Can Programmatic Recruitment Help SMBs Attract Top Talent?

Over the past few years, recruitment marketing has emerged as an essential strategy for organizations competing for talent in an increasingly tight labor market. However, competition has hardly been fair. Large organizations outspend SMBs by a mile when it comes to marketing jobs. The fact that big businesses tend to enjoy better brand awareness doesn’t help either. While it may seem that the deck is stacked against SMBs in the race for top talent, all is not lost.

Recruiting technology has emerged as a great equalizer with affordable, feature-rich solutions designed specifically for SMBs. Activities that were previously cost-intensive, such as, display advertising or job posting have become much more accessible for organizations with limited budgets.

A key innovation driving this trend has been the rise of affordable, programmatic recruitment, which was previously the realm of larger businesses with massive advertising budgets. So, how can smaller businesses leverage programmatic recruitment to land top talent?

What is Programmatic Recruitment and How Can SMBs Use it to Hire Better?

Programmatic recruitment is defined as the automated buying, publishing, and optimizing of recruitment ads. Programmatic advertising originated as a pureplay advertising solution that automated the bidding process with software. It found its way into the world of recruiting technology as recruitment became more digital and competitive.

Speaking about the emergence of programmatic recruitment, Amit Chauhan, CEO at JobAdX, a programmatic exchange, says, “We’re facing the most competitive hiring era, which means there’s definitely a shortage of talent but it’s not really a ‘talent shortage’ because there are enough people around. There’s just a big mismatch of skills as traditional hiring platforms are not showing the right opportunities to candidates.”

With programmatic recruiting solutions, organizations can set up dedicated budgets for ad spend and the cost per click and the software does the rest. The biggest advantage of programmatic recruitment over traditional job advertising is its ability to reach relevant audiences at the right time.

Most programmatic solutions use demographic data to identify prospects and deliver the right ads at a time and place that is most likely to result in engagement. Programmatic solutions rely on candidate browsing data, A/B testing, and artificial intelligence to optimize ad performance.

“As job seekers move across our network, we collect a critical amount of data which helps us understand what roles they’re clicking, what keywords they’re searching for, how they’re engaging with the jobs, and what makes them apply to a specific job instead of others. Before we deliver an employer’s job ad to one of our premium slots, we’re confident that it matches the industries, experience, location, and preferences of that job seeker on an individual level,” explains Amit.

As organizations look to promote their employer brand and connect with talent in new ways, programmatic recruitment offers an approach that is adaptable across channels and platforms. JobAdX, for instance, allows users to add video within job postings to make it more relevant and engaging for candidates.

“The power to entice the right talent by showcasing the company’s culture in a recruitment video has been widely acknowledged by employers but channels have been limited to social media or company career sites. As the only programmatic exchange that can seamlessly display video within the job postings across its publisher network, recruiters can now better engage the job seekers right at the moment they are searching for jobs and see quality conversions on employer branding initiatives in a whole new way.

“Ultimately, all of this improves the candidate experience and everyone wins – job boards see increased loyalty and conversations, while agencies and employers make higher quality hires faster and more easily,” says Amit.

Choosing the Right Programmatic Solution for Your Business

For a complete beginner, navigating through programmatic recruitment can be a bit tricky. One of the most important elements of successful programmatic recruitment is the solution. You need a solution that meets your business needs. For instance, if you want to attract a large volume of candidates, you might want to invest in a programmatic ad platform. However, if you just want to improve job distribution and get better-fit candidates for your organization, a programmatic exchange would make more sense.

“Firstly, understand your objectives. Is your top priority budget management, attracting a large volume of applicants, or improving the quality of inbound candidates? This will define whether you need a full-on programmatic platform or just better job distribution, where we play. We’re solely a programmatic exchange, not a platform, which means we apply programmatic ad buying to help optimize your spend but our focus is the targeting and delivery of your ads to the right candidates. If you’re looking for more qualified, targeted applicants, you’d want to work with a programmatic exchange like us. Programmatic platforms offer start-to-finish campaign creation and are great for budget management, but might be more than you need if you’re not looking for high-volume hiring,” says Amit.

The second step is setting your budget. Most programmatic platforms require minimum spends. So, if you have a budget of $5,000 to $10,000 a month, you could consider investing in a programmatic ad platform. On the other hand, if you have a more conservative recruitment budget, a programmatic exchange would be a better choice.

Lastly, you need to understand your bandwidth. “Many programmatic platforms out there are still complex and take time to implement. After getting on the platform, there might be a learning curve and getting to know it may take time. For an agency or a larger staffing company, that’s a much easier, must-have setup. But if you have a smaller recruiting team, then that’s a task all on its own. If that’s the case, an exchange is a better option to get you set up in minutes without the learning curve or resources,” Amit adds.

Ultimately, small and medium-sized businesses will benefit greatly from using a programmatic exchange. It helps you make your recruiting dollars reach your ideal candidates. And while big businesses may have more resources, SMBs can have better efficiency.

Authors

Sushman Biswas

Sushman is a contributing editor at RecruitingDaily.com and writes about how organizations can succeed with recruiting technology. With a background in B2B tech publishing and events, Sushman strives to make dry, technical copy engaging. When not writing, Sushman enjoys craft beer and motorcycling holidays.