Is your hiring team ready for the changes coming to Indeed.com? The job advertising giant has announced the launch of what it’s calling “healthy marketplace” changes that will change the visibility of some job postings on its platform starting 1 May 2024.
Indeed says the update aims to ensure that every job ad receives fair exposure, whether it’s a niche role or one of the most sought-after positions on the platform. The idea is that preventing some jobs from overshadowing others will mean recruiters seeking candidates for lower-visibility postings will have a fair chance. Given Indeed’s influence in the online hiring space, it’s not unreasonable to expect that other job ad platforms will soon follow suit.
But how will the changes affect your organisation? Let’s examine what UK hiring teams can expect in the coming months.
1. Free Organic Traffic May Decline
The upcoming changes may sound positive if your team is focused on hiring for low-visibility roles — but the majority of recruiters are looking for candidates to fill more mainstream positions. (Niche roles wouldn’t be niche if everyone were hiring for them!) If you’re like most recruitment agencies seeking applicants for common — or even popular — positions, prepare to see organic traffic to your postings decline in the new Indeed marketplace.
2. Ad Costs May Rise
Indeed is already encouraging companies to realign their budgets to align with the updated marketplace conditions. Unfortunately for most, “realign” in this case will likely mean “increase.” As free organic ad views decline, hiring teams that want to maintain visibility will be forced to budget more to get their jobs seen. We expect that the average job advertising cost will increase.
3. Attracting Applicants May Be More Challenging
Hiring teams that lack the time or resources to reassess their recruitment strategy and reallocate budgets as Indeed’s “Healthy Marketplace” changes roll out are likely to experience more difficulty attracting a sufficient supply of qualified candidates to fill vacancies — an issue that already affects nearly three-fourths of UK recruiters.
4. Budget Prioritisation Will Become Vital
Unless your organisation has unlimited resources to dedicate to recruitment, the fresh pressure of rising advertising costs and challenges securing qualified candidates will likely force hiring teams to be even more careful in allocating ad spend. Agencies with difficult-to-fill roles or tight hiring timelines will face even more pressure and may find themselves searching for budget cuts in other areas to fund recruitment.
How Can Hiring Teams Avoid These Effects?
Indeed’s position in the online recruitment world gives it the power to make changes as it chooses, with little recourse for hiring teams. It probably feels like you have no other options — after all, you can’t exactly abandon the Indeed platform and still expect to find and hire qualified candidates. Or can you?
Hirematic’s advanced job ad solution was designed to give recruitment agencies more control over their job advertising budget. No more locked-in agreements with large upfront payments. No more overhauling your strategy every time a job ad giant makes changes. You can have it all with Hirematic.
Our platform and partnership network protect your ability to leverage the organic traffic you count on to fill vacancies and give you access to a broader, more diverse applicant pool. And our pay-per-applicant fee structure and automated system of continuous ad optimisation can even reduce your cost per application — regardless of what Indeed prices do.
If you’re ready to take back control of your hiring budget, Hirematic is here to help. There’s no setup fee, no obligation, and no risk to trying our solution. Get in touch to discuss what we can do for you.
