http://www.o0.typepad.com

I agree with you on PPCs advantages to the advertiser.

Also I have a slightly different angle. See my post on http://getcareer.blogspot.com/2006/05/whats-big-deal-different-issue.html

I may be new to the fray, but it seems increasingly clear that search engines that are not Google or Simplyhired will have a tough time. LIstings are becoming a commodity, and search doesn’t do a very good job in sifting through the garbage even for active seekers.

So my premise is that Search engines HAVE to go to a more accountable advertising model to help their value proposition at least to the advertiser, while Job Boards with their brand equity, services, content, etc. are probably ok for the time being in holding their advertisers to the flat fee.

Of course, getting PPC to ubiquity is simply a matter of time.

regards,
Ilya
http://getcareer.blogspot.com

Problem with SERP’s is that they are becoming full of ’spam’ sites even in the jobs sector. This tends to force people to look at the various links on the ENTIRE page rather than the natural results. I think search engines are beginning to benefit from all the crap as the SEM’s generally know what they are doing so it ends up that the only decent links end up being the ads.

If for example you do a search for a specific employer e.g. ‘working at company X’ in many cases in the UK you end up with loads of news links, job board links etc but no direct links to the employers actual jobs. So the job seeker just clicks on the ad which in most cases takes them to a job board. Where there are however actual jobs in the SERP’s they tend to be to the employer’s jobs on a job board.

So, not only does an ATS fail to present the jobs to the spiders, as per Michael’s comment, the online application process discourages good people from applying whereas active job seekers will fill in whatever you give them.

I think it is the entire process that needs consideration not just attraction as it is only as strong as the weakest link!

You wrote: “Job seekers click straight through to job descriptions instead of typical keyword ad landing pages, so conversion rates to applications and hires are extraordinarily high.”

I’m going to have to disagree/wait until the stats come out on this one. On the one hand, getting applicants to the specific job is key — you guys do that well and have figured out most of the nuances with different ATS URL’s (Brassring, etc.). But, having test-driven almost all ATS systems, there are precious few that provide an easy, seamless user experience. Far too many of them lead jobseekers through an arduous application process; far too few allow for emailing a resume to a centralized email address, e.g. careers@yourcompanyhere.com or easily accept an uploaded resume (and then parse the information out). Understand, this certainly isn’t an indictment of PPC job advertising — I’m interested in seeing some results — but far too few companies realize that the applicant-facing piece of their ATS often discourages the best candidates from applying. Getting them to the page is only one part of the equation…

Michael Shafrir
TheLadders.com

I agree, but Indeed is taking PPC job advertising one step further.
Instead of picking keywords and writing ad copy, which is what you have to do to use Google and Yahoo’s search ad systems, Indeed let’s you sponsor your jobs in a way that automatically creates job ads, displays them above and below Indeed.com’s natural search results when they match a user’s job search, and you only have to pay per click. Job seekers click straight through to job descriptions instead of typical keyword ad landing pages, so conversion rates to applications and hires are extraordinarily high. Its also flexible – advertisers can alter the visibility of their job ads by raising or lowering their bids.

What could be simpler and more cost-effective than that?

Paul
http://www.indeed.com – one search. all jobs.

Seriously, I love just even having the debate. Well needed.

As you note, Jobster is a pretty big believer in ppc advertising for driving our b2b leads. We also see a real use for it in contextual job advertising. But, as noted in my blogs posts, I think there are still a lot of questions about how useful ppc will be in job advertising around job search listings. I guess what I’m saying is that I see more immediate benefit in contextual ppc than search for pure job advertising. But, we’ll see how it plays out.