5 metrics recruiters can scrutinise with Google Analytics

What is the difference between exit rate and bounce rate?

As a marketer in recruitment, it’s easy to focus your strategy on white papers, eBooks, blogging or video content. Sure it’s marketing 101, but could you be doing more?

I know what you’re thinking: “I work in recruitment. There aren’t enough hours in a day as it is – there can’t possibly be more to give?” The aim of this blog is not to throw more tasks at you but to help make sure that your time is being prioritised more effectively and efficiently.

Most marketers will have a definitive idea of who their target audience is. If you’d like a refresher on how to define your buyer personas, check out the free Volcanic eBook on creating a recruitment agency buyer persona. They’ll have an understanding of what skills they need to look for and their level of experience. So let’s say your agency specialises in a niche sector like logistics.  What else can be helpful when it comes to sourcing the right candidates? The answer is simple: data analysis.

Many recruitment agencies aren’t taking advantage of Google Analytics to find the right information about their ideal candidates. If the volume of visitors registering and applying is high enough, then surely something is going okay, right? Not necessarily.

By analysing certain metrics such as visitors, you can begin to tailor your campaigns to attract high-value candidates. Here are some to look out for in recruitment.

Channels

Definitely a vital component is where your visitors are coming from. By keeping track of what channels your visitors are from, you have more of an idea of where your marketing efforts should be utilised, particularly when this comes to expenditure.

If you’re gaining a lot of traffic from social media, then take full advantage of that.

Consider launching a social media campaign to engage with existing followers through a competition, using relevant trending topics to expand your reach or increase the social media budget.

Likewise, if your PPC campaigns aren’t attracting the candidates that you want, GA channel information gives you data-backed reason to change your PPC campaign or relocate some of the budget to other channels.

The great thing about doing this in parallel with Google Analytics is that you can analyse and review what campaigns are working and on what channels.

Location

A great metric to analyse is where your visitors are coming from geographically. If you have a job ad for a finance analyst in Newcastle and most of the visitors on the landing page are skewered between Dublin and Cyprus, then you should be using that data to understand why. A simple resolution could be to fix a problem with your SEO, so it’s good to see the location data to change this.

The location of your visitors can also be helpful when it comes to business development. If you have acquired a large talent pool in a particular region, yet your client base is quite slim, you have a local resource to pitch to new clients.

Device

Why is it important to analyse how many of your visitors are looking for jobs on their mobiles as opposed to their desktop? For many years now, industries everywhere have been adapting their sites to be mobile friendly and easy to navigate on smaller screens.

At Volcanic, we design for mobile-first to optimise the responsiveness of all our clients’ websites.

As technology advances and new platforms to digest information continue to emerge, it’s important to understand exactly how people are consuming information to make it as accessible as possible for your audience. With more than two thirds of candidates applying for jobs online, don’t rely on them using or even having access to desktops (contractors on site).

New vs. returning visitors

Having a view into how many users are returning to your recruitment website gives you more of an insight into what you’re getting right.

If you have a decent ratio of new and returning visitors to your site then, with a bit of analysis, it can show that your content is engaging and of course, that they’re still looking for a job.

High user retention coupled with high conversion rates conveys that your marketing strategy is effective. You have the right jobs that prospects are interested in and they keep coming back to your site as a trusted source to find the right job.

Exit rate

Last but definitely not least, exit rate is the best way to measure how well your content is performing, including if your blogs are being read and which job ads visitors have the largest drop off.

What is the difference between exit rate and bounce rate?

Exit rate follows a user journey until the last page they land on before leaving the site

Bounce rate only applies to visitors who have landed on one page and left.

Google Analytics is a powerful tool that if used right, can help boost your ROI and ensure that you’re optimising your content to help find the right candidates for your clients.

Find out more about how Google Analytics can help your recruitment agency with our free eBook, ‘Why recruiters should be using Google Analytics.’

Recruiters love this COMPLETE set of Accredited Recruitment & HR Training – View Training Brochure

Comment on this story

The British Institute of Recruiters is the Professional Body operating The Recruitment Certification Scheme

Send this to a friend