Tales From the Digital Side

Yup, you heard me right. I’m getting sick of vendors and industry experts presenting search engine marketing (SEM) as a very complicated tool that recruiting professionals couldn’t possibly understand or manage thenselves. The truth is you could handle it yourself (if you only had time). However, although you probably need a vendor to help manage it from a time and adminstrative perspective, SEM is a rather simple tool.

SEM is really just a searcher asking for information. If you think of it that way, it is much easier to see how to use this tool effectively. For instance, a candidate types in the search “pharmaceutical sales rep job”. He or she is asking the search engine to find this info. The search engine, in turn, returns all the natural search results it finds. The search engine also returns the ads of advertisers who have asked to have their ads shown when that phrase is keyed in (it’s got to pay the bills somehow).

Understanding that a search engine query is really just a question, can help you formulate your campaign.

• First of all, if you understand it is a question, you will not try and show an irrelevant ad. For instance, if someone has typed in “sales salaries” and you try to show them your employment ad. It’s not what they asked for. Sure some might bite, but it’s not that effective. They may even click, but usually will hit the “back” button and get back to doing what they came to the search engine to do.
• You will try to provide the most relevant answer. If someone is asking for sales jobs, your ad should answer with “We have sales jobs”. The more your ad answers that question and is relevant to the search, the more likely it will be clicked on.
• You will understand that a specific question is more valuable than a general question. If you are looking for Java programmers, a question about “java programming jobs” is much more valuable to you than a question about “IT Jobs”. You would probably rather answer 100 questions about Java programmers than 1000 questions about IT jobs, because you want your ad to show when people are asking the right question.

It is true that search engines have very elaborate algorithms for how ads get displayed and what price you will pay for each click. However, it can be easily summed up as – the search engine wants to show the ad that will get clicked on the most, which is usually the most relevant ad. It doesn’t matter to the search engine if someone wants to pay $100 per click for a keyword, if that ad is irrelevant and no one clicks on it, the search engine doesn’t make any money. However, if you bid $1 on the same keyword and your ad is really relevant and gets clicked on 100 times, the search engine just made $100. The search engines will display the ad that is most likely to get clicked on (yes, you’ve caught on, the relevant one, the one that answers the question best).

So, SEM is not as hard as many vendors will make it out to be. Just keep a couple things in mind:

• Bid on the most targeted, relevant keywords to the positions for which you are recruiting. (Only answer the right questions).
• Make sure the ad text that you run is extremely targeted to the keywords you are bidding on. (Provide a relevant answer to the question).

Finally, remember that not all clicks are created equal. Your goal is increasing resume submissions, not just racking up clicks. Don’t ask how many clicks can you get me, ask how many of the right clicks can you get me? You don’t need SEM dumbed down for you – it’s as simple as Q & A.