Recruitment videos are a fantastic asset to have in your marketing toolbox, especially if you need to compete with big companies to attract top talent. We’ve had a few clients over the years who operate in competitive markets and we’ve helped them use a recruitment video to attract the best talent. Video is a versatile marketing tool that, when done right, can be used across platforms and for different purposes. However, it’s no secret that a well-produced recruitment video doesn’t come for free, so return on investment (ROI) is crucial for brands. Measuring ROI is essential for testing and adapting future campaigns, ensuring you get the most out of your investment.
Understanding Recruitment Videos
Recruitment videos address several challenges that brands face when trying to recruit the best staff. They help with high demand for talent, competitive landscapes, and humanising your brand. These videos allow companies to tell their unique story, showcase their strengths, and connect with potential candidates on a personal and emotional level, making it more likely they will attract and retain the talent they need.
There are different types of recruitment videos to help attract new talent. For example, employee testimonial videos are incredibly effective at showcasing companies as great places to work. Social proof is powerful, and in our experience, candidates are more likely to trust a positive message about a company from an employee over a CEO.
The Importance of Measuring ROI
ROI in the context of recruitment videos is a measure of the profitability of your video campaign. It’s crucial for recruitment strategies because it helps you understand the effectiveness of your videos, making it easier to allocate budgets and improve future efforts. Measuring ROI can be challenging, but it is necessary for understanding the impact of your recruitment videos.
Key Metrics for Measuring ROI
To effectively measure the ROI of your recruitment videos, it’s important to track various metrics that can give you a comprehensive view of your video’s performance. Here’s a breakdown of what to look for and why each metric matters:
Engagement Metrics
Engagement metrics include views, likes, shares, and comments. These numbers show how well your video is resonating with your audience. Are people watching your video all the way through? Are they interacting with it by liking or commenting? Shares are particularly valuable because they indicate that viewers find your content compelling enough to share with their network, extending your reach organically.
The view count is often considered a vanity metric but we believe that it is still an important number to monitor. If you’re running an organic campaign, the view count can be a barometer of how well the video has been optimised for search discovery. If you’re running a paid campaign it’s a relevant metric to measure your CPM (cost per thousand views). Either way, the view count is a measure of how many people have seen the video and if the video has been made correctly, it should have left a positive brand impression on the viewer, therefore the view count is a measure of increased brand awareness and a positive sign towards increasing brand perception.
Conversion Metrics
Conversion metrics, such as click-through rates and application rates, are crucial for understanding how effectively your video is driving action. If your video’s goal is to get people to apply for a job, you’ll want to track how many viewers click through to your application page and how many of those viewers actually complete the application process. High conversion rates mean your video is not just engaging but also effective at prompting viewers to take the desired action.
Cost Metrics
Cost metrics involve both production and distribution costs. It’s essential to know how much you’re spending to produce the video and how much you’re spending to promote it. Comparing these costs against the benefits you’re getting (like the number of applications or hires) helps you determine if the investment is paying off. A high ROI means that the benefits far outweigh the costs, making your video a valuable tool in your recruitment strategy.
Here you will need to make some decisions about how to measure the ROI of a successful candidate. Do you measure ROI on the value of filling roles with new hires, or on the value of employees recruited after a year of service or the projected average employee retention span at your company. Another way to look at it is to measure costs saved in the recruitment process, such as costs saved in placing ads if video replaced other mediums or you could measure the time saved in having to qualify out unsuitable candidates. Video is a great tool for letting candidates know what to expect from a job so you get less unusable applications to sift through.
LinkedIn suggest that measuring a campaign’s ROI can be done using this formula: ROI = (Benefits – Costs) / Costs
Quality Metrics
Quality metrics focus on the calibre of candidates applying for your positions. It’s not just about getting a lot of applications; it’s about getting the right applications. Track the quality of candidates by looking at their qualifications, experience, and how well they fit your company’s needs. Retention rates can also be a telling metric—if new hires stay longer, it suggests that your recruitment video is attracting candidates who are a good fit for your company culture.
It goes without saying that increasing the quality of new hires can lead to exponential benefits for the business.
