Tales From the Digital Side

This presentation is a bit long, but very interesting. A must see if you look at web analytics data.

This is great news! Google’s content/ad network that allows advertisers to run banners across many publishers has been a very consistent sources of resume submissions in many media campaigns. Up until now though, we were not able to track impressions level data and could only tracking resume submissions that were made after someone clicked on an ad. We’ll now be able to track those that see the ad, but don’t click , or post-impressions resume submissions (post-impressions resume submissions on average account for 60-70% of all resume submissions).

Excellent post by Marta Strckland at Three Minds! Facebook apps, like Second Life, have their place. But they have to add something to the community if it is going to succeed.

Read the full post here:
http://threeminds.organic.com/2008/04/are_facebook_apps_the_new_bran.html

I ain’t measuring it no more! I know, You probably just got comfortable with using it to compare your digital campaigns. But the truth is, click-through rate (CTR) has little to do with the effectiveness of your campaign. If it is your sole measurement of your campaigns, you are probably not making the best decisions. Read the rest of this entry »

This is already very useful. Google has launched the ability to place different bids on different audience segements on their content network and placement-targeted buys. You can place different bids for age and gender segments that work well for your campaign target. This will also be great for diversity strategies, since you can now target women across Google’s networks. It may also make Google more useful for college recruiting, since you’ll be able to target the 18-24 age segment.

More info form the Google Blog:
http://adwords.blogspot.com/2008/01/demographic-bidding-beta-test.html

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. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a long, long time since I had the time to blog. My poor neglected blog has been the casualty of a very busy fall planning season. However, I’m on a trip, sitting in a hotel, waiting for room service to bring me a bite to eat and have a bit of time to write down some thoughts.

I’ve been working with a lot of account teams and clients over the past several months to take advantage of the millions of digital advertising oppotunties out there. I’ve come across a lot of hype around behavioral targeting and wanted to do my share to educate recruitment advertisers on how this should and should not fit into their strategies. Read the rest of this entry »

Google has launched Google Gadget Ads. You can now serve ads within gadget s(also referred to as widgets). Advertisers can now create these branded mini-apps using Flash or HTML and incorporate data feeds, video, images, and more. Essentially, you can create a mini-website within the ads (similar in function to many of the rich media formats available). This has many uses for recruitment. Think jobs database integration, recruiting events, chat, games, etc.

Click Here for the full article.

This news made my week. According to this WSJ article, Facebook is working on a system that expands their already pretty nifty Flyer program. The Flyer program is a texted based ad that can be targeted by college, location or some limited demographics (age & gender). If they expand to include occupation, industry, interests, ethnicity, and employer - this will be huge for recruitment advertisers. Even some of these targeting options could get it to a “must include” status for recruitment media plans. If the program ends up being self-serve, as the flyer program is now, it will be even better, as there will not be barriers due to minimum buys for companies with smaller budgets.

Clearly it doesn’t take much to get me excited - but this could be an excellent source for recruitment marketing.

Diddy is using Youtube to find his next personal assistant. Not only is this a great use of social media for recruitment, I think the video is also well designed for the target audience. Diddy does not describe the job in flowing, shiny, happy phrases, he presents as what it is… hard work. Transparency is important, candidates want to hear what it will really be like to work for you. Another note on this… Diddy, as CEO, is doing his own recruiting pitch. It says something that he’s personally involved. Read the rest of this entry »