Recruit Holdings Co. Ltd. said Indeed’s switch to pay-per-application pricing for job ads — which it previously announced was ending — did not lower revenue.
Indeed, which is owned by Recruit, sunsetted PPA on Jan. 14 of this year.
“PPA was successful in driving employer engagement on Indeed,” the company said in documentation provided for today’s third-quarter earnings announcement. “For roles with well-defined requirements, employers provided feedback that paying only for applications that meet those requirements was a positive change. At the same time, for many employers, PPA demanded too many changes to the way they hire.”
The company noted that PPA was designed to allow employers to only pay for qualified candidates. “However, some employers used this feature of PPA to avoid paying for qualified candidates that progressed to the interview and even beyond. This led to monetization of qualified applications that was inconsistent from employer to employer, which was not aligned with our expectations.”
Recruit said it “remains committed to delivering value for all employers with pay for performance at the forefront.”
Recruit also announced that Indeed Plus launched in Japan on Jan. 30. Indeed Plus is a job distribution platform which connects multiple job boards and applicant tracking systems to automatically distribute jobs to the job boards that are judged to be the most appropriate based on the job content and other factors.