Thomas Jefferson Independent Day School
Meet Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson Independent Day School is the only independent liberal arts college preparatory school in Joplin, Missouri. Students from Pre-K through 12 are welcomed onto a stunning modern campus where they are supported to challenge their potential.
The Challenge
Thomas Jefferson – or TJ, as they’re known in the community – is a school that is well-known but not always well-understood. They came to Metric to help raise awareness of who they are and what they offer, including a recent permanent $5,000 tuition reduction for all current and prospective families (thanks to a very generous endowment).
The Strategy
We took a deep dive into researching TJ, their market in Missouri and neighboring states, their right-fit families, their past marketing efforts, and their competitors – and developed two core target audiences complete with customer journeys and digital targeting frameworks that mapped the right message to the right platform at the right time in order to move them through from awareness to familiarity and consideration to conversion (and ultimately, loyalty where they’ll become advocates for the school).
- Potential Early Entry Families are looking for a school that will be a long-term fit for their child and their entire family.
- Potential Middle & Senior School Families have already experienced an alternative school, so they have a list of specific needs and questions they’ll ask before confidently committing to TJ. Within this audience, we also considered the role middle and high school students play in decisions around where they’ll go to school – and what’s most important to them.
All audiences are made up of highly engaged parents who are analytical in their decision-making and known for being friendly and social. Because TJ is the only private school in the area that is religiously- and politically-neutral, their right fit families also share values of diversity and inclusivity. They are looking for the best for their child, in an environment that prioritizes excellence but also provides balance and the support students need to get there.
The Execution
Our concept – EXTRAORDINARY IS WITHIN REACH – is designed to show how Thomas Jefferson students pursue the extraordinary every day at school through a rigorous college prep program in an environment that supports students and guides them to be successful, at a newly-reduced price point that is within reach for families.
We wanted to feature a lot of movement and energy, to help reinforce that TJ is a joyful place to learn – not a pressure cooker. The concept allowed us to feature a wide range of age groups and show diversity in many ways, so each target audience can truly see their children at Thomas Jefferson. This concept leans heavily into TJ’s brand colors and uses bold, action-oriented headlines to encourage our audiences to investigate, contact, and ultimately apply to attend Thomas Jefferson.
To bring this concept to market, we leveraged a range of digital channels – including Google and Meta – and produced target ad variants to reach unique audiences at each stage of the customer journey, from awareness and familiarity through to consideration and conversion.
Our team set up high value conversion (or key event) tracking, allowing us to cut through the noise of low-value events and focus on more tangible results from campaign efforts. Beyond just reporting success, this also gives our audience targeting efforts a leg up in finding the right-fit families for TJS.
The Results
After one full year in market (recruiting for Fall 2024), Thomas Jefferson experienced growth in traffic, conversions, and applications attributed to their new recruitment campaign.
29%
of website traffic came from paid channels – with an increase in users, sessions and events per session YoY
152%
Increase in conversions classified as high value (submitting an inquiry form, requesting a campus visit, or clicking through to apply)
38%
of Request Information form fills were driven by paid advertising channels
- Paid advertising leads that filled out the Request Information form had a 41% yield to applying (highest among all traffic channels)
- 82% of these families enrolled at TJ
144%
Mobile conversions were up 144% YoY (and exceeded desktop conversions for the first time) – including a 133% increase in clicks through to the application form
We recently optimized and relaunched the Thomas Jefferson recruitment campaign for Fall 2025 applications and look forward to sharing the results.
There were two main drivers for our initial interest in Metric: their in-depth data analysis and their experience in the private/independent school market. Our partnership with them has been a positive strategic move, and their creativity brought new life to our EXTRAORDINARY school.
“As an admissions director, I closely monitor inquiry numbers but also yield. I noticed that our inquiries became much more targeted toward mission-aligned families which led to an overall higher yield because Metric focused on reaching the right fit families. We are still in our first-year campaign, but the momentum continues to grow. We enjoy the ease of working with them as a team, and their professionalism is top-notch.”
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