How CareerBuilder.com drives traffic
to promotions and new products
CareerBuilder.com® provides employers, recruiters
and job seekers with an integrated print and online recruitment resource
encompassing CareerBuilder.com, a variety of online partners, and the
top three newspaper companies in the United States: Gannett, Knight
Ridder and the Tribune Company. CareerBuilder listings appear in more
than 130 local newspapers. Each month, CareerBuilder.com, its newspaper
and other partner sites combined see more than 9 million unique visitors
seeking job listings and career help.
Approach
CareerBuilder.com's offline marketing focuses primarily
on promoting trial and building brand awareness. The company's online
marketing goal is to drive qualified traffic to four job-related activities:
search, apply, register, and post resumes. Online marketing initiatives
consist of search engine marketing and co-branding career channels on
portals and other media properties. CareerBuilder.com uses Google advertising
programs to drive traffic to the site, and equally important, to drive
traffic to promotions and new product launches.
"The customers we acquire through Google are among our
best in meeting our metrics."
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Results
The company has used Google AdWords since they began in 2001. According to
Jim Lunsford, CareerBuilder.com's Director of Relationship Marketing and Strategic
Partnerships, "Google is a top search engine, and the Google advertising programs
are a key component of our overall marketing strategy." CareerBuilder.com generates
approximately 500,000 unique visitors per month through Google.
CareerBuilder measures customer acquisition by the
number of users submitting resumes or completing applications, and also
by unique visitors and page views. As Lunsford notes, "Google
always provides us with very positive results against our key metrics.
We typically receive a high number of page views per visit from our
Google traffic, and the cost per acquisition is in line with our goals."
The career site has also found Google to be very effective
in generating traffic to special promotions and new sections. "Google's
flexibility makes it easy to change creative in real time for promotions
or new products launches. If we have a large number of healthcare jobs
for example, we can use specific targeted keywords to drive traffic
to our healthcare channel home page," said Lunsford. For a site
with numerous categories and thousands of listings, Google's ability
to determine the most productive keywords yielding the best results
is a significant advantage.
Recently, CareerBuilder.com used Google to promote
Personal Search Agent, an online tool that enables job seekers to outline
job search criteria and have specific openings pushed to them via email.
To generate interest in this popular tool, the site offered a $25,000
sweepstakes prize. CareerBuilder.com used targeted messages in the text-based
ads to invite people to register to win.
"The team at Google is stellar. They are always available
and have the ability to target our advertising campaigns so we
meet our goals and objectives."
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In October 2002, the site launched a virtual job fair.
This online offering includes numerous corporate listings and details
on each employer and the ability to explore career opportunities by
company, submit resumes and complete applications. With Google advertising
programs, CareerBuilder.com has been able to run specific targeted ads
designed to drive traffic to the job fair, which has already seen a
large jump in traffic.
The company is also very pleased with Google's
client service. "The team at Google is stellar. They are always
available and have the ability to target our advertising campaigns so
we meet our goals and objectives," says Lunsford. "Perhaps
most important, the customers we acquire through Google are among our
best in meeting our required metrics – pages per visit, number
of online applications, and cost per user."
About Google Advertising
Google AdWords is currently used by thousands of businesses worldwide to gain new customers in a cost-effective way. AdWords uses keywords to precisely
target ad delivery to web users seeking information about a particular
product or service.The program is based on cost- per-click (CPC)pricing,so
advertisers only pay when an ad is clicked on. Advertisers can take
advantage of an extremely broad distribution network, and choose the
level of support and spending appropriate for their business. For more
information, go to www.google.com/ads.