Continu Professionals

20% more job applications through hyperlocal automation and localization

Award-winning localization

There has been scarcity in the job market for many years. There is a lot of supply but the unemployment rate is very low. On top of that, people are less and less willing to drive far for a potential new job. How do you make sure you keep filling vacancies despite these challenging conditions? Continuous Professionals found the solution in a hyperlocal full-funnel marketing strategy has gone.

In this case, which won gold at the Dutch Search Awards, discover how Continu was able to increase ROAS by 30% despite rising CPCs.

Continu Professionals

Helps achieve growth ambitions.

For over thirty years, Continu Professionals has been a leading intermediary in the construction, engineering and housing association sectors. The company links both beginning and experienced professionals to suitable employers. With approximately 1,500 open vacancies, twelve branches spread throughout the Netherlands and 200 consultants who follow developments in the labor market on a daily basis, Continu Professionals has a deep understanding of the dynamics within the market.

The challenge

Vacancy variation and critical candidates.

In a job market where candidates are increasingly critical of travel distance to work, Continu was struggling to continue to fill vacancies effectively. With longer travel times increasingly a dealbreaker, the need for a local approach grew. At the same time, the wide variation in job descriptions created confusion. When every company provides different job descriptions, creating good ads becomes difficult and time-consuming. Especially in the competitive job market where speed and precision are decisive, you can't afford that.

So how do you make sure you convince potential candidates with nearby ads while avoiding the proliferation of job descriptions? We solved that challenge with a hyperlocal advertising strategy.

The strategy

Hyperlocal approach.

So in search of an effective way to fill vacancies in a labor market characterized by scarcity and decreasing willingness to travel. First of all, the target group. For Continu that consists of practically all workers and job seekers in the Netherlands. Including those who are not actively looking for a job, but are open to new opportunities. This required a strategy that could both attract the attention of active job seekers and pique the interest of latent job seekers.

To achieve this, we developed a full-funnel marketing strategy. Focused on hyperlocalization and automation. By targeting job postings specifically to regions from which the most interest was expected, we capitalized on the low willingness to travel. This meant that each campaign had to be tailored to local characteristics and needs, which ensured much higher relevance and appeal of the ads.

Such a layered approach ensures that Continu Professionals' campaigns were not only visible at the right time and place, but also that they resonated with the specific wants and needs of their diverse target audience.

The strategy

Step by step.

Classification of vacancies

Prepare the feed for SA360 with specific fields for ad groups, keywords, headlines and URLs, optimized for search volume.

Performance-based allocation

Determine required applicants per vacancy for targeted budget allocation and campaign setup.

Location targeting

Target job postings to regions where candidates want to work, with automatic adjustments for local relevance.

On-page optimalisatie

Customize landing pages to user location for a personalized experience.

Full-funnel approach

Personalize campaigns through the entire funnel, from awareness to conversion, with budget optimization.

Implementation

Step by step to a personalized candidate journey.

Then implementation. Completely focused on smart use of data and technology. By using artificial intelligence to generate relevant keywords and linking them to geographic data, we were able to advertise in a very targeted way. We made sure that job postings came to the attention of exactly the right people, in the areas where they were open for work. In addition, we defined eight specific location groups within the Netherlands, based on willingness to travel and population density, allowing us to target ads even better.

With a real-time update of data from Continu's Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and Google Analytics 4 (GA4), we continuously tune how many applications were needed per job posting. With that, we optimize ad spend.

Finally, we also improved the on-page experience by personalizing landing pages based on the visitor's location. Based on location data, we tailored the content on the pages to the user's specific region, showing more relevant jobs and content. All of this was supported with a full-funnel approach, personalizing each step in the candidate journey to achieve maximum engagement and conversion.

The implementation

Step by step.

Classification of vacancies

Use AI to create keywords that match what people are searching for locally, and add them to campaign settings.

Location targeting

Define eight regions in the Netherlands and show job openings specifically within a 40km radius of cities, tailored to where people are willing to travel.

Performance based

Constantly track how many responses are needed per job posting and adjust ads accordingly to save costs and increase effectiveness.

On-page optimization

Customize the web page that contains the job posting to the visitor's location so that they see only relevant information.

Full-funnel approach

Show customized ads that match not only the position, but also the candidate's region, throughout the marketing funnel.

Results

More applications, lower costs.

Continuous not only generated more valuable leads, but also improved their advisors' efficiency by wasting less time on unsuitable candidates. By spending less time on low-quality leads, their advisors can focus on the best candidates, leading to better placements and a stronger competitive position in a market where speed and quality are crucial. By increasing the quality of leads, advisors spend an average of 10% less time processing applicants.

This results in an annual gain of 130 hours which can be deployed on the higher quality applicants. All in all, this case directly reduces the cost per placement, increases the quality of professionals hired and increases profitability.

Main results

In figures.

+20%

More applications with the same media budget.

+49%

Increase in conversion rate

+10%

Increase in placement ratio

+30%

Improving blended ROAS

+37%

Increase in conversion rate despite higher CPCs

-10%

Saving time processing applicants

The impact

Improved application process.

This case really gave Continu an edge by combining hyperlocalization and smart automation. We made job postings not only more visible, but also more relevant to job seekers in specific regions, leading to 20% more applications and a 10% higher placement rate. Because we knew exactly where people wanted to work through location targeting, we were able to deploy campaigns super targeted and local.

This resulted in better candidates, more quickly filled vacancies and less time wasted on unsuitable leads. The 49% increase in conversion from visitor to applicant shows how strongly localization contributed to effectiveness.

So, thanks to custom AI scripts and extremely detailed candidate profiles based on data, Continu is now responding to local needs to the maximum extent possible. While competitors struggle with increasing CPCs, Continu actually increased ROAS by 30%. That's really making a convincing impact in the tight labor market.

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