As we close out November, we’re heading into a part of Q4 that presents itself as a double-edged sword.
With recruitment and talent acquisition beginning to slow as candidates put their job searches on pause during the holiday season, planning and budgeting are ramping up and occupying more and more of your time.
It’s important to get this part of the yearly recruitment cycle right. Proper planning and budgeting can set you up for success in the year ahead; a lack thereof can put you in a seriously tough position.
That said, the most complicated piece to this puzzle tends to be around acquiring and renewing annual contracts for recruitment advertising sources, like job boards.
Why acquire or renew a job board contract?
As a leading provider of recruitment marketing analytics and programmatic job advertising technology, it should come as no surprise that we naturally recommend running performance-based strategies, like PPC and PPA campaigns, more often than not.
That said, running a successful recruitment marketing strategy requires you find a media mix that goes beyond just performance-based job ads.
Therefore, when we speak with recruitment marketers we find that there’s typically still a need to consider some standard annual contracts with major job boards and other employer websites. The volume and breadth of that need, of course, is dependent on the recruitment and talent acquisition goals of the client.
However, the point remains: diversifying your recruitment marketing strategy beyond performance-based media can help you drive more, quality traffic at a lower cost. This opportunity to increase ROI is why we always recommend that recruitment marketers at least consider acquiring or renewing job board contracts.
Job Board Contracts We Recommend for Consideration in 2018
During this time of year it’s common for us to receive questions like, “should I renew my CareerBuilder contract?” Or, “What should I look for in a LinkedIn contract?”
In Part 1 of this 2-part series, we’ve tried to highlight the most important features for 5 of the 10 best job board contracts available in 2018 (with contract highlights 6-10 coming in part 2). While these lists may not be exhaustive, they’re great starting points for recruitment marketers as they continue planning and budgeting for the year ahead.
1. LinkedIn
As far as “big names” in recruitment advertising are concerned, LinkedIn is near the front of the pack and part of this success comes from the diversity of the site. As a platform, there are a number of ways you can reach job seekers as compared to traditional job boards. Therefore, there are a couple of recommendations to be made. First and foremost, you should consider LinkedIn Job Slots, which can be optimized like performance-based media, as a means of supplementing traditional performance-based media. (You can learn more about job slots here.)
Further, if you’re working with a Recruitment Process Outsourcing company actively reaching out to passive job seekers, you’ll want to consider recruiter seats for your team. LinkedIn’s recruiter seats give you access to the sites extensive resume database and unlocks features typical users don’t have access to.
Finally, if employer branding is a focus of your strategy, an upgraded Company Profile Page might be in the cards for you. An upgrade will give you even more control over your profile, provide extra exposure for the jobs you advertise on LinkedIn and will open up new branding opportunities for you.
2. Glassdoor
If you don’t spend a lot of time on their site, you might not think of Glassdoor as a job board--after all, they carved their niche out as a company review site for job seekers. However, Glassdoor does offer CPC media, so we of course recommend running PPC campaigns based on your needs.
However, the bigger draw here relates to the first portion of the paragraph above: company reviews. First and foremost, Glassdoor is a site that has your employer brand in mind--which is why we recommend considering an Enhanced Profile, if branding is top of mind.
These Enhanced Profiles give you more control over your company page’s branding and help get your jobs more exposure if you are running a PPC campaign. Further, and potentially most important, is the fact that Glassdoor Enhanced Profiles keep your competitors from advertising their jobs on your page!
3. Monster
As far as job boards are concerned, Monster might just be the most well known and were certainly one of the first in the game. With this in mind, they’ve become a trusted source for countless businesses and that’s part of the reason we always recommend taking advantage of their CPC media.
Further, if you’re working with an RPO to actively engage passive job seekers, then you’ll absolutely want to consider recruiter seats for access to Monster’s resume database.
Lastly, if you’re really interested in breaking the mold and in building a successful media mix, then you should also consider running targeted ads on Monster’s Career Ad Network. This ad network essentially allows you to get even more out of your Monster job ads by letting Monster distribute them to its partner sites. As a turnkey solution, this is a big plus, since it helps you amplify your open positions to targeted audiences beyond Monster without any additional work from the recruitment marketer.
4. CareerBuilder
CareerBuilder offers businesses variety in how they advertise their jobs online and, as a result, has become a go-to source of candidates for many. We of course have to make an obligatory recommendation to take advantage of their CPC options, but there’s a lot going on here beyond performance-based media.
For example, consider a contract around email and job postings. The two together can allow you a different path towards candidates that can be very engaging and often leads to conversions.
Further, give all of the different ways CareerBuilder allows you to capture applicants, they’ve been able to build quite a resume database. Again, if you’re working with an RPO to actively source passive job seekers, you’ll have to consider recruiter seats for your team.
5. Nexxt
Previously known as Beyond.com, this job board has rebranded reflect the changing and forward-thinking nature of today’s recruitment marketing space. Needless to say, this job board is focused on providing for recruitment marketer of the 21st century.
Of course, the 21st century recruitment marketer is data drive, and therefore we have to recommend considering a PPC strategy with Nexxt to help you take advantage of easily measurable performance-based media.
However, you can go beyond CPC job ads by also taking advantage of the job board’s extensive resume database--especially if you’re taking advantage of an RPO for passive candidate sourcing.
Where to Find More Recommendations
As the title of this post suggest, we’re focused on bringing you 10 job board contract recommendations for 2018. Therefore, if you’re looking for other suggestions beyond the five above, keep an eye on the Recruitics blog in the coming days for Part 2 of our series, where we’ll bring you 5 more job board contract recommendations for 2018.
If you can’t wait until then, or would like to have a more in-depth discussion about your recruitment marketing strategy for the new year, contact Recruitics today and one of our experts will be in touch.
