📌 What’s actually working in recruitment media right now?

Recruitment media never stands still. New channels emerge, candidate behaviours shift, and right now, AI is changing the game once again. With so much noise and so many options, what should employers actually be focusing on?

We caught up with Steve Johnson, Client Partner at Creed, to get his take on what’s working right now, where employers are still getting it wrong, and why the future of recruitment media is about much more than simply posting jobs and hoping for the best.

What's the biggest mistake employers are still making with their recruitment media spend?

It can be tempting to focus all your budget on bottom-of-the-funnel conversion media and chase quick wins.

In our experience, the best ROI and strongest talent pipelines come from taking a full-funnel approach – using awareness, consideration and conversion media to reach their target audience at every stage of the candidate journey.

Is the era of relying on job boards alone over? What should employers be doing instead?

Job boards aren’t dead, no matter how many times you hear it! Indeed received nearly 30 million visits last month.

But the days of simply posting your jobs on a couple of job boards and expecting the applications to roll in are certainly over (if those days ever existed!).

Whenever possible, we recommend using a full-funnel approach. This might include omnichannel marketing (display, native, audio, digital OOH, connected TV, video, etc.) via a DSP (Demand-Side Platform), programmatic social advertising, mobile marketing, Google Ads and more.
When using job boards, the traditional tenancy model isn’t always the best fit either. For example, Creed often use a performance model on job boards, where you only pay when someone applies.

What's the biggest media trend you're watching right now?

Well, this answer won’t surprise anyone: AI.

AI is transforming how companies advertise their jobs and how candidates apply to them. More media platforms are harnessing the power of AI to effectively target candidates and optimise campaigns.

Recruiters are using AI in their own internal processes, while candidates are using it to find jobs, submit applications and even complete assessments. It’s fascinating to watch it all evolve as adoption increases!

Perhaps the most significant shift, though, is the move from traditional search to answer engines and AI assistants.

As candidate behaviour evolves, employers will need to think not only about how they rank in search results, but also how they influence the answers generated by platforms such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot.

That’s why we’re already helping employers develop answer engine marketing strategies to influence those AI-generated responses.