As a recruitment professional, you may be familiar with one of the industry’s current hot topics – programmatic marketing. And it’s gaining more and more traction, with experts projecting that by 2020, the majority of recruitment advertising will be programmatic. But what is it exactly and what are the benefits?
Programmatic recruitment is the use of data-driven technology to automate, manage and optimise your recruitment advertising process. It enables recruitment advertisements to be seen by the right candidates on the right digital platforms at the right time, which not only saves you time and money but benefits employers, candidates and job seekers alike.
There are four key components to programmatic recruitment – big data analytics, recruitment advertisement targeting, dynamic budget allocation and bidding, and campaign optimisation.
1. Big data analytics
Big data refers to data sets that are so large and complex that traditional data processing software cannot deal with them. Using big data for recruitment takes all the guesswork out of advertising your job openings and offers insights into how, when and where to post a job to maximise your candidate quality and cost-of-hire. It can also minimise the time it takes to fill the position.
Developers are leveraging big data in machine learning, the ability for a computer to build trends in data, and ‘learn’ without being programmed. It can identify trends and job seeker patterns over time based on user ‘data points’ including location, time of day, type of job site, candidate experience, and the type of jobs viewed. It can also analyse online behaviour, including the number of user clicks to improve how algorithms work and how candidates are targeted.
Organisations are leveraging predictive analytics from machine learning, using historical data to analyse trends and make predictions about the future – it’s the epitome of a recruiter’s crystal ball!
2. Recruitment advertisement targeting
Programmatic advertising uses job classification technology that combines a comprehensive taxonomy of skills, job types and synonyms with sophisticated natural language processing (NLP) algorithms. (Just in case you need a buzzword brush-up, taxonomy refers to a related term scheme of classification and categorising.) Basically, it allows you to interpret the context and accurately classify recruitment advertisements to predict performance and create targeted recruitment campaigns.
In data-driven recruitment, it refers to skills, job titles, synonyms and common search terms for the job. It’s used as the basis for job matching and classification. In simple terms? It’s a job description decoder.
NLP involves the interactions between computers and human or ‘natural’ languages, in particular, how computers can be programmed to process and analyse large amounts of natural language data. So for example, when you refer to a job description as a ‘Chief People Person’, your technology will recognise that you mean ‘Head of HR’.
3. Dynamic budget allocation
Determining how to allocate your recruitment advertising dollars effectively can be a daunting task. Dynamic budget allocation is an auction-based approach where you buy or sell impression-level advertising inventory based on real-time competitive bids for the impression.
The most effective programmatic recruitment platforms use intelligent algorithms and predictive data to automatically manage your spend and cost-per-click (CPC) rates per job and per site to get the best return on investment.
Performance-based recruitment advertising strategies use pay-for-performance technologies including Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), and real-time performance monitoring to increase recruitment advertisements performance and gain return on investment from your recruitment spend. It lets you understand what you’re paying for.
4. Campaign optimisation
Programmatic recruitment is not really programmatic if it lacks ongoing campaign optimisation. Our few tips on how you can achieve this are:
- Tailor targeting. Continue to develop precise and relevant marketing strategies that will enable you to reach your target market/s.
- Maximise messaging. Ensure your ad copy reflects your employer brand, and is succinct, engaging and informative.
- Track timing. Use data and metrics to gauge when and where to post a job and what the optimal frequency and recency should be.
- Leverage learnings. Monitor your competitor activity and trial different mixes of active and passive channels to maximise your visibility and return on investment.
Harness the power of programmatic recruitment and data-driven technology to maximise the impact of your recruitment campaigns. By automating, managing and optimising your advertising process, save time, money and attract the best people to your organisation.
What are your thoughts on programmatic recruitment? Post a comment below and continue the conversation on LinkedIn.
With a career history of over 20 years in the marketing sector working for some of Australia’s top ad agencies, Kaye launched her own copywriting business, KK Productions, in 2014.
Her client list includes Australia’s largest retail travel outlet, the world’s largest insurance company and one of the country’s top retail stores; she has also written content for a variety of other sectors from recruitment, real estate and educational organisations to health and service-oriented industries. Kaye’s writing experience spans the full gamut of advertising and marketing copy. When she is not immersed in the world of writing, she loves reading, travel and bushwalking with her husband and dog, Barney.