Growing job application levels through
paid search with Michael Page
Michael Page is one of the world’s leading professional recruitment consultancies. They needed to increase their levels of job applications, without compromising on the quality of candidates they recruited.
SERVICES
PROCESSES
HERE’S HOW WE DID IT
BREAKING THE FLATLINE
With rising CPCs and increased competition, Michael Page had not seen any marked improvement for over two years from their paid search campaign — an important and big driver of new job applications
Michael Page was only buying 900 PPC keyword phrases, only one-third of these resulting in a click over a one-year period. Many of these terms were broad, head-terms which were often costly and highly competitive. Michael Page needed to find a way of making their paid search channels more efficient in a volatile market.


STARTING FROM SCRATCH
Our strategy was to completely rebuild their Google Ads and Bing Ads account structures. The aim was to expand search coverage and capitalise on longer search queries to generate cheaper clicks with a higher propensity to convert.
Curated conducted keyword research and analysed search trends to identify key search themes. This enabled us to double the number of keywords in the account, with 90% of them receiving a click — opposed to just 34% from the previous structure.
QUALITY CONTROL
Keeping the quality of applications in mind, we also layered demographic and interest audience data in line with those most likely to convert.
With our work, Michael Page saw the first quarter of YoY growth in over two years, with both Q1 and Q2 of 2019 showing and increase in job applications, improved performance metrics, and an overall increase in the quality of job applications.
- 15% increase in applications
- 31% increase in conversion rate
- 8% decrease in cost per application

“Curated's PPC team were a pleasure to work with. They are technically well-versed and were extremely proactive in managing our account. Their goal-focused approach to auditing our campaigns, coupled with their diligent research and restructure process were crucial in driving YOY performance improvements. The account team also communicated very well, providing clarity on both status and performance at regular intervals.“
KIM THORNTON
DIGITAL MARKETING — MICHAEL PAGE