FOUR STRATEGIESTHAT DRIVECOMPLETEDAPPLICATIONS

The first jobs ads were hand-written sheets of paper stuck in an employer’s window. While delightfully simple, this recruitment model was incredibly inefficient as it attracted only those candidates who happened to be walking by.

We've come a long way since then. Today's online ads have massive reach across the job board network and social media sites; programmatic ads can even reach passive candidates who are not actively looking for a job. Buying advertising is no longer a choice-less system. Organizations are faced with a multitude of options about where to post their ads and how to pay for them. For the hiring manager who has to deliver a good return on his advertising spend, the choice can be bewildering.

Many companies still don't know what a click or an application is worth. These companies may stick to fixed-price slots on recognized job boards because this model has worked for them in the past, when the real data supports a pay-per-performance media model. The opposite also might be true.

Smart buyers understand that different media models serve different roles. Our data, gained from a longitudinal study of every major applicant tracking system in 15 different industries, suggests that pay-per-performance recruiting is efficient for certain types of jobs, while time-based advertising delivers a better ROI for others.

The purpose of this white paper is to cut through the misinformation and give four clear strategies that, if implemented, will deliver more, quality applications in return for your advertising spend. In our "takeaways" we provide clear guidance for you to analyze your own data and use the results to shift your budget to the media sources that deliver the greatest return on investment.

I do hope you find it useful.

Four Strategies That Drive Completed Applications

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Chris Forman,Founder and CEO

of Appcast

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Properly grouped and analyzed, applicant tracking system data can tell recruiters which ad model makes the greatest economic sense.

Introduction

Analyze "paid" applicants per job and find job families where duration based ads and slots make economic sense.

Measure your mobile applies and use the data to negotiate better rates.

Shorten your apply process to increase conversions and cut the cost-per-applicant for advertising units bought on a cost-per-click basis.

Shift your budget to sites and sources that deliver the best ROI.

Where and how a job advertisement is placed online plays a vital role in attracting candidates to jobs. It's also big business: recruiters spend billions of dollars annually recruiting online. Different commercial models for online recruiting exist, from simple duration-based job advertisements through to pay-per-performance advertising. Which model or combination of models an organization adopts largely depends on how many times an organization recruits in any one year.

Whatever system is used, online recruiting contains an inherent challenge – knowing exactly where your candidates are coming from. Without reliable data on the source of applicants, recruiters cannot know what job boards, social networking sites and advertising media are providing the best return on investment (“ROI”). This can lead to ill-informed decisions about where to place advertising spend.

The good news is that, with a little smart analysis, recruiters can easily conquer this challenge. Applicant tracking systems (“ATS”) ensure that online recruitment advertising is measurable. Properly grouped and analyzed, ATS data can tell recruiters which ad model delivers the lowest recruitment cost-per-applicant, and thus makes the greatest economic sense.

Using data gained from studies of over 250,000 job applications, we have extracted four key strategies that will help you make the most of your recruitment advertising budget:

Four Strategies That Drive Completed Applications

Group E is a fine place for duration based ads. Group A... not so much.

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Strategy #1:Analyze the Data

Figure 1: Average applications per job, by family

Group Apps/Jobs App Count Job Count

A 0 - 5,754

B 5 < 31,410 13,517

C 5 -- 8 52,235 8,239

D

E

8 -- 39 292,053 15,506

40+ 211,198 2,925

Avg Apps

0

2.32

6.34

18.83

72.20

Med. Apps

0

1

6

15

58

Cost-per-applicant is a typical metric for determining the ROI of recruitment spend. It's a simple calculation: total media cost / number of applicants. For example, a $1,000 ad spend that brings in 90 applicants returns a cost-per-applicant of $11.11. Cost-per-applicant data allows recruiters to compare how different sites or media sources are performing.

We analyzed more than 250,000 online job applications made to 30 different employers across a wide variety of industries. Figure 1 aggregates the data into five “families” based on the number of applications each job received.

Category E comprises the jobs that are relatively easy to fill. As you can see from Figure 1, this category contains the smallest number of jobs (2,925 or 6.4% of the total), but those jobs received the highest number of applicants per job (72 applicants per job on average; a total of 211,198 applications).

For these jobs, buying duration-based advertisements makes a lot of sense. A posting that costs, say, $100, and attracts 72 applications, costs just $0.72 per applicant.

