London hosted one of the most well-known gatherings in the recruitment advertising space, Job Boards Connect Unplugged 2025, on May 15th.

The event was more than a traditional conference; it was a genuine meeting of minds, bringing together job board founders, technologists, marketers, and industry veterans for an honest conversation about where the job board sector stands now and, more importantly, where it is headed next.

What set this Job Boards Connect Unplugged apart wasn’t just the hype around Artificial Intelligence or the speaker line-up. It was the attendees’ openness to discussing difficult questions and sharing current pain points. Attendees also debated threats and opportunities waiting on the horizon, and in this article, we are pointing out some of the most important ones.

A safety car moment – How AI has hit reset on the whole industry

Our CEO Martin Lenz delivered the phrase that seemed to stick with everyone present:

“AI and changing user behaviours are reshaping how job seekers find, trust, and engage with job boards.”

In a breakout session alongside  Lou Goodman (former VP B2B Marketing at Monster / CareerBuilder), Martin leaned into an unusual but powerful analogy for the impact of artificial intelligence on the job board sector.

He explained that we’re living through a “Safety Car” moment, drawing on car racing jargon: “The AI boom is a reset moment, like a safety car in racing. Even companies with major AI investments are now lining up again as powerful tools become widely accessible to all job boards.”

The metaphor resonated with the audience.

In racing, introducing a safety car doesn’t just slow everyone down; it also bunches up the field, erasing previous gaps and giving every competitor, regardless of their earlier lead, a new chance at victory. Likewise, in recruitment tech, the rapid democratisation of AI tools has levelled the playing field.

When it comes to AI innovation, both giants and smaller companies now face off side by side, with access to similarly powerful digital tools and data processing capabilities.
Martin Lenz made it clear: the days of gaining a lasting edge through proprietary AI alone are over. The field is being reset. It’s what job boards and their leaders do now, with data, networks, and branding, that will truly make the difference in the future.

The real differentiators: data, networks, and brand

Both Martin Lenz and Lou Goodman drove home the point that getting ahead today isn’t about chasing one tech buzzword after another. A true and lasting competitive advantage will stem from harnessing three timeless pillars:

• Smart data usage,

• Deep networks and relationships,

• A bold, memorable brand.

But brand, as the conversation underscored, is so much more than a logo, a font, or a colour scheme. “A brand is more than how you look. It represents the collective perception of your company, shaped by your values, tone of voice, visual identity, and the experiences you deliver. It’s how you live in people’s minds.”

What makes a job board memorable nowadays? Beyond credible design, it’s about delivering on the promise of value at every touchpoint:

• clear communication with candidates,

• transparency to clients,

• high-quality job matches,

• consistent user experiences, both on desktop and mobile.

Arguably, in a fast-changing industry, the brand increasingly becomes the most important anchor. It’s the reputation that job boards build over time.

And at the foundation of the brand lies actionable, high-quality data.

If job boards can’t use the candidate and clients’ insights, they will struggle to deliver unique value that keeps users (and advertisers) coming back.

The social media and Gen Z impact

One of the most interesting insights was this: “Gen Zs spend 54% more time on social platforms than average.”

Younger generations have fundamentally different expectations when it comes to job search. They aren’t just visiting job boards and submitting CVs; they’re looking for opportunities on TikTok, on Instagram, and evaluating employer reputations from viral posts and interactions.

While social media has been a disruptor for quite some time in other industries, now it takes centre stage in recruitment advertising as well.

Social platforms are no longer secondary channels. For many job seekers, especially digital natives, they’re the primary way to discover, research, and apply to new jobs.

As social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok became the primary way for candidates to discover jobs, and most of the attention is focused on these platforms, job boards must consider them in their advertising efforts.

Jobiqo offers the solution to effortlessly generate and manage eye-catching images and video ads that extend the reach of job boards through the Jobiqo AIR product.

By leveraging Jobiqo AIR‘s potential, job boards can supercharge their marketing efforts with ease.

From clicks to influence – the new age of SEO

The traditional approach to SEO,simply driving web traffic through keyword optimisation, is being replaced by something bigger. As the group of job boards discussed, “SEO is becoming about influence, not just traffic.”
Search algorithms are still gatekeepers, but with the advent of AI and large language models, the goal is shifting. Now, being the authoritative, trusted source that informs AI-generated content is just as valuable as ranking on the first page of Google. SEO strategies now prioritise creating content that is both human and AI-readable, structured for clarity, and considering search crawlers.

