The recruitment challenge has been significant throughout 2022, but that hasn’t stopped the recruitment marketing team at Haley Marketing from driving awesome results for our clients! In the first three months, our new clients saw a 17% decrease in cost per click, and in the first six months, that became a 33% decrease in CPC.
In this article, we’ll go more in depth by looking at three case studies from the first half of 2022.
Using Data to Shift Budget to the More Effective Job Board
The title sounds easy, but it doesn’t happen as often as you would think.
A general staffing agency in California and Michigan was using two different job boards. On Job Board A, the company used 75% of its budget and averaged $6.21/application, while on Job Board B, the company used 25% of its budget and averaged $1.65/application. In our reporting conversations with the client, we shared this data but then asked for quality information. Was Job Board A bringing 4X the quality to justify the more expensive application?
The answer was no! Each job board produced similar quality candidates.
Using that data, we split their budget evenly between the two job boards, which led to a 50% increase in applications with the same budget!
This company benefited so much from the increase that they raised their budget. The combination of switching budget to the more effective job board and increasing the budget by just 17% brought an additional 88% applications!
Industrial Recruiter Overpaying for Clicks
An industrial staffing agency in Ohio saw a sharp increase in its cost per application during the first week of March – going up 59% from March 1-8 compared to the first two months of the year. For some reason, their market became more competitive.
Our team saw the change and made an adjustment to decrease the daily budget, going against the advice of the job board. Instead of spending more money, our analysis of their metrics showed the increase in cost per apply should be countered with more jobs and less budget.
By the end of March, their overall CPA for the month was 5% lower than it was in February. Our tactic to reduce the budget worked perfectly!
Paying Too Much for Caregiver Recruitment
One of the most difficult industries for recruitment is home caregivers. A common strategy focuses on spending a lot of money on active candidate recruitment to get your jobs seen by a small candidate pool.
Our client in the Pacific Northwest was doing precisely that strategy, using a large budget to hopefully collect applications. What we found was interesting.
Regardless of the budget, their conversion rate (clicks that turn into applies) was always around 10-12%. That’s a small difference but not really a material difference.
The big factor – regardless of their cost per click, they were converting basically the same percentage of clicks into applies. What do we mean? The chart below showcases the data:
| 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 paying a $1 difference in cost, they were converting the same percentage of applications. What does that mean in dollars and cents?
- If you have a $10,000 budget, paying $2.50/click at 10% conversion, those metrics drive 400 applies for a cost of $25 per application.
- If you have the same $10,000 budget pay $1.50/click at 10% conversion, those metrics drive 667 applications for a cost of $15 per application.
Knowing what to do with the combination of cost per click, cost per application, and conversion rate would result in 66.7% additional applications with the same budget. All because you aren’t overpaying for clicks anymore.
Looking For Help With Your Job Advertising?
At Haley Marketing, our programmatic job advertising management service focuses on technology, automation, and expertise to drive the most ROI from your recruitment budget. Contact our team today to get started, and we’ll provide a 30-minute review of your job advertising.
