If you advertise online this is research that you ought to take a look at. I'm not just talking about web banner advertising but also if you advertise your jobs on your own site, on a job board, or anywhere else.
The IAB’s recently put together a PowerPoint presentation entitled "Customer Conversion Journey Research" – the full version is only available to members but you can download the key findings here.
The results show the relative effectiveness of different online activities including display advertising, sponsored search, affiliate marketing, natural search and email marketing. The findings also highlight the average number of times users making purchases on these sites are exposed to each activity, which elements are most effective in converting visitors to customers and the optimum number of display exposures.
Yes, it's most relevant to travel companies (the sector in which the research was conducted) but the lessons can also be applied to recruitment advertising and job listings. The idea being that people that apply for jobs online are exposed to lots of online marketing messages – emails, display ads, job listings, job aggregators, search results (both natural and paid for) that influence what they do at different stages of the process.
Also covered are issues around assessing display advertising and the need to move beyond the click thru metric to understand the true impact of online display activity. So, just because your banner didn't get the 500 clicks per day you were hoping for – it doesn't mean that your message isn't being received loud and clear.
In very simple terms it shows that online advertising can be compared to television or radio (or paper) advertising – where just because someone doesn't act immediately it doesn't mean that they your advertisement isn’t building an awareness (and opinion) of your brand – which is bound to affect them further down the line.
So, pop over to the site and download the PowerPoint!