Sometimes the “win” isn’t just a click, but the silent influence the brand or content exerts behind the scenes.

Three main challenges in recruitment advertising: the economy, the speed of change, and the AI effect

At Job Boards Connect, conversations continued around the industry’s challenges:

• The broader economic climate,
• The relentless disruption of AI,
• The accelerated pace of change.

Many attendees, from large companies and established brands to small niche job boards, agreed that it’s a struggle simply to keep up with these challenges.

AI’s influence is undeniable. While some attendees considered AI to be a risk, some shared practical deployments, mentioning that they are including AI for tasks like:

• Drafting sales or customer success communications,

• Generating internal documentation or knowledge base articles,

• Streamlining client communication,

• Building and analysing sales statistics,

• Candidate matching and scoring.

The consensus? In every instance, the real impact comes when AI works with people, not instead of them. Attendees highlighted that combining human judgement with AI’s speed offers the greatest productivity gains, especially for cost-efficient content creation and improving personalisation at scale.

As the industry evolves rapidly, with the economic situation still fragile, the competition in the market increases significantly. Many job boards recognise that developing technology solutions from the ground up is both challenging and inefficient in terms of cost and resources.

For small and medium-sized teams, balancing brand growth, sales activities, and the demands of technological innovation can be overwhelming.

By partnering with dedicated technology providers like Jobiqo, job boards can refocus their internal resources to core business functions while entrusting the complexities of technical development and innovation to experts in the field, like Jobiqo.

This focused approach allows job boards to stay competitive and agile without overextending their resources.

The classic question: Are job boards dead?

It wouldn’t be a job board conference without someone asking the tired and blunt question: “Are job boards dead?” The answer, delivered repeatedly and with conviction, was a clear “No.” However, there’s no denying the industry is changing rapidly.

Attendees discussed a clear trend toward market consolidation. Larger platforms are getting bigger, sometimes by acquisition, sometimes by out-innovating the competition, while many smaller boards are niching down or pivoting to survive.
What will separate the survivors from those who get left behind? A deep understanding of their specific audience and a smart, sustainable approach to monetising data.

A common frustration: job boards that fail to develop strategies for effectively monetising their hard-earned candidate data are left constantly chasing new user acquisition at notable cost.

The smarter boards are now focused on lifetime value, building ongoing relationships with job seekers and employers alike, rather than always starting fresh.

AI agents: A problem on the horizon?

The AI is a controversial subject. One of the day’s more spirited debates revolved around the emergence of AI agents applying for jobs. Some attendees see it as a rare phenomenon (at least for now) while others argue it’s already a problem that’s quietly growing.
As AI tools become more sophisticated, job boards will need to evolve their verification processes, application screening tools, and bot detection measures to ensure the integrity of applications, especially as the stakes rise for both employers and candidates. This is currently not a priority, as fake applications are still being ignored as of now.

Business model innovation: No silver bullet, but many opportunities

Attendees discussed various business models, but they agreed on one thing: There’s no single way forward.

Various groups discussed evolving revenue streams and business models. Among the options actively being tested or deployed are:

• Google ads display,

• Flat rate subscription products,

• Employer branding subscriptions,

• Complex job posting products,

• Performance-based offerings

Each model comes with its own set of advantages and challenges. Flat-rate subscriptions keep budgeting simple for employers, while employer branding subscriptions ensure ongoing visibility.

But let’s face it – performance-based and complex posting models can demand advanced tracking, extra transparency, and a bit more patience from employers learning the ropes. Testing out all these options is no small feat; it takes serious time and resources.

That’s why Jobiqo offers one platform that lets job boards easily experiment with and implement a wide array of business models without a hassle.

Continuous experimentation: startups within

A particularly interesting subject came from those running internal “startups” within their established businesses. These dedicated teams function like independent labs, having their funding, rapid feedback cycles, and clear objectives. The goal is not just to innovate for innovation’s sake, but to regularly validate (or invalidate) hypotheses, so that only proven concepts earn full-scale rollout.

One attendee summed up the approach: “These teams validate hypotheses fast and then they decide what to build and what not to build, depending on what they learn during these experiments.”

The result is a company culture more ready for fast technological change, and far less likely to throw significant spend behind projects that the market doesn’t need or wants.

