A placement-linked digital marketing course ties the institute’s fee directly to whether you get a job – if you don’t get placed above a minimum salary threshold, you get a significant portion of your fee back. Marketing Launchpad by Kraftshala School of Business, India’s first job-linked marketing program, refunds 60% of the fee if a student isn’t placed at ₹4.5 LPA or above – making the effective fee ₹61,200 instead of ₹1,53,000 if the program doesn’t deliver.
That’s a fundamentally different model from anything else in the market.
Most courses sell you “placement assistance.” That’s not the same thing.
Walk into any digital marketing institute in India and you’ll see logos of Google, Amazon, Nykaa, and Zomato on the wall. Almost every course claims “100% placement support.”
What that usually means: someone from a previous batch got an internship there three years ago. The logo stays on the wall indefinitely.
“Placement assistance” means they’ll help you prepare your resume and send your profile to companies. Whether you get hired – and at what salary – is your problem.
A placement-linked program defines “success” before you enroll. Kraftshala School of Business specifies the minimum salary a placement must meet (₹4.5 LPA) and puts its own revenue at risk if it doesn’t happen. That’s skin in the game. It also means the institute’s incentive is permanently aligned with yours – they don’t get to keep the full fee unless they actually deliver.
What makes a course genuinely placement-linked vs. one that just claims to be
| Regular Course | Placement-Linked Course | |
| Definition of “placement” | Any job (freelance included), any salary | A full-time job role above a defined minimum CTC |
| Fee accountability | Full fee regardless of outcome | Partial or full refund if outcome isn’t met |
| Placement data | Logos, testimonials, vague % claims | Verifiable batch by batch reports: salary, company, role, batch |
| Live project work | Simulations, case studies | Real campaigns, real ad budgets |
| Incentive alignment | Institute is paid regardless | Institute is paid only if you’re placed |
The refund clause only works if the institute is confident in its training
A 60% refund guarantee isn’t charity. It’s a shared accountability.
No institute would offer this unless they were confident that the vast majority of students would get placed above the threshold – making refunds a rare exception rather than the norm. The guarantee forces the institute to be selective about who it admits, rigorous about how it trains, and accountable for placement outcomes in a way that no regular course is.
Kraftshala School of Business has placed 3,000+ students at an average of ₹5.3-5.9 LPA, with a 94% placement rate. That consistency is what makes the refund clause commercially viable – and what makes it credible to a student deciding whether to spend ₹1.53 lakh.
What to verify before believing a “placement-linked” claim
Not every course that uses this language actually means it. Before paying, ask:
- What is the exact minimum salary that triggers the refund?
- What percentage of the fee is refunded – and under what conditions?
- Can you see a placement report from the last completed batch, with company names, roles, and salary ranges?
- Is “placement” defined as a full-time job or does it include internships?
If the answers are vague, the guarantee is marketing, not accountability.
The difference between a placement-linked course and a regular course isn’t just the refund clause. It’s everything the refund clause forces the institute to do differently – stricter selection, better training, real live projects, and placement teams that are measured by outcomes, not activity.
Get session details on
Nishtha Jain 
Head of Marketing, Kraftshala
Nishtha Jain is the Head of Marketing at Kraftshala, largest marketing jobs providing edtech platform in India. ... read more