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Spending Too Much on Jobs Boards? Here’s How Marketing Can Solve the Problem

Recruitment agencies across the globe have felt the squeeze of job board advertising prices with in recent years.


In Australia, recruiters have described a spike in costs but reduced ad performance since Seek introduced their new model back in 2019, which included variable pricing for ads based on things like candidate availability and location.


In the UK, Total Jobs has equally surprised their existing customers with many choosing to walk away from years-long contracts following price hikes earlier in 2022.


And while we certainly believe job boards still have value, we think now is a good time for recruitment agencies to re-assess how well their job ads are performing and whether there is an alternative way to attract top talent.


In this blog, we discuss different approaches to sourcing talent that can work in conjunction with or in place of job boards.

The Question of ROI


With so much outrage seen on LinkedIn right now, we wanted to take a step back and look at the figures. Yes, 300% price increases sound extreme but it doesn’t really mean anything unless you attach it to an outcome.


As a recruitment marketing company, we are all about Cost Per Acquisition, also known as Cost Per Placed Lead. This metric is usually applied when securing a new client, but it can also apply to candidates.


Here are a few initial questions to ask:


  • How much did you spend sourcing the successful candidate as a percentage of all applications received?
  • Are you tracking the full cost of securing a candidate across their entire recruitment journey?
  • Is there an opportunity to be more strategic when using job ads, for example focusing on high-worth roles or high-volume recruitment drives?



By analysing this data, you might see some clear trends of where you can justify the ROI of job boards for some roles but not others.


PageUp recently analysed their customer data and presented the following findings:


This shows that while job boards might be driving volume, they aren’t necessarily an effective recruitment strategy when compared with others.

How to Reduce Your Reliance on Job Boards


So how do you find the ideal attraction methodology for the roles you recruit?


Our approach when working with new clients is to first run a workshop that identifies your audience, your USP and your marketing objectives. From there, we put together a strategy that will help you achieve those goals and produce a solid ROI.


But for the purposes of this blog, we’ve put together some initial ideas to get you started:


Establishing Your Online Recruitment Hub


The ultimate goal when recruiting should be to drive quality candidates to your website and for them to either register their interest or directly apply for an active role.


Your website is your recruitment epi-centre and the most important public-facing asset you have ­ outside of your team.


It should be a place where you can differentiate yourself from your competitors, answer any questions or address any concerns and most importantly house all of your active roles.


The key to a good website is making sure it’s functional and user-friendly. That means putting yourself in the candidate’s shoes and making sure there is an easy path for them to follow from landing on your site to taking some form of action e.g. applying, uploading their CV or calling one of your consultants.


If you find any blockers, such as compulsory fields that could be off-putting or onerous application processes, do what you can to remove them.


 


Building Brand Awareness


So, you’ve built a functional website and uploaded all of your jobs, but how do you attract candidates?


Brand awareness comes through actively positioning and promoting your business within your marketplace. It’s becoming the go-to people when candidates decide they want to change roles. It’s skipping the jobs board because people know you’re the best connected and most experienced, so why waste time with the middleman?


Brand awareness can be achieved through a number of different channels and methods, from promoting consistent and engaging content on social media to sponsoring industry events and hosting webinars.


 


Harnessing Paid Advertising


Recruiters can sometimes be nervous about paid advertising because any Pay-Per-Click model sounds less controlled than a flat fee.


But if you’re strategic with your paid advertising, you can create campaigns that directly target different roles or role types through tailored media placement and drive interested job seekers directly to your website.


Bespoke landing pages can be created to continue the single candidate experience and maximise the chances of them applying for the role then and there.


 


Amplifying Social Media


We all know you can promote jobs through LinkedIn, but are you making the most of your personal and corporate LinkedIn profiles? Are you positioning your business and your people as industry experts who regularly and actively participate in industry discussions? Are you creating original content that demonstrates your understanding of the marketplace?


And are you making the most of your network? It clearly takes a lot of time and effort to develop connections within your community, so now is the time to cash in on those contacts. Sending InMails and promoting referral schemes are just a couple of ideas.


 


Automating Communication


Once a candidate has registered with your recruitment agency, it’s the first step in their nurture journey. They may be actively looking for a new role or only interested in a specific advertised opportunity ­ or they could be at the start of six-month-long long process with you.