Surviving and thriving in a world of change

With so much change happening, the attendees at the conference repeatedly came back to the need for discipline, focus, and true understanding of one’s unique place in the market. Success won’t come from chasing hype, but from smart, targeted use of AI to enhance the candidate experience and drive value.

Attendees gravitated to this idea of doing fewer things better, of building strong reputations for reliability, of staying tuned to the changing needs of both candidates and employers.

If job boards know their audience, play to their strengths, and show up for their job seekers and customers every day, then they will have a place in the future job board universe.

Looking forward: People at the heart of tech.

Ultimately, Job Boards Connect Unplugged 2025 was about more than the rapid pace of technological development. It crystallised two points: first, that AI and data will be levers for only those who use them thoughtfully, with a clear, values-driven sense of purpose.

Second, no clever algorithm can ever replace the need for compassion, transparency, and user-centricity.

The leaders who prevail in this new era will do so by embracing the “Safety Car” reset, focusing on brand, actionable data, networks, and most crucially, on the job seekers and employers who rely on their platforms every day.

Job Boards Connect Unplugged 2025 was frank, practical, and it was united by a shared belief that the future belongs to those who adapt.

As we move forward, job boards that balance experimentation with empathy and data with trust will remain at the very centre of how people connect with opportunity.

Insights from Jobiqo Pulse with Simon Borum, Dajana Doskoc & Barbara Steinkeller

In the May 2025 edition of Jobiqo Pulse, SEO and content experts from Jobiqo and Studio ADDDD joined forces to present a comprehensive guide for job board operators looking to sustainably grow their organic traffic. Hosted by Barbara Steinkeller (COO, Jobiqo), presented by Simon Borum (Customer Success Analyst, Jobiqo) and Dajana Doskoc (CEO, Studio ADDDD), the session focused on two key areas: building a solid SEO foundation and crafting content that drives traffic and engagement.

🔍 Part 1: SEO Strategy, Monitoring & Goal Setting

This section focused on demystifying how Google views and ranks job boards, and how operators can optimize for visibility.

Why should you invest in Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Organic traffic drives ~20% of traffic across Jobiqo-powered sites. But with increasing competition and evolving algorithms, it’s not enough to “just be indexed.” The focus must shift to relevance, usefulness, and trustworthiness for your users to be found.

How Google works (and how to influence it)

Google crawls, indexes and ranks pages of your website. You can influence and optimize each of these three stages to a certain extent:

1. Crawling: Ensure fast, structured, and accessible content (via sitemaps, indexing API, internal linking).
   
2. Indexing: Improve with unique, high-quality content and readable, structured formats.
   
3. Ranking: Influence via EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), Google4Jobs schema,  link-building, and job posting structure.
   

Sharpening your SEO strategy

Search engine optimization and content creation often seems to be complex and high effort. We recommend breaking it down in segments and defining actionable goals and metrics to track your progress.

1. Segment your site in meaningful ways (e.g. job search pages vs. blog vs. job postings).
   
2. Create specific SEO goals for each segment.
   
3. Use Google Search Console and Looker Studio to track impressions, clicks, CTR, and average position.
   
4. Focus on performance by content type and keyword dimension (short-tail vs. long-tail, branded vs. non-branded).

We shared some examples during the webinar for testing hypotheses in clearly defined segments:

• Increase long-tail keyword traffic to blog pages by 30%.
  
• Grow the share of traffic from job search pages to 25%.
  
• Improve job posting quality by setting content minimums and tracking impression/click ratios.

✍️ Part 2: Content Creation, Optimization & User Relevance

In the second half, Dajana Doskoc explored how content creation remains essential—even (and especially) in the era of AI-enhanced search. The key: start with user needs and search intent.

Why SEO & content go hand in hand

Good content isn’t just about keywords—it’s about matching user expectations, answering real questions, and providing value. Job boards must think of themselves not only as listing platforms but as content platforms for discovery.

Understand your dual audience

As a job board, you are speaking to two audiences: job seekers and employers. Both have their own needs and goals when using your platform:

• Job Seekers: Want clarity, confidence, and actionable help (e.g. CV tips, interview guides, salary info).
  
• Employers: Seek visibility and employer branding (e.g. company profiles, hiring insights).

Building your content ecosystem

You can cater to the needs of both audiences – just remind yourself why and how your content is relevant for their day-to-day work and life. Some formats and ideas are listed below:

• Blog articles: Seasonal + evergreen articles, industry trends, interviews.
  
