Programmatic Job Advertising - efficiently publish your job vacancies

Short explanation - what is Programmatic Advertising and how does it work?

"Let's start with a little definition: Programmatic advertising is a term from online marketing. It refers to the fully automated and individualised buying and selling of advertising space in real time. Based on the available user data, advertising banners or commercials are delivered that are specifically tailored to the user.
Programmatic ads originated in the USA, primarily in the e-commerce sector. Google started using it as early as 2000, as did other providers such as Yahoo! 
The basic principle of programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of advertising space on all kinds of websites. Almost all advertising spaces that we see in everyday life on the internet are ultimately Programmatic Ads. The system behind it is simply that advertisements are automatically presented to a target group via a mechanism that has collected and continues to collect as much target group data as possible. In other words, the behaviour of users is analysed: what do they click on, what do they look at, what do they have stored in their social media profiles. What is programmatic about these ads, so to speak, is which ad is shown to whom. In online shopping, this has been used for a very long time.
In our field, i.e. in employer branding and HR marketing, it's still a fairly new topic. It has been discussed on and off for 3 or 4 years now and especially in the last year the topic has really boiled up. There are more and more providers who are transferring programmatic technology from classic product marketing to the job sector. It is difficult to always speak of "programmatic ads" because there are many different types of programmatic advertising in HR marketing. On the one hand, there are providers who rely more on a hand-picked selection of tried-and-tested job search engines, and then there are the newer approaches that use channels such as Facebook, Google, YouTube, Insta, Spotify, Tikok and many others and are more or less automated and no longer so focused on the individual medium. And in between, there is a lot in our field that is called Programmatic Ad but is a mixture of the old world of job boards and the new world of cost-per-click media."

Why is programmatic advertising becoming more and more popular?

"At the moment, the topic is still in its infancy on the German market. There are actually two reasons why it is now becoming more and more popular. On the one hand, it just sounds cool. Artificial intelligence is one of those topics that everyone is talking about and sounds cool. And people are also hungry for new technologies. It just sounds cool when you can say that the job ads are now automated, algorithm-controlled and played out to the perfect target group. On the other hand, programmatic advertising, like many other topics in our industry, is on the rise due to the lack of applicants. More employers are looking for suitable employees, and programmatic advertising naturally falls on fertile ground. Because this way, companies can also reach people who are not actively looking for a job at the moment, but would still be willing to change jobs."

How important are data factors in this process?

"Currently, the topic is still in its infancy on the German market. There are actually two reasons why it is now becoming more and more popular. On the one hand, it simply sounds cool. Artificial intelligence is one of those topics that everyone is talking about and sounds cool. And people are also hungry for new technologies. It just sounds cool when you can say that the job ads are now automated, algorithm-controlled and played out to the perfect target group. On the other hand, programmatic advertising, like many other topics in our industry, is on the rise due to the lack of applicants. So more employers are looking for suitable employees, and of course Programmatic Advertising falls on fertile ground. This way, companies can also reach people who are not actively looking for a job at the moment, but who would still be willing to change jobs.

What are the benefits of Programmatic Advertising for job ads?

"It's a good way to raise my profile as an employer over a longer period of time. Unfortunately, that has still not arrived everywhere today, that you need a brand as an employer and that you also have to make it known. To do this, you have to rely on an "aha" effect from time to time in order to get into people's heads and, above all, into the heads of many people. Especially with regard to passive seekers, who may become active seekers in six months or a year if they are dissatisfied or life circumstances change, and then it's good if I as an employer have already popped up somewhere in their heads because they have already been in contact with me somehow through an advertisement. Especially now, in a situation where there is a desperate need for employees, you can use programmatic ads to approach people in a very targeted, personalized way and address them, even outside of traditional job portals. That's actually the big advantage of it."

So what defines programmatic job ad publishing?

"Programmatic advertising is always a two-stage model. Basically, and this applies to all advertisements, the focus is on what is being linked to. Is that an attractive target for applicants? That's actually the be-all and end-all, because if it's not attractive to applicants, then Programmatic Ads won't help either. It might bring a lot of clicks, but you still won't get any applications. What you have to remember is that Programmatic Advertising is not like a job advertisement. The topic really only works in the masses; here, you have to think in terms of campaigns and landing pages rather than individual job ads. Since passive searchers are also addressed, the time periods are of course much longer and success does not come in the short term. Programmatic ads are therefore one building block in a mix of many different measures. We have to understand this as a long-term issue that helps employers to be present with job ads over a long period of time. We have to say goodbye to the expectation that a single ad will immediately bring in a large number of applications. Programmatic ads are more of a gold-digging method. If you keep at it, more and more will stick.

And in terms of providers, what's your advice to look out for?

"With such new topics, it's always difficult for customers to understand how it works. Of course, it's difficult or impossible to check the playout of programmatic ads. You really have to rely on how serious you think the provider is. But when choosing a programmatic ad provider, I would pay attention to their channel selection and how transparent they are with regard to the budget. For example, in my opinion, Google and Facebook must definitely be included in the channel portfolio today. If there are 500 - 1000 channels and most of them are free, then you should be suspicious. The same applies if a provider refuses to provide any information about budget distribution and service fees."

For which companies is Programmatic Advertising suitable?

"The Programmatic Ads topic is suitable for companies that recruit a lot and regularly. It is basically a sensible component of HR marketing for all companies that have a long-term need, for companies that want to grow in the long term, and I don't just mean large companies. We also do it for ourselves, for emplify, and even if we don't recruit a huge number of people, it's still worth it for us. Through this permanent presence effect, especially on Google and the social media channels, we also get some unsolicited applications that have already become good hires for us.
But for companies that now publish a job ad and have an acute need because they want to hire a very specific person in 2 weeks, Programmatic Ads is nothing for them."

What is the difference between programmatic advertising and traditional online advertising?

"There are not so many differences because the same systems are often used. The difference is really only that I'm not promoting a product, but a job advertisement. Job ad marketing has to be more honest than product marketing. But that's more due to the thing itself than to Programmatic Advertising. 
But when it comes to automatically generated ads and banners, you have to know that the systems are made for products. Automatic text generation is also made for products and still has a few difficulties with job ads. That's why we always have a human check whether everything really fits.
And there is also a big difference in the practical implementation. The budgets and the mass that is generated are much bigger in the e-commerce sector than in HR marketing, for example. And success simply cannot be measured in online shops. There still needs to be a cultural change here, because in my opinion there is still far too little budget for HR marketing and branding. Of course, this then also applies to Programmatic Ads."

A look into the future - where is the journey heading?

"At the moment it's a hype topic, which is why so many providers are jumping on it. There are currently an enormous number of start-ups in this area. But in my eyes, programmatic advertising is a small part of the whole HR marketing mix that you need for successful employer branding and a successful recruiting strategy.
If we look at it in the Gardener Hypecycle, we're probably entering that valley now and that's where the market will consolidate in the coming years. So some providers will certainly establish themselves, but many will also disappear again. You can maybe compare it a bit with Indeed and the CPC model in job advertising. At the beginning, everyone was sceptical, the German market is always a bit more conservative anyway, but now it has become standard and I would also predict the same for Programmatic Job Ads. I think from 2025 onwards it will simply have become the standard." 
Thank you Nils for the interview and your exciting insights!