The Challenge
The client, a large international online recruitment platform, had built a strong model in its home market, especially the US, and tried to apply the same media strategy and optimisation logic across the British Isles.
Despite sustained investment, the UK and Ireland business could not match the same levels of efficiency or growth. Spend was generating top-of-funnel volume, but not enough high-quality applications or consistent employer acquisition. Differences in labour market dynamics, hiring seasonality, candidate behaviour, and media consumption meant the US playbook did not land as expected.
Because the business depended on both applicant quality and employer-side outcomes, the client needed a clearer view of what actually drove value in the British Isles before rising acquisition costs put more pressure on spend.
The Solution
We ran a full marketing mix modelling engagement focused on identifying the true drivers of performance in the British Isles. The framework measured impact across the applicant funnel, from registrations and completed applications through to employer sign-ups, while controlling for seasonal hiring patterns, economic conditions, competitor activity, job vacancy trends, inflation, and hiring confidence.
The work quickly showed that US assumptions did not hold. While the US model leaned heavily on performance search and high-frequency retargeting, the British Isles market responded more to strongly to brand-led comms during key seasonal windows (e.g. The New Year Peak & The Autumn Surge job switches). Employer-side outcomes were also more sensitive to perceived platform quality, making visible presence in trusted channels more influential than expected.
Our recommendations centred on a rebalanced media mix, improved demographic targeting by industry vertical, and changes in campaign timing to better reflect local hiring seasonality.
The Impact
The new strategy delivered clear performance gains. CPA for qualified applicants fell by 20% within the first quarter, helped by reallocating budget away from over-saturated low-impact channels and into more responsive formats.
Employer sign-ups increased by 15%, while ROI improved by 18% as stronger candidate quality and more visible brand presence built confidence during key hiring periods.
Beyond the numbers, the engagement gave the client a market-specific blueprint for growth in the British Isles, grounded in the behaviours and signals that mattered to British Isles users and actually drove revenue.
Key Takeaways
Local market dynamics mattered – US-led strategies did not transfer cleanly to the British Isles.
MMM clarified real drivers – The model showed what actually influenced qualified applications and employer-side value.
Budget reallocation improved efficiency – Spend moved towards more responsive channels and local hiring cycles.
A market-specific view improved decisions – The client gained a stronger basis for planning and future market localisation.
Tools and Techniques
- KPI framework spanning job seeker and employer outcomes
- Marketing mix modelling
- Market-specific budget optimisation and campaign timing
- Data & martech audit
- SQL
- R
- Snowflake (Data warehousing)
Related services
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