Expanding the Teacher Pipeline

Since 1985, the Golden Apple Foundation has been at the forefront of developing teacher and school leader excellence in schools of need to help resolve the nationwide teacher shortage. To maintain state funding within Illinois, Michigan, and New Mexico, Golden Apple needed to recruit 500 new applicants across their two programs: Scholars (ages 17+) and Accelerators (career changers, ages 24+).
HausCo created and launched targeted ads on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok across Illinois, Michigan, and New Mexico to help meet this goal.
For potential Scholars, static and video ads featured Golden Apple participants and emphasized program benefits, classroom impact, and financial opportunities in the messaging. For potential Accelerators, we focused on the program's flexible scheduling, tuition assistance, and job placement support, showcasing the value of both programs to aspiring teachers.
This recruitment campaign, comprised of specific and strategic executions for the audience groups, ran from September 2024 to March 2025 of the school year to reach aspiring teachers. Paid ads strategically targeted teachers, high school and college students, and people in the education industry. Website/Social Media Retargeting and Interest Segment targeting tactics were also used to reach people who might've been more familiar with Golden Apple, which motivated them to click through on ads more. HausCo additionally implemented pixel tracking to understand how specific audiences converted on the Golden Apple application page, which helped inform targeting optimizations. After each 30-day paid media cycle, each ad’s performance data underwent a thorough analysis, and the ads with the lowest click-through rates were refreshed with new messaging and visuals.
As a result, the recruitment campaign reached 2.1 million potential applicants across Facebook and Instagram and received 134,000 clicks to the application page. By utilizing real-time data to optimize underperforming ads, the campaign proved how effectively targeted ads can drive mission-focused goals by using real-time data to optimize underperforming ads. Current participants were enthusiastic about seeing themselves in the ads and proudly shared them organically across their social networks. That genuine pride and engagement helped strengthen the connection between Golden Apple and aspiring teachers, and ultimately reach the organization’s recruitment goals.