How LinkedIn Ads helped a two-sided marketplace platform attract their ideal audience
Paraform is a two-sided marketplace that connects businesses with a network of freelance, agency, and solopreneur recruiters. Their unique bounty-based system allows companies to post a job once and have multiple recruiters compete to fill it, resulting in faster and more cost-effective hiring.
When Paraform approached me, they were still in the early stages of building their marketplace. They needed to attract both companies and recruiters to their platform – a classic chicken-and-egg scenario for two-sided marketplaces.
Project Highlights
Before
Paraform faced the typical challenges of a startup carving out a new category:
- They needed to educate the market about their unique approach to recruitment and build awareness for their platform
- They also wanted to attract both companies and recruiters to their platform, which can be tricky to balance
And while Google Ads was part of their strategy, the high cost per click for relevant keywords made it challenging to get cost-effective leads in the recruitment space.
During
After we discussed strategies to generate demand and build awareness for Paraform’s innovative platform, we decided to prioritize LinkedIn Ads for several reasons:
- As a new company, they wanted to see quick results and demonstrate the value of their platform. Paid advertising, particularly LinkedIn Ads, provided a direct way to generate leads and drive immediate impact
- LinkedIn Ads allowed for precise targeting of their desired audience – recruiters and companies
Our approach with LinkedIn Ads involved:
- Targeting: We honed in on the ideal audience by targeting specific job titles, skills, and industry interests within the recruiting sector
- Messaging: Our ad copy emphasized the unique value proposition of Paraform, such as faster hiring times, reduced costs, and access to a vast network of recruiters
- Creative: We used eye-catching visuals with bold copy, for example:
- “Recruiting for unicorns? Get paid like one.”
- “We love recruiters” (Simple but effective)
After
The results of our LinkedIn Ads campaign have been very positive:
- We've achieved a remarkably low cost per lead for recruiters, averaging just $14.41
- The sales team has reported that the leads generated through LinkedIn Ads are high-quality and well-suited for their platform
- Our display ads are seeing click-through rates of 3.35%, exceeding typical benchmarks, especially given the high CPMs (around $80)
While we're still working on cracking the code for generating company leads, the success on the recruiter side has been a major win for Paraform. They're steadily building their network of recruiters, which will ultimately attract more companies to their platform.
