In the evolving world of recruitment, budget decisions for job advertising are becoming more art than science. With many organizations still struggling to develop clear strategies, it’s no surprise that only about half of those surveyed in Talent Tech Labs’ 2024 report have a defined approach to managing their job advertising budgets. A quarter of organizations lack any strategy, while another 25% aren’t even sure if a plan exists.
In the first chapter of this series, we took a look at Talent Tech Labs’ key findings in its 2024 report, The Next Generation of Job Advertising. In this report, “Talent Tech Labs and Veritone surveyed organizations of varying sizes across eight major markets. More than half of the respondents do at least some of their recruiting in the United States, and roughly a quarter hire in the United Kingdom. About 20% also recruit in Europe, primarily France and Germany, and 17.1% are active in Australia and Canada. While many respondents are Veritone customers, the survey was not exclusive to them.”
In Chapter 2 of this series, we’ll cover more report insights, including:
- Different job advertising budget decisions.
- How budgets can affect candidate quality.
- Key technological capabilities.
- And regional insights.
What drives job advertising budgets?
When it comes to what actually drives budget decisions, there’s no clear consensus. About 50% of organizations base their spending on the strategy that seems to generate the most qualified candidates. Meanwhile, 22% adjust their budgets when certain job advertising platforms become more affordable. Another 18% take a more experimental approach, regularly testing and comparing different strategies, and an equal proportion simply follow trends reported by other successful organizations.
Despite a lack of transparency on return on investment (ROI)—which a quarter of respondents identified as a significant issue—and ongoing concerns about high advertising costs, many companies are choosing to maintain or increase their advertising budgets. This reflects a desire to stay competitive in the war for talent, even if the true value of their spending isn’t always clear.
Candidate quality: The core challenge
A major factor influencing job advertising budgets is candidate quality. The top concerns expressed by respondents include the difficulty of finding high-quality candidates, followed closely by an overwhelming number of unqualified applicants and high dropout rates during the hiring process. Despite these challenges, two-thirds of organizations admit they don’t have an effective strategy for objectively evaluating candidate quality across different job advertising platforms.
As a result, decisions about job advertising budgets are often reactive. Rather than being part of a broader, well-defined organizational strategy, these decisions tend to stem from candidate challenges, budget pressures, and the need to keep up with competitors.
Key capabilities that drive preferences
When it comes to selecting job advertising platforms, the ability to reach passive candidates—those who aren’t actively looking at job boards—is a top priority. An overwhelming 84% of respondents ranked this as “more” or “most” important in their job posting strategy, while only 4% said it wasn’t a priority.
Technological capabilities also play a significant role in platform selection. Features like process automation, centralized data management, and seamless integration with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) were frequently mentioned as critical factors. Organizations also want better tools for predicting and measuring ROI, which explains the growing preference for advanced technologies like job distribution and programmatic advertising.
Regional insights: Diverging trends in job advertising
While most regions share similar patterns, there are notable differences across key markets:
- Social media vs. traditional job boards: Social media dominates job advertising globally, except in Europe, where traditional job boards and job distribution channels are still more widely used. This reflects a more conventional approach in the European market compared to other regions.
- LinkedIn usage: LinkedIn remains a top platform for job posting across most regions, but the US stands out as an exception. Only 47% of US recruiters use LinkedIn for job advertising, compared to over half of respondents in the UK and Europe, and more than three-quarters in Australia.
- Strategic differences in the UK: UK recruiters take a more structured approach to managing job advertising, with 71% tracking their advertising spend closely, compared to just 50% of US recruiters and 33% of European recruiters. Additionally, 70% of UK respondents have a formal process for measuring candidate quality across advertising platforms, well above the global average.
Interestingly, despite this proactive approach, UK recruiters report the same concerns over candidate quality, ROI, and advertising costs as their counterparts in other regions. This suggests that even the most organized and data-driven organizations may struggle to get the insights and value they need from current job advertising platforms.
Looking ahead
As companies grapple with candidate challenges and increasing competition, job advertising budgets will continue to play a critical role in recruitment strategies. However, without clearer metrics for measuring ROI and candidate quality, many organizations may continue to make budget decisions based on short-term pressures rather than long-term planning.
With the growing adoption of advanced job advertising technologies like programmatic advertising and job distribution, there’s hope that these tools will provide the transparency and efficiency needed to make budget decisions more data-driven and strategic.
In the next and final chapter of our Next-Generation Job Advertising series, we’ll introduce Veritone Hire and how it ties into the report’s findings.
To learn more, download the report, watch the Next-Generation Sourcing The Dynamic Future of Job Advertising webinar, or explore Veritone Hire’s suite of hiring solutions.