Inside JobTarget: A Conversation with Lauren Plante, Senior Director of Programmatic

Dear reader,

Welcome to Inside JobTarget — a new blog series where we sit down with the people behind our products to share the stories, ideas, and insights that shape them.

In this first conversation, we’re diving into Programmatic — what it is, why we built it, who it’s for, and how it’s helping recruiters and hiring teams solve today’s biggest hiring challenges.

Interview with Lauren Plante, Senior Director of Programmatic.

What is the purpose of Programmatic and who did we build it for?

Lauren: The purpose of Programmatic is to cast a wide net to get your jobs advertised to the top job boards in a one stop shop manner.

Instead of having to post to each individual job board, Programmatic helps you get your jobs out to the top sites all at once, creating a faster, more seamless process for you – saving time in your day and in your recruitment process.

Who’s it for? Anyone who’s in recruiting who has multiple jobs to fill, who uses online job advertising, posts to job boards, etc. It’s particularly a really good fit for companies that post to multiple sites who have limited time or are an HR person wearing multiple hats.

What does it help JobTarget customers do?

Lauren: To get their jobs out to more job boards in a more seamless fashion. Programmatic connects right to your HR systems, removes friction, and is an ultimate time-saver for our customers.

Instead of going to 10 different job boards or sites to advertise your positions, you’re able to, in one click, get your jobs out to the necessary sites.

It changes the game immediately. 

Why is it worth their attention and money? What does it solve?

Lauren: The need for top talent is constant. And investing in a system that will get you out to the top sites is crucial.

Job boards and the recruiting market change on a daily basis. It's hard for folks to keep up. 

It's worth it to allow experts to help you use that knowledge and understanding to post your jobs to the best sites out there, without having to guess – marketing yourselves on the top sources and working with the changing times.

How has the product gotten better since its launch? Any enhancements?

Lauren: We’ve grown the number of sites we interact with (100+ sites and publishers that we work with), from job boards that cover every site to more niche sites.

We have a wide range of product features, per job products that you can use as needed, credit pack bundles that you can buy, pre-paid single postings to Programmatic, we’ve grown in the ability to add/remove jobs, there are more Easy Apply capabilities, our customers can get more applies faster, we've updated more personalized dashboards and reporting.

We have a team of product specialists that look for themes or continued pain points for customers, implementing feedback consistently.

Speaking of pain points, what are the biggest pain points that Programmatic solves?

Lauren: Time, saved resources, integrating with systems folks already use, providing a central point of contact (if they have an issue, they have 1 person to go to instead of having to go to 15 vendors).

How is Programmatic a relevant and efficient product for customers even when there are hiring slowdowns, economic ruts, and other critical market conditions that impact shifting budgets and priorities?

Lauren: Programmatic takes the guesswork out for you. You'd normally have to make purchases on individual job boards, but instead we do that on your behalf and provide the best traction and visibility for your roles to deliver better ROI. You can trust that you’re not just throwing your dollars out there to sites hoping it will work, we’re able to use our data and logic to see how your posts are responding and ensure that your dollars are going to the sites that are you going to give you the most visibility and traffic.

Our reporting gives you an up-close view to measure performance and overall results. Your dashboard details performance, budget spent, traffic (clicks, applies), and can show all of this on a per job basis. We also take into account historical data to make more informed decisions about where their jobs are performing best.

In the universe of JobTarget, does this product stand alone or are there supporting products that increase its impact? If so, what are those products?

Lauren: Programmatic is one step – branding and job advertising. There are several add-ons that can increase your impact including Sourcer (our resume database to search for more interested candidates), Intelligent Reporting and Compensation Analyzer (additional market data and labor data that can help you) and our latest Video Interviewer tool.

If you could sum this product up in one word or phrase, what would it be?

One stop shop.

How do you see this product growing in the future? What are you focused on improving?

Lauren: We're continuing to look at developing new features and analyzing how companies can use this product on a budget per job basis. We're updating our dashboard to have more functionality and individual control, expanding sites within our network, offering more sites with Easy Apply functionality, we're working to bring Programmatic resources closer into the ATS to make it easier for customers to get their jobs into the system. Above all, we're growing and changing with the market and customer needs. 

Over the past year alone, we have expanded the ways our customers can use Programmatic – there’s a way to slot it into your recruitment for every budget, we've supplied more data and more controls, provided more transparency, and are constantly growing the sites that we partner with.

What transparency are you speaking to?

Lauren: We're transparent about what our customer's data means. We provide education pieces on how the systems work. We're making our products as intuitive as possible so customers can truly educate themselves and feel in control of their data.

I.e. If I set this spend target, what does it mean and how does it work?

We've built an intuitive Help Center where customers can find quick how-to video tutorials and articles detailing how Programmatic is working for them.

How are we different than other companies that offer programmatic recruitment advertising?

Lauren: JobTarget isn't just a programmatic service. We’re able to partner with ATS’ to be more integrated into a customer's current environment so they don't have to change the way they work. We're easily accessible and customers don't have to work hard to use our product. It's intuitevly designed within their own system.

We have more resources available to our customers like I mentioned previously. All of our products and services work together to build more tools into the toolbox for our customer. 

Our relationships with publishers, years in the business, and solid partnerships are what set us apart. Trust is our biggest asset.

And our people are just the cherry on top. We have experts that will sit with our customers and walk through all of their data, make recommendations, and work on a recruitment strategy together.

When I say we're a one-stop-shop, I really mean it.

Interview concluded.

Want to learn more about our Programmatic solution? 

Find more Programmatic content here. 

Learn more about Lauren Plante here.