8 Metrics to Track for Measuring the Success of Recruitment Marketing

With today’s highly competitive job market, it can be challenging for companies to attract top talent. Nevertheless, employers use different recruitment marketing tactics to spread the word about their job opportunities.

Recruitment marketing is an effective way to find the most qualified candidates. When done correctly, it brings the talent to you instead of vice versa. Yet, to ensure your tactics succeed, you must keep track of certain metrics to measure success.

What Is Recruitment Marketing?

Recruitment marketing is a strategy an employer uses to attract and hire talented people. Think of it as traditional marketing. Instead of promoting products or services, it focuses on promoting a company as a great workplace. The main goal is to get people interested in working for the company.

This works by showing what makes a company special as an employer. This could be their friendly work environment, career growth opportunities, or great benefits. Companies use different tools like social media, job fairs, and company websites to promote this information.

They also share stories about what it is like to work there, showing potential employees the company's culture and values. Doing this attracts people who are a good fit for the company and encourages them to apply for jobs. It helps businesses find the right people more efficiently and improves the chances of hiring the best candidates.

Why Must You Measure Recruitment Marketing?

Measuring marketing efforts is crucial for several reasons. First, it helps companies understand how their tactics are working. Tracking specific metrics allows businesses to see which strategies are attracting candidates. As such, they can focus on the most effective methods, saving time and money.

Second, measurement helps in improving the recruitment process. By analyzing recruitment marketing data, companies can identify areas that need improvement. For example, if a company notices its job ads need more views to achieve the desired number of applications, it may need to change where or how it advertises.

Tracking results also ensures the company is reaching the right people. Recruitment marketing is more than about attracting candidates — rather, it is about attracting the right ones. This lets companies adjust their strategies to target the desired audience better. For instance, some employers use evergreen landing pages to enhance their visibility and attract the right candidates long after a job has been advertised.

However, the most important reason you should measure your marketing is to analyze your return on investment (ROI). This will show you how beneficial the marketing efforts are compared to the costs incurred. Businesses that do this understand the value of investing in recruitment marketing and can support decisions on future investments.

The Top Eight Metrics to Track

If you are about to work on a new campaign, ensure your strategies are performing well by tracking these top metrics.

1. Time-to-Hire

Time-to-hire is the delay between when a candidate first interacts with your job ad and when they accept a job offer. Good marketing can shorten the time-to-hire by quickly attracting qualified candidates. If your strategies are strong, you will likely see a pool of suitable applicants, speeding up the hiring process.

However, a longer time-to-hire suggests you may need to adjust your strategies for reaching and engaging the right candidates. To measure it, track when candidates apply and accept the job offer. Subtract the start date from the acceptance date to determine if there are delays or if the speed is just right.

2. Source-of-Hire

Source-of-hire is where your successful candidates first learn about the job. This metric is vital for understanding which recruitment marketing channels are most effective. These channels may cover job boards, social media, and company career sites. Measure this metric by tracking where each hired candidate first saw the job posting or heard about the opportunity. This information will help you fine-tune your efforts by focusing resources on the most productive sources.

3. Social Media Engagement

Social engagement tells you how much your content resonates with potential candidates on platforms like LinkedIn or Facebook. This metric measures your recruitment post's performance for items such as likes, shares, comments, and followers. The higher the engagement, the more your content is appealing and relevant, meaning you are drawing attention to your job openings.

Consider keeping track of this metric by looking at the interactions through the platform's analytics dashboard. This will help you assess the impact of your social media strategies and guide your decisions.

For instance, you might decide to make recruitment videos for your next strategy, as they get higher engagement. Video content has 6.09 percent engagement, whereas static content gets 4.42 percent (Source: Designerly). So, consider testing which types of content are garnering the most attention and continue testing from there.

4. Time-to-Acceptance

The time-to-acceptance metric measures the time between when a job offer is made and when the candidate accepts it. A shorter time-to-acceptance indicates candidates are enthusiastic about joining your company. In other words, it suggests your employer's brand and job proposition are appealing. With so much competition for hiring top talent, you want this metric to be as short as possible.

Candidates can receive other offers at any time. Therefore, the timing for making an offer is of the essence. Keep an eye on this metric by measuring from the time the employer makes an offer to receiving the candidate’s acceptance. You can learn if there are any issues in the offer stage and gauge the attractiveness of your employment offer.

5. Employee Referrals

A well-rounded marketing strategy considers how well your current staff perceive and promote your company as a workplace. Use employee referrals to measure the percentage of hires that come through employee recommendations.

High employee referrals suggest a positive company culture and strong internal brand advocacy. You can measure this by taking the number of hires made through referrals against total hires. This way, you can assess the effectiveness of your referral program.

6. Cost-per-Hire

Cost-per-hire calculates the total expense of recruiting a new employee. While this includes recruiter salaries and interviewing costs, it also involves advertising fees. This metric is standard across various industries. By tracking this amount, you can understand if your marketing efforts are working.

Focus on measuring this metric by summing up all recruitment-related expenses and dividing by the number of hires made in a specific period. Monitoring this metric helps you understand your financial impact and guides budget allocation for future hiring activities.

7. New Site Users

This metric is important to track when you use your company’s career site to attract candidates. It measures the number of first-time visitors to your career page within a specific period. When looking at new site users, you can tell whether your marketing efforts drive potential candidates to your site.

High numbers suggest successful outreach and brand awareness campaigns. You can easily measure this metric using web analytics tools to track unique visitors to your recruitment pages. Monitor it regularly to see if your reach is effective and if you need to optimize your online presence.

8. Job Board Company Profile Views and Impressions

With this metric, you can tell how often job seekers view your job listings or company profiles on job boards. A higher measurement shows good interest and awareness among potential candidates.

This metric is easy to measure, as you only look at the number of views and impressions your job ads and company profile receive. This information is crucial for understanding whether you need to make necessary changes to improve candidate attraction.

Measure Your Recruitment Marketing Metrics for Success

Consistently tracking your recruitment marketing metrics is essential to refining your hiring strategies and attracting top talent. You can gain valuable insights that guide your efforts, but it is important to stay adaptable. With persistence and the right approach, you can meet your hiring goals and build a strong team that drives your company’s success.