On Tuesday, Appcast — a leading developer of programmatic job advertising technology — released its complimentary 2017 Recruitment Media Benchmark Report.
Having analyzed pay-for-performance job ad media across more than 750 leading companies, ad agencies and job boards’ cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-applicant (CPA) activities, Appcast uncovered trends and important learning for talent acquisition professionals.
On average, job advertising accounts for 30 percent of recruitment budgets. Of paramount importance, these ads not only serve to advertise job openings; they help convey a company’s values, culture and employer brand.
Yet, many organizations recycle job ads or continue to advertise on low-performing job boards because they lack the insight provided by Appcast.
As for key findings from Appcast’s 2017 Recruitment Media Benchmark Report, they include:
- The highest click-to-apply rates by industry were restaurant (11.3 percent), customer service (8.2 percent) and administrative/clerical (6.6 percent.) In general, the jobs requiring less information to apply (for example, not requiring a resume) and those easy to search for at a job site had higher apply rates.
- Competitive hiring pressures for certain jobs impacted average cost-per-click (CPC) bids. Transportation led the field with the highest average CPC of $0.79.
- While clicks on job ads from mobile devices accounted for almost 50% of job candidate traffic in 2016, candidates prefer to apply from a desktop computer (71.2 percent compared to 28.8 percent on mobile.)
- Job titles containing 51 to 60 characters outperformed other lengths, with an average click-to-apply rate of 8.4%. Job titles that are clear and include location can help drive apply rate performance.
“Optimizing a spend that is 30 percent of your total budget can result in a substantial cost savings,” says Rob Green, vice president of Marketing at Appcast. “Plus, heeding the findings in our research can expand candidate attraction and enrich engagement. We’re pleased to make this report available to recruiting professionals seeking to gain insight into hiring metrics that improve outcomes.”