Today, one primary trend in the hiring market is becoming apparent: personalization. Changes in job selection algorithms confirm this trend. Now, it’s not the volume of traffic that matters, but its quality. Companies want fewer clicks but more right candidates. Efficiency is no longer measured by the number of views of a vacancy – the main thing is how many candidates have applied and are ready for actual hiring.
Previously, affiliate marketing in recruitment focused on traffic volumes. Success was measured in the number of clicks and job views. But now everything has changed.
Recruiters have focused on metrics such as time-to-fill and acceptance rates for many years. Today, however, management is interested in the quality of the hired employees.
Amy Schultz, Global Head of Talent Acquisition at Canva
Job aggregators are shifting to focus on conversions (CR) and cost per application (CPA) rather than on clicks alone. This significantly changes the approach to pricing and optimizing affiliate strategies.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have also become integral parts of the job niche: AI helps to predict the effectiveness of feeds, optimize CPC rates, and improve targeting.
60% of candidates abandon the application process due to its complexity.
Genius
Platforms respond to this by improving UX. Fast loading, mobile interfaces, and simple forms are becoming the standard.
Stellenoline Case Study: How Different Feeds Perform
The experience of Jooble partner stellenonline demonstrates how the formation of different feeds and different costs per click (CPC) can affect the effectiveness of recruiting campaigns.
Let’s look at a few examples that illustrate this dynamic. A company uses a pay-per-click model and focuses on the conversion rate (CR) – the percentage of candidates who apply for a job after clicking. The analysis shows that jobs with higher CPCs usually yield better results.
Here are specific examples for different job categories:
As you can see from the data above, feeds with higher CPCs deliver better results. For example, Feed 3, with a CPC of $0.79 for sales jobs, showed the highest conversion rate (9.09%) and the lowest cost per apply – CPA of $5.92.
The trend is also observed for other job categories. For administrative and clerical positions, there is also a significant improvement in results when using a feed with a higher CPC.
The example of Client X, who used Feed 3 with a CPC of $1.36, is particularly noteworthy. Despite the relatively small number of vacancies (over 10,000), the campaign achieved outstanding results: 31,385 clicks, CR 6.75%, and CPA $5.66.
The Question of Bids: High CPC is the Way to Better Rankings
Stellenonline’s case study shows that a high CPC guarantees better job rankings and positively impacts conversion rates. Previously, it was believed that a decrease in CPC automatically decreases CPA, but in today’s market realities, this approach no longer works.
The main reason is the growing competition for users’ attention and the repetition of jobs on many platforms. In such conditions, the winner is the one who provides the best visibility of their jobs. Let’s look at examples that confirm this trend.
The increase in CPC has led to impressive results: CPA decreased by more than three times, while CR increased by 2.5 times.
The decrease in CPC led to the opposite results: CPA grew almost 3.5 times, while CR dropped by half.
These examples demonstrate that a high CPC helps to ensure better job visibility, access to higher-quality traffic sources, and improved rankings.
stellenonline has several illustrative cases in this regard. The first demonstrates a strategy for working with high CPC rates and using traffic exclusively from its website. Thanks to the optimal ranking in search results, customers received not only a low cost per application but also additional value through registrations and subscriptions to newsletters.
stellenonline also demonstrated the effectiveness of using its own network of sources, achieving a CPA of €1-2. An important conclusion here is that we need to understand the multidimensionality of quality traffic. In other words, in addition to direct responses to vacancies, engagement rates (CTR, time on site), registration, and subscriptions are of significant value. This data can be effectively used for further marketing campaigns (retargeting and job postings).
The key to success in both cases was regular client feedback and detailed analytics, which allowed us to optimize campaigns and eliminate possible problems quickly. The analysis of the results showed that clients achieve a positive return on investment (ROI/ROMI) as early as at a price of €0.45. Raising the average price to €0.65 opens up additional opportunities for optimization, although the effectiveness largely depends on the specifics of the application process and the category of vacancies.
An important aspect is the use of a tracking system — SubIDs — that allows customers to not only optimize traffic but also test new sources, assess the quality of existing ones, and, as a result, ensure high customer satisfaction. Tracking helps to monitor the performance of sources and, if necessary, disable those that do not bring the desired result.
What Will The Market Look Like In The Future?
Analyzing current market trends, we can make predictions about the development of job search marketing. These changes are aimed at personalizing processes and improving traffic quality.
- Deeper segmentation of job leads: Job search platforms will continue to develop sophisticated lead segmentation systems. This means CPC segmentation and other parameters such as job categories, skill level, candidate location, etc. This expansion of segmentation will allow employers to receive even more personalized offers and improve the quality of candidate applications.
- Evolution of pricing models: Dynamic pricing will likely be introduced. In this system, CPC rates will automatically adjust based on traffic quality, market competition, and other factors. This will make spending more efficient and flexible.
- Strengthening the role of analytics: Investments in analytical tools will become a priority for platforms. This will allow employers and marketers to get more detailed information about the results of campaigns, from user behavior to the quality of applicants from various sources. Deep analytics will help better understand the effectiveness of investments in job advertising.
- Focus on the quality of applications: The trend towards improving the quality of applications will become a key priority. Job search sites will focus on methods that not only increase the number of clicks but also increase the matching of candidates with vacancies. For example, this could be pre-screening through simple automated AI-based screening tools.
- Increased transparency: Clients will increasingly demand transparency about traffic sources and optimization methods. Platforms will be forced to provide more detailed information about their cooperation with partners, which will help build trust and increase the efficiency of cooperation. In its practice, Jooble has already observed this trend: clients are actively interested in the channels through which their vacancies are distributed and can control this process.
In particular, they can create a blacklist of sources where their jobs will not be published. For key customers, Jooble offers an additional option – a white list of recommended partners on whose sites their jobs will be posted, ensuring maximum control over traffic quality.
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