Flawed Concept of CPC Media Planning

I am aware my comments below are a big over-simplification but here goes - We are a metric led business or to be more accurate - we advise our clients based on a set of metrics that we hold or have access to on their behalf. However - this very puritanical form of measurement and evaluation of campaign success or media performance cannot and should not exist in isolation. I was debating with Kork earlier who works with a product agency on one of our accounts who wants to select media for next campaign based on pure CPC basis (or to be fair a CPA) basis as they would do a consumer campaign. All sounds good.... The big signifcant difference between candidate attraction campaigns and selling product campaigns is that the ideal response to a single job ad (or any number of jobs) is 1 (or 1 per job). That 1 being the ideal candidate. All further response has a cost (a sift, a phone interview etc) however minimal that would be. For purpose of this i will ignore building talent pool/database etc. The ideal response for a product/service sales campaign is as many as possible. Somehow qualitative data or insight has to be introduced and planning decisions weighted accordingly In summary - metrics, CPC/CPA are critical measures but in isolation can lead you down a very misleading road.

Why I Love Media in 2012

i was enjoying a twitter exchange last week with @mattbigg and @mattallder about launching a highly dubious pinterestjobsearch product/running a webinar etc and charging a kerjillion ££ for a barely credible product and it reminded what i adore about what we do (not the silly stuff above) and the market we now operate in - so these are my reasons why working in recruitment marcomms is so much better now than (please insert date 2008/2005/2000/1995 etc). 1. Recruitment media used to represent such goddamn awful value for clients and huge profits for newspapers, rec cons and ad agencies. 12 x 5 in Times for £15K, 26% agency commission. B2B magazines ( i know as i used to be publisher of one) running 100 pages a week at £7.5K a page. Now all media is much more realistic (including print) about pricing. 2. Recruitment media was deathly dull and working in an agency had as much in common to a sausage factory as a creative/strategic biz. job spec in - copy and setting - book 12 x 3 in Essex Chronicle. Next...and repeat ad infinitum. Sadly some businesses still operate in this way. 3. We don't know all the answers. we have (dare i say it) expert opinion, we have evidence, we have stats/MI but things are moving so fast that maybe this nonsense new product (insert flavour of month) is the way forward. Maybe TJ's link up with Branchout will be amazing? maybe Monster's Beknown is a game changer? Will LinkedIn take over the recruitment world? just how clever is Targeted Facebook PPC going to get? and i have not even mentioned Google yet... 4. Clients are doing it for themselves. We have RPO and rec agency clients but the trend to direct sourcing is a really positive move. The quality agencies will thrive and body shops will/have reinvented themselves. So what we now do for our clients extends to employer brand, engagement, recruitment process (prob what we understand better than anyone), attraction, retention etc as all of this is the bedrock to a great recruitment and retention strategy. 5. Innovation. So much you can do, our advice is always to do one new thing and do it brilliantly rather than lots in half arsed fashion. But it is really easy now to pick a growth media and exploit/gain competitive advantage. And you know what - you don't even need an external supplier like us for soem stuff - just do it, measure it, enhance and repeat. And finally - a selfish one - the market is incredibly complicated so what many (well....enough) companies want is a supplier/partner/sounding board/consultant/procurer - who can cut through the maze and make the whole piece work. And that's where.....i think you know what i am about to say here.