The answer isn’t always to spend more. Despite what you may hear, despite what people may tell you, that’s not always the answer. Don’t just assume you need to increase your job board budget to get more applications or cheaper applications.
Here are two examples that confirm spending more on the job boards is the wrong answer.
Industrial Recruiter
In the first week of March, one of our industrial staffing clients saw its CPA increase by 59% compared to the January and February 2022. Market forces can quickly change, and for whatever reason, the job candidate behavior changed. Seeing that change in results, we quickly put an action plan into place.
We actually decreased the budget while the job board called up our client and suggested to increase the budget. In talking with our client, they trusted our team and analysis to reduce the budget based on the stats we analyzed.
Our changes dropped the CPA by more than 50% and drove 33% more applications per day while we reduced their daily spend by 25%.
Why did we decrease the budget? The cost per click increased by more than $0.20 per click during the first week of March, and our conversion rate stayed very consistent. If we are paying more for clicks and converting the same amount of clicks into applications, that means we are overpaying for candidates.
The adjustment when your CPC goes up and your conversion rate stays the same is to either sponsor MORE jobs or to DECREASE your budget.
| Dates | CPA | CPC | Conversion Rate | Daily Spend | Apps/Day |
| January | $3.68 | $0.45 | 12.3% | $183 | 50 |
| February | $3.63 | $0.34 | 9.3% | $207 | 57 |
| March 1-8 | $5.78 | $0.61 | 10.8% | $243 | 43 |
| March 9-20 | $3.35 | $0.39 | 11.5% | $181 | 54 |
| March 21-31 | $2.37 | $0.26 | 10.8% | $142 | 60 |
| March TOTAL | $3.44 | $0.38 | 11.1% | $183 | 53 |
Let’s look at another example.
Caregiver Recruitment
One of our newest clients recruits in an ultra-competitive market – caregivers in the Pacific Northwest.
In just the first month of analyzing their data, during our benchmarking month, we saw a very interesting trend.
When the job count was above 150 sponsored jobs, the company saw its cost per application decrease by 40% and received 60% more applications.
How did we figure out this trend for an ultra-competitive market?
When the client started, they were only sponsoring 30 jobs with an aggressive budget. The CPC averaged $2.29, which is very high, even for an ultra-competitive market. Our adjustment was to increase the sponsored jobs aggressively, which dropped the CPC to $1.47.
As we continually tried to optimize, we pulled back that aggressive tactic and decreased the job count to around 100 jobs. That led to the CPC jumping back up to $2.59. Seeing that sharp increase in cost, we increased the job count again, going back over 150 sponsored jobs, and reduced the CPC down to $1.42.
Looking at all that data, there was one telltale sign – the conversion rate. What do we mean?
When the sponsored jobs were below 150 jobs, the CPC averaged more than $2.30/click and the conversion rate was 11 percent. When sponsored jobs were above 150 jobs, the CPC averaged around $1.50 click, and the conversion rate was 10.7 percent. Those conversion rates are basically the same.
| Dates | CPA | CPC | Conversion Rate |
| March 11-15 | $19.13 | $2.29 | 12.0% |
| March 16-28 | $13.84 | $1.47 | 10.6% |
| March 29 – April 14 | $24.00 | $2.59 | 10.8% |
| April 15-20 | $12.90 | $1.42 | 11.0% |
Despite a $1 difference in click cost, we were still essentially converting the same amount of clicks into applications – a perfect example of overpaying for clicks.
Who Can You Trust to Monitor Your Job Spend?
Recruitment continues to be difficult, but it’s not impossible. Candidates might be scarce, but they are searching for jobs. The challenge for any staffing agency or recruiters is to get your jobs in front of the right candidates within your budget.
Yes, the job boards work. And they work better when you have the right person or team managing and optimizing your budget.
At Haley Marketing, we are managing more than $2 million in budgets for the staffing industry, reducing cost per click by 17 percent in the first 3 months and by 33 percent in the first 6 months.
We’re ready to help you. Contact our team today to get started and learn how our recruitment marketing team can help.
