“The team at JSR Strategies are quick, smart and incredibly agile. They helped guide us through a big body of work with a short turn around. We walked away with tangible knowledge and tools to help us do our work better.”
Digital Ads to Grow Volunteer Recruitment
American Red Cross
Outreach and Paid Media
Goal
JSR Strategies was contracted to conduct hyper-local digital recruitment efforts in three regions to test whether targeted digital marketing could improve recruitment outcomes. The project had three core objectives:
- Creative and Message Development – Develop audience-specific messages tailored to both the volunteer positions and regional demographics, and test message effectiveness through Google Display Ads.
- Digital Media Planning and Execution – Execute hyper-local media buys using platforms like Nextdoor and Google Ads to assess the effectiveness of each digital tactic.
- Report Development – Establish a dynamic reporting tool to communicate recruitment impact to Senior Leadership and Regional Teams.
About
The American Red Cross (ARC) thrives on the dedication of its incredible volunteers, who make up an impressive 90% of its workforce. These passionate individuals are the heart of ARC’s mission to provide disaster relief, blood donations, and emergency services across the nation. To ensure continued success, the national recruitment team has embraced innovative, hyper-local solutions to attract even more volunteers for critical roles, ensuring ARC’s lifesaving work reaches everyone who needs it.
Solution
JSR Strategies implemented a data-driven, hyper-local approach to recruitment marketing, tailoring campaigns to each region’s unique volunteer demographics. Key elements included:
- Hyper-Local Campaigns:
- Pulled zip codes for each target region using a market analysis tool.
- Created volunteer personas and customized content for each volunteer role.
- Designed and tested highly localized ads with varying images, messaging, and CTA formats.
- Targeted Digital Advertising:
- Google Display Ads – Tested role-specific content with photos and regional targeting.
- Google Responsive Display Ads – Experimented with localized and general role-specific content, incorporating multiple creative elements (photos, videos, headlines, body copy).
- Nextdoor Advertising – Leveraged community-based advertising to increase engagement.
- Reporting & Insights Development:
- Designed a Proactive Volunteer Funnel to measure impressions, awareness, engagement, and conversion rates.
- Developed a Reactive Graphic Report for leadership, visually outlining where volunteer engagement dropped off.
- Created a Cost per Conversion Analysis, calculating ad spend efficiency by volunteer role.
Outreach
Results
By leveraging hyper-local digital marketing and advanced reporting, JSR Strategies successfully enhanced the American Red Cross’s ability to recruit biomedical volunteers efficiently. The project’s findings provided ARC with a scalable, data-driven recruitment strategy that can be replicated across regions to sustain and grow its vital volunteer workforce.
- Optimized Reporting & Funnel Analysis:
- Identified key gaps in the volunteer recruitment journey, improving efficiency in engagement efforts.
- Provided benchmarks for impressions, landing page visits, and application starts required for conversion.
- Established a comparison model for recruitment cost versus volunteer lifetime value.
- High-Level Campaign Performance Report:
- Overview of best-performing content and visuals.
- Detailed analysis of hyper-localized targeting effectiveness.
- Tactical recommendations for scaling digital recruitment efforts across additional regions.
Susie Spartano
Director of Volunteer Recruitment and Intake, American Red Cross