New arrivals choose housing, banking, loans and visa help in the weeks around the intake – on the recommendation of another student in the group, not a feed ad. Torchly places your offer inside those communities, posted by the admin they trust, disclosed and tracked, priced per result.
A student who landed two weeks ago has a bank account, a SIM, a tenancy and a way to move money home all to sort at once – high-value, low-familiarity choices they'll make fast. And they make them the same way: by asking the WhatsApp or society group they just joined. That question is the highest-intent moment in the whole funnel, and it happens in a closed room no ad platform can reach.
The UK hosts roughly 685,000 international students and Ireland a record intake on top – with hundreds of thousands of new arrivals every year, each buying the same starter bundle.
For a first tenancy or a loan in an unfamiliar country, students act on what a peer in the group vouches for. An ambassador scheme or a discount site doesn't carry that weight; the admin does.
Nearly all of it happens around the September and January intakes. Miss the window and the cohort has already chosen; hit it, and you're the recommendation in the room when they decide.
You never touch a group directly. You brief the campaign; the admin approves and posts it; you get tracked results and pay only for them.
Your offer, the students you want (city, course, nationality), and the result you'll pay for – a booking, a funded loan, a signed client.
We map your brief to vetted UK and Ireland student communities – nationality societies, course-intake groups, city student networks – and show you the matches and reach.
The community admin reviews and posts your offer in their own voice, clearly disclosed as sponsored, with a tracked link. Nothing runs without their sign-off.
Clicks are tracked; conversions come from your own dashboard. You pay per booking, loan or signup, so the downside is a small pilot fee, not a media spend.
The economics work when one conversion is worth real money. If your product is free and already cheap to acquire, this isn't your channel – and we'll say so.
Accommodation platforms and operators. A single booking on a £15,000-a-year tenancy funds the whole placement, so per-result pricing is a clean fit.
Education lenders, international student accounts, and tuition or FX providers. High lifetime value, and ads for regulated finance are throttled – so a compliant peer channel wins.
Immigration, relocation and study-abroad advisory where the student pays a real fee. The arrival group is exactly where those decisions get made.
Anything else – hello@torchlyhq.com. A real person replies.
We place your offer inside the WhatsApp, society and Discord groups new students join before and just after they arrive. A trusted admin posts it, clearly disclosed, with a tracked link. You pay per result – a booking, funded loan or signup – not per impression.
High-value purchases where one conversion is worth a lot: student housing, education lenders, relocation and visa services, and tuition or FX providers. It's a poor fit for free products already acquired for a few pounds a head – and we'll tell you if that's you.
Every placement is labelled as sponsored, which the UK ASA and student unions require. For regulated finance the brand writes and approves the copy as the FCA-authorised firm, and we run it as an approved financial promotion.
Around the September intake (the largest) and January (secondary). Book in July–August and November–December so the campaign is live when the new cohort arrives and starts choosing housing, banking and services.
A unique link and code per community – clicks we track, conversions come from your own dashboard, so you never take our word for it. You also see per-community numbers, so a weak group exposes itself and gets dropped.