Finding New Employees with Successful Geo-Targeting Campaigns

It’s a fact! For every three people leaving the trade only one is entering. Michael Bloomberg, NPR, The New York Times, and The Washington Post are just a few of the many high profile voices encouraging men and women to enter the trades.

Because few are entering the trades, finding good employees in the Plumbing, Heating, Cooling, and Electrical fields is extremely difficult, and is one of the most pressing concerns for our contractors. The growth of a company can be put on hold if you don’t have the staff to meet demand. An empty truck can cost you $16,000 a month in lost gross profit. Because we are committed to helping our companies grow, Contractor 20/20 has deeply invested time and resources into creating employee recruitment strategies that work! Geo-targeting campaigns are cutting edge, low cost, and highly effective.

How do we do it?

Imagine a guy named Mark is shopping for a new car. He starts looking more closely at those dealership mailings, he reads consumer reports and other reviews online, and he checks out different dealership websites in the area. After a month of research, he has decided on the car he wants and is ready for a test drive. Mark heads to the Star Auto dealership, drives the car, and starts talking financing. When the salesperson leaves the desk to look up some information, he opens up his phone, checks Facebook, and googles local restaurants in the area. While at a website Mark sees a web banner ad for the Encore dealership, and they are offering some awesome financing deals and warranties. Suddenly, Mark starts to reevaluate the deal in front of him, and decides he needs to visit the other dealership before making a final decision.

Welcome to geo-fencing!

Geo-fencing seems like a difficult concept—but it isn’t. Basically, Encore dealership hired a company to put a virtual fence around the Star Auto dealership. Anyone with a smart phone that has Locations Services turned on, who walks within the geographical boundaries of that fence will get targeted with Encore’s web ads on the spot and when they leave the location.

How Geo-Fencing can be used to find new employees?

First—we know this works! We have done it! We have quickly and successfully found local qualified employees for our contractors using geo-fencing. We simply put a virtual fence around the offices of your competitors and local supply houses. When techs walk into these locations, we target them with your employment ad.

Finding New Employees with Successful Geo-Targeting Campaigns

It gets better. Addressable geo-targeting

Most states have a public list of licensed tradesmen. With addressable geo-targeting we are able to target their home address, identify their computer ID and IP address, and target all the computers, iPads, smartphones and tablets in the home with your employment ad. Addressable geo-fencing is the most precise geo-targeting solution used to build an audience based on physical address.

It gets better. Search retargeting and Keyword contextual targeting

You may not know this, but Google and the other big search engines resell search history. For example, technicians or others who are considering employment in your field are googling things like “plumbing jobs in my area,” “great plumbing companies to work for,” “how to become a plumber,” Plumbing job openings” and so on. We can get a list of people who are performing these searches and send them your employment banner ad. They are looking—we make sure they find you. Similarly, we can send your banner ads to people who have recently read keywords, content or phrases related to your business. Based on the context of the previous websites they have been on, we target them with your employment ad.

Let’s use our dealership example to give you a better picture of what we are talking about. Remember how Mark visited consumer reports while car shopping? With keyword contextual targeting, Encore could Target Mark with their dealership banner ads based on the keywords, content, or phrases that he was exposed to during that web browsing. Using the same technology, you could identify and target potential employees.

It gets better. 1.6- 3 Cents per ad. $600 minimum

You may think this sort of next level targeting is outside of your price range—but it isn’t. Most of these services are 1.6 cents per ad.  For example, at 3 cents per ad, with a minimum $600 purchase (and $250 set up fee), you would get 20,000 impressions.

Geo-targeting, Addressable geo-targeting, search retargeting, and keyword contextual targeting are all excellent ways to not only reach new customers, they are also excellent ways to target potential new employees.

Contractor 20/20 has spent years searching for the best media, partners, and tools to solve the employment gap problem for our contractors. From van magnets to radio ads, and billboards to geo-targeting, we have the right solution for your budget.