Time Metrics
Time metrics, such as the time to fill positions and the time to productivity, can show how efficient your recruitment process is. A good recruitment video should help you fill positions faster by attracting the right candidates quickly. Additionally, if new hires are becoming productive sooner, it suggests that the video helped set realistic job expectations, leading to better prepared and more motivated employees.
By paying attention to these metrics, you can gain valuable insights into how your recruitment video is performing and where you might need to make adjustments. For example, if your engagement metrics are high but your conversion metrics are low, it might mean that while people are interested in your video, it’s not compelling enough to make them take the next step. In contrast, if your conversion rates are high but you’re spending too much on distribution, you might need to find ways to reduce costs while maintaining quality.
Tips for Maximising ROI
With over a decade in the field making videos for a large array of different brands, we’ve put together some of our tips that we’ve learnt along the way to maximise the ROI on recruitment videos.
When crafting recruitment or ad copy for a video, it’s essential to have a carefully laid-out user journey. This ensures you get the best ROI on video content in our experience.
Know what you want users to do after watching your recruitment video. Do you want them to remember your brand? Get in contact immediately and sign up for a role? Is the video going to be on a video hosting platform, website, or newsletter? Do you want to put ad spend behind it and boost it to your target audience? These questions should be discussed with your video production team to get the video just right for its purpose.
The user journey could include watching the video and clicking through to a landing page with a signup form. This is crucial for planning and formatting the video, ensuring it aligns with your goals.
To get the ROI you are looking for, pick a video production company with experience in producing recruitment videos. An experienced team can provide insights into storytelling structures that work best for different formats. For example, an experienced video production company knows how to craft a narrative that keeps viewers interested long enough to see a compelling call to action.
If the video is for recruitment, brands should clearly communicate their objectives from the beginning, whether it is the quantity of recruits or the quality of candidates. Determine the success metrics that will indicate whether or not you hit your goals, such as click-through rates, likes, subscribers, engagement, or direct contact about a job
Authenticity is Key
In a sea of content, authenticity is essential, especially for recruitment videos. You need to appeal to the human side of people, show that you care, and that they will be cared for after the recruitment process. Our top tip from our decade of experience is to be authentic.
Distribution Strategy
Be aware of your distribution strategy when planning the video. Knowing how many different platforms the video will debut on and which platforms these are will help your video production team plan. For example, if a recruitment video will be featured on both a website and a vertical social media platform, your production team will plan shots focused in the centre of the frame, so the edges can be cropped out to fit a vertical format.
Example: NIoT Campaign
We’ve recently used our experience to handle the production and release strategy for our client, the National Institute of Teaching (NIoT). We knew the video would serve as a YouTube display ad, encouraging viewers to visit the NIoT website. We kept the video short to maintain viewer attention and highlighted both the challenges and benefits of a teaching career to ensure authenticity.
We managed the release of the video and the YouTube ads campaign for NIoT, conducting intensive keyword research to ensure it was findable through search after the paid campaign ended. We ran a display-only ad campaign, where users could click on the ad in their suggested videos to learn more, ensuring every click was from someone interested in becoming a teacher.
This approach was extremely useful, providing valuable data on how the video was received, watch time, and engagement. In our experience, it’s best not to rely solely on organic exposure for video campaigns. Putting ad spend behind a video is an effective way to test, measure, and learn from it.
The NIoT campaign was a huge success, garnering almost 10k views in just seven days. It increased web traffic and course sign-ups significantly. We almost doubled the number of sign-ups within the first few days.
A major advantage of using your video production company to run your paid ads campaign is that they can quickly adjust the edit based on the requirements of each platform. For example, in our video for NIOT we adjusted the end frame to allow us space to run clickable overlays at the end of the video. We could also iterate the video based on the daily viewing figures to ensure it was optimised to meet the campaign metrics.
Recruitment videos are a powerful tool for attracting top talent, especially in competitive markets. Measuring ROI is essential to ensure your investment in video production is worthwhile. Track key metrics, plan your user journey, and be authentic in your messaging. Partner with an experienced video production company and consider your distribution strategy to maximise the impact of your recruitment videos. And remember, don’t rely solely on organic exposure – put some ad spend behind your video to get valuable data and ensure its success.