The Current Tips & Trends of New Media.
Introduction
So, let’s talk about new media and how it affects your current recruitment campaigns. Rules are changing and updates are constant, do you have the tools to recruit the best talent?
Josh Tumbridge and Emily Smart talked us through the most up-to-date media changes and how you can use them to your advantage. Keep reading to discover how our digital experts can help businesses like yours optimise recruitment campaigns to thrive in the changing digital landscape.
Understanding the Future
As digital media buyers and strategists, we know that every user we are trying to talk to is different. Everybody has varying experiences, behaviours, and values that are unique to them. With major digital platforms disrupting the way recruiters would traditionally target and engage audiences, we have set out to get under the skin of the digital recruitment landscape, allowing you to:
- Understand digital transformation
- Educate on digital media opportunities
- Innovate your digital media mix
Rules are Changing – Are Your Recruitment Campaigns Ready?
In the world of new media, it is becoming more and more apparent that transparency is essential. Facebook and LinkedIn are becoming more transparent with who and what you can and cannot target.
For example, if you are a Facebook user, you may be familiar with the phrase, ‘why am I seeing this ad?’
This option allows users to see the targeting options the advertiser has used to get their advert in front of them. This kind of transparency is a great feature for users. However, advertisers need to make a conscious effort not to stereotype when choosing which targeting filters to select.
Is It The Death of Behavioural Targeting?
The rules on targeting are changing on Facebook & Instagram. When running recruitment ads, the restrictions are now as below:
- Geotargeting must be X location, +15km. We used to be able to target a specific street, road, or even house, but this is no longer the case.
- No gender targeting.
- No age targeting,
- Must pick from a pre-set list of interests.
These new rules have come into place because of Facebook’s new Discrimination Policy. When setting up recruitment campaigns, we cannot rely on demographic and behavioural targeting to find potential candidates through Facebook and Instagram.
Moving forward, we must use Facebook more for the awareness phase and less for conversions.
LinkedIn Rules are Changing
As well as Facebook, LinkedIn has also faced some rule changes. You can now no longer run InMail ads in Europe due to LinkedIn’s Discrimination Policy.
InMail offered a nice opportunity to convey a large sum of messaging in a conversational, one-to-one format. Now, if people want to run ads on LinkedIn, we suggest using Newsfeed Ads and focusing on strengthening your landing page. Letting the landing page do the talking instead of relying on InMail ads is just one example of how we need to think outside of the box when it comes to changes in new media.
Don’t Miss Out on Your Target Audience, Start Utilising Video
To capture the attention of your target audience in this challenging digital landscape, we recommend using video.
People are 2.6 times more likely to convert after viewing a video rather than a still image. 93% of marketers said they landed a new customer thanks to a video on social media. In general, videos are more engaging in terms of likes, link clicks, comments, and shares. Another benefit of video content is that we can retarget those who have watched a certain percentage of the video which helps to expand the retargeting audience.
When we run text or image adverts, we would usually retarget users who have visited a landing page. When it comes to recruitment campaigns, people often are not ready to click through to a landing page. Because of this, having the option to retarget people who have watched a certain percentage of a video is a good middle ground between their increasing interest and their reluctance to click through at this point in the campaign.
Use TikTok to Avoid Missed Opportunities
Research has shown that 38% of TikTok users are not on Facebook, and 45% are not on Instagram. People generally tend to have a preconceived idea of what TikTok is, with many assuming it is for a much younger audience who use it to film dances and trends. However, this is not the case. You would be surprised at the age range that does use TikTok.
The app is an extremely multi-faceted platform, and people often turn to it for information. For example, #booktok is one of the highest trending hashtags, where readers go to look for book recommendations or talk about their latest reads. There are areas of TikTok dedicated to air fryer cooking, Excel spreadsheet tutorials, and travel recommendations, to name a few. Whatever your interest, somebody on TikTok is probably making content about it.
There is an opportunity to position your content in an educational way on TikTok that will blend in with the rest of the user’s activity. As video is such an engaging media type, it is a missed opportunity not to use TikTok in this day and age.
Recent campaigns have shown that 80-90% of sessions generated have been from new users when using TikTok. This platform is ideal for raising awareness about jobs. We have found it tends to work best with lower-level roles due to the casual nature of the app.
Moreover, the targeting options on TikTok are quite general, with a focus on interest-based targeting rather than aspects like job title, etcetera. You also have the option to geotarget, age target, and gender target.
The content on TikTok must blend into someone’s For You page to be effective. This means that a raw/organic style of content works best. We find that users do not engage with over-edited, staged content as much as they do with candid content.
Other New Media Trends You Might Not Have Considered
- Outlook Ads
59% of the UK population use Outlook. They are great for raising awareness of higher skilled and higher paid jobs as you can target people directly into their inbox. The targeting options on Outlook are very specific and in-depth:
- Location
- Age
- Gender
- Company
- Industry
- Job Function
Outlook ads follow a similar concept to InMail ads as we are raising awareness of vacancies in users’ inboxes. The targeting options on Outlook are strong in comparison to the limited targeting capabilities Facebook now has.
- Twitter Spaces
We would recommend Twitter for building awareness, but its latest feature, ‘Spaces,’ will allow you to be more engaging. Twitter Spaces contains live audio conversations where users can host a space and any Twitter user can join. The host can invite people to talk, so it is an excellent conversation starter and an innovative way to engage an audience.
Regarding recruitment, Twitter Spaces can raise awareness of graduate schemes, apprenticeships, and any job vacancies you currently have.
- AudioMob
This is another great new media option. AudioMob ads show up on gaming apps as in-game audio ads. This allows brands to connect with their audience without interrupting gameplay.
With over 1.7 billion mobile gamers worldwide, this is a large audience going vastly untapped by competitors. 13% of mobile gamers play whilst on their commute to work. Again, this is many people that we could target with audio-based recruitment advertisements.
Key Takeaways
- Targeting transparency means we need to advertise smarter.
- When in doubt, use video content.
- Capture untapped audiences via TikTok
- Innovate with new platforms such as Outlook, Twitter Spaces, and AudioMob.
Feeling inspired to use new media but not sure where to start? That’s where we come in.
Crunch Digital Media is made up of experts in the field. When we work alongside your team, you can leave your new media wants and wishes with us so that you can focus your efforts back into running your business.
Interested? Let’s have a chat! You can book a free, no-strings-attached chat with one of our experts today to see how Crunch could provide tailored support for your business.