How to Win in the Recruitment PPC Wars - Indeed vs. Google PPC  

Given the current economy, everyone needs to generate more applicants at less cost. As companies and recruiters scale back on job boards and newspaper advertising, they look to search marketing initiatives to deliver results. This week's Wall Street Journal article on recruitment SEM  specifically shows how mainstream it's becoming, comparing the cost per applicant in actual dollars vs. print and job boards.

The question that staffing heads often ask me is where they should invest their recruitment Pay-Per-Click (PPC) dollars. Mainstream search engines like Google or Yahoo, or vertical engines like Indeed? My response 99% of the time is “it depends”: as with any search marketing channel, the answer comes through testing. Each client is unique and so are their results.  

Google & Indeed Have Different Models 

PPC on mainstream search engines such as Google and Yahoo are all keyword based: you choose what keywords/phrases to bid on, and then traffic is directed to a landing page of your choice. Indeed is based on a job feed: the job titles and descriptions act as the keywords, and then traffic is sent directly to the job description on a company’s career website. 

Things to Consider 

·    For those new to Pay-Per-Click, Indeed’s PPC platform is easier to use: you don’t have to worry about what keywords to bid on, creating engaging ad copy or landing pages. However, lacking control over your keywords/phrases and ad copy could also be a negative. Writing an engaging ad with a call to action as well as being able to continually test your ad copy, landing pages and targeted keywords are important aspects of seeing a good return on PPC. 

·   Generally, with much less advertiser competition on Indeed, your cost per click is often less expensive. However, I would argue that if you fine tune your campaigns on search engines like Google and Yahoo, they can be much more cost effective than you think. 

Fine Tuning Examples:

1. Use Geo-targeting

    

2. Be Specific in your keyword choices – e.g., “sales” may not be the best choice; sales what? Tips, advice, quotes, books, jobs?

    

3. Stay away from the “Content Network”

    

4. If you target “nurses”, don’t forget to add negative keywords such as “naughty”  

·   Consider user intent: visitors to Indeed are more often active job seekers. To capture passive talent, Google and Yahoo might be better channels as you have the opportunity to target non-job related terms such as professional associations, new technologies, industry best practices, etc.

·   Indeed is a partner on the Google placement network. This means that you can create a campaign on Google and have the opportunity to control your keywords and ad copy while still achieving visibility within the Indeed-sponsored results. Granted, the results are in a different location but you still have visibility.

·  If your jobs have visibility within Indeed already via a feed, do you really need to pay additional for PPC listings? Do you have tracking in place to differentiate the two? Would it make more sense to expand your reach and capture some of the candidate traffic within Google and Yahoo?

The Bottom Line 

The bottom line is you must test; it’s the only way to determine what channel is most effective for you. Identify your conversion goals and have the ability to track. Remember, at the end of the day, you are only paying for traffic to your career site. If the applicant-facing content they land on discourages candidates from applying, is it the fault of PPC? Not in my book.

In a perfect world, organizations would have search engine friendly career sites and be able to capture their own traffic organically through search engines like Google and Yahoo. They'd use pay-per-click only to solidify their brand.

It’s much more cost effective long term. If you want to learn about solutions that approach this nirvana, let me know [nbodem at arbita dot net].