• Landing pages: Optimized by job title + location, employment type, and company.
  
• Guides & tools: CV templates, salary calculators, downloadable assets.
  
• Content structure matters: Use scannable formats, keyword-rich headings, clear calls to action, internal crosslinks, and EEAT compliance.
  

Keyword strategy

For higher visibility, combine short-tail (broad) and long-tail (specific) keywords. Use tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, and GSC for keyword and competitor analysis, and balance search volume with intent. Think beyond listings—what else are job seekers and employers searching for?

Takeaways

High-quality, user-centered content is critical to building long-term visibility. SEO success is cumulative—it requires strategic planning, ongoing refinement, and a commitment to consistency.

 

➡️ Save our best practice examples and boost your SEO and content on your job board:

The recruitment advertising industry is changing at a rapid pace. Maybe at the most accelerated pace in decades. At RecBuzz Vienna 2025, leading experts revealed their insights on how AI, Automation and candidates’ expectations are creating new opportunities.

This comprehensive report highlights the most important trends, challenges, and opportunities emerging in the recruiting advertising industry, as they were presented at Recbuzz.

We are experiencing a rapid change in this industry, which is more accelerated than ever before. Various technological advancements and changes in human behaviour and interaction with technology are contributing to these changes. What was once a relationship-driven process, dominated by intuition and understanding of human behaviour, is now being transformed by big data, algorithms, AI, and predictive analytics.

At Recbuzz 2025, several key trends became apparent:

• AI disruption is here. While it is still not perfect and implementation challenges remain, Artificial Intelligence seems more than just a fading hype.
• Job boards face significant challenges. The time to adapt, innovate, and strategise is now, not next month, not next year or in the future, but now.
• Candidate experience is evolving. With more and more people focusing on social media, consumption switched from text-based content to video content, and the candidates’ expectations are also different.
• Data is the new currency in this industry as well. Collecting and understanding data before and after the application provides complete and deeper insights.
• Monetisation models are shifting. With the amount of data available, powerful new algorithms, and innovative tech, performance-based business models are gaining traction.

Now let’s explore all these areas in depth.

The AI disruption is Recrutiment

Alexander Chukovski’s presentation revealed a paradox: while 92% of companies plan to increase spending in generative AI for recruitment (McKinsey 2025), only 1% of them report achieving mature, measurable ROI from these implementations.

This is mainly caused by various challenges that these companies face with Artificial Intelligence. The first is AI hallucinations and biases. When governmental agencies’ (eg, Austria’s public employment agency) expensive solutions show gender and racial biases in the job recommendations, people react. Poor candidate experience, while optimising the recruitment process is a valid business case for AI, we’ve seen that various interview tools frequently freeze, misunderstand responses, or ask irrelevant questions. Technical limitations, Many companies are stuck in pilot phases, unable to scale AI solutions effectively. 

Despite these challenges, companies in the industry show promising results:

Indeed’s AI matching engine, uses a large number of job attributes for precision matching whilst achieving a high application rate through personalised outreach this results in more data leads to better matches, which attracts more users.

Automated job description tools, generate compliant, unbiased job postings in minutes, including salary predictions and benefit recommendations, reducing the time-to-post from hours to minutes

Alexander Chukovski outlined a five-stage maturity model for AI-powered matching:

1. Basic search – based on keywords and full text search
2. Taxonomies- based on business rules, metadata extraction, synonyms, and taxonomies
3. Query intent understanding – semantic query parsing, semantic knowledge graph, clustering, embeddings
4. User activity-based tuning – signal boosting, active learning, A/B tests
5. Fully automated matching – all previous steps happen without a human overseeing them

Alexander recommended that, going forward, job board owners should:

• Invest in domain-specific taxonomies
• Prioritise candidate feedback loops
• Maintain human oversight to catch biases

The changing role of job boards

By analysing financial indicators, Malcolm Myers identified a captivating story, summarised in a few points:

• Job boards capture just 10% of the recruitment market, estimated to be at $450 billion 
• LinkedIn continues its domination when it comes to passive candidate engagement
• AI-powered products enable direct employer-candidate matching

Through his presentation and also afterwards in various discussions, various job board strategies were debated. Some of these strategies include:

• Vertical specialisation – While generalist job boards are struggling against large players like Indeed and LinkedIn, niche platforms can thrive

• Value-added services – Job boards have the flexibility to explore various other services like employer branding, recruitment marketing, and event hosting. 

