Programmatic advertising is already taking the recruitment industry by storm in the US and Canada. It’s set to dominate UK recruitment advertising by the end of 2020.
Recruiters are finding that programmatic advertising is helping them to get their jobs in front of more candidates faster and more efficiently than competitors.
So we spoke to industry expert, Tim Sackett about his thoughts on programmatic advertising and how using it has impacted his recruitment.
A 20 year veteran of the recruitment and HR industry, Tim Sackett is the President of a $40 million IT and Engineering contract staffing firm and RPO. He shares his experience and industry insights on his blog, The Tim Sackett Project.
1. Programmatic is a must for 2020 recruitment marketing
The rise of programmatic advertising in the US and Canada shows us what’s to come in the UK.
As Tim says, “The UK is definitely starting to take on more of that US-based kind of design.”
We know that the days of organic job board traffic for recruitment consultancies in the UK are numbered.
So it’s more important than ever for recruitment consultancies to use a range of traffic sources to maintain a steady flow of candidates.
As UK online traffic increasingly moves more towards a pay-to-play model, you need to be testing various sources of paid traffic.
Tim insists that “if you haven't already started testing with programmatic in 2020, it's a must!”
Agencies that don’t adapt, risk being left behind.
2. Programmatic advertising is not a magic pill
Programmatic advertising is really effective in helping you reach and engage candidates quickly. Especially, those needed for niche and specialist positions.
But, it’s also important to remember that it’s not a cure-all.
As Tim said, “Programmatic [advertising] is not a magic kind of pill.
If you're looking for a developer in an area or a market where there are no developers, programmatic [advertising] is not magically going to create a developer. It just doesn't work that way.”
When Tim has spoken to companies in the US that have told him programmatic advertising didn’t work, “then they tell me the job, they tell me the market and I'm like, well, that's because there are just no people there for that job.“
But, if candidates are out there, it’s “definitely going help you get more developers to apply for those jobs.”
3. It needs to be managed by experts
Tim is critical of his experiences of working with programmatic advertising companies in the US.
He said, “they don't do a good job educating the client base on basically. They'll go, ‘oh, we can get you more traffic for less money.’
But what they're doing is getting a lot of traffic to jobs that are easier to get traffic to. So the companies, say ‘you got us more traffic overall.’”
Clear, transparent management of online advertising is essential.
The programmatic agency you work with should have a clear understanding of your recruitment objectives and the roles you find more challenging to fill.
Programmatic technology gives you access to more features that can help you to understand and improve your performance. This includes setting ‘rules’. For example, to cap the number of applications you receive for particular jobs.
When you’ve got the applications you need, the job advert is turned off, making sure additional work isn’t generated for recruiters.
Your partner agency can focus your advertising budget on getting in front of the candidates you need for the more difficult-to-fill roles.
4. Programmatic advertising can get you results, cheaper
When Tim began testing programmatic advertising, he said, “we found some of our programmatic testing worked great. It was at least half the cost of what we would do with the traditional kind of recruitment marketing spend.”
Programmatic advertising can get you the results you want by allowing jobs to be advertised on multiple job boards at the same time. This way, you can get in front of candidates more quickly than by advertising on a much small number of job boards for a fixed period of time.
At Talent Nexus, we guarantee our clients a 20% improvement in the results of their job board advertising. The improvement they usually experience is actually much greater.
Programmatic advertising FTW
Programmatic advertising is an essential part of an effective recruitment strategy in 2020.
Want to find out more? Read About Programmatic Advertising for an introduction to programmatic advertising.