With the CPC or “cost-per-click” model of job advertising common to most job boards today, more traffic will ultimately be more costly—but too little traffic will get you fewer applicants. It’s like the goldilocks principle of recruitment advertising: you don’t necessarily want too much traffic or too little: you want the right amount. But, really, you want the right kind of traffic, with your ad finding the eyes of quality candidates first and foremost. The CPC model can improve your KPIs if you do it right. To improve quality of hire, time to hire, and conversion rates, all while keeping the cost-per-hire down, you need to navigate the system with careful calculation to find the “sweet spot” where you will get high quality candidates not just skimming your ad but applying for the job.

Why you should use CPC to improve KPIs

1. CPC provides you data

Because you’re paying for clicks and receiving applications, it is easy to calculate the conversion rate of your advertisement from clicks to applies, and track the effectiveness of the ad’s keywords. A higher percentage of conversions will indicate the effectiveness of your ad’s language. If the conversion rate is low (making each click less cost-effective) it’s something you can monitor, then fix, by revising the ad language to better communicate and entice potential candidates. (On the other hand, if your keywords aren’t drawing any traffic and the ad never gets seen, you don’t pay for it—but it’s also time to revise.) This is data you can keep track of through a job ad campaign on a weekly (and even daily) basis.

2. Targeting is built into the process

Your ad automatically shows up in relevant search queries. With audience selection and the right language in your ad, your perfect candidate will search for and see it. This means the job isn’t just seen by anyone, but rather is highly targeted, which may reduce your time to hire and leads to better quality of hire.

3. You decide the price

The CPC model is cost-efficient. You only pay for visits to your ad, and with bid-based CPC pricing, the new norm, you set the maximum price per click. Bid-based CPC pricing works a little like a silent auction; your ad competes with others for the chance of being displayed to users on websites. You establish your maximum cost per click price, and the higher your bid, the higher score your ad receives and the more often or likely it will be displayed to users. (If your bid is too low, however, it may not meet a certain threshold.) Understanding the pricing structure and what a click is worth is important to paying the lowest, best price for your ad campaign.

4. Smart bidding will get you great results

Programmatic recruitment platforms, which can analyze a range of factors and predict costs, can navigate the CPC landscape well, calculating your ideal bid price to optimize your ad campaign while keeping the cost low. Programmatic recruitment software can help assess all the factors using prediction algorithms, dynamic bidding algorithms, optimization algorithms, etc. The pricing of CPC can work really well when you use programmatic recruitment platform to navigate the broader landscape and your hiring goals. Smart bidding calculates the best cost that will maximize traffic and increase conversions.

5. CPC can focus on “hard to fill” jobs

Jobs that require greater expertise with a higher hard-to-fill index will have fewer clicks and less candidates, while “hot jobs” may get lots of traffic. Thus, you spend more on the job that is easier to fill. In order to counteract this counterintuitive spending that can happen in CPC, setting cutoffs on easier-to-fill jobs is important. If you’re not using a programmatic recruitment platform that performs dynamic bidding for you, you will need to regularly analyze the data from your various job ads and ensure they are working efficiently to give your hard-to-fill positions are getting the attention they need. Allocating your budget accordingly will make sure all the jobs you have available are getting the proper attention.