Part of any strong and well-run marketing program involves testing different parts of the tactics. Getting complacent with all aspects will lead to a decline in results over the long-term. It could be ad fatigue for your audience. It could be ignoring new tactics and trends.
This A-B testing becomes especially true in an online advertising program because numerous aspects of the program can be tested against each other – the copy, imagery, call to action, capture method, etc. You have two different options for your audience. The results show which option works the best. Then you refine your strategy to do more of what works well and less of what doesn’t deliver.
A vitally important part of any advertising involves the imagery. It needs to stand out and be thumb-stopping imagery (we constantly scroll on our phones, so what gets our scrolling to stop?) It needs to connect with the audience. It must get them to take the action to convert on your advertising.
With the COVID-19 global pandemic, safety became the most important issue for everyone How can I stay safe in the workplace? How is my current employer (or future employer) implementing new tactics to increase the level of safety and comfort for its employees? How can I know that my company is doing everything possible to avoid the transmission of COVID-19 so I avoid bringing it home to my loved ones?
Building off that growing desire of safety from the audience, we tested new imagery with two of our Facebook advertising programs for recruitment. We adjusted the imagery to show people wearing masks while on the job site.
What happened?
- For a construction staffing agency, the cost per candidate lead dropped by 27.8 percent!
- For a general staffing agency in Oklahoma, the cost per candidate lead dropped by 46.6 percent!
Those simple changes revealed a lot about the audience. Previously, the photos focused on job sites and showed employees working in conditions that were “normal” in the beginning of 2020.
Now, the photos shifted to implementing masks in the workplace. That simple change of imagery drove more leads for these staffing agencies while still using the same budget.
Why did it work? Because that’s what the audience wants to see. It wants to feel comfortable about going back to work. It wants to feel safe.
Safety in the workplace quickly is becoming table stakes because all candidates are going to ask about it. They want to know what you did for your team when the chips were down in March 2020, and they want to know what you’re going to do to protect them moving forward.
This A-B testing of one aspect of an online advertising program revealed just that.
Implement testing in all aspects of your marketing. See what works. See what doesn’t work (it’s OK when it doesn’t!) Have a portion of your budget that’s for testing because we’re never going to know what else works if we don’t try.
Because if we didn’t test in these campaigns, the competitors of these staffing agencies would have and those candidates would have been lost as well.
Looking for a Strong Recruitment Marketing Program?
We’re here to help. Haley Marketing always implements testing into all of its marketing programs, especially the online advertising tactics. We test different options and always optimize to help staffing agencies and recruiters get the most out of their online advertising budget. Contact us today to learn more on how we can help create the recruitment marketing program to meet your business goals!
