Case Study

University of Maryland Medical System

Increase Candidate Flow and Build Brand Awareness with Google Ads

Challenge

Due to increasing competition for qualified healthcare professionals, the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) wanted to adjust its recruitment efforts to be more strategic and less reactive. By boosting applicant traffic to their career site and increasing their candidate pipeline, UMMS hoped to decrease the time to hire and lower the overall cost per hire. In addition, UMMS wanted to reach more job seekers who search for jobs directly via search engines.

Solution

SCG implemented an ongoing Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign via Google Ads, the most popular search engine. The campaign included search, display, and video advertising to engage job seekers. SCG’s team researched and developed a list of relevant keyword search terms including relevant industry verticals and long tail keywords.

Each week, SCG’s certified Google Ads specialist reviews the account metrics with a specific focus on CTR (click-through rate) and CPC (cost per click) to optimize the campaign. Adjustments are made regularly to improve performance and maximize budget, including removing expensive, low-performing keywords, adding relevant keywords to drive down CPCs, and updating keyword bids to be more effective.

As recruitment challenges shifted, SCG adjusted and split ad groups as needed for targeting specific job families. Time of day and geographic adjustments are also made when applicable. Recently, our team noticed that the CPC was increasing which typically means more competitors are entering the platform, bidding up the competition. The SCG team quickly made adjustments to the keyword list and targeting to bid more effectively against the competition, bringing the CPC back down.

Results

  • Average click-through rate for a search campaign is 1-2% while UMMS averages around 13% and stays in the double digits, which is extremely efficient.
  • The average CTR for display is 0.49% while UMMS averages over 1%.
  • UMMS video ads average 40% CTR each month.
  • The average cost per click is $2.41 for search and $0.59 for display. UMMS averages well below those CPCs.
  • 40%

    UMMS video ads average 40% CTR each Month