If there’s one thing we know recruiters are short on, it’s time. And that’s where automation can achieve great gains. By automating some core email communications you can take the pressure off yourself and your team by regularly touching base with candidates automatically.


Some examples of automated communication include birthday messages, checking in on a new starter during their first day/week/month and regularly touching base with passive candidates.

Get in Touch


With talk of monopolies and duopolies in the job board industry, it’s always useful to re-assess your reliance on any single talent attraction tool. Not only could you find significant cost savings, you could also take the first step to boosting your own brand awareness and increasing your market share.

Here at Prominence, we work with recruitment agencies and help them navigate their way out of the confusing maze of recruitment marketing. We’ll help you achieve your marketing goals and connect you with the clients and candidates you want to reach.


Contact one of our specialist team today to find out how we can help you.

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By Amber Loach February 7, 2025
To stand out from the competition, effective marketing is more important than ever for recruitment agencies. Without it, your business growth can quickly hit a brick wall and force your consultants to fish in the same pool of prospects. That’s hardly enjoyable or productive (even if your consultants won’t admit to it!) In a highly competitive market, the good news is that you can optimise your costs with outsourced recruitment marketing and access capabilities that can take years to build in-house. We’ll explain why and how. The Real Costs of In-House Marketing The average marketing budget sits somewhere between 7-10% of company revenue, as surveys by Deloitte and Gartner suggest. (If you’re in start-up or high growth mode, that percentage will be higher.) Plans to increase marketing budgets over the coming years will, of course, vary by industry and business needs, but it’s clear that internal marketing teams don’t come cheap. 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We can’t think of a single instance of a recruiter saying they love admin. And yet, administrative tasks eat up increasingly large chunks of a recruiter’s workday. It’s a given that job application volumes will keep rising, leaving recruiters with shrinking resources to carry out other vital functions – like nurturing passive candidates, engaging clients, or building a social media following. Marketing automation can solve many of the resource problems recruiters face. Trying to juggle activities like generating leads for new clients and candidates alongside the day-to-day practicalities of sourcing, interviewing and client consultation gets painful fast – unless you have the right tools to automate the process. We’ll explain how marketing automation for recruiters works in the wild, and how you can use it to connect with your target audiences. How Marketing Automation Helps You Target Clients Marketing automation for recruiters can be applied to every stage of the sales funnel, from raising awareness of your brand to building relationships with your long-term clients. Its potential for generation BD leads is second to none. Generating leads is one of the most effective uses of marketing automation and is generally an ‘always on’ feature, as long as you’re in business! Email Marketing
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In an era where it feels like everyone, including the neighbour’s dog, has a podcast, it’s tempting to dismiss the idea as just another marketing trend. That, however, would overlook the immense potential podcasts hold for BD in recruitment. We love podcasts for their versatility, their ability to be consumed anywhere and as a vehicle for demonstrating your subject matter and industry expertise. As a recruitment marketing tool, podcasts aren’t just about the number of listeners per episode, the size of your subscriber base or the number of clicks. Podcast marketing gives recruiters that essential foot in the door in BD campaigns and gain plenty of other hot leads besides. We’ll explain how. Give Recruiters a Reason to Pick up the Phone Think about the typical recruiter approach to a business development call. 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They get an opportunity to raise their brand awareness among candidates and demonstrate their expertise. Before trying this approach, you will of course do solid research on your prospect and be ready to explain why they would make a good guest on your podcast. Spice Up Your Lead Generation With well-crafted podcast content, you’re creating a goldmine of recruitment marketing material that can be repurposed across multiple channels, expanding your lead generation potential. Key moments from a compelling podcast episode can be turned into snippets and used virtually anywhere. Highlighting a thought-provoking quote, a surprising statistic, or a powerful insight is perfect for bite-sized content. By transcribing your episodes, you can easily identify these highlights and transform them into punchy graphics with quotes, video clips, or text posts to drive engagement on social channels – and attract more clicks to your website. Podcast episode highlights are also excellent material for your blog posts, newsletters, and email marketing. When launching an email campaign centred around a specific theme, you could highlight snippets from a podcast where the same issue is discussed. Used in this way, podcasts can really add depth to your messaging and reinforce your authority as a subject matter expert. Direct Listeners to Purpose-Built Resources Landing pages pair with podcast marketing like wine does with cheese. Throughout your podcast episodes, make it a habit to guide listeners to a dedicated landing page where they can access free and valuable guides. Think salary reports, whitepapers, how-to guides for hiring managers or candidates – the sky’s the limit! These resources are just a quick form away – listeners simply enter their name and email address to download the content. This simple step turns casual listeners into potential leads. 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By Amber Loach October 23, 2024
Resources like salary reports, industry surveys and how-to guides are like bread and butter in marketing for recruiters – staples that appeal to a broad audience.