%

12.5%

29.4%

17.9%

33.8%

6.4%

The business case for duration-based advertising becomes compelling when the advertisement returns somewhere in the region of8 - 25 candidates.

Four Strategies That Drive Completed Applications

Measuring advertising performance can reveal budget-saving opportunities.

By grouping the data according to the number of applications a job receives, you should find the candidate-return point at which the business case for duration-based advertising becomes compelling.

Hard to fill positions benefit from CPC or CPA-based advertising.

Organizations should adopt a mix of ad models depending on how hard the job is to fill.

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Takeaways:

Strategy #2:Measure Mobile Applications More than 40% of the traffic arriving at an employer’s recruitment portal from a job board comes from a mobile device. Yet the percentage of clicks that convert to a completed job application is a fraction of the clicks that convert from a desktop, as Figure 2 shows.

Figure 2: Mobile apply rates versus desktop apply rate, by industry

Industry Blended

Aircraft Manufacturing

Auto Sales

Banking

Consulting

Consumer Telecom

5%

15%

13%

4%

9%

Desktop

8%

18%

20%

7%

14%

Mobile

0%

10%

3%

0%

2%

CTA Delta

-

76%

650%

-

489%

By contrast, the jobs in Group A did not receive a single apply. A $100 job board posting for each of the 5,754 jobs grouped in this category equates to a massive $575,400 recruitment spend. The return on that investment is zero. These jobs would achieve significantly greater ROI if the ad cost was linked to performance, such as a candidate clicking through to the employer's recruitment portal (cost-per-click, or “CPC”) or submitting a job application (cost-per-application, or “CPA”).

Hard-to-fill jobs achieve significantly greater ROI when the ad cost is linked to performance, such as a click or an application.

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In 2014, 40% of the traffic arriving at an employer’s recruitment portal comes from a mobile device.

Four Strategies That Drive Completed Applications

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Ignoring mobile drop-off rates pollutes your bigger-picture analysis of what job sites and media models are returning the best ROI.

Mobile applications that convert poorly benefit from a CPA advertising model.

Use your conversion data to negotiate better rates with your media provider.

Takeaways:

In the technology industry, a candidate is 2,209% more likely to apply from a desktop than they are from a mobile device. The reason is simple: it is far harder to apply from a mobile device than it is from a desktop. This may be due to:

If 40% of traffic can’t apply for jobs on your website, then that traffic is not valuable to you. Armed with your data, it is important to speak with your vendor and find opportunities to optimize your campaigns. If you have a goal cost-per-applicant, communicate this. The site may be able to send you higher-converting desktop traffic to help you reach your goals.

Platform issues, such as the inability to store a resume on a mobile device.

The apply portal not rendering correctly on a small screen.

The length of the apply process, which becomes exaggerated when performed on a mobile phone.

Food Service

Healthcare

Insurance

Retail

Sales

Staffing

Technology

Transportation

7%

5%

10%

5%

5%

2%

16%

5%

13%

9%

12%

8%

7%

3%

19%

7%

2%

2%

7%

1%

1%

0%

1%

4%

430%

417%

78%

547%

807%

-

2209%

72%

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2

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The business case for duration-based advertising becomes compelling when the advertisement returns somewhere in the region of8 - 25 candidates.

In the retail, sales and technology sectors, less than 1% of mobile candidates complete a job application.

Four Strategies That Drive Completed Applications

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12.00%

# of Questions 1-25 26-50 50+

10.00%

8.00%

6.00%

4.00%

2.00%

0.00%

10.60%

5.68%

7.51%

12.00%

# of Pages 1-6 6-15 15+

10.00%

8.00%

6.00%

4.00%

2.00%

0.00%

9.8%

5.8%

7.3%

Strategy #3:Shorten Your Application ProcessThe ability to apply efficiently to job postings is incredibly important, as candidates are likely to abandon an application that is lengthy, laborious or time-consuming. The number of clicks that convert to a completed job application drops by almost 50% when the application asks 50 or more questions compared to an application that asks 25 or fewer questions, as Figure 3 shows.

Significant drop-off rates are also apparent when the candidate is faced with six or more application pages (Figure 4), or an application takes longer than five minutes to complete (Figure 5).

