Goodwill is an iconic brand known by many for its thrifty offerings and the “goodwill” it does within communities. In 2021, the Goodwill of Central & Southern Indiana (GCSI) team sought out Williams Randall Advertising to solve a problem. They were having trouble recruiting employees across several key areas: retail, commercial services, nursing, and education. Three years later, our annual campaign on GCSI’s behalf remains an integral part of their recruiting efforts.

During the first go-round, we got to work using our Left-Brain Creativity process, creating a campaign to draw attention to job opportunities at Goodwill and drive awareness of the organization’s mission. In practice, we achieved this by creating landing pages and driving traffic to the page’s “See Jobs” button.

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Segmenting Audiences to Drive Applications

We set out to create a campaign that could reach multiple audiences. Our first audience included people interested in commercial services and retail roles, while our second audience included those interested in nursing and education positions. Our creative team crafted messaging for each audience. Meanwhile, our media team worked to figure out the most relevant geographies for the campaign. They also narrowed down our audience segments by education level and career interests.

For the retail and commercial services roles, we targeted those generally looking for open positions (either full or part-time), layering in warehouse and retail position interest segments. For the open teaching roles, we targeted certified teachers who were looking to work at non-traditional schools like Goodwill’s Excel Center. Finally, for nursing, we targeted registered nurses who were looking to switch to more personal roles like those found in Goodwill’s Nurse-Family Partnership program. We employed a mix of media including Google Search, Google Display, and social media (Facebook and Instagram).

In the second year of the campaign, we increased our reach and frequency, adding Pinterest to our list of social platforms for the nursing segment of our campaign. In 2022, we also helped the organization transition its recruiting software from iCIMS to Workday, running point on strategy, branding, programming, and analytics. This change assisted human resources in more smoothly operating recruitment efforts.

In early 2024, we created a new landing page for Goodwill’s AbillityOne roles, which are open to individuals and veterans with qualifying disabilities. This landing page will further recruiting efforts and help even more people find impactful work with Goodwill of Central & Southern Indiana.

The Results?

Since we've started working with Goodwill of Central & Southern Indiana, we've improved their cost per application by 48% (when comparing results from 2023 to 2021). We've also made their applications more cost-efficient year over year consistently. 

Additionally, we've increased the number of applications submitted to Goodwill overall each year, bringing in more candidates per dollar spent in market annually. As of last year, Williams Randall influenced 22% of the total submitted applications to Goodwill during our campaigns. That’s a total of 8,961 submitted applications out of 39,478.

Even better, more people are landing jobs, learning new skills, and earning the income they need to provide for their families as a result of this campaign.