In June, Indeed switched its business model in terms of how companies get charged for sponsoring jobs on the top job board in the U.S. For years, companies were charged when a candidate clicked on their sponsored job.
After hearing from companies that they were just getting wasted clicks and wasted spend, Indeed changed to charging when a candidate clicked the “Apply Now” or “Apply on Company Site” button. Indeed received feedback from its paying customers that candidates wasted budget by just clicking on a company’s jobs and never applying.
Having a few months of data, we can start to see what’s going on.
At Haley Marketing, we always focus on the cost per application. Yes – the cost per click (or apply start) and the conversion rate matter, but we want to focus on how much it costs to get the application to your recruiters. Here’s the data we are seeing for cost per application on Indeed:
May 2023: $1.47
June 2023: $1.45
July 2023: $1.51
August 2023: $2.07
First 10 Days of September: $2.11
OK – that’s a big jump! So, what’s going on?
Indeed Is Just More Expensive. The data is all in front of us. Let’s look at just July vs. August:
July: $0.21 CPC, $1.51 CPA, 14% conversion
August: $0.30 CPC, $2.07 CPA, 14.6% conversion
The conversion rate increased slightly, but not by a lot. The only thing that changed was the cost per click.
Let’s dig deeper into how the job market works – if the cost per click increases, one of two things happened:
- It just costs more for a click because the job board says so
- The market is more competitive because there are fewer job seekers.
Right now, it doesn’t seem like the market is more competitive as more people are going into the workforce and job growth is slowing down. It just feels like the price is going up – just like everything else!
How do you overcome a price increase on the job boards?
Active Management
We’ve seen a lot of success making sure that jobs-to-budget ratio is correct. That means – ensure you have the right number of jobs for your budget. It will be different for each combination of industry and geography (as well as job mix). For example, in manufacturing it might be 50 jobs for $500 compared to 20 jobs for $2,500 in healthcare.
Understand what to do with all combinations of your cost per click increasing or decreasing as well as the conversion rate increasing or decreasing. Knowing how to adjust your strategy based on those pieces of feedback will lead you to being ahead of the market and getting the best cost per application possible for your jobs.
Job Titles / Salary / Job Description
If costs are going up, then we need to make sure our jobs are providing the content that candidates want. With job titles – keep it simple. Candidates aren’t searching for hyper-specific job titles. They are searching for common job titles (RN, production, manufacturing). They also might be searching for nothing! The most common job search on Indeed in May 2023 was a blank search, which relies on their past search history to produce results.
With salary – are you competitive with similar jobs? Not only the same industry but also jobs with similar salary. If you are hiring for a $15/hour manufacturing job, that same candidate is looking at other $15/hour jobs in different industries in your region. And for the job posting – is it just a description or is it an advertisement/posting focusing on WIIFM – what’s in it for me? Me is the job candidate, not anyone else!
Try Other Options
It all doesn’t come down to Indeed to getting active job candidates. Are you trying ZipRecruiter? Are you sourcing your current database? Are you looking at other job boards (Talent.com, Talroo, JobGet, College Recruiter, Jobcase, even Monster and CareerBuilder are trying cost-per-click now)? Social recruiting can be successful with the right tactic on the right platform to reach your target candidate.
Just accepting the price increase isn’t the only way to overcome this more expensive tactic. It’s hard to beat, but with active management and being smart with your job postings, you can be better than the competition.
If you’re looking for help in understanding your job spend data, please don’t wait! Reach out to me or contact the team at Haley Marketing today!
