We’ve had a great response to our What Recruitment Means to Me; 500 words campaign – with this being the first blog written for us. Jon Hull is Group Head of Resourcing for Carillion PLC and shares his thoughts on Programmatic Recruitment Advertising:
In over 20 years in recruitment, agency and in house, periodically we hear that new technology or products will cause the death of the Agency or Job Board…. In the early 2000s certainly LinkedIn did disrupt and made the market more transparent and accessible. With something like 80% penetration at professional level in major markets, this did transform many elements of the process and squeezed many agencies hard, Job Boards even harder and Recruitment Marketing agencies took a bath.
But….of course the agencies caught on, LinkedIn even made a way of selling to the agencies (even though they said they never would compromise their members in such a way to open them up for spam)…. In House teams still took advantage and agencies learnt well. However, the job boards never really changed their model. They just wanted to sell more inventory, whether useful or not and move on. The equivalent of pile it high and sell it cheap Kwik Save. And look what happened to them. Recruitment Marketing began to pick up because of something that will really transform your approach to finding great candidates, at pre-set costs and for someone who like life easy, reduces the volume of unnecessary applicants. Programmatic Advertising….
Sounds space age…But think online shopping. Advertisers can build a profile of your behaviour and habits about what you might want to buy. Ever booked parking at an airport? For months you are stalked with ads on your Facebook feed, websites you visit? Well the same principles apply to recruitment and candidates. If we know a broad profile of the type of person you might be, we can target you in the forums, websites, spaces you inhabit online and come to you, rather than expect you to visit a job board or specific site. What does this really mean…?
Benefits for us in house types –
- Cost – I can set a limit on spend …I don’t have to accept what Job Board X or Y says…
- Retargeting – I only pay when some clicks…and if stuff doesn’t work, I can target elsewhere in real time – I don’t have to wait.
- Market Insight – I quickly get a feel for candidate behaviour in a market and what my options might be.
- Cuts our Job Board Contact – In reality I use a media buyer anyway but guys – I really am not interested in 80s style sales because you have a sales target – I just want some cool conversations and actually conversations with the analysts who do this are a lot more interesting and impart more insight than any of your guys ever will… Bit harsh I know … I am sure your job board is interesting at some point but I don’t have time to talk to all of you….Nice people as you maybe.
- ROI – I know exactly what I am getting – I can justify to any stakeholder quickly….
Predictions of the demise of anything are hostage to fortune but I do know this…If we continue to adopt this approach evolution in the agency and job board space will happen quickly and even change the number and type of generic boards and agencies…..
PS, if you want to write something for us as part of the 500 words series: the only criteria is that it must be a unique piece of writing you’ve not published elsewhere, you must work within a recruitment function or a recruitment agency/consultancy and you’ll need to stick to the 500 word limit. To take part send me your 500 word blog post with author biog and we’ll publish all which match our editorial standards.
