Programmatic Recruitment Technology 101
Understand the fundamentals of programmatic recruiting, and learn how programmatic technology can impact recruiting results.
Introduction
In this paper, we will define programmatic, cut through some of the jargon, and provide a framework for talent acquisition teams to get a safe grasp on programmatic as the best way to improve outcomes from their advertising spend on job sites.
90% of hiring organizations who try programmatic never go back!
(Source: Aptitude Research)
Programmatic eliminates many of the manual processes that exist within job advertising and enables recruiting teams to spend more time focusing on people because they get more of the right people (hires), faster, and across all of their open roles. Plus, programmatic recruiting facilitates more data and insights around what works and what doesn’t and provides accountability for how, when, and where budget is spent.
Programmatic Advertising
Programmatic advertising is not a new concept; the general advertising and marketing world has been using it for years. But recruitment marketing presents its own challenges, and for mant employers, both the rise of programmatic recruitment and the challenges of the labor market have introduced as many questions as it has provided answers.
Programmatic job advertising is the buying, placement, and optimization of job ads performed by software, rather than people. You may also hear it referred to as programmatic recruitment advertising, programmatic recruitment, or programmatic recruitment technology.
What is Programmatic Job Advertising?
Programmatic Job Advertising refers to the buying, placement, and optimization of job ads performed by software, rather than people. You may also hear it referred to as Programmatic recruitment Advertising, programmatic marketing, or programmatic recruitment technology.
What is programmatic technology?
Appcast Founder Chris Forman, explains Programmatic Technology (hint: software + data).
"Spreading the Peanut Butter"
The Role of Performance-Based Advertising in Programmatic Technology
It’s important to note that programmatic technology can only be applied to instances where performance-based advertising is at play – in other words, job ads posted on the basis of cost per click, cost per applicant, cost per hire, and so on. Job markets or candidate sources that are still relying on duration-based postings and other more antiquated methods are unable to take advantage of the scalability and efficiency of programmatic technology.
Despite being rapidly adopted in the United States and increasingly in the UK and other parts of Europe, programmatic is largely unknown, simply because many of the local job sites and candidate sources do not offer performance-based advertising.
To learn more about Performance Job advertising, check out this this infographic below.
Key Components of Programmatic Recruitment Advertising
Let’s dig into the various levers that make programmatic technology work for recruiting so you can understand why it works and how it can help you execute your hiring strategy.
Tracking
Measuring what happens to your jobs Press here
Rules
Goals you provide to the software Press here
AI & Data
Goals you provide to the software Press here
Ad Buying
How much you are willing to pay for an outcome Press here
Ad Distribution
Which sites your jobs go to Press here
Software
The automation of it all Press here
What Does Programmatic Look Like in Practice?
In the context of job ads and hiring, combining the below elements, programmatic technology is the automation of these different elements to accomplish a set of hiring goals you might have. It can sit across a number of job sites (or better yet, a job ad exchange) to understand the interplay of all of these candidate sources to ensure an effective strategy that drives the candidates you need, across the jobs that you need candidates for.
Programmatic technology provides an intermediary “check and balance” between your ATS and candidate sources (job sites, ad exchanges, social platforms, etc) to dictate which jobs go to which sites at what price, which are determined by the market data and rules that it has been equipped with. It can control for candidate flow when increases are needed or stop the flow when the target number of candidates has been acquired. Much like autopilot in a plane, it auto-adjusts speed and the degree of the wings to reach the goal altitude and arrival time.
Here’s a quick description of what’s happening in the image above:
Jobs are pulled into the software and information about the jobs is processed.
Using data and algorithms, the software makes decisions about where those jobs should be posted.
Based on the rules that are setup, the tracking, and the performance and market data, the technology continues to make those mirco-decisions about job ad placement, bids, and wether money should continue to be spent.
The reporting capabilities allow the recruiting leader to see what’s working and what’s not and can shift tactics or strategies.
While the job ads are placed (aka. sponsored), they get clicked on and sometimes applied to.
Completed applications are passed back to the ATS and in many cases (depending on the programmatic provider) are measured against target KPIs, such as quality.
The technology then uses this data to continue making improvements to how, when, and where job are placed in accordance with where the best candidates are being found for a given role or a given location.
In Conclusion
As you can see, there are numerous benefits to using programmatic technology to optimize your job advertising strategy and recruitment efforts. If you’re thinking of diving into programmatic or perhaps changing up your current solution, bear in mind that there are many “flavors” of programmatic technology that include a slew of capabilities – everything from various levels of analytics and transparency, to segmenting and targeting, to ease of use, to service and support.
We dig into this a bit more in our Key Questions to Ask in Your RFP whitepaper but ultimately, it all begins with you and your team beginning the process with clarity on what you need and want from your programmatic solution (in other words, what problems are you trying to solve and what goals are you trying to accomplish). Lastly, it is helpful to have a partner in programmatic to ensure your most important candidate source (and investment) is operating optimally at any given time, no matter what’s happening in the labor market.
If you want to explore more about how using programmatic with a job ad exchange may differ from your current approach, check out these blogs:
Despite being rapidly adopted in the United States and increasingly in the UK and other parts of Europe, programmatic is largely unknown, simply because many of the local job sites and candidate sources do not offer performance-based advertising.
Programmatic Recruitment Technology 101
Understand the fundamentals of programmatic recruiting, and learn how programmatic technology can impact recruiting results.
AppcastOne: Programmatic Pillar
Get your open jobs everywhere, intelligently. Programmatic can increase candidate reach by 45% and optimizes the advertising of your jobs across thousands of sites.