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Latest Blogs

By Amber Loach February 7, 2025
To stand out from the competition, effective marketing is more important than ever for recruitment agencies. Without it, your business growth can quickly hit a brick wall and force your consultants to fish in the same pool of prospects. That’s hardly enjoyable or productive (even if your consultants won’t admit to it!) In a highly competitive market, the good news is that you can optimise your costs with outsourced recruitment marketing and access capabilities that can take years to build in-house. We’ll explain why and how. The Real Costs of In-House Marketing The average marketing budget sits somewhere between 7-10% of company revenue, as surveys by Deloitte and Gartner suggest. (If you’re in start-up or high growth mode, that percentage will be higher.) Plans to increase marketing budgets over the coming years will, of course, vary by industry and business needs, but it’s clear that internal marketing teams don’t come cheap. For businesses based in the UK, the average marketing coordinator salary is in the vicinity of £24,000. With the recent increase in the employer National Insurance Contributions rate (from 13.8% to 15%), recruitment agencies are now facing significant payroll costs – and that’s before any marketing is being done to speak of! Breaking it down, an in-house marketing coordinator on a minimum salary of £22k will cost an additional £770 annually from 2025, whilst a midweight marketer on £45k will cost at least another £1,000. Add that up over a team of two to four people (or more), along with leave entitlements and other employee costs, and those pounds sure add up. Not to mention the cost of replacing and onboarding marketing employees. Recruitment agencies in Australia don’t get off lightly, either. To employ a full-time marketing coordinator, you’re looking at an average salary range of $70,000-$80,000 AUD. Add in superannuation, payroll tax, minimum leave entitlements, along with onboarding and training, the actual annual cost of that coordinator will be 1.25 to 1.4 times higher than their base salary. That’s up to $122,000 annually for one employee with a limited skillset. Here’s the catch: a junior or midweight marketing coordinator can handle the basics, but when your business needs specialised marketing skills to grow, you’ll need to hire more specialists – and that’s when your costs will skyrocket. Access to Marketing Expertise Without Hiring With outsourced marketing, you can skip the fixed, ongoing expenses of an in-house marketing team. Outsourcing gives you access to specialised skills like graphic design, paid advertising and copywriting when you need them, without the ongoing overhead of salaries and taxes. After all, your business might not need the same set of marketing skills all year. Certain expertise is more important for some campaigns and marketing plans and not others. When using an outsourced marketing agency like us, you get access to an embedded marketing team where you only pay for work you need during a given project or timeframe. We act as an extension of your business to manage your marketing, giving you a range of established skills and strategic knowledge at your fingertips. All without making a single hire. Scalability Based on Business Needs An outsourced marketing solution gives you precious scalability. As all recruitment business leaders are aware, business conditions fluctuate. Your goals will inevitably be adjusted to meet changing market conditions. Based on our experience in working with recruiters, here are common scenarios where marketing scalability is a survival issue: 1. Crowded Markets In crowded industries and sectors, recruiters face stiff competition from rivals with big marketing budgets. To stay ahead, they need smart and adaptable strategies that pack a punch without overspending. 2. Start-Up Challenges For new recruiters with limited revenue and an unproven offering, the focus is on generating interest and building momentum quickly. Outsourced marketing will provide that essential lift-off without the risk of hiring an untested marketing coordinator. 3. New Ventures and Expansions Recruitment agencies launching a new service or breaking into a new market will need a surge in marketing resources to ensure their efforts pay off. Scalable marketing means recruiters can dial their efforts up or down as needed. No overcommitting, nor missing out on opportunities! How do you achieve this sweet scalability? With an outsourced marketing solution, one that gives you flexible pricing options and a solid range of capabilities. If you want to pay on a project basis or have a marketing team on retainer, a good marketing agency will give you those options, too. This helps you forecast and manage costs over any length of time. Reduced Hidden Overheads On top of staffing costs, there are a few other cost gremlins lurking under the floorboards that most companies aren’t aware of until it’s too late. Infrastructure expenses like marketing software and tools quickly