Google Search campaigns: how to get the best return

A Google Search campaign shouldn’t be missing from any complete job marketing strategy. Where Facebook and Instagram tempt the passive jobseeker, you use Google Search for people who are actively working on a job switch. And the figures don’t lie: 73% of searches for a new job start on Google. Job marketing at its finest, because with Google Search you can make sure your vacancy rises to the top of the search results. In this blog we explain step by step how to get the best return from your campaign.

What is Google Search?

Imagine you’re going job hunting. What’s the first thing you do? Chances are you start with a Google search. Our advertising specialists use Google Search as part of job marketing campaigns to find active jobseekers. It’s one of the options in the advertising package developed by the well-known American tech giant. Besides Search, where you advertise in the search engine results, Google also offers advertising options through Display and YouTube. We’ll cover those in a future blog.

Back to Google Search. Because the way you use it as a job marketing tool differs fundamentally from Facebook and Instagram. First of all, there’s the format. Where Facebook and Instagram ads contain both text and images, a search ad consists of text only. Another big difference is the route an applicant takes. You always need a landing page, for example the vacancy page, whereas with Facebook and Instagram you can apply directly on the platform itself.

The third big difference is how the ads are built. Within a job marketing campaign, advertising on Google Search always starts with a keyword analysis, in which a Pro Contact advertising specialist puts themselves in the shoes of a potential applicant as best they can. The better you as a marketer can put yourself in the mindset of the person you’re looking for, the more accurately you can predict their search terms in advance. This list of keywords forms the basis of the campaign.

Google Ads, Google’s advertising tool, works as a kind of marketplace here. As an advertiser, you can see exactly what you pay per click for a specific keyword or combination of keywords. You can also see how much competition there is for a keyword, which is a good indication of how often your vacancy will actually appear in the campaign’s search results. The better an advertising specialist puts the keywords together, the higher the return on investment for your job marketing campaign. The sweet spot of a Google Search campaign is a low cost per click (CPC) combined with low competition. That’s exactly why it’s important that a campaign is continuously optimised.

The advantages of a Google Search campaign

Google Search has a number of advantages within a job marketing campaign. Because Google is the most important and most popular search engine, you know your vacancy will automatically get plenty of views. Another big advantage is the stage an applicant is in. A jobseeker who types in “plumber vacancy Amsterdam” is already indicating with that search term that they are looking very specifically for a new job in a particular region. So you no longer need to convince someone to think about a new challenge.

Another nice bonus is that with Google you pay per click. So you can experiment with search terms to your heart’s content. Whether you select one search term or a thousand: you only pay when someone clicks the link.

The disadvantages: essential in job marketing?

So does every job marketing campaign have to include Google Search? No, is our answer. Compared with other advertising platforms, there are disadvantages too. Because you always use it in combination with an external landing page, not every click will actually lead to an application. So you depend on the quality of your landing page. If your website isn’t up to scratch, you might be better off using Instagram and Facebook.

The saying ‘out of sight, out of mind’ also applies to advertising through Google Search. Your vacancy only becomes visible to people who are actively searching for that kind of vacancy. So you won’t reach someone who only has a latent need.

Google Search gives everyone the chance to reach the masses with their job marketing campaign. You do have to be willing to dig into the search terms your target group uses. Pro Contact’s online team, made up of copywriters, marketers and advertising specialists, is happy to help you get started. Get in touch using the form below!