Figure 4: Click-to-apply ratio by number of pagesin an application

Figure 3: Click-to-apply ratio by numberof questions asked in an application

Four Strategies That Drive Completed Applications

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12.00%

14.00%

# of Minutes 1-5 6-15 15+

10.00%

8.00%

6.00%

4.00%

2.00%

0.00%

12.47%

3.61%

6.97%

Figure 5: Click-to-apply ratios by time in minutes

On a CPC media model, recruiters literally pay each time a potential applicant clicks through to the employer’s recruitment portal. Thus, how many people actually complete an application is a huge driver of ROI. Figure 6 shows how sharply the all-industry cost-per-applicant rises, the more time the application takes to complete. For recruiters using a CPC model, shortening the apply process can cut recruitment costs by more than 300%.

Figure 6: CPC cost-per-applicant based on lengthof time it takes to complete an application

$12.00

$14.00

$16.00

# of Minutes 1-5 6-15 15+

$10.00

$8.00

$6.00

$4.00

$2.00

$0.00

$4.01

$7.17

$13.85

On a CPC media model, recruiters literally pay each time a potential applicant clicks through to the employer’s recruitment portal.

Advertising media costs rise by a staggering 300% when the application takes longer than five minutes to complete.

Four Strategies That Drive Completed Applications

If applicants can't apply, then your recruitment model is not effective.

CPC media costs up to 3x more per applicant when the application takes longer than five minutes to complete; the cost hike is entirely due to drop-off rates.

Drop-off does not affect ROI in duration-based advertisement models; however, in supply-constrained industries it makes commercial sense to shorten the application process and encourage more, quality applicants.

Strategy #4:Shift to a Model That DeliversMaximum ROI Cost-per-application buying is the new kid on the recruitment media block. Under this model, the organization does not pay unless a candidate actually applies for a job sponsored on the system. CPA has material advantages over other types of recruitment media:

Takeaways:

You only pay when the advertising converts.

Low mobile apply rates do not affect advertising spend, though they remain undesirable for other reasons.

Application drop-off rates, aggravated by lengthy and time consuming apply processes, do not affect the bottom line.

Pay-per-applicant job advertising gives a 100% return on recruitment spend when measuring the cost-per-applicant.

Pay-per-applicant advertising has the potential to radically increase the efficiency of your recruiting spend. This is particularly true for hard-to-fill vacancies that receive few applications and industries that experience significant mobile traffic and thus, significant mobile drop-off. By analyzing your tracking data, you will quickly identify those jobs where the pay-per-applicant model could even reduce recruitment spend and deliver strong performance compared to other pricing models.

Advertising models that charge only when a job seeker completes an application give a 100% return on recruitment spend when measuring the cost-per-applicant.

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Companies must stay open-minded and be willing to test new media to truly maximize recruitment advertising ROI.

Four Strategies That Drive Completed Applications

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Recognize that different types of jobs will benefit from different recruitment media.

Don't be afraid to test new options in your recruitment strategy. Options like pay-per-applicant advertising have the potential to radically increase the efficiency of your recruiting spend, particularly for hard-to-fill vacancies.

Make the budgetary shift to take advantage of the sites and media models that provide greatest ROI across different types of jobs.

Takeaways:

ConclusionEvery organization posting open jobs should know what it is getting in return for its media spend. How many clicks, how many completed applications? Automated applicant tracking systems can give you the raw data, but it takes ongoing analysis to monitor how media sources are performing across different categories of jobs. Hiring managers must be willing to shift their budgets if one of their media options is not performing well, and demand better conversion rates from their media provider.

New recruitment models come to the market all the time. Companies must stay open-minded and be willing to test new media to truly maximize recruitment advertising ROI.

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Four Strategies That Drive Completed Applications

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Recruiting with AppcastOn January 1, 2014, StartDate Labs launched Appcast™, the industry’s first pay-per-applicant job ad exchange. Appcast allows talent acquisition leaders to focus their recruitment advertising budgets more efficiently by charging only when a job application is completed on an employer’s corporate career site.

Appcast brings advanced programmatic online ad buying to the human recruitment capital market. Above and beyond the pay-per-applicant pricing model, Appcast’s ‘rules-based buying’ engine delivers great applicants to the recruitment portal and ensures budget dollars are focused exclusively on hard-to-fill or critical vacancies that need applications.

Already utilized by many leading companies, Appcast is focused on maximizing the efficiency of recruiting ad spend in a streamlined, user-friendly way. Hiring managers set the rules on how they wish to sponsor jobs and how much they are willing to pay. There are no minimum budgets or long-term contracts.

To learn more about Appcast and sign up for a demo, visit: www.appcast.io

Four Strategies That Drive Completed Applications