250+ apprenticeship
applications in 6 months.
Filling apprenticeship places without an existing pipeline
A1 Academy needed to fill places on its online marketing apprenticeship scheme, but had no established candidate pipeline to draw on. Every application had to be found and converted from a standing start.
The scheme needed volume and speed within a fixed six-month window, without an existing audience to market to.
A targeted search and lead generation campaign
OYM built and ran a digital campaign designed to find people actively searching for an apprenticeship route into marketing, and convert that interest into completed applications.
Candidate research
OYM mapped where people searching for marketing apprenticeships actually look, and built the campaign around those channels.
Search-led targeting
The campaign was built around search intent, putting A1's scheme in front of people already looking for this kind of opportunity.
Application funnel
A streamlined online application journey removed friction between finding the scheme and completing an application.
Ongoing optimisation
OYM tracked applications throughout the six-month window and adjusted targeting to keep volume moving toward the intake target.
Numbers that speak for themselves
Delivered inside a fixed six-month window, with no existing pipeline to build from.
Search intent beats broad awareness for a fixed-window campaign
Apprenticeship recruitment is a search-intent problem, not a brand-awareness one. People actively looking for a route into a marketing career convert at a different rate to people who simply see an ad. OYM built the campaign around that reality.
“250 applications in six months, from a standing start, because the campaign was built around people already searching for the opportunity, not around hoping the right people would notice an ad.”
Need to fill a fixed number of places by a deadline?
If you're running a recruitment, apprenticeship, or admissions campaign with a fixed window and a target to hit, OYM can build the search-led campaign to get you there.
Talk to OYM about lead generation →What we would use for you
This project centred on Lead Generation and SEO, with Website and Test & Measure supporting the application funnel.