Programmatic recruitment advertising leverages automated technology for the buying, placement, and optimization of job ads, paralleling trends in consumer advertising. It offers efficiency by using algorithms for precise targeting, optimized conversion rates, and real-time adjustments, potentially leading to significant cost savings and improved ROI for recruiters. As adoption rates are expected to soar, transitioning to programmatic methods will be crucial for recruiters to stay competitive in the evolving job advertising landscape.

1. PROGRAMMATIC
RECRUITMENT
ADVERTISING
The Better Way to Promote Job Ads Online

2. Every now and again, a technology comes along that promises to
revolutionize the world of media buying. First it was performance-based
advertising, which allows advertisers to pay based on how well the
advertisement works. For recruiters, that means a pay-per-click or
pay-per-application pricing model.
The newest kid on the block is programmatic — the concept of using
technology, not people, to buy, place, and manage ads. Compared to other
ad-buying methods, programmatic promises to deliver exactly the right ad to
exactly the right audience at exactly the right time, and at far greater speeds
than any human could achieve. The result? A dramatically higher return on
advertising spend.
Over the past seven or eight years, programmatic advertising has become a
goldmine for digital marketers. So much so, in fact, that take-up rates are set
to become stratospheric. This year, an estimated $16 billion (that's billion),
worth of advertising will be purchased through automated software
programs, the technology that underpins programmatic. That figure is set to
reach $33 billion by 2017 — about triple the current levels of spending.
Which begs the question, if programmatic is such a boon for digital
marketers, shouldn't recruiters — whom we are always beseeching to think
more like marketers — be leveraging the technology, too?
After all, where consumer markets go, recruiters tend to follow.
Performance-based advertising, made popular by Google's AdWords model,
has (finally) captured the lion's share of recruitment advertising spend. The
shift away from older, duration-based advertising models has accelerated
rapidly as a result.
Programmatic simply boosts efficiency. By using software to continually
optimize the placement of job advertisements, recruiters can gain the highest
conversion rates at the job level. That means reducing the number of jobs
that have too many applies. It means reducing the number of jobs that have
too few applies. And, crucially, it means spending far less money to generate
that holy grail of recruiting - the quality apply.
The fact is, digital marketers see incredible results when they let data and
software handle the buying and placing of advertisements. There is every
reason to believe that recruiters could achieve the same results. And that, in
a nutshell, is why programmatic recruitment advertising represents one of
the most significant developments in our industry.
The aim of this white paper is to give you an overview of programmatic, how
it works, how it could impact your talent acquisition, and how you can
leverage it to strengthen and improve your recruitment advertising. We will
conclude with a brief look at where the industry is headed and an
exhortation to prepare for this inevitable industry shift.
I do hope you find it useful.
Chris Forman,
Founder and CEO
of Appcast
Programmatic Recruitment Advertising. The Better Way to Promote Job Ads Online.
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Programmatic advertising is
the buying, placement and
optimization of ads performed
by software, rather than
people.
Executive Summary
Programmatic techniques and technologies are transforming the
consumer advertising marketplace.
It is expected that, this year, 55% of all U.S. digital display ads will be
bought using programmatic buys. This makes programmatic the
fastest growing segment of the digital advertising industry.
Job advertising has always followed the macro trends of the broader
online advertising market, usually with a five to seven-year time lag.
Recruiters now sit at the cusp of the next tectonic shift in ad-buying
— programmatic of the job advertising space.
Programmatic simply means automated.
Programmatic advertising is the buying, placement and optimization
of ads performed by software, rather than people.
What is Programmatic Advertising?
Much has been written about programmatic advertising and almost
every author has a different take on what programmatic advertising
actually is. Certainly a lot of people confuse it with buying ads through
real-time bidding—a type of computer-run auction—but that is just one
way to buy ads programmatically. So, let's cut through the jargon.
It works like this: The buyer plugs into an automated system for buying
ad space, like a stock exchange. He or she enters demographic details,
known as rules, about the ideal customer and how many of them he or
she wants to reach. Then the software takes over.
Programmatic gathers browsing data and uses complex algorithms to
show people the right ads, at the right time, in the right place, based on
their likelihood to engage with the advertisement.
Programmatic Recruitment Advertising. The Better Way to Promote Job Ads Online.

