In the EdTech sector, advertising costs are often very high because of the need to attract new users, test content, and position the brand. Those who do advertising well can create a huge gap between themselves and their competitors. The case of Headway – an EdTech startup from Ukraine – is a prime example: by applying AI to advertising production (images, videos, content), Headway achieved a 40% increase in advertising ROI while expanding its global reach.

This article will analyze how they did it and the lessons learned for small businesses.

Who is Headway?

Headway is an EdTech startup founded in Ukraine with a simple goal: to bring condensed knowledge from non-fiction books to users through summaries, micro-learning, and concise content.

According to Business Insider, Headway significantly integrated AI into marketing in late 2023 and early 2024: AI-generated advertising, AI-powered UGC videos, AI-powered imagery, and automated content. ( Business Insider )

Before implementing AI, Headway advertised on Meta, Google, and TikTok, but faced difficulties due to high content production costs and unsatisfactory advertising performance.

How Headway uses AI to optimize advertising.

Headway uses AI tools such as Midjourney (image generation), HeyGen/Rask (video/voiceover/translation), and D-ID (animated voiceover for famous images) to produce advertising content without the need for actual filming.

For example, when they launched the French version, they used AI translation and lip-sync to convert English videos to French without having to reshoot them entirely.

Thanks to AI, Headway is able to produce a larger volume of ads at a lower cost. In just the first half of 2024, their AI-driven ads achieved 3.3 billion impressions, and video ads saw a 40% increase in ROI.

AI-generated advertising content accounts for 30-50% of applications in their user-generated content (UGC) ad campaigns.

Headway doesn't just create "many ads," they experiment with various variations (images, dialogue, style) and use AI to select the most effective version.

They also use AI to track user behavior and tailor advertising content to specific target groups, increasing relevance and reducing wasted costs.

Lessons for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

Headway's success is an inspiration for small businesses to get started:

• Automated advertising content creation: You don't need a large film crew; AI can help create creative images/videos quickly.
• Experiment and vary: By running multiple versions of your ads and letting the AI choose the winning one, you optimize costs while maintaining performance.
• Personalize with the right customer group: AI helps you segment your customers and select content tailored to each group to increase conversion rates.
• Reduce production costs to invest in innovation: AI helps streamline expenses, allowing you to allocate resources to new experiments and more viral content.

GTG CRM - An AI Marketing solution that helps small businesses achieve what Headway has done.

Headway's success stems from its comprehensive application of AI throughout its advertising process, from content creation and variation testing to performance analysis and personalization tailored to specific audience groups.

If you think that's only for international EdTech startups, then with GTG CRM, small businesses can absolutely do the same:

1. AI creates advertising content like Headway.

GTG CRM comes with a built-in AI Content Builder, which helps you:

• Quickly write ad copy for Facebook and LinkedIn, create SEO-optimized titles and descriptions for Google Ads.
• AI creates images and logos based on commands.
• AI Assistant can also suggest advertising plans or content strategies that are suitable for your business.

GTG CRM's AI helps you create engaging advertising posts.

2. Measure and optimize ROI in real time.

GTG CRM has an AI Analytics Dashboard, which helps you:

• Compare the performance of individual advertising campaigns on a single platform.
• View clicks, CTR, reach, and more, all in one interface.
• AI Assistant can also report which ads are performing well and suggest next steps for you.

3. Automate customer service processes.

With GTG CRM, you can use SEO-optimized landing pages to generate leads and automations to build an automated customer care workflow.

For example: Automatically send promotional emails to customers, automatically send welcome messages when customers visit for the first time.

Template for Automated Invoice Confirmation Emails

In other words, GTG CRM is a streamlined "AI Marketing System" that helps SMEs "AI-ize" their entire advertising process without needing a separate technical team. You can create, run, measure, optimize, and nurture customer relationships, all on a single platform.

Conclude

Headway's case study shows that AI not only helps reduce advertising production costs but also increases efficiency, scalability, and personalization for each customer segment. The 40% increase in ROI is not a lucky number; it's the result of a strategy of data + AI + continuous experimentation.

If you're looking for ways to make advertising more effective, reduce costs, and increase ROI, GTG CRM is the ideal platform to start "AI-izing marketing" for small businesses.