Over the past few years, companies have started to ask recruiting websites about pay for performance job ads. In other words, the company only pays for a recruiting ad if it gets some sort of positive response. While the concept can seem fairly easy, it is actually a loaded question that has several layers that need to be figured out before pay for performance can become part of the online job board world.

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Choosing A Format

According to LinkedIn.com, one of the issues that recruiting websites have is choosing a format for pay for performance that satisfies the website and its customers. The primary choices are:

• Pay Per Click – A company pays a fee for every click their recruiting ad generates.

• Pay Per Application – A company pays a fee every time a candidate fills out an application.

• Pay Per Resume – A company pays a fee every time it receives a resume in response to one of its ads.

• Pay Per Placement – A company only pays for its ad after an employee is found.

The question always comes down to how does a job board create a payment schedule that is going to make the customer happy? In the end, all of these pay for performance plans come down to how well the job board attracts and screens quality traffic.

Could Pay Per Click Be The Answer?

According to Glassdoor.com, there are several advantages to using the pay per click system to get quality candidates. The two primary advantages are being able to track where every click comes from, and being able to send qualified candidates directly to the application page on the company website.

As we discussed, a job board’s traffic could make pay per click almost useless to a client. If a client has to pay for every click the job board generates, and those clicks come from unqualified candidates, then the client will wind up paying for traffic it cannot use. Before getting involved in a pay per click system, a client will have to research a job board and find out exactly what it has to offer.

Improving Your Job Board

Offering pay for performance recruiting ads is starting to become the wave of the future for job boards, but you will have to upgrade your board if you want to take advantage of this wave. If you can offer each client detailed demographic information on the traffic your job board generates and show that your traffic will bring in the kind of candidates your client wants, then you can take advantage of the pay for performance model.

The idea of paying for the performance of a recruiting ad is still relatively new, but it is something that more and more customers are demanding. The demand for this type of payment structure is going to force job boards to adopt some form of a pay for performance system, but it will only work if the job board can present detailed information on the audience it attracts, and the kind of results customers can expect.

George N Root III is a professional freelance writer who has expertise in topics such as Internet marketing, business, advertising, and personal finance.