• Technology partnerships – job boards should consider the integration with ATS providers and adopt AI matching technologies.

Job boards should also reconsider their monetisation models. Peter Hoogendijk presented three models that job boards can get inspiration from.

• Pay per Performance – including pay per application and pay per click
• Subscription-based access –  for CV databases and employer branding
• Hybrid models – including a base fee plus performance bonus, or tiered visibility packages.

The candidate experience evolution

Jubin Honarfar’s Whatchado demonstrated how recruitment is experiencing a shift towards video content, similar to social media. According to Jubin:

• 82% of recruiters say that content creation is their biggest challenge
• Mobile users spend 110 minutes daily on social platforms
• Video job posts achieve 3-5 times higher engagement than text-based posts

Whatchado takes a different approach, using AI to extract key details from the job descriptions. Then these are automatically transformed into TikTok-style reels and distributed across social media channels with tracking.

A new landscape in the recruiting industry

Chris Forman introduced a few interesting concepts like the “Bang,” which is the Apply event. The “Left of the Bang” includes all the data and processes before the apply event, and the “Right of the Bang” includes data and processes after the apply event occurred. 

According to Chris, a large investment goes to the left of the bang, while the value lies on the right of the bang, where disposition data is.

What the future brings

While listening to various experts in the field, a few possible future trends appear.

According to some, by 2026, we should expect to see AI as colleagues. Artificial intelligence agents should be able to handle the initial screening of candidates, automated bots should be able to schedule meetings, and predictive analytics could be used for retention.

While automation and AI handle the transactional tasks, recruiters will shift focus on improving the employee experience, work on strategic planning, and employer branding.

Conclusion: Navigating the transformation in the recruiting industry

The recruitment industry is transforming. Companies that successfully implement AI thoughtfully, reimagine candidate engagement, monetise through value-added services, and leverage data will thrive. In contrast, those who cling to outdated models risk becoming obsolete.

The accelerated transformation of the recruitment industry might feel overwhelming – new technologies, shifting business models, and evolving candidate expectations can make the future look uncertain. 

But for job board owners, this is not the time for hesitation. It is an opportunity to adapt and thrive.

The key to unlocking future opportunities lies in strategic partnerships. By collaborating with specialized tech providers like Jobiqo, job board owners can:

• Offload technical innovation to experts, freeing up internal resources

• Double down on their core strength – experimentation, content, relationship, and value-added services
• Stay competitive without bearing the full burden of research and development.

This approach creates a powerful synergy – cutting-edge technology meets deep industry expertise.  Modern platforms, data-driven insights, and smart monetisation strategies combine to future-proof businesses in disruptive times.

We are thrilled to announce that Jobiqo has once again been nominated as a finalist at the prestigious DJAx Awards by Job Boards Connect!

After winning “Best Supplier to the Job Boards Industry” last year, we are honoured to be shortlisted again in this category, as well as the “Technology Innovation Award.” This recognition reaffirms our commitment to pushing the boundaries of recruitment technology and delivering the best solutions for our clients and partners worldwide.

Adding to the excitement, we are proud to see one of our clients, University of Münster in Germany, also shortlisted this year for “Outstanding Scale-Up Achievement – Niche Job Board.” Their nomination highlights how we can help clients successfully enter and scale to deliver outstanding success within their niche with our cutting-edge technology and expertise to support this.

At Jobiqo, we take immense pride in our incredible team, whose hard work and passion continue to drive our success. Being acknowledged among industry leaders for our contributions is a true honour, and we are grateful to everyone who has supported us on this journey.

We look forward to celebrating with fellow finalists and industry peers at the awards ceremony in London. Best of luck to all nominees, and thank you to Job Boards Connect for this fantastic recognition!

Digital accessibility is becoming increasingly important due to both legal requirements and economic considerations. For job board operators, especially newspaper publishers, trade publishers, and niche job portals, an accessible design presents an opportunity to reach a broader audience and remain competitive in the long term. Applicants with disabilities particularly benefit from improved access to job postings, while operators gain from enhanced usability and better search engine rankings.

Legal Requirements: How UK Laws Impact Online Job Portals

In the UK, web accessibility is covered under the  Equality Act 2010, which legally protects individuals from discrimination. The Act applies to service providers, including job boards, requiring them to make “reasonable adjustments” so that individuals with disabilities are not disadvantaged. The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018 also require public sector websites, including government-backed job boards, to comply with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, Level AA.

