds of visitor land here. The ad and the page should say the same thing.
What we changed
What we actually changed
Each one pairs the change with the reason it mattered.
Phase 1 launch site
A small, search-aware site on the commercial domain to capture tour requests and inquiries. Enough to prove demand without overbuilding.
Phase 2 .edu site
Moved to a .edu domain with fuller program pages, financing and aid sections, instructor and student stories, and a phone-first layout. An accredited school should feel like one.
Audience-specific messaging
Copy aimed at veterans using GI Bill® benefits, career changers, and workers upskilling into welding. Generic "trade school" copy loses to copy a buyer recognizes themselves in.
Forms route into admissions and aid
Inquiries flow into admissions and financial aid, and we record which channel sent them. Stages and routing keep follow-up from drifting.
Microsoft 365 for collaboration
Email and shared docs for a growing team. The tools have to be in place before the headcount is.
Paid and organic acquisition
Google Ads on high-intent program and career queries, plus blog content for organic discovery. Paid clicks and organic searches deserve the same story.
Comparison
Before and after
What changed, side by side.
No website, no enrolled class
A two-phase site and a real enrollment pipeline
Generic trade-school positioning
Audience-specific copy for veterans, young adults, and career changers
Manual inquiry handling
Routed forms into admissions and financial aid workflows
Outcomes
Outcomes after launch
Headline enrollment numbers from AFA published reporting. On-time completion held in the mid-90s, and in-field placement ran high-eighties to low-nineties by cohort year. Instagram grew into the thousands, which made remarketing cheaper and the name familiar.
- 130students enrolled2023 Essentials cohort
- ~49%YoY enrollment growth2022 → 2023
Busic Digital is excellent at what they do. Logan’s insights were invaluable. He helped us pinpoint the areas we needed to improve on our current website and chart a forward course. Thanks for the great experience!
Takeaways
What this project shows
Trust is the product in education
Accreditation, outcomes, financing, and who teaches the class belong on the page early, not buried in a PDF.
Two phases is normal
A small site proves people will enroll while you plan the permanent one.
The ad and the page have to match
If they say different things, the people who clicked leave immediately.
Want to find the same kinds of gaps in your website?
We’ll look at your homepage, the path a visitor takes, and what happens after someone gets in touch. You get a short video and a written list of fixes, free.