Google for Jobs Report 2020

The second year in which Google for Jobs is available in Germany is now drawing to a close. We have taken this as an opportunity to create an annual report for 2020. This report contains data and insights that we were able to gain on the topic of Google for Jobs and its use. We analysed the search behaviour for job ads, which job ads perform best and when it makes the most sense to place job ads. In addition, the report contains valuable tips to improve the use of Google for Jobs.

You can download the Google for Jobs Report 2020 as a PDF here.

Basics

Data Collection

For this report, we took an arbitrary sample of 15,000 job ads and analyzed them using information from our database and the Google Search Console tool. This tool provides information on search behavior, impressions (how many times a job ad was shown), and clicks (how many times the application button for each job ad was clicked). The data collection is limited to the last 12 months (as of 31.12.2020).

Structure and presentation of the job advertisements

First, we looked at the question of what size a job ad should have in order to be presented clearly on Google for Jobs. To do this, we gathered information about the length of the title and the length of the description and how these are presented on the Google search page, on Google for Jobs in detail and on mobile devices.

When you search for jobs on Google, Google for Jobs doesn't immediately show up in its entirety, only a small window on the Google search page. This is called a widget. In this widget, the first three job ads are shown first, with a link to further ads. You can see the job title, the location, the company and what the job ad is about. If you click on an ad, you will first see about 260 characters of the description.

If you now open Google for Jobs, the job ad appears in detail, as well as other job ads that can be seen on the side.

To ensure that the job titles appear in their full length and are not cut off in the preview on the page, the number of 70 characters should not be exceeded. However, this only applies to presentation on a PC. If you open Google for Jobs on a mobile device, the title is already cut off at 50 characters.

Tip. Keep the title as short and concise as possible so that it is easy to read on all devices. If that's not possible, word the job title so that the most important information is at the beginning.

Equally important to writing the title is gender handling. Many companies question what the job title should be in order to achieve gender equality. Therefore, you could try to keep it neutral, such as instead of nurse, it could be caregiver. Of course, this is not possible with every job title, but that is what the term (m/f/d) is for. This should be present in every job title in order to prevent gender discrimination.

There are no limits to the length of the description, but from about 700 characters the button "learn more" appears. This means the most important and interesting information should be included in the first 700 characters to grab the applicant's attention. On mobile devices, the top view is limited to about 450 characters.

Evaluation of the samples

The evaluation of our posts in this regard revealed that the length of the title is 37 characters on average. The shortest title is only 7 characters and the longest is 159 characters.

If we look at the length of the descriptions, the average value is 2332 characters. The shortest description is only 21 characters and the longest is 16024 characters.

The ratio of impressions to clicks

Google Search Console tells us how many views, or impressions, the job ads receive and how many times the application pages were clicked on further. But how do these relate to each other? The relationship is determined with the so-called Click Through Rate (CTR). This shows how many clicks there were as a percentage of the impressions.

Evaluation

According to our data analysis, this CRT is 6% on average. This means that approx. 6% of all impressions also resulted in a click on the following application page.

Insight

But why is this rate so low?

Often all the information needed is already contained in the job advertisement on Google for Jobs, which is why it is no longer fundamentally necessary for the applicant to open the application portal. People only click if they are really interested in applying. This is in line with Google's strategy, which can also be seen in other areas: to display as much information as possible directly so that the user does not have to leave the search engine.

Search behaviour of devices

This section shows which differences there were in the search behaviour of different devices.

In the data analysis, a distinction was therefore made between computers, mobile devices and tablets.

The percentage distribution of the total impressions and clicks of the past year was evaluated.

Evaluation

Findings

This shows that mobile devices are used the most to search for jobs and that this is also where the most clicks were made. Tablets are the least likely to be used when searching for jobs. The reason for this could be that Google for Jobs is mostly used by young people who prefer mobile to computers. In addition, mobile is generally used more, even when there is not as much time, resulting in more impressions.

Tip. When it comes to the format of your job ad, make sure that it is also well presented on mobile devices, as searches are primarily done via mobile phones.

Search behaviour over time

Search behaviour within a week

Over the course of a week, you can see that at the beginning of the week, especially on Mondays, search queries increase. After that, they usually decrease continuously and have their low point on Saturday, until they slowly start to increase again on Sunday. This could be due to the fact that hardly anyone works on Saturdays and Sundays and most applicants send out their application at the beginning of the next week in order to get a quick response. Another reason could be that job seekers, due to dissatisfaction, are looking for a new job during their working hours.

The search behaviour within one year

When observing the search behaviour over the last 12 months, it has been noticed that the impressions increase strongly in the winter months, decrease around Christmas time and increase again at the beginning of the year. The reason for this could be that there are some people who are increasingly looking for a fresh start at the beginning of the year and are therefore applying for a new job. There was also an increase in the summer of 2020, which could be due to school leavers increasingly looking for jobs.

Still, the CTR doesn't change much. It remains at 5-6% on average. This means that while clicks increase proportionally with impressions, they don't go beyond that. This year's performance is also heavily influenced by the Corona crisis, which will be discussed again at the end of the report.

Tip. Post your job ads at the right time. In the winter months, target job changers; in the summer months, look for high school graduates looking for training.

