If you’re in recruitment marketing or talent acquisition, it’s critical to have analytics that show how many applications your jobs are receiving in order to properly optimize for an improved recruitment ROI. In fact, understanding application volume data is one of the most basic and easiest ways to measure and optimize the effectiveness of your recruitment marketing strategy, especially if you know the number of applications needed in order to reach your hiring goals.
Assuming you have access to the necessary recruitment marketing analytics, and if you’re still not getting enough (or any) applicants to your online jobs, there may be something fundamentally wrong with your job postings. However, before you can solve the issue, you first need to identify the problem.
So, here are five reasons why you may not be receiving applicants to your online jobs.
1. You’re giving applicants an alternative way to apply.
It’s not uncommon for recruiters to include their contact information, like email address and/or phone number, or some other apply method (i.e. “attend our open house”) in a job posting. While doing so doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re NOT receiving applicants to your job, it could mean that you’re not TRACKING any applicants to your job. When you are giving candidates a way to apply that’s not directly into the ATS, this impacts your ability to properly track how many applications are coming in on that job posting, which also impacts your ability to properly optimize and report ROI.
So, if you want the most accurate analytics possible in order to make data-driven decisions about the performance of your talent acquisition efforts, we don’t recommend including any alternative ways to apply in your job postings as this will skew your data. Instead, drive all applicants into your ATS for the most accurate tracking.
2. You’re leading job seekers to the wrong page.
If your job isn’t receiving any applicants, it’s possible that the job has been filled or has expired, or maybe the job is leading to an error or 404 page of some sort. When your job isn’t accessible to job seekers after they’ve clicked through, it not only creates a frustrating candidate experience, but it also impacts your application data (since candidates aren’t able to apply).
Always remove expired or filled jobs from your site as quickly as possible as to avoid this frustration, and ensure that you set up redirects to similar open jobs or to your main job search page in the case of an error so you’re not deterring potential talent from applying to another job online or coming back to your careers site later to apply.
3. Your tracking or online apply process is broken.
When you’re not receiving any applicants to your jobs, always double check that your apply process and the set up of your tracking isn’t broken. For instance, proper tracking is typically implemented in various points during your online application process, starting with your careers site pages, to your job pages, into your ATS pages and all the way through to your “thank you” page after a candidate has completed the online application in your ATS.
If your tracking has been removed from any or all points in that process, data may not be coming through and it may seem as though you’re not receiving any applicants, when in actuality, you may have simply lost your tracking.
If your tracking seems to be properly in place and you’re still not reporting any applicants, double check that you’ve properly integrated your ATS to your careers site, that you don’t have any broken links or broken forms, and that the apply process works as intended across all devices (especially mobile).
And lastly, it may be that your tracking is in place properly and your apply process is functioning as intended, but that your online application is just long and tortuous -- meaning applicants are electing not to finish it. Sure, in that case, your apply process technically works, but let's face it, it’s broken and could be a major reason why you’re not getting any applicants.
4. Your job title and/or job description is misleading.
Posting a new requisition in your ATS is a manual process that includes writing a job title and job description, choosing a location, and many other factors, and manual processes are where errors can occur easily.
If you’re not receiving applications to your job, make sure that you’ve included the most accurate and relevant information in the job requisition itself. If the job title doesn’t relate to the job description, if there are errors within the job information, or if the job description is written poorly or simply unexciting, you may be misleading your candidates. Job seekers may simply be leaving the job before apply and moving on to the next.
If your jobs aren’t labeled and titled properly, and if they aren’t well-written and intriguing to candidates, you’ll likely see a low application volume… if you receive any applicants at all.
5. Your job advertising budget isn’t enough.
While programmatic job advertising is definitely the new gold standard for recruitment marketing, it’s not a silver bullet in and of itself. Programmatic can eliminate wasted spend from your recruitment marketing budget and improve overall talent acquisition ROI, but for optimal results and performance, optimization and careful management is required. This is especially true when it comes to setting your budget.
To ensure you’re getting enough applicants from your programmatic job advertising campaigns, recruitment marketers should ensure that your budgets are proportional to your job volume and your hiring goals. Additionally, it’s important to set your CPC and CPA bids competitively in order to reach those goals.
If you’re not getting applicants to your jobs, it’s possible that your job advertising budget may be too low, or that your CPC or CPA bids may not be competitive enough.
Performance of Your Job Advertising Does Vary
Any number of factors can contribute to the performance of your job postings online. While these aren’t the only five reasons that your jobs may not be receiving applicants, we have found that they are often the most common.
Contact us today to learn how Recruitics can help you remedy these common causes for not receiving applicants to your jobs online.
[This is a 2019 updated version of our original post 5 Reasons No One Will Apply to Your Job Posts]
