To measure is to know. A mantra that applies within the entire online world. Especially for social recruitment, it is important to know how campaigns are running and where they can be adjusted and evaluated. The numbers behind the numbers are crucial for a successful recruitment strategy. Yet not much attention is usually paid to the role of Google Analytics. In a Q&A, campaign manager Sylvia Schmidt of MrWork takes us into the wonderful world of measuring, monitoring and optimizing so you get to know your candidates better.
To get right to the point, why is Analytics indispensable for a social recruiting campaign?
Google Analytics is essential for getting to know and understand your target audience. If you want to fully measure a campaign and analyze what is happening on the website, you really can't do without this tool. It provides insights that allow you, for example, to optimize a work at website in a way that fully meets the needs of your target audience. Because often people think they know what a website should look like, but with the foundation of Analytics you really know for sure.
Can you outline how MrWork is currently using Google Analytics for successful campaigns?
It starts with preparation. Before a campaign goes live, we ask our client for access to Analytics. This works nicely because we know in advance whether the account is set up properly. We also set goals and make a baseline measurement. That way we know what the quality of the target audience is before going live. With the baseline measurement and the final results of the campaign, we formulate learning and recommendations for our clients.
During a campaign, it is mainly about monitoring and optimization. Through social, of course we see how many people click on an ad, but what they do afterwards remains unclear and is just as important. With Analytics, we can see that. Plus we can monitor whether we are dealing with mis-clicks, does the page load too slowly and they drop out, do they reach the page at all and if so, what are they doing there? All relevant questions to optimize a campaign.
In addition, we have more insight into a candidate's behavior. For example, if someone looks up information about the teams on the website and reads blogs, but does not yet apply for a job, you can conclude that this candidate is interested in the employer, but may need additional information. With these insights, you can cater to the needs of the target audience in order to design the candidate journey even better. Google Analytics gives you so much information about what exactly the target audience is doing once they have clicked on your ad via social and that is extremely valuable.
Recruiters know a lot about the specific target audience, but not yet everything about how these candidates behave on social and the website.
So Google Analytics is already taking an important role within campaigns. How do you expect this to develop in the future?
It's only going to become more and more important for social recruiting. Our clients want to see and learn more and more when it comes to data to get to know their target audience better. In addition, it is so important for us to show what kind of impact a social campaign can have on employer awareness. Recruiters know a lot about the specific target audience, but not yet everything about how these candidates behave on social and the website.
Do you have a practical example that ties into this?
Yes, internally at one of our clients the question arose recently "Why are we still using social advertising when the target audience is applying through websites like Indeed anyway? A good question. We then used Best Conversion Paths to show in Analytics which paths the various target groups take before they apply for a job. Again, we found that people were indeed applying through Indeed or directly through the client's website. However, there was an important but. Prior to applying, the target group first encountered our ads on social. So this conversion would not have happened if the target group had not been the first to come into contact with our campaign. This is why it is so important to always look closely at first click as well.
In the end, it turned out that our campaigns for this client were 75% supported. So three-quarters of the applicants did not convert directly from our campaign, but they did start their candidate journey with our ads. That direct contribution from MrWork can only be shown with Analytics and therefore an important part of our feedback to clients.
Finally, do you have any golden Analytics tips to share?
Of course, everything depends on setting up your account properly. But set goals in advance! With goals you can measure on different points. Think about measuring a completed application, but also the click behavior of a candidate can provide so many insights. And with the help of goals you also get insight into the different conversion paths of your target group. This enables us to determine the value of each channel even better and thus optimize the journey.
Want to learn more about Google Analytics and MrWork's social recruiting campaigns? No problem! Just let us know using the contact form below and we'll be happy to tell you more.