While private-sector job boards are not explicitly included in these regulations, failure to ensure accessibility could result in legal complaints, reputational damage, and missed business opportunities.

Why Accessible Job Boards Make Sense Beyond Legal Compliance

Even if UK job boards are not legally required to meet full accessibility standards, following accessibility guidelines provides multiple benefits:

1. Expanded Reach: Around 14 million people in the UK live with some form of disability. Ensuring clear navigation, structured content, and easy readability enhances the user experience and increases conversion rates.

2. SEO Benefits: Accessible websites are often better structured, load faster, and are favoured by search engines.

3. Future-proofing: Employers and job seekers increasingly expect inclusive platforms. Addressing accessibility now ensures flexibility and readiness for potential regulatory changes.

Our Tips & Checklist: How Job Boards Can Prepare Early

Accessibility isn’t as complex as it might sound. Here are some easy-to-implement improvements:

✅ Visual Optimisation

• Use high-contrast colours for buttons, links, and text
• Choose easily readable fonts
• Utilise designated fields for headings, subtitles, and body text
• Provide alternative text for images

 

✅ Content Optimisation

• Ensure well-structured and readable content on landing pages and job postings
• Use simple and clear language
• Create clear call-to-actions (e.g., “Apply Now” instead of “Learn More”)
• Label forms and links explicitly

 

✅ Technical Optimisation – Jobiqo Takes Care of This

• Enable keyboard-friendly navigation
• Implement ARIA elements to make interactive content accessible for screen readers

 

✅ Strategic Advantages

• Highlight accessibility and inclusion topics on info pages for job seekers and employers
• Develop tailored products and services for job seekers with disabilities and inclusive employers
• Plan editorial content, for example, UK Disability History Month (November-December) or National Inclusion Week (September).

 

In the coming months, we’ll take a deeper dive into specific accessibility measures with practical examples. Stay tuned!

In our recent webinar, we presented our cutting-edge solution, Jobiqo AIR, a platform designed to transform how job boards and employers approach recruitment through programmatic job advertising. The discussion centred on how Jobiqo AIR can help job boards reach a wider talent pool, including those not actively seeking new roles, whilst increasing efficiency and margins. 

The Challenge of Modern Recruitment

The webinar highlights the challenges of today’s fragmented job market, where many job boards, social media platforms, and search engines seek the attention of a limited number of job seekers. With the rise of “Gen Z” as the largest demographic in the labour market, the need for dynamic, engaging content and targeted advertising is greater than ever. Traditional job boards are seeing declining usage among this generation, who tend to favour search engines like Google, career websites, and social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. This shift means employers and job boards must actively bring jobs to candidates, rather than relying on candidates to find them.

Thus, job boards are pivoting towards solutions that support them in reaching candidates across  various channels. This is where Jobiqo AIR, Jobiqo’s AI-powered platform comes in: the platform automates and optimises the entire job advertising process and takes job postings, analyses them, creates targeted ads, and distributes them across a variety of channels, especially social media channels to attract a younger audience.

Key features and benefits of Jobiqo AIR

• Reach candidates across all channels: Jobiqo AIR distributes job ads or groups of jobs across a plurality of channels, including social media platforms (such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Snapchat), aggregators, and retargeting channels like Google Ads. This allows for a wider reach of both active and passive job seekers. The system can manage budgets and optimise campaigns across these multiple channels – ensuring the media budget is spent smartly.

• AI-powered automated ad generation and variations: The AI engine generates multiple variations of the ads, including text, videos and images, to keep them fresh and engaging for each channel. This ensures that job seekers are not always seeing the same-looking ads. Additionally, clients can feature their brand in the creatives used for ads.

• Unified tracking system: Jobiqo AIR uses a unified tracking system that collects traffic data from various sources, allowing for performance comparison across different channels. The tracking system is GDPR compliant and can be implemented server-side. Jobiqo also provides data insights to clients via dashboards, showing CPC levels for specific locations and occupations.

• Cost-effectiveness and campaign types specific to each job board: Programmatic job advertising via Jobiqo AIR can increase margins and cost savings as it reduces manual work. The system allows for different budget options, including “always-on” campaigns that spread a monthly budget across multiple job postings and “job boost” campaigns that allocate a specific budget to a single job.