add up, especially when you need a group subscription or must pay a premium for basic functionality. An outsourced marketing provider has all these necessary tools, so you don’t need to duplicate them. Even the office space you need for an in-house team can sometimes get overlooked – an often astronomical cost that is becoming harder to justify for many businesses! Engaging a marketing agency gives you access to a marketing team at your fingertips, without the expense of bums on seats. The Final Word Of course, there are many situations where it makes good business sense to maintain or grow an in-house marketing team. The key, however, is to understand the big picture: your balance sheet, the ROI you can reasonably expect from an in-house team, and which options will best enable you to stay agile in a challenging market or business phase. Understanding these factors will guide you to the right marketing solution and avoid expensive mistakes. Outsourced Marketing for Recruiters, Done Your Way We’ve sung the praises of outsourced marketing here, but we’re also experts at helping our clients get the best out of their internal marketing teams. Whether you’re seeking marketing specialists that can dovetail with your internal team, or a standalone solution, or something else, we can do it for you. Let’s talk! Get in touch with Prominence today – we’d love to hear from you.
A person is holding a cell phone with social media icons coming out of it.
By Amber loach January 15, 2025
Social media just won’t stop evolving, and neither do we as marketers. Algorithm updates, new features, changes in audience demographics and preferences – there is just so much to keep up with! The fundamentals, however, are more straightforward than some might think.
By Amber Loach December 5, 2024
We can’t think of a single instance of a recruiter saying they love admin. And yet, administrative tasks eat up increasingly large chunks of a recruiter’s workday. It’s a given that job application volumes will keep rising, leaving recruiters with shrinking resources to carry out other vital functions – like nurturing passive candidates, engaging clients, or building a social media following. Marketing automation can solve many of the resource problems recruiters face. Trying to juggle activities like generating leads for new clients and candidates alongside the day-to-day practicalities of sourcing, interviewing and client consultation gets painful fast – unless you have the right tools to automate the process. We’ll explain how marketing automation for recruiters works in the wild, and how you can use it to connect with your target audiences. How Marketing Automation Helps You Target Clients Marketing automation for recruiters can be applied to every stage of the sales funnel, from raising awareness of your brand to building relationships with your long-term clients. Its potential for generation BD leads is second to none. Generating leads is one of the most effective uses of marketing automation and is generally an ‘always on’ feature, as long as you’re in business! Email Marketing
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February 11, 2025
Savvy Recruitment UK is a specialist recruitment agency focused on connecting top talent with roles in the media, creative, and digital industries. They offer tailored hiring solutions for companies while supporting candidates in finding their ideal career opportunities
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February 10, 2025
Charles Hunter Associates is a leading recruitment agency specialising in the provision of social workers and social care workers across England. Background The social care industry is often beleaguered with poor rates of pay and rising costs, and Charles Hunter Associates decided to launch a survey into the disparity of rates of pay across the industry, and overall sentiment of workers. The challenges the sector continues to face are complex, but include: Workforce Crisis with staff shortages, low rates of pay and staff burnout Funding and Resource Constraints: Underfunding, rising costs and the ability for organisations to provide quality care Growing Demand for Services: With rising numbers of service users and the growing prevalence of mental health needs. The team at Charles Hunter Associates aimed to create a report with valuable insights and recommendations by surveying workers and service providers in the sector. Challenge The challenge for Prominence was to design a survey that would generate meaningful data valuable to employers, gain maximum participation, and produce a report that would add value in the industry. Survey Design and Distribution Great care was taken in writing clear, unambiguous questions, while incorporating a small number of open-ended responses to capture the perspectives of workers. Participation was encouraged through regular emails to workers and employers in the sector, as well as across social media. Result Despite the sector's limited workforce, responses were gathered from:
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