(a) I am qualified for (the majority of job postings today are looking for entry-level college graduates or Director/VP level hires, neither of which work for a mid-level manager like me);
(b) I am passionate about (my interests include customer insight development, brand management, social media marketing, and start-up environments).
Having used all of the traditional methods to reach prospective employers -- event networking, alumni networks, LinkedIn, cold calling -- I decided it was time to try something different: Facebook ads. I would target people within the Boston area and advertise myself, try to attract the attention of marketing professionals and, hence, bring the employers to me.
THE CAMPAIGN
It took me a couple of days of tweaking to figure out what parameters delivered the most impressions and clicks, but this is how my plan shook out.
Targeting
The ads were shown to adults aged 25+ living within 25 miles of Boston or Cambridge, MA and who had graduated from college.
I initially included a list of 20 or so keywords, such as marketing, entrepreneurship, start-up and hiring manager but by doing this, my estimated universe would shrink from 500,000+ to approximately 15,000, reducing the probability of click-thru's dramatically. Also, keywords match with words that Facebook users list in their Profiles; many people do not provide a reliable or comprehensive list of their Interests and Activities, so I was not convinced that, for my purpose, keywords would be a particularly effective way of reaching marketers. So I limited targeting to basic demographic parameters.
Payment Model
As I was interested in driving traffic to my website, I paid for the campaign based on a CPC basis rather than a CPM basis. On average, Facebook suggested that I bid $0.40 to $0.60 for my ads -- after some initial tweaks, I bid them all at $0.75 and at that price it seemed almost guaranteed that my ads were being served very frequently.
Creative
I ran 3 different types of creative, all driving to the Career page on my website. Each was different in its own way:
(A) Rockstar: Straightforward pitch with a focus on key skills.
(B) Wicked: Used Bostonian-slang and humor to appeal to locals.
(C) Combination: Used certain elements of both above ads.
Timing and Budget
The campaign ran for 9 days, which included 7 complete days of advertising from 1/22/10 to 1/28/10. On the first day, I set my daily budget to $20 and almost spent it all. I then cut it down to $5 for two days, to see how impressions would be affected (they decreased proportionately), and then raised it back to $20/day for the remainder of the campaign. After the first day, I received enough clicks every day to spend my entire daily budget.
THE RESULTS
- I have to say, I got a lot more clicks than I anticipated. I really did not think that anyone would click on my ad, so 184 clicks was a truly gratifying response.
- Avg. CPC was $0.66, lower than my $0.75 bid. I could probably have bid lower and received more daily clicks.
- The CTR was definitely very low - but does that matter if I was paying per click and maxing out my daily budget? Clearly I was receiving the daily traffic that I was willing to pay for. In a CPC scenario, does CTR matter?
- Facebook did not provide demographic breakdowns of clicks, but its algorithms used that information to serve my ads to a more Female audience. The age group of 25 to 44 years seemed to be my core audience.
- The most straightforward creative delivered the most Impressions and Clicks, followed by the Combination ad, suggesting that the "Wicked Pissah" title probably worked to attract attention, but the body copy needed to be more serious to invite a click.
THE RESPONSE
In addition to the above impressions and clicks, I was contacted by 8 people (4 men and 4 women), thus achieving a click-to-lead conversion of 4%.
- 2 people have their own business and wanted me to help them with marketing and PR;
- 1 person contacted me about applying for an position at her non-profit organization - it was a great position but not quite what I was looking for, so I connected them with a friend who is looking for just that kind of role;
- 1 person from a resume service gave me suggestions on how to improve my resume;
- And all of them told me that they noticed my ad and were impressed by my efforts to find a job.
"I saw your fb ad and the sheer fact that you advertised your own resume as a marketer was beyond clever."
Overall, I was happy with the way the campaign shook out. Perhaps I didn't get that big job offer, but I enjoyed the opportunity to experiment with the Facebook ads platform, practice some online advertising, make a few new connections, and try something new with my job hunt. Would love to hear comments and feedback on how others have fared with using Facebook ads for job-hunting, or how I might have improved my final results!
