Video has become an effective tool in recruiting. Most Talent Leaders realize that video tells a better story than a text-based job description and 30 minute phone call. Ongig’s platform confirms that theory as we see an average time of 4 minutes 25 seconds on each of our job pages. And that average is aggregated from hundreds of thousands of views.

One of the reasons viewers stay on an Ongig job page so long is video. We see the average video being viewed for 1 minute 30 seconds.

As Talent Leaders start the process of using video, YouTube is a natural platform to adopt. It’s a household name, is easy to use, and simple for sharing video content across other websites.

However, as Talent Leaders get more experience using YouTube they are finding that the platform is actually hurting their recruiting efforts. We decided to dive in and see what you should be concerned about.

Here are the areas we found that are detrimental to your recruiting strategy:

1. Low click-through rates to your Careers & Job Pages

Ongig’s YouTube channel has over 13,000 views. We’ve seen 189 click-throughs to all of our affiliated Careers and Job pages. The resulting click-through rate is 1.4%.

This is a big concern because we can see that viewers going to a YouTube page with the recruiting video have a 1.4% chance of making it to the job page where they can actually apply or express interest. That’s 14 people for every 1,000 views.

While we’re sure to prominently place links above the fold in the description of the video, it seems that YouTube users do not have a propensity for clicking-through.

2. Distractions galore

I’m as big a fan of YouTube as anyone. I love watching the myriad of videos from comedy acts to auto racing. But that brings me to the main point. It’s hard to keep the candidate focused on your video.

All it takes is one quick look at the right sidebar, and your candidate is now going in a different direction. This has a dramatic effect on your click-through rate, and may take them away from visiting your careers page again in any way, shape, or form.

We all love the squirrel on water skis, but he’s not a proponent of your recruiting efforts.

3. YouTube sucks up your SEO juice

If you’re paying attention to the trends in Employer Branding, you know that top candidates are behaving more like a consumer. Pursuing a new job is a process that takes a lot of research and thought. Candidates routinely run searches in LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and Google to get more texture to a job opportunity.

As candidates search Google, the YouTube page your video sits on will appear in the search results. You should always double-check to see if it is getting ranked higher than the pages where you may have the YouTube video player embedded. If so, this is a major loss.

Since candidates are also on the lookout for video, the video search on Google may point them straight to YouTube. Again, this can be a big loss. Why?

You have candidates going to a YouTube page where there is a 1.4% chance they’ll click-through to your own job page. You’re essentially giving this SEO opportunity away for free.

4. Jobs are not organized in any way

There is no category on YouTube for Careers and Jobs, or even Business. The closest thing you may find is “People & Blogs” or “Science & Technology. Either way, it’s a guessing game. The point is that YouTube is geared more toward entertainment and instructional purposes. The platform is not currently interested in organizing video content for jobs.

The downside to this is that people are not going directly to YouTube looking for job videos. This is because they don’t expect to find them there, nonetheless knowing how to search for them. And if they are looking for job videos, it takes a lot of time searching, and they never find the content you want them to see.

YouTube is a powerful video medium, but it’s geared for the purpose of entertainment and instructional videos.

5. Comments go un-managed

Since most companies are using YouTube just for the video player, they are not consistently watching the engagement on the actual YouTube page. There are likes, dislikes, comments, and traffic stats that can be helpful. However, most companies pay no attention to the YouTube page itself. It is not being used in a social capacity like Facebook or LinkedIn.

This can be a missed opportunity, and perhaps harmful to your Employer Brand. 

…Most Talent Leaders will say “Yeah, but the videos are embedded on my careers page. We’re good!”

Most companies use YouTube simply because it’s easy to upload a video, and place it wherever you want it on the web. It’s also free, which helps the budget-constrained recruiting department. Be aware, even if you’ve embedded the YouTube player on your site, you’ve still got work to do. You want to make sure you are not giving away your candidate traffic to a site that will not return the love.

Here’s a few tips to make sure you are optimizing video on your Careers and Jobs pages:

1. Minimize the allure of clicking-through to YouTube

Take a look at the headline in the video player. Look at eliminating this headline through your YouTube settings. Candidates can be confused by the headline and click-through to YouTube. The sharing icons and YouTube logo on the bottom right will also steer viewers to YouTube, even if unintended.

Sometimes people like to click-through to see how many views the video has, as well as likes, dislikes, and comments. As we mentioned, only 1.4% of those people come back to your site.

Don’t make it easy for them to leave for any reason.

2. Tie the video to a call to action

This can be the biggest opportunity missed. Top candidates can find your video on your Careers page or YouTube, like what they see, and still have to go find the right job to apply for. Will they be able to find it easily by clicking-through on the link you have provided on YouTube?

Our advice would be to make your video private, and put it on a page that provides a clear call to action with no distractions.

Maximize the power of your video by keeping candidates pointed at your own Careers environment.

3. Look for an alternative solution

Finding a video player to host your videos is a challenge. Most Talent Leaders rely on Marketing or IT to get this done. If you want to go on offense, here’s two recommendations:

1. Wistia: Offers “flawless delivery, on every device, anywhere in the world”. It’s a video player we’re seeing more commonly used on Careers and Job pages.

2. Ongig: Okay, shameless plug. However, this is exactly what we do. Upload videos for free, have a call to action on every video page, embed it anywhere on the web, measure your progress, and keep candidates focused on your recruiting efforts.