A sponsored job post is an advertisement created by a recruiter or employer with the intent of alerting the public of a recent job opening. These can be for a specific company and posted on several different platforms. They can also promote future job openings that haven’t been formally announced until the posting has been released.
When job seekers visit a site, a sponsored job post will be one of the first positions they see by design. Essentially, sponsored job postings are used to increase visibility and capture the attention of the best candidates for the role. And of course, sponsored posts cost recruiters and employers money; the better the opportunity for ad exposure, the more money it costs to sponsor the post.
Pros
The primary benefit of sponsored job postings is increased visibility to generate a steady flow of candidates. When sponsored posts appear more often in search results, they’re seen by more candidates. Sponsored job postings will often use an advertising pricing model known as Cost Per Click (CPC). CPC means that websites bill advertisers based on the number of users who interact with the post.
Essentially, employers can develop an overall budget and time limit for the job posting, controlling the price and making the process more affordable. An effectively sponsored job postings come with a greater flow of candidates and an algorithm that target the best applicants for the position. When set up correctly and well-maintained CPC sponsored job posts are mostly-automated and require little oversight.
Cons
One drawback of a sponsored job post is lack of visibility on other sites, search engines, and platforms, other than the one sponsoring the post; job posts become “siloed.” This isolation restricts the post, reducing widespread visibility.
Sponsored posts aren’t always precise in their operation. Because it’s a manual process to oversee post runtime, sponsored posts can accidentally continue running long after the role has been filled. Inefficiencies like these can waste funds and resources, as staff oversight is needed. It’s also a frustrating experience for job seekers to discover that positions have been long filled, and the posts that initially attracted them are running because of a lack of oversight.
The Next Phase of Recruiting
Platforms like Google for Jobs create further opportunities for employers and recruiters to get the word out about new positions more ubiquitously than traditional recruitment methods. As the platform is free to use and reaches a vast userbase, more employers and recruiters are opting-in to optimize their job data for Google for Jobs and remove themselves from CPC models.
To learn more about Google for Jobs, see our Ultimate Guide.
