Job aggregators find job postings from all over the internet (traditional job boards, recruitment websites, employer careers pages) and bring them together into one place.

Just like how Google allows you to search for websites from across the internet, aggregators allow you to find jobs.

You might have heard of some of the big players - ZipRecruiter, Adzuna, Talent.com and Indeed are all well-known aggregators.

These job board search engines have become some of the most popular job sites for candidates. Indeed alone receives over 250 million visitors every month.

Many consider these sites to be the next generation of online job advertising.

Job aggregators proactively search the internet to find jobs. Do a quick search on one of these sites and you'll find results from a range of different sources. You might even see some of your own jobs, even if you haven't posted them there yourself

Using a technique called 'scraping', aggregators are able to locate jobs on different websites, process them into a consistent format and display them in search results on their own platform.

Because of this, many of the jobs which appear on aggregators haven't been directly posted there by a recruiter or employer. Instead, they may have been posted out onto their own careers page or another traditional job board.

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That's why you may find that some of your live jobs are already automatically showing up on aggregators even if you haven't added them yourself.

They appear in search results. Candidates often start their search there. It doesn’t mean they won’t end up applying elsewhere.

Ie. SKYSCANNER appears in search results, but the customer still ends up buying their flight from the airline.

Job boards

• Candidates apply for roles through the job board directly or are redirected to a corporate or recruitment consultants site
• Gather posts from recruiters to display in their job board search results
• Tend to buy advertising using a traditional ‘credits’ system (although many now offer a PPP model)
• Tend to have far fewer jobs for candidates to choose from
• You tend to buy advertising directly, and post through a multiposter like BB or Idibu
  

Aggregators

• Often redirects the job seeker to a job board, rather than a corporate or staffing firm website. 
• Aside from Indeed.com, it is unusual for a job aggregator to be able to take the candidate application on behalf of the advertiser
• Locate jobs online and bring together to display in search results
• Model
• Tend to have much larger numbers of jobs, as they are not dependent on advertisers choosing to pay to promote the jobs
• You tend to buy a

After hearing so much about job aggregators, you're probably now wondering if they're right for you. And the answer is probably yes.

Aggregators can form a key part of an all-round recruitment advertising strategy. Alongside a mix of traditional job boards, social media and other channels, they can help you to reach more candidates and generate high-quality applications.

There are now over 30 popular job aggregators powering job searches in the UK. You may have already heard of some of the big names.

• Adzuna
• Glassdoor
• Indeed
• Jobg8
• Jobisjob
• Jooble
• Jobrapido
• Jobtome
• Neuvoo
• Talent.com
• Trovit
• Workcircle
• ZipRecruiter

and plenty more…

Many aggregators allow you to promote your jobs both organically and through paid advertising.

Organic is where your jobs appear on aggregators without paying anything. Candidates are able to view the job and apply at no cost to the recruiter.‍

READ MORE: What actually is organic traffic?

Aggregators also provide recruiters with the option to pay to promote their jobs on their sites too (which is how they make their money). Paying to advertise on aggregators means that your job will appear in more candidate searches and you’ll be able to generate better results.

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PAY PER CLICK‍

Job aggregators usually use a model of advertising called ‘pay-per-click’ for their paid options. That means you only end up paying for the advertising when someone clicks on it.

It’s already the way that most other online advertising works.

It means that you’re able to pay for when someone properly clicks on your job rather than simply scrolling past it. For recruiters, that means you’re able to only pay for your advertising when it works.

PROGRAMMATIC APPROACH

‍Since managing paid advertising across all these different aggregators can get pretty complex, many recruiters opt to use a ‘programmatic approach’ to make sure they stay on top of everything.

The core principle of this is - you won’t get the same results from all of your advertising. Different jobs, different aggregators, different amounts of money you’re spending, and even different times of year all make a difference. If you’re advertising on several of these aggregators, it can quickly get complicated to work out what’s working well and what isn’t (and most importantly, why).

So to make that simpler for recruiters, and to make it easier to get the best results from the money you’re spending, many decide to use programmatic technology to automate as much of this as possible.