Recruitment agencies across the globe have felt the squeeze of job board advertising prices with in recent years.
In Australia, recruiters have described a spike in costs but reduced ad performance since Seek introduced their new model back in 2019, which included variable pricing for ads based on things like candidate availability and location.
In the UK, Total Jobs has equally surprised their existing customers with many choosing to walk away from years-long contracts following price hikes earlier in 2022.
And while we certainly believe job boards still have value, we think now is a good time for recruitment agencies to re-assess how well their job ads are performing and whether there is an alternative way to attract top talent.
In this blog, we discuss different approaches to sourcing talent that can work in conjunction with or in place of job boards.
The Question of ROI
With so much outrage seen on LinkedIn right now, we wanted to take a step back and look at the figures. Yes, 300% price increases sound extreme but it doesn’t really mean anything unless you attach it to an outcome.
As a recruitment marketing company, we are all about Cost Per Acquisition, also known as Cost Per Placed Lead. This metric is usually applied when securing a new client, but it can also apply to candidates.
Here are a few initial questions to ask:
- How much did you spend sourcing the successful candidate as a percentage of all applications received?
- Are you tracking the full cost of securing a candidate across their entire recruitment journey?
- Is there an opportunity to be more strategic when using job ads, for example focusing on high-worth roles or high-volume recruitment drives?
By analysing this data, you might see some clear trends of where you can justify the ROI of job boards for some roles but not others.
PageUp recently analysed their customer data and presented the following findings:
This shows that while job boards might be driving volume, they aren’t necessarily an effective recruitment strategy when compared with others.
How to Reduce Your Reliance on Job Boards
So how do you find the ideal attraction methodology for the roles you recruit?
Our approach when working with new clients is to first run a workshop that identifies your audience, your USP and your marketing objectives. From there, we put together a strategy that will help you achieve those goals and produce a solid ROI.
But for the purposes of this blog, we’ve put together some initial ideas to get you started:
Establishing Your Online Recruitment Hub
The ultimate goal when recruiting should be to drive quality candidates to your website and for them to either register their interest or directly apply for an active role.
Your website is your recruitment epi-centre and the most important public-facing asset you have outside of your team.
It should be a place where you can differentiate yourself from your competitors, answer any questions or address any concerns and most importantly house all of your active roles.
The key to a good website is making sure it’s functional and user-friendly. That means putting yourself in the candidate’s shoes and making sure there is an easy path for them to follow from landing on your site to taking some form of action e.g. applying, uploading their CV or calling one of your consultants.
If you find any blockers, such as compulsory fields that could be off-putting or onerous application processes, do what you can to remove them.
Building Brand Awareness
So, you’ve built a functional website and uploaded all of your jobs, but how do you attract candidates?
Brand awareness comes through actively positioning and promoting your business within your marketplace. It’s becoming the go-to people when candidates decide they want to change roles. It’s skipping the jobs board because people know you’re the best connected and most experienced, so why waste time with the middleman?
Brand awareness can be achieved through a number of different channels and methods, from promoting consistent and engaging content on social media to sponsoring industry events and hosting webinars.
Harnessing Paid Advertising
Recruiters can sometimes be nervous about paid advertising because any Pay-Per-Click model sounds less controlled than a flat fee.
But if you’re strategic with your paid advertising, you can create campaigns that directly target different roles or role types through tailored media placement and drive interested job seekers directly to your website.
Bespoke landing pages can be created to continue the single candidate experience and maximise the chances of them applying for the role then and there.
Amplifying Social Media
We all know you can promote jobs through LinkedIn, but are you making the most of your personal and corporate LinkedIn profiles? Are you positioning your business and your people as industry experts who regularly and actively participate in industry discussions? Are you creating original content that demonstrates your understanding of the marketplace?
And are you making the most of your network? It clearly takes a lot of time and effort to develop connections within your community, so now is the time to cash in on those contacts. Sending InMails and promoting referral schemes are just a couple of ideas.
Automating Communication
Once a candidate has registered with your recruitment agency, it’s the first step in their nurture journey. They may be actively looking for a new role or only interested in a specific advertised opportunity or they could be at the start of six-month-long long process with you.
If there’s one thing we know recruiters are short on, it’s time. And that’s where automation can achieve great gains. By automating some core email communications you can take the pressure off yourself and your team by regularly touching base with candidates automatically.
Some examples of automated communication include birthday messages, checking in on a new starter during their first day/week/month and regularly touching base with passive candidates.
Get in Touch
With talk of monopolies and duopolies in the job board industry, it’s always useful to re-assess your reliance on any single talent attraction tool. Not only could you find significant cost savings, you could also take the first step to boosting your own brand awareness and increasing your market share.
Here at Prominence, we work with recruitment agencies and help them navigate their way out of the confusing maze of recruitment marketing. We’ll help you achieve your marketing goals and connect you with the clients and candidates you want to reach.
Contact one of our specialist team today to find out how we can help you.
