Lead Generation Case Study · Latin America

5.15 million leads. $0.20 each.

3 years. $1M ad spend. 1.5 billion impressions. Over 1,000 ad creatives. How Hannes Media built a lead generation machine for the world's largest digital business school for Spanish speakers.

Category: Online Education
Market: Latin America (Spanish)
Duration: 36 Months
Ads Deployed: 1,000+
5.15M
Total Leads
$0.20
Avg. Cost Per Lead
1.58B
Impressions
$1.03M
Total Ad Spend
115M
People Reached
36
Months Running

Scaling lead gen across an entire continent.

The world's largest digital business school for Spanish speakers needed a partner who could generate millions of high-quality leads across Latin America — while keeping CPL below $0.25. Previous agencies and freelancers had failed to deliver quality creative, Spanish-language copy, reliable account management, or a system that could scale.

They were spending $6,000–$8,000/month before Hannes Media. The business hadn't scaled because no agency had built a system capable of sustained, profitable lead generation at continental scale.

  • CPL target below $0.25 — the hard constraint that every decision was built around
  • Multi-country targeting — Mexico, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Argentina, and beyond
  • Spanish-language creative at scale — not translated, native
  • Previous agencies failed — couldn't deliver quality or consistency
  • Ad spend needed to scale 7× — from $7K to $55K/month while holding CPL
Before
$7K
Monthly ad spend · Stagnant growth · Inconsistent CPL
After
$55K
Monthly ad spend · $0.20 CPL · 8% CPL decrease while scaling

The system that scaled to 5 million leads.

This wasn't a campaign. It was a lead generation infrastructure built to run profitably for years. Every component was designed for scale, speed, and CPL discipline.

01

Facebook Lead Gen Funnel Architecture

Built a proprietary lead generation funnel using a winning ad account structure, perfect targeting, and high-performing ad creatives. The system was designed so the client never had to think about how leads were acquired — only how to convert them.

02

Creative Velocity at Scale

Tested over 100 campaigns and hundreds of ad sets. Over 350 different images and videos were tested across dozens of audience segments. Continuous creative production was the engine that prevented fatigue and kept CPL stable for 3 years.

03

Interest-Based Audience Architecture

Segmented campaigns by interest verticals — Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Real Estate, Programming, Digital Marketing, Learning, Apple, Adobe, Shopify — each with dedicated creatives and targeting. This granularity allowed us to find pockets of efficiency across a continent.

04

Geo-Expansion Playbook

Started with "Top countries" — Mexico, Dominican Republic, and core LATAM markets. Then expanded to Argentina, Colombia, and "Second countries" with adapted budgets and CPL thresholds. Each geo was treated as its own micro-system.

"We tested over 100 campaigns and 350+ creative assets over the course of this engagement. Creative velocity is the single biggest lever in lead generation at scale. When you stop producing, CPL starts climbing."

— Hannes, Lead Generation System

From $7K/month to $55K/month — while CPL dropped.

Most agencies see CPL spike when ad spend increases. We achieved the opposite. As we scaled from $7K to $55K monthly spend, CPL decreased from $0.25 to $0.20 — an 8% reduction at 7× the volume.

Phase 1 · Months 1–9
Foundation & proof of concept
Built the lead gen funnel, tested initial audiences across top countries. 2.14 million leads generated at $0.23 CPL. Proved the system worked. $495K spent, 870M impressions.
Phase 2 · Months 10–24
Geo-expansion & creative scaling
Expanded into Argentina, Colombia, and second-tier markets. Scaled ad spend aggressively while testing new audience verticals and creative angles. LLA and VIP customer audiences deployed.
Phase 3 · Months 25–36
Full continental scale
$55K+/month sustained. 5.15M total leads. $0.20 CPL achieved — below the initial $0.25 target despite 7× higher spend. 1,310 campaigns, 1.58B impressions, 115M people reached.

Why this worked when others failed.

Previous agencies had the same budget, the same market, the same platform. They couldn't deliver. This is what they were missing.

Native Spanish creative — not translated

LATAM audiences don't respond to translated English copy. Every ad, every image, every hook was created in Spanish for Spanish speakers. The nuance of Mexican vs. Colombian vs. Argentine Spanish was reflected in the creative.

Creative production as infrastructure

350+ images and videos weren't produced in a burst — they were produced continuously, systematically, over 36 months. When a creative fatigued, the next one was already in the queue. Most agencies test 5 creatives and call it done.

CPL discipline over vanity metrics

Every decision was gated by CPL. We didn't chase impressions. We didn't optimize for CTR. We optimized for cost per lead, and only scaled when the number held. This discipline is what made 36 consecutive months possible.

Account structure built for scale

1,083 campaigns weren't chaos — they were architecture. Interest-based segmentation, geo-tiering, LLA audiences built from real converters, and budget allocation driven by marginal CPL. Structure is what separates a system from a collection of campaigns.

The lead generation system delivered.

Lead Generation

  • 5,154,710 total leads generated over 36 months
  • $0.20 average CPL — 20% below the $0.25 target
  • 2.14M leads in Phase 1 alone at $0.23 CPL
  • CPL decreased 8% while spend scaled 7×

Scale & Reach

  • 1.576 billion impressions served across Latin America
  • 114.9 million people reached — continental coverage
  • $1,030,942 total ad spend deployed profitably
  • 1,310 campaigns run across the engagement

System Performance

  • 350+ creative assets tested and rotated
  • 36 consecutive months of profitable lead generation
  • Monthly spend scaled from $7K to $55K
  • Multi-country expansion — Mexico, DR, Colombia, Argentina, and more

What this actually proves.

01

Lead Gen at Scale Is a System Problem

Generating 5 million leads isn't about finding one winning ad. It's about building an infrastructure — creative production, audience architecture, geo-expansion, and CPL guardrails — that performs for years.

02

Creative Volume Is the Moat

350+ assets over 36 months. The brands that win at lead generation are the ones producing fast enough to outpace creative fatigue. If your agency tests 5 creatives per quarter, you're losing.

03

CPL Should Drop as You Scale

Most brands accept that CPL rises with spend. We proved the opposite. The right system gets more efficient at scale — because the data compounds and the creative system improves.

04

Native Language Is Non-Negotiable

LATAM lead generation requires native Spanish creative — not translations, not English with subtitles. The agencies that failed before us didn't understand this. We did.

Your brand. Same architecture.

The system that generated 5 million leads at $0.20 each is available for select brands ready to scale lead generation profitably.

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