4. 4
How Does Programmatic Advertising
Work in Recruitment?
Programmatic recruitment advertising works in exactly the same way as
programmatic consumer advertising. But instead of placing ads for
products and services, technology is deployed to automate the buying
and placement of job openings through networks of job-related websites
on either a pay-per-click or pay-per-application basis.
The process is extremely simple:
The recruiter imports a job from their ATS or career site.
The recruiter sets their total budget allocation, as well as what they
are willing to pay for each click or application.
The recruiter sets the “rules” based on their business objectives, such
as demographics of the target applicant, number of applies they want
for a particular job or job group, and budget.
The recruiter hits the "buy" button.
The programmatic software takes care of the rest.
Before programmatic, the process for buying recruitment advertising
was labor intensive and notoriously inefficient. Recruiters would have to
research the best on-or-offline space to place a job ad, engage in an
administration-heavy process of discovering pricing and availability from
multiple publishers or vendors, place orders, and manually load the copy
into the ad server. And all of these processes took place before the job
ad had even begun running.
With programmatic, advertisers can buy ads the way they might buy
something on Amazon.com. A few mouse clicks and they're done.
With programmatic,
advertisers can buy ads the
way they might buy something
on Amazon.com. A few mouse
clicks and they're done.
Why Should Recruiters Care?
Recruiters should care because the benefits that programmatic
advertising has shown in the consumer space are similar to the benefits
we are beginning to see inside the recruitment space. Specifically,
cost-effective access to a large and hyper-targeted number of
job-seekers across all content and devices.
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Programmatic Recruitment Advertising. The Better Way to Promote Job Ads Online.

5. 5
The business case is compelling. Take a look at the following benefits:
Precision Targeting: Since artificial intelligence makes better placement
decisions than people, programmatic allows for accurate and successful
audience targeting. For recruiters, that means smartly engineering the
allocation of advertising dollars towards critical and hard-to-fill vacancies
that need applications. In other words:
You reduce the number of jobs that have too many applies.
You reduce the number of jobs that have too few applies.
You spend less money to generate a quality apply.
You get more bang for your advertising buck.
Optimized Conversion: Historically, recruiters contracted with a handful
of publishers to run job advertisements. These contracts were typically
for a fixed budget amount over a fixed period of time. Programmatic
surpasses any one job board, publisher or job site. The algorithm
automatically optimizes which publisher is used for the highest
conversion rate for each job posting.
Efficiency: Programmatic is capable of making "in-flight" adjustments in
real time. This means that ads are optimized instantaneously, rather
than quarterly or annually when the performance of those ads is
reviewed. Since humans cannot compete with the real-time analytical
capabilities of software, programmatic provides immediate cost savings
and a higher return on investment (ROI).
Value: Programmatic is supported by a performance-based pricing
structure which facilitates an increased ROI. And, since automated
processes decrease the labor-intensive resources usually associated
with ad-buying operations, recruiters are freed up to focus on creative
and value-added activities.
Programmatic is capable of
making "in-flight" adjustments
in real time. This means that
ads are optimized
instantaneously.
Since artificial intelligence
makes better placement
decisions than people,
programmatic allows for
accurate and successful
audience targeting.
Programmatic Recruitment Advertising. The Better Way to Promote Job Ads Online.

6. 6
Is It Just a Fad?
Advertisers are turning to programmatic in droves.
This year, an estimated $16 billion worth of advertising will be purchased
through programmatic platforms. That figure is set to reach $33 billion
by 2017 according to forecasts from Magna Global —and is expected to
increase year on year over the next decade. According to eMarketer,
this year 55% of all U.S. digital display ads will be purchased using
programmatic buys. This makes it the fastest growing segment of the
digital advertising sector.
As for the programmatic value proposition, more than 90 percent of
marketers in Europe, the U.S., Australia and Japan consistently report
that programmatic retargeting campaigns perform better than other
display campaigns.
In fact, most commentators have concluded that programmatic is the
opposite of a fad, and will soon become the standard for how digital
advertising is bought and sold. It is conceivable that there will be no
option other than programmatic advertising for all media buys in the
future.
Where Consumer Advertising Goes,
Recruitment Follows....
Reported in eMarketer “Programmatic Ad Spend Set to Soar.”
Available from http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Programmatic-Ad-Spend-Set-Soar/1010343
Fisher, Lauren T. “Programmatic Advertising 2015 Outlook.”
Available from http://www.slideshare.net/eMarketerInc/emarketer-webinar-programmatic-advertising-2015-outlook
Reported in iMedia “The CMO’s Guide to Programmatic.”
Available from http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/38865.asp
Adweek, “Programmatic for Dummies: Everyone Says It’s Exploding, But What Is It?”
Available from http://www.adweek.com/news-gallery/advertising-branding/programmatic-dummies-153590#what-programmatic-anyway-1
According to eMarketer, 55% of
all U.S. digital display ads will
be purchased using
programmatic buys. This
makes it the fastest growing
segment of the digital
Programmatic will become the
standard for how digital
advertising is bought and sold.
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Programmatic Recruitment Advertising. The Better Way to Promote Job Ads Online.