Differentiation of search terms

During data analysis, it was found that patterns can be filtered out in most search queries. These patterns show what is being searched for in the queries. The following patterns could be identified through the analysis of the search queries:

• Search by company name

• Search by place of work

• Search by job title/job title

• Search by employment type

1000 search queries were analyzed for these patterns.

Analysis

(The table does not add up to 100% because some search queries contained more than one of the search variables).

Finding

Based on this table, it can be seen that most of the search queries contained the place of work and often searched for mini or student jobs. Fewer searches were for job title. You can also see from this table that many young people use Google for Jobs, as they prefer to search for part-time jobs and apprenticeships and place a lot of value on the location of their job.

Tip. Make sure to enter the type of employment and the place of work in Google for Jobs (in the fields provided).

The performance of job ads

Another focus in this report is the performance of job ads. This means which job ads are getting the most clicks.

Performance by job type

To do this, we first performed a data analysis regarding the different employment types. The employment types were categorized as full-time, part-time, intern, volunteer, and temporary. For each category, we took the number of clicks and divided it by the number of jobs available to capture how many clicks on average a job in that category gets.

The evaluation first shows the relative distribution of the jobs. The second table shows the performance in relation to the jobs in the worst category, temporary work.

Evaluation

Relative distribution of jobs

Relative Performance

Findings

The Intern category has the highest performance. In the table you can see that the category intern gets eight times more clicks than the category temporary employment.

This could be due to the fact that interns are not yet on the usual job boards, but mainly use Google for their job search and therefore the value is very high. The full-time category tends to have a lower value, as many adult applicants in particular also access other job boards in addition to Google for Jobs. It is also noticeable that part-time performed much better than full-time.

Tip! It is advisable to indicate part-time in the job advertisement in addition to full-time, if possible, as you can get three times as many clicks per job with this.

Performance by business unit

The second performance analysis categorized the different business sectors: Internet, Education, Engineering, Health, Pharmaceutical, Architecture, Consulting, Energy, Legal, Marketing, Tourism, and Transportation. For each category, the number of clicks was then divided again by the number of jobs.

In the first table you can see the relative distribution of jobs. In the second table you can see the performance in relation to the jobs in the worst category Engineering.

Evaluation

Relative distribution of jobs

Relative Performance

Finding

The Pharmacy category has the highest performance. A job receives almost eight times more clicks than a job ad in the Engineering category. The table also shows that Health and Architecture, as well as the categories Internet and Marketing, perform above average. Tourism and Law perform less well.

Performance by position on Google for Jobs

This analysis looked at whether there was a correlation between clicks and the position of a job ad on Google for Jobs.

Finding

Only assumptions can be made about this performance, as no correlation could be established. Also badly positioned job ads get many clicks and the other way round you can see that well positioned job ads do not always get many clicks. This could possibly depend on the occupational field one is looking for. For example, in healthcare there are thousands of job ads from different providers and companies. There is a very high level of competition there and also a larger number of potential applicants. Therefore, jobs that are not very highly positioned but have an appealing format are also often clicked on. If you are looking for very specific or even rare professions, there is not so much choice, the job ads are automatically positioned higher but do not gain very many clicks due to few applicants. It is also possible that the search queries are too vague and the top results do not show the desired result.

Tip. Add your company logo and make sure your job ads are in an appealing and reputable format. The more information included, the better.

Performance by number of job ads

In the last analysis on the topic of job ad performance, we looked at whether it makes a difference in the number of clicks when a company publishes multiple job ads.

Findings

In this analysis, no correlation was found either. Companies with many jobs, as well as companies with few jobs, showed similar results. Therefore, again, we can only make assumptions. It could be due to the fact that the job advertisements of a company are issued for different job areas. Applicants usually only search in one area, which is why the other job advertisements of the company are rather uninteresting for the respective applicant and are therefore not displayed or considered. It also depends on how the job advertisement is presented. If it is appealing to the applicant, they are more likely to click on it. In addition, some applicants prefer large companies and others prefer small companies.

The assumption that large companies with many job ads are better positioned could therefore not be confirmed in our evaluation. Large and small companies seem to have equal chances here.

Effects of Corona on search behaviour

No explicit data evaluation is available on the impact of the Corona pandemic on search behavior. Since Google for Jobs was only launched in Germany in mid-2019, there is no exact comparison to this year. Nevertheless, we have summarized the course of this year, according to possible anomalies caused by Corona:

At the beginning of the Corona pandemic, it can be noted that the impressions and consequently the search queries dropped significantly. Since the first lockdown was already called in mid-March, impressions and clicks dropped a lot. An increase occurred towards the summer when the lockdown was slowly resolved. Impressions and clicks peaked in August as many lost their jobs due to the pandemic. This was followed by another drop, but impressions and clicks remained consistently in the upper limit through the winter months.

Conclusion

This report provides an insight on Google for Jobs in 2020 from the perspective of the experts at SEO for Jobs. It provides insights on the performance of job ads while considering different variables, the impact of the Corona pandemic, search behavior over time, search behavior from different devices, and shows which content was most used in search queries. Based on these data analyses, some valuable tips could also be developed to help optimize usage with Google for Jobs.

If you have any further questions about the 2020 annual report, please contact our SEO for Jobs team.