• Specifically built and optimised for job boards: The best part about Jobiqo AIR is that it excels and focuses on continuously delivering relevant performance for job boards.

Here is a compilation of the most popular questions including their answers around Jobiqo AIR:

How does Jobiqo AIR target specific positions, such as lifeguard, on social media while adhering to platforms like Facebook’s employment rules?

• Jobiqo AIR complies with Facebook’s employment advertising rules by marking all job ads as employment-related.

• It uses available interest groups and niche-specific Facebook pages and groups to narrow down the audience, although this does not fully overcome the broadness of the targeting

Is it necessary to use all available channels, such as Facebook and TikTok, or can one choose specific ones?

• Each job board chooses which channels and which campaign types are being used. Jobiqo works with each client to tailor a channel mix based on their goals, target audience, and job postings.

• Channel selection depends on whether the campaign type is always-on or a job boost and will also depend on the target audience

What is the most effective way to use Jobiqo AIR?

• Jobiqo AIR recommends using a combination of always-on campaigns to ensure consistent traffic and job boost campaigns for specific jobs: Always-on campaigns generally achieve low costs per application (CPA) whereas job boost campaigns focus on boosting the visibility of a specific job on social media platforms attracting passive job seekers

How long does it take to post a job using Jobiqo AIR on social media?

• After the initial setup, where Jobiqo and the client agree on the ad design and create a template, the process is fully automated later.

• The time from posting a job to going live on social media is typically one working day, although often much faster. 

Can certain jobs be excluded from Jobiqo AIR campaigns

• Yes, clients can select specific jobs to boost their campaigns

How is the integration of Jobiqo AIR handled specifically? Are there any implementations on client websites necessary? 

• Job postings can be provided via an XML feed, or Jobiqo AIR can use a scraping service. A tracking pixel may be integrated to collect CPC or CPA data.

• Jobiqo AIR does not capture application data as standard, so this remains on the client side

About Jobiqo

Jobiqo is the award-winning technology supplier powering over 350 job sites for media brands, publishers, associations, universities, recruiting agencies and non-profit organisations globally, with clients in 25 countries to build next-generation job boards and career marketplaces to engage talent. Jobiqo focuses on understanding the individual needs of a niche/vertical, market/region and business model, allowing our customers to thrive and differentiate their product offerings.

Like last year, Jobiqo has compiled a list of the most interesting conferences and events to attend for job board owners and business leaders in the recruitment space. As there are so many great conferences happening simultaneously this year, we have compiled the recommendation list by month of year.

Here is where you should be in 2025

March

• March 9 – 11 Borrell Phoenix 2025 – Local Advertising Conference in Phoenix, AZ, USA
• March 26 – 28 Zukunft Personal Nord in Hamburg, Germany

April

• April 7 German DACH Day Infotag Jobportale by AIM Group in Vienna, Austria
• April 8 – 9 RecBuzz 2025 in Vienna, Austria sponsored by Jobiqo – get 200€ off your tickets with the code Jobiqo200

May

• May 6 -7 Zukunft Personal Süd in Stuttgart, Germany
• May 15 Job Boards Connect Unplugged and DJAx Awards in London, UK sponsored by Jobiqo – get 10% off your ticket price with Jobiqo10

June

• June 2 – 3 #beBeta by BDZV in Berlin, Germany
• June 3 – 5 TAtech North America & The World Job Board Forum 2025 in San Diego, California, USA 
• June 4 – 5 TALENTpro in Munich, Germany

Summer break

September 

• September 9 – 11 ZP Europe in Cologne, Germany
• September 10 – 13 Online News Association 2025 in New Orleans, LA, USA

October

• October 16 Job Boards Connect Annual Conference in London, UK sponsored by Jobiqo – get 15% off your ticket price with Jobiqo15

November 

• November 11 – 12 TAtech Europe 2025 in London, UK 

Have you decided already which events you are going to attend? Let’s chat and meet up in person! 

Our highlight of 2025 will be the Recbuzz as it’s hosted in Vienna this year, where our headquarters are. See you there!

To get some impressions of the conferences above, you can browse through the gallery:

Photos are courtesy of AIM Group (RecBuzz), Job Boards Connect or individual contributors (Jobiqo team)

Enhancing the Career Exploration Experience for both Job Board Software Clients and TheJobNetwork™ affiliates

Jobiqo has upgraded existing and new partners of TheJobNetwork™ including the New York Times Jobs Section, Newsday Jobs