7. 7
Over the past two decades, the evolution of job ad buying has followed
in lockstep with digital ad buying.
Back in the 1990's, the Internet had 'walled gardens' as sites like AOL
and MSN served as the medium for advertisers to reach consumers
browsing the web. Five years later, recruitment followed the same
model. Job boards such as Monster and CareerBuilder sprang up,
moving recruiters away from the classifieds by providing a web-based
ecosystem where recruiters could find people looking for work.
Soon after the recruitment industry got comfortable with this model,
Google AdWords shook up the consumer advertising world with
pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. At the time, AdWords was a paradigm
shift. Yet predictably, five years later, recruitment followed suit. Platforms
like Indeed and SimplyHired launched their own PPC models that
enabled recruiters to spread their budget across sites where the
candidates they needed were looking, and spend only when someone
clicked to view a posting.
On average, there has been about a five to seven-year lag between the
changes that take place in digital advertising and when we start to see
those changes in recruitment. Programmatic represents the next leap
forward—and it started approximately five years ago.
This year, we expect to see programmatic explode in recruitment. We
predict at least a 25% adoption rate — up from the current rate of 5 to
9% — and very aggressive growth rates going forward. This is
consistently in line with the time frame for digital adoption.
The message then, is this: ignore programmatic at your peril. Where
digital goes, recruitment always follows. Recruiters who do not embrace
it will be left out in the cold.
We have looked deeply at programmatic trends and the adoption we are seeing in the recruitment media
space in the United States. From our view, we believe that recruitment advertising will follow in lockstep with
the adoption of programmatic advertising we are seeing outside of jobs and expect that, within the next 3 to
5 years, 70% to 80% of all job ads will be placed in a programmatic platform.
“
—Chris Forman
On average, there has been a
five to seven-year lag between
the changes that take place in
digital advertising and when
we start to see those changes
in recruitment.
Programmatic represents the
next leap forward—and it
started approximately five
years ago.
Programmatic Recruitment Advertising. The Better Way to Promote Job Ads Online.

8. 8
Conclusion
For major brands, programmatic is no longer an experiment. It is now
part of their long-term marketing strategy. As the value proposition
becomes increasingly apparent for recruiters, programmatic recruitment
growth rates should accelerate dramatically in the next few years.
The fact is, where digital marketers go, recruiters always follow. We've
seen it with job boards and we've seen it with PPC. With the rest of the
digital world marching towards programmatic, there is simply no way
that recruiting can stay stuck in the classifieds.
Today, software companies such as Recruitics and Appcast are playing a
major role in bringing programmatic to the fore in the recruitment
space. By providing employers and recruiters with tools to automate
how they measure and optimize their advertising channels, these
providers, and others like them, are taking the guesswork out of how to
get the highest returns from their recruitment advertising spend.
The bottom line is that programmatic advertising is another paradigm
shift, and its message to recruiters is clear—wise up, or get left behind.
Recruiting on Appcast
On January 1, 2014, StartDate Labs launched Appcast™, the industry's
first pay-per-applicant job ad exchange. Appcast allows talent acquisition
leaders to focus their recruitment advertising budgets more efficiently by
charging only when a job application is completed on an employer's
corporate career site.
Appcast brings advanced programmatic online ad buying to the human
recruitment capital market. Above and beyond the pay-per-applicant
pricing model, Appcast's 'rules-based buying' engine delivers great
applicants to the recruitment portal and ensures budget dollars are
focused exclusively on hard-to-fill or critical vacancies that need
applications.
Already utilized by hundreds of leading companies, Appcast is focused on
maximizing the efficiency of recruiting ad spend in a streamlined, user-
friendly way. Hiring managers set the rules on how they wish to sponsor
jobs and how much they are willing to pay. There are no minimum
budgets or long-term contracts.
To learn more about Appcast and sign up for a demo, visit:
www.appcast.io
Programmatic Recruitment Advertising. The Better Way to Promote Job Ads Online.