Are you prepared to lose your primary source of traffic? At a time when no source is guaranteed and the loss of traffic is a very real threat, it’s essential to be ready.
Recruitment consultancies in the US and Canada felt the impact on their bottom-lines in January 2019, when Indeed switched-off organic traffic it had supplied to recruitment consultancies and staffing firms.
The blow was felt industry-wide and companies of all sizes were forced to purchase the traffic from Indeed or replace it with another source.
It’s predicted by industry experts that Indeed will follow suit in the UK this year. Top 10 Global HR infuencer and recruitment guru, Tim Sackett, recently said, “Indeed is going to cut free organic traffic to the UK staffing vendors just like they did to the US staffing vendors in 2019. 2020 UK get ready!”
With the anticipated Indeed organic switch-off looming, for many recruitment consultancies, it’s highlighted the need to expand traffic sources.
No source of traffic is guaranteed, so it’s absolutely crucial to diversify your traffic now.
Follow these steps and start to future-proof your advertising strategy:
1. Ensure you fully understand what your analytics are telling you
How many placements do you currently make from Indeed? Your analytics provide you with the data you need to make informed decisions about your recruitment activities.
A lip-service glance at your analytics, just won’t cut it. You must understand both where your traffic is coming from and how well it’s performing.
To do so, you’ll need to have a clear definition of what “good performance” means to your business.
Refer to the data and ask yourself, which sources of traffic convert into successful and profitable placements? There are some metrics you should definitely consider when calculating performance. Of course, everyone’s KPIs will look different, but these will provide you with a good overview to work with:
- How quickly are candidates sourced and placements made
- The source of your candidates and the proportion that lead to placements
- Quality of candidates
- Cost to generate a placement
Be sure, that in addition to conversions, you also track placements, since this is the most meaningful indicator of your recruitment success.
Once you’ve audited your analytics and have a full understanding of your best performing sources of traffic, you can use this knowledge to inform your future marketing activities.
2. Test new sources of traffic and measure the results
Use a diverse range of traffic sources to maximise your results and reduce the risk of relying on any single source.
Programmatic advertising allows you to take advantage of a wide range of pay-per-performance job boards to source your traffic, reducing your reliance on any single source, helping you to reduce the impact of any future changes which could affect performance.
With the benefits of automatically managing these posts, we usually expect to see a significant improvement in results (and we guarantee at least 20%). Trialing out this method of sourcing traffic will allow you to see the results of programmatic advertising, and compare it to your current traffic sources like-for-like.
Keep those KPIs in mind and use them to evaluate the success of each candidate attraction channel you’re testing.
3. Partner with a programmatic advertising agency
Adding loads more traffic sources can lead to a significant increase in workload for marketing directors. Working with an agency can help you get all the advantages of diversified traffic and being ready for the future, without extra hassle.
As you diversify your traffic sources, the number of relationships you need to develop and manage with suppliers increases. When you work with a programmatic agency, those relationships are managed on your behalf, saving you time and additional work.
A programmatic agency has a deep understanding of the industry and a high level of expertise that informs and enhances advertising campaigns.
At Talent Nexus, we have generated billions of data points gathered from a broad range of campaigns. We use the information we gain from this data to make informed decisions about campaigns.
Be prepared for change
The future of candidate attraction can seem uncertain. Rapid industry developments and the evolving nature of digital advertising present both risks and opportunities for consultancies.
You need to ensure that your recruitment consultancy is equipped to adapt to market changes and can continue to deliver placements.
A solid understanding of your analytics and what they mean for your business, testing new traffic sources and partnering with a programmatic agency will best position your recruitment consultancy to respond to new developments.
Get in touch with our friendly team today and find out how we can help you to deliver the placements you need by future-proofing your advertising strategy. Email alex.harvey@talentnexus.com or call 020 7127 0735 today.