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Two Paths of Programmatic
Highlighting the differences and similarities of Exchange and Optimize. The mechanics of each, workflow differences, pros & cons. Connecting the dots as to how both achieve programmatic.
- What is programmatic?
- Defining Exchange.
- Defining Optimize, aka Manager.
- How the two achieve programmatic.
- How we provide that.
The Two Paths of Programmatic Job Advertising
Getting in front of job seekers online is a more complex and larger task than you can imagine. The amount of daily traffic versus the number of possible channels requires hiring teams to always think two steps ahead.
As the process of advertising has become more sophisticated, so has the technology to support it.
Which brings us to the all-in-one approach of today’s advertising world: Programmatic. Programmatic job advertising allows recruitment and talent teams to post their job ads to multiple channels using a single platform. The cherry on top is that rules are set in place to ensure job ad campaigns are tailored to achieve specific goals.
That’s where things begin to segment into two different strategies based on how you plan to achieve your objective.
The Ad Exchange Method
How an ad exchange works is by pooling a large amount of channels together into one box. Place your job postings into this box and they’ll be sent away to all of these channels to be advertised. It’s a concept similar to a reply-all email; one email sent to all the recipients included. In this case, it’s your job ads as the email being sent and job sites as the recipients.
At first, this sounds like an easy way to spray and pray. Push a button and mass distribution happens.
Now this is where the programmatic aspect comes to play to narrow things down.
Job ad exchanges work off of the amount of candidate interactions it drives and not how many channels it posts on. These interactions vary on the provider and they are based on pay-per-performance models such as: pay-per-mille, pay-per-click or pay-per-applicant.
This model encourages ad exchanges to be more selective when displaying ads in order to get paid meanwhile advertisers can work with more quality related metrics.
Advertisers create campaigns for their jobs and then let the Ad Exchange do the rest of the work since pricing is based solely on specfic conversions they can drive.
In traditional consumer advertising, this is directly related to the Demand-Side Platform (DSP) concept of programmatic.
The Manager method
The other side of the coin for Programmatic Advertising is the more hands-on approach to job ads. The ad exchange involved posting on many channels as long as it drove specific conversions.
However, the Manager approach is quite the opposite. The difference is it requires you to select which channels to distribute your job ads onto.
The platform will then help manage your ad spend within your selected channels by following similar metrics of the Ad Exchange using pay-per-performance.
Whether its a few channels or hundreds, you’ll be more involved with how campaigns are performing and the decisions to make adjustments. The platform will offer certain features and rules to make sure the process doesn’t get chaotic.
The manager method provides more control and certain automation capabilities, but of course that does require time, testing and continuous maintenance.
The pricing model for manager platforms will follow a traditional SaaS subscription. A tiered format that progresses in price based on capabilities or volume.
Comparing the two
Now that we have a better picture of the programmatic space, which one is right for you?
Let’s first consider one major factor which is time.
The ad exchange functions as a sort of ‘set it and forget it’ strategy. Set up the campaign, set a pay-per-performance bid to run off of then let it do its thing. Review performance then back to doing something else.
The manager option is relatively easy to get started as well. Research and pick your channels, set rules for the campaign to follow, launch then regularly check in to optimize.
While both are simple, the manager option naturally requires you to attend more time to your campaigns. Since the manager platform is set to manage things based on the selected publisher, it’s possible that the selected channel isn’t performing as expected. One of the tradeoffs for being a hands-on approach.
The ad exchange takes the crown for time due to its auto-pilot style.
The next factor to evaluate is Data and Insights.
In our data-driven world, both platforms provide relevant insights on your job advertisements. But, to pick a winner, the manager method comes out on top by delivering more insightful data.
The manager method allows you to view performance data related to a specific channel. Compare it to the ad exchange, only data related to the conversions will be available. Data about each of the channels in the ad exchange won’t be shared.
The Verdict
The deciding factor for which programmatic approach you should choose depends on how involved you want to be in the job advertising process.
If your role requires you to pay close attention to the job advertising side of recruitment, then the Manager approach is best-suited for that situation.
On the flip side where you may be juggling other focuses of recruitment, then the Ad Exchange method is a better fit as it does most of the heavy lifting of job advertising.
Best of Both Worlds
Good news is that you aren’t necessarily stuck between choosing one or the other. You can actually use the manager platform to select an ad exchange as one of the channels for your job advertising. You can test how an ad exchange performs but be sure to keep in mind the possibility of duplication.
This is a situation where one of the sites that you have selected through the manager is also part of the ad exchange’s list. Now you are technically paying to post twice on that channel.
Giving it a go
Now that you’ve got a glimpse of the programmatic world of job advertising, keep in touch with us here at JobAdX where we live and breathe programmatic.
Our JobAdX Exchange applies consumer adtech principles within our ad exchange. Where we distribute jobs that best match a user’s keyword and click searches no matter what site they are on. If they happen to be on a Nursing job site yet enter Engineering as the keyword, we’ll still show engineering jobs! Found out more details about our Ad Exchange here.
We also do the Manager approach through JobAdX Optimize. The Programmatic Lite version that translates the complexities of managing ads into a lightweight and simple platform. Doing more and better advertising with less! Find out more details about Optimize here.
Happy Job Advertising!