Data-driven or programmatic recruitment advertising started off as an industry disruptor. Now it’s settling into its groove as a go-to strategy for employers, recruiters, HR, job boards and publishers. It’s defining how each element of the talent acquisition industry does business together. And it’s fast becoming the new standard.
Like most technology that shakes up an industry then sticks around for the long haul, there’s a steep learning curve with data-driven ad buys. Metrics can overwhelm, data analytics can be costly, and the whole endeavor might sometimes feel like too much effort for unpredictable returns.
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But the magic of this new merge between humans and technology is that it doesn’t have to be any of those things. Data-driven recruitment advertising streamlines the process. It can be simple and accessible for nearly any budget. It was the right solution at the right time, and it’s coming into its own.
Data-Driven Recruitment Advertising Solves Problems
When a new upstart comes along that solves a problem, chances are it will be around for a while, even if there are a few growing pains at first. That’s what happened with data-driven recruitment advertising.
Newspaper publishers were early ad technology adopters. Groups of publishers instituted their own data-based ad-buying programs to help generate more predictable and dependable ad revenue. The results have proven efficient and effective.
Marketing Land says data-driven advertising can work a lot of magic:
- Automated ad buys across multiple channels and devices
- Target audience-centric ad buying in real time
- Campaign optimization
- Dynamic experience for all key players
They called it “programmatic advertising.” And the moniker stuck.
Programmatic advertising solves problems. It lightens (or even eliminates) the hands-on sales aspect of advertising. And it replaces it with automatic ad buys that hit the most appropriate and effective channels.
Data is what makes it possible. Data can tell you which job boards get the kind of traffic you’re looking for. Whatever matters to you, programmatic can filter for it so your ads hit a home run more often than not. And instead of hustling to find the best landing spot, programmatic recruitment advertising can buy the right ad space automatically. No muss, no fuss.
Programmatic Works for Advertisers and Job Boards
It’s a reciprocal benefit. Both advertisers/employers and job boards have a reason to love data-driven recruitment advertising.
From the employer’s point of view, programmatic finds the answers that matter most with the least cost and bother. And you don’t have to extract the metrics and analyze them yourself.
A programmatic approach does what you need, with minimal involvement. It matches the best ads with the most appropriate job boards for the best chance of a great hire. And it grows tighter and more efficient the more you use it.
- Better job ad distribution across multiple job boards
- Active control over campaigns
- Pinpoint audience targeting
- Predictive analytics for consistently better performance
- Efficient ad spend
- End-to-end campaign transparency
From the job board standpoint, programmatic brings in a steadier stream of ad revenue without the heavy sales angle. That’s especially important for white-label job boards that might not have the exposure of major players.
If the job board gets regular traffic from a certain type of job candidate, data knows it. And data is behind the technology that brings advertiser and job board together.
No matter who or where any of the key players are, automatic, programmatic advertising brings ads and job boards together.
Candidates Benefit from Programmatic, Too
Nowadays, nearly everything in the talent industry revolves around the candidate experience. Job boards might sell ads. But their real commodity is job candidate access. Recruitment specialists might need a great hire. But without a great candidate experience, a stellar job ad might not perform well.
Data-driven advertising improves the candidate experience because it provides more of what they want: exposure to better jobs. As a direct consequence, it helps eliminate what they’re not so keen on, which is a deluge of irrelevant job ads.
Programmatic advertising can also help more candidates find your great content. And that means more talent in the pipeline. At least when there’s a well-crafted ad that invites the candidate to learn more at your talent portal.
Data-driven or programmatic recruitment advertising pulls together all three puzzle pieces: recruiter, job board and candidate. And it does it more efficiently and effectively than any other strategy.
Programmatic isn’t just the way of the future, it’s what’s happening right now. In fact, if current momentum is any indication, the talent industry will overwhelmingly shift to a data-driven advertising model in just a few short years. And that’s because it works.
It wasn’t too long ago that “data” sounded like an intimidating word. Hardly any recruiter had the time to learn what it all meant. And hiring a data scientist wasn’t exactly in the average talent professional’s budget. But now the right technology gives you all of the benefits, no muss no fuss.