How to Leverage Media Optimization to Get More out of Your TA Budget

It's time to reassess your talent acquisition (TA) strategies and recruitment marketing budgets. With the ever-changing market dynamics and regional variations, crafting a strategic sourcing plan that is both effective and budget-friendly can be a complex task. See our recent blog to learn how to strategize your recruitment marketing budget.  
 

Optimizing Your Spend 

Media optimization is a potent tool in the talent acquisition arsenal. The best way to lower cost-per-applicant is to attract the right candidates. Here are some considerations to make when assessing your current spend:  

1. Job Postings 
   Job posting platforms like Indeed offer a cost-effective way to reach many potential candidates. They also provide tools which can help you understand which postings are most effective to optimize your budget allocation. It's important to continue to analyze your job titles as well as job descriptions to make sure they’re keyword optimized to attract as many candidates as possible.  
    
2. Paid Ads 
   Paid advertisements can extend your reach to a broader audience. Tailoring your paid ads, on platforms like Google, can help you target specific audiences to ensure your open opportunities are seen by the right people. 
    
3. Social Media 
   Platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook, are effective for reaching potential candidates. They facilitate interaction and engagement, which can also help build your employer brand and attract top talent without significant financial investment.  
4. Data Analytics 
   All the above are great strategies in your recruitment arsenal, but are you really analyzing the data from each platform? Many companies look at reporting but have a hard time understanding what the data means or what story it tells. Continuously reviewing the metrics from each platform, as well as from your ATS source reports, will help you understand what is working best, and what is not, so it is important to not only look at the data often, but also really understand it.  
5. Recruitment Marketing Agencies
   Agencies can save you time and improve the ROI of your advertising spend by enhancing performance, analyzing your data, helping you understand that data and making recommendations. This can lead to cost savings by reducing the time-to-hire and improving the quality of hires.  

By strategically allocating your budget across these different channels, you can maximize your reach and improve your talent acquisition outcomes, allowing your team to get more bang for your buck.  

Understanding the Costs  

Understanding the costs involved with talent acquisition and recruitment marketing is the first step towards budgetary efficiency. These costs can be categorized into direct costs, indirect costs, and investment costs.   

Direct costs include known expenses like:  

• recruiting and sourcing tools 
• background checks  
• labor marketing   

Indirect costs, which do not appear on your Profit & Loss statement, include:  

• costs of hiring the wrong talent  
• internal mobility  
• weakened employee value proposition and attrition   

Investment costs refer to the money spent on foundational elements like:  

• career website 
• technology platforms to automate your recruiting process 
• learning and development to equip leaders with the skills to ensure new recruits feel immediately included  

Optimizing these costs requires a strategic approach to budget allocation. By investing in media optimization strategies, you can reach a wider audience, attract better candidates, and ultimately reduce costs associated with poor hires and high turnover.  

Crafting a strategic recruitment marketing budget  requires a careful balance of cost savings and investments that will drive positive and meaningful change. By understanding the costs involved in talent acquisition and leveraging media optimization strategies, you can improve your sourcing outcomes and contribute to the financial goals of your business. Give yourself the opportunity to reassess, realign, and revamp your recruitment marketing strategies to ensure they are as effective and budget friendly as possible.  

Need help? Wicresoft’s Recruitment Marketing experts can assist with a review of your strategies – just give us a shout!