Just Posted a Job? This is the Right Metric to Watch

Posting your openings on the most popular job sites you can find seems like a no-brainer. They will certainly drive a lot of traffic to your jobs, but is it the right traffic?

Is traffic alone the best metric for gauging the success of a job board partnership?

We don’t think so.

Why Traffic Can Be Misleading

Consider this: Some big, general job boards operate on a cost-per-click (CPC) internet advertising model, meaning you (the advertiser) pay them (the publisher) when your job ad is clicked. Therefore, their main goal is to drive as many clicks (traffic) to your site as possible, regardless of how well the job seeker fits the job opening.

To make this happen, big job boards purposely don’t show job seekers your full ad, forcing them to click through to your site to see what your open position is all about. This means you could be paying for clicks and views that don’t meet your needs, which can make the hiring process more complicated.

What Job Posting Metrics Should You Watch?

For that reason, just analyzing traffic won’t tell you the whole story. Instead, you should consider the following metrics when evaluating the effectiveness of any job board partnership:

1. Visit-to-application ratio: Out of all the traffic going to your job openings, how many of those page visitors are applying to the job? In other words, how well are those clicks “converting”?
2. Quality of applications: It’s important to determine what your organization defines as a “highly qualified applicant” and use that as a benchmark for measuring traffic quality. How qualified are the applications you’re receiving? At a bare minimum, does the job title in your ad match the job title(s) in the candidates’ resumes/applications?

iHire operates with these two metrics in mind by hosting job views on our individual community sites and providing tools for employers to effectively promote their brand and company culture. Job seekers registered with iHire can read your job ad in full, and visit your company profile to get a clear idea of what it’s like to work for you. That means candidates who click through to your job openings have the intent to apply, not simply to learn more.

They’ve read your complete job description already and are prepared to take the next step.

One of the main complaints we hear from those who use general job boards is receiving far too many irrelevant, time-wasting applications – truck drivers applying to dentist positions, for example, or candidates who clearly “mass apply” to any open position they can find. It can turn the hiring process into a chore.

Sound familiar? Our model eliminates that problem.

iHire’s unique, industry-focused job search experience attracts highly qualified candidates who are career-oriented and dedicated to their field. When you partner with iHire, overall traffic to your jobs won’t skyrocket. In fact, our objective has never been to send you the most applicants – just the best. You can be confident the candidates we do send you are highly qualified and have a far better likelihood of completing the application process. And at the end of the day, aren’t more qualified applicants your main goal?

For more hiring advice and tips, check out our Employer Resource Center.