TMP had the good fortune of being one of the few, if not the only, Recruitment Marketing & Technology companies invited to Google Marketing Live, July 9 – 11 in San Jose. I attended with my colleague, Joe Ranum, Head of Platforms. This annual event brings together leading digital marketers from around the world who are “shaping the future of marketing.” This year, there were 2,500 people from 65 countries representing leading agencies and brands.
It was my first time attending and it was fantastic to be part of this event as Google’s senior leaders took the stage to reveal upcoming product innovations that keep us and our clients ahead of the curve and that have an impact on our industry and business. This included sessions where we had access to new Google research, marketing insights, cutting-edge digital best practices and my favorite, previewing the product roadmap.
Of course, Joe and I were listening for trends in consumer marketing that impact recruitment. Here are the top three highlights and learnings:
- Create “helpful, personal and frictionless experiences.” – I love this! This is the same ethos we have in mind when designing career sites centered around the candidate journey. People are more curious, more demanding and more impatient than ever. Experience is everything … anything short of positive, you are out of consideration. To that end, Google is thinking of each second, each step and each user. In fact, over 60% of consumers expect brands to tailor experiences based on their preferences and behavior.
A prime example of consumer-first transformations was presented by the Chief Digital Officer for Dominos, Dennis Maloney, who shared the Domino’s turnaround story of how a 50-year old brand embraced change and revamped itself. They reinvented themselves as an ecommerce company that sells pizza. This put consumers first and it wasn’t just about the food. They streamlined the ordering experience and made it possible to order from almost any channel: Google Home, Alexa, Slack, Messenger, Twitter, Smart TV, Watch, Car (yes, you can order pizza from your Ford) and even an app that requires zero clicks … the app places your favorite order after a 10 second timer. They put an emphasis on innovation in the order process by customizing the way people can order depending on the platform. You have to start small, learn, expand and repeat. What is your brand willing to try and innovate with?
- The dialogue has changed – Consumers want more control over ads. Google is committed to creating valuable, transparent and trustworthy advertising. How can we create this for recruitment advertising? A bigger emphasis on ads offering value by understanding the intent of a search. People expect understanding that will save them time and money. People see value in ads if they are valuable. What do assisted ads in recruitment look like?
- Speed rules – Google is creating landing page scorecards so you can see how your brand ranks vs competitors. If your website is not designed for mobile page speed moving forward, it will negatively impact your organic rankings as it does not create a positive user experience. There is a 50% abandonment rate if a brand’s mobile landing page speed is not fast enough. Google mentioned that brands like eBay and BMW (also TMP clients) are AMPing up their speed to measure impact on revenue and Google has created an impact calculator so brands can see the impact of speed on revenue. Check out co/WinningonMobile. Again, the parallel here is the impact of speed on candidate conversion and drop off. What does your apply experience look like?
