“How many job applications did it generate?”
Virtually every employer asks that question when evaluating an employer branding campaign. And that’s understandable; they’ve invested in visibility, content, and campaigns, so ultimately they want to know what results it has yielded.
Still, it’s a question that often leads to the wrong conclusion. That’s because “employer branding” is still often viewed as if it were a job recruitment campaign—even though its purpose is quite different.
A recruitment campaign or job marketing focuses on attracting candidates for a specific job opening. Employer branding, on the other hand, focuses on building awareness, trust, and preference among a broader target audience that may not yet be actively looking for a new job.
Recruitment begins before someone even thinks about applying for a job
Most people in your target talent pool are not currently actively looking for a new employer. They have a job, feel no immediate need to leave, and therefore won’t respond to a job posting that comes up today: latent job seekers. However, that doesn’t mean they’re out of reach.
This group often determines how successful your recruitment efforts will be in the long run. After all, when someone is open to a new opportunity, the search doesn’t start from scratch. People subconsciously carry with them an impression of employers they’ve seen or followed before, or about whom they’ve heard positive stories.
Employer branding focuses precisely on that process. It ensures that you’re visible before someone starts actively looking for a job. Not to immediately prompt an application, but to build brand recognition, trust, and preference.
That makes employer branding fundamentally different from a job recruitment campaign.
Why Job Applications Are Often the Wrong KPI
Suppose someone has watched several videos about your organization over the past few months. Maybe they got a behind-the-scenes look through social media, read an employee story on the careers website, or saw an ad about your company culture.
Months later, a job opening appears that matches his or her career goals. The candidate clicks through and applies.
Where did that job application come from?
In many dashboards, the job posting campaign gets all the credit. After all, that was the last click before the application was submitted. But everyone understands that the story doesn’t start there.
The previous interactions had already made the organization familiar to the candidate. They had built trust. As a result, the job posting wasn’t seen as just another ad, but as an interesting opportunity with an employer who had already made a positive impression.
Employer branding therefore often doesn’t serve as a direct catalyst for a job application, but rather as a catalyst for everything that comes after:
| Phase | Objective | KPIs |
| Awareness (Employer Branding) |
Building Brand Awareness | Reach, impressions, video views, brand awareness |
| Consideration (Employer Branding) |
Generating Interest in Employer Content | Website visits, time on site, engagement, returning visitors |
| Decision (Job Marketing) | Conversion / Driving Action | Apply online, start a chat about a job opening, call or email a recruiter |
What are some good KPIs for employer branding campaigns?
That doesn’t mean employer branding isn’t measurable. On the contrary. It’s just that effective employer branding campaigns require different KPIs than job recruitment campaigns.
It starts with defining a good target audience. Ideally, you should target an audience that you know you’ll be able to offer a suitable job opening to in the coming year. This is typically a large group with diverse backgrounds, living in locations that make sense for your company or branches. You can then use these KPIs to evaluate your campaign for this target audience:
1. Reach & Visibility
These KPIs show how many people in your target audience you reach with your ads:
- Impressions
- Reach (unique individuals)
- Frequency (average number of times a person sees the ad)
- Video Views (3 seconds, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%)
Sample Objectives:
- Reached 100,000 unique individuals
- Average frequency between 3 and 6
- 30% video completion rate
2. Engagement
These KPIs measure whether the target audience is actually showing interest.
- Engagement rate
- Likes, comments, and shares
- Click here to visit the Careers page
- Click-Through Rate (CTR)
- Saving Content
- Growth in social media followers
Sample Objectives:
- CTR > 1.0% on Meta
- Engagement rate > 3%
- +10% growth in followers
3. Website Behavior
When people click through to the "Careers" page:
- Number of sessions
- Unique visitors
- Average session duration
- Pages per session
- Scroll depth
- Returning visitors
Sample Objectives:
- Average session duration > 1 minute
- 50% of visitors scroll past the 75% mark
- 20% repeat visitors
4. Interest in Employer Branding
These KPIs provide insight into actual interest in the employer.
- Views of employee stories
- Click here to go to the job listings pages
- Low-barrier conversions such as signing up for job alerts, downloading brochures, subscribing to newsletters, or registering for events and talent pools
Sample Objectives:
- 50 job alert subscriptions
- 500 views of employee stories
5. Brand Awareness & Preference
Larger employers also use the following KPIs:
- Brand Lift Studies
- Reputation as an employer
- Thinking About Applying
- Competitive Advantage Over Competitors
Employer branding makes job marketing more effective
Ultimately, employer branding is not about direct applications, but about establishing a preferred position in the labor market. Organizations that invest in this ensure they are visible before a job opening arises, build trust before candidates become active, and create brand recognition before an application form is filled out.
That is precisely why job postings ultimately receive more attention, campaigns are more effective, and recruitment efforts are more successful.
The question regarding an employer branding campaign should therefore not be how many applications have been received, but whether more people from the target audience are aware of the organization, understand it, and consider it when they are ready to take the next step.
Because that is precisely where the true value of employer branding lies. Not in today’s immediate conversion, but in the job applications that will come much more easily as a result tomorrow.
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