Three options. Only one actually works for your business.
Cohorts fill 8 weeks out or they don't fill at all.
A coding bootcamp's whole financial model is built on cohort fill: a 24-person full-stack JS cohort at $14,000 a head pays out at $336,000 if it fills, breaks even at 18 students and loses money at 12. The bootcamps that consistently fill cohorts have a marketing engine that starts spending 8 weeks before each intake, runs a free Saturday intro workshop 4 weeks out to convert the hesitating prospect, and times the application-deadline ad lift to the last 10 days when enrolment intent peaks. The bootcamps that under-fill treat each cohort as a fresh marketing project, start the campaign the week applications open, and run the cohort at 14 students. On top of that, General Assembly, Le Wagon, Coder Academy and Academy Xi have national budgets and brand-name recognition that crush you on broad search ('coding bootcamp Sydney', 'learn to code Australia'), forcing the long-tail specialty-and-city queries ('data science bootcamp Sydney VET Student Loan', 'UX UI bootcamp Melbourne part time', 'DevOps bootcamp online Australia') to be the entire game. Combine that with the VET Student Loan eligibility question (some ASQA-registered RTOs qualify, most don't, the prospect doesn't know which is which until they ring), and you have a category where marketing speed and specialty clarity directly translate to cohort fill rate.
Good coding-bootcamp marketing is three things, in this order: a website with one page per specialty per format (full-stack JS 12-wk full-time, full-stack JS 24-wk part-time, data science Python 12-wk full-time, UX/UI design 10-wk part-time, DevOps cloud-engineering 12-wk online) so you rank for the prospect's actual search and the cohort start dates are always front and centre; a cohort-fill ad calendar that lifts spend 8 weeks before every intake, runs a free Saturday intro workshop in week 4, and ramps daily budget hard in the final 10 days when intent peaks; and a placement-story content engine that posts every cohort graduate's first-job announcement (with consent) because the post-grad employment evidence is the only thing that closes the prospect over $14,000 in tuition. The bootcamps that consistently fill 24/24 cohorts are doing this. The bootcamps at 14/24 are still running the same 'apply now' Facebook ad in week 1.
Six agents, working in your accounts.
Account Lead, Web, SEO, Advertising, Social Media, and Content. One platform, one bill, you approve the work.
Sets the plan around cohort fill rate, not generic enrolment goals: a cohort-5 push starting 8 weeks before April 28, a free Saturday intro workshop in week 4 of the campaign, a final-10-days daily-budget ramp when application intent peaks, and a placement-story content cycle the week after each cohort graduates. Briefs the other agents so the specialty pages, the cohort ads, the placement stories and the alumni post-grad employment posts all push toward filling the next cohort 24/24, not 14/24.
Imports your existing site so you stop paying Webflow plus an applicant tracker landing-page tool plus a separate marketing-site builder, and ships a page per specialty per format. Adds the next-cohort-start-date with a live spots-remaining counter on every specialty page, the VET Student Loan eligibility banner above the fold for ASQA-registered bootcamps, and a real free-Saturday-intro-workshop signup flow that drops into your CRM.
Goes after the long-tail specialty queries General Assembly and Le Wagon can't defend on specificity: 'data science bootcamp Sydney VET Student Loan', 'UX UI bootcamp Melbourne part time', 'DevOps bootcamp online Australia', 'full-stack JS bootcamp Brisbane evening'. Ships Course and EducationalOrganization schema, surfaces ASQA RTO status in structured data, and earns review prompts from every graduate after their first-job announcement. Auto-applies the low-risk fixes.
Runs Google Ads timed to the cohort-fill calendar: lifts spend 8 weeks before each intake, ramps hard in the final 10 days when intent peaks, drops spend the day applications close. Targets career-changers on LinkedIn (35-45 age band, 5-15 years in current role) and prospect students on Reddit ('learn programming', 'cscareerquestions Australia'). Drops broad 'coding bootcamp' keywords entirely because the chains own those CPCs.
Turns every consented placement into a post in your real accounts: a first-job announcement (with the company logo and the alumnus' permission), an instructor-deep-dive on a tricky concept, a capstone-project showcase, a Saturday-intro-workshop teaser Reel. Builds the post-grad employment trust that closes the $14,000 tuition decision. Alumni post-grad announcements run weekly because the placement evidence is the entire close.
Drafts the guides prospects Google before they apply: 'how to choose a coding bootcamp in Australia in 2026', 'are coding bootcamps worth it: a financial breakdown', 'VET Student Loan vs upfront payment: the honest comparison', 'data science bootcamp vs full-stack JS bootcamp: which suits a career-changer'. Two drafts a month, in your voice, that catch the prospect 6 weeks before they apply.
Your first 30 days.
- Specialty-and-format pages indexed for full-stack JS, data science Python, UX UI design and DevOps cloud, ranking long-tail city-and-format queries
- Annual plan built around the cohort-fill calendar (8 weeks out, 4-week intro workshop, final-10-days ramp), delivered by Sam
- Google Business Profile rebuilt as 'Computer training school' with ASQA RTO Provider Number in the description and 17-strong service list
- VET Student Loan eligibility banner above the fold for ASQA-registered specialties, with the honest 'repay only when you earn over $54,435' line
- Free Saturday intro workshop landing page live, with auto-scheduling 4 weeks before each cohort starts
- Cohort ad campaign running 8 weeks out from next intake with the final-10-days daily-budget ramp configured
- Post-grad employment placement rate, lead instructor background and capstone-project showcase on every specialty page
- 'Are coding bootcamps worth it in 2026' financial-breakdown cornerstone guide drafted, with 'VET Student Loan vs upfront' companion in the queue
Coding bootcamps don't fail at teaching code; they fail at filling cohorts on time. General Assembly starts spending 8 weeks before each intake; you start the week applications open and run the cohort at 14/24. The break-even sits at 18 students. Half-full cohorts kill the unit economics that pay the instructors and the career-services team. The work is the specialty-and-format page library, the 8-weeks-out cohort-fill ad calendar, the free Saturday intro workshop, and the consented placement stories that close the $14,000 tuition decision.
Agencies are too dear to actually run the cohort-fill calendar and the placement-story engine for $5k a month. Tools are cheap but the next-cohort spots-remaining counter shows last cohort's number in week 6. In-House is the third option: for $299 a month the agents ship the specialty pages, run the cohort-timed ad campaigns, post the placement announcements and draft the prospect guides. You stay in the driver's seat, two taps to approve, minutes a day between cohort office hours. Fill 24/24, not 14/24.