What Is Retargeting and How Can It Improve Your Recruitment Strategy?

Retargeting is a powerful digital marketing strategy that, when applied to recruitment, can significantly increase applicant quality and reduce time-to-hire by re-engaging potential candidates who have already shown interest in your company. This method, also known as remarketing, uses targeted ads to bring previous website visitors back to your career pages, making it a critical tool for modern talent acquisition specialists aiming to build a robust talent pipeline.

What is Retargeting in Recruitment?

Retargeting is a process of serving targeted online advertisements to users who have previously visited your website or interacted with your brand on social media. In a recruitment context, this means displaying your employer branding and job ads to individuals who have already browsed your careers page, viewed a specific job description, or started an application but did not complete it. This strategy is built on cookie-based technology or social media pixel data that tracks user behavior, allowing you to segment audiences for highly personalized follow-up campaigns. There are two primary methods:

• Static Retargeting: This approach focuses on showing general, brand-building ads to a broad audience of past website visitors. The goal is not necessarily to fill one specific role but to maintain top-of-mind awareness about your company as a great place to work. For example, an ad might highlight your company's culture or employee benefits to keep your employer brand visible.
• Dynamic Retargeting: This is a more advanced technique that uses data to create personalized ads. If a candidate viewed a specific Software Engineer job on your site, a dynamic retargeting ad could automatically display that exact job title, location, and a link to apply directly. This method is highly effective for re-engaging candidates with roles they have already demonstrated interest in.

Why is Retargeting Important for Employers?

For recruiters, retargeting moves beyond traditional post-and-pray job advertising. Its importance lies in directly addressing common recruitment challenges. Based on industry data from sources like LinkedIn, a significant percentage of qualified candidates abandon job applications. Retargeting provides a mechanism to recapture this lost interest. Key benefits include:

How Can You Create an Effective Recruitment Retargeting Campaign?

Launching a successful campaign requires a strategic approach tailored to talent acquisition goals. Based on our assessment experience, following these seven steps can yield measurable improvements in candidate engagement.

1. How Do You Define Your Campaign Goal and Budget?

Start by determining your primary objective. Are you aiming to fill a specific hard-to-fill role, or are you building general awareness for future hiring needs? Your goal will dictate your strategy and budget allocation. Recruitment retargeting, as a form of paid advertising, requires a defined budget. Factors to consider include the salary bandwidth for the role and the competitive landscape for that talent.

2. Which Platform Should You Use for Recruitment Retargeting?

The choice of platform depends on where your target candidates spend their time online. Professional networks like LinkedIn are naturally aligned for recruitment, offering sophisticated targeting options based on job title, skills, and company. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram can be effective for employer branding campaigns and reaching a broader, perhaps less active, talent pool. Many of these platforms offer demographic tools to refine your audience further.

3. How Should You Design Compelling Retargeting Ads?

Your ads must capture attention and prompt action. For recruitment, visual appeal and concise messaging are critical.

• Strong Visuals: Use high-quality images or videos that reflect your company culture.
• Clear Value Proposition: Bold key benefits, such as "Remote Work Options" or "Competitive Salary up to $120,000."
• Call-to-Action (CTA): Use direct CTAs like "Apply Now" or "Learn More About Our Culture."

4. Who is Your Target Audience?

Precisely defining your audience is the core of retargeting. Common segments for recruitment include:

• Visitors who viewed a job description but did not apply.
• Users who started but did not complete an application.
• Individuals who have engaged with your company's LinkedIn page or other social media content.

5. How Can You Expand Your Campaign's Reach?

After setting up your core campaign, most advertising platforms offer tools to automatically find new users with similar profiles and behaviors to your best-performing audience segments. This can help you discover passive candidates you may not have otherwise reached.

6. How Do You Set the Duration and Frequency?

Decide how long your campaign will run. A campaign for an urgent hire might be short and intense, while an employer branding initiative could be a longer, sustained effort. It's also important to cap ad frequency to avoid overwhelming potential candidates.

7. Why is Monitoring and Evaluation Critical?

Once live, continuously monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) such as click-through rate (CTR), application start rate, and cost-per-application. Analyzing this data provides insights into what resonates with candidates, allowing for real-time adjustments and informing future recruitment marketing strategies.

To implement an effective recruitment retargeting campaign, focus on defining clear objectives, crafting audience-specific ads, and rigorously analyzing performance data. This data-driven approach allows you to re-engage high-intent candidates efficiently, turning lost traffic into successful hires and strengthening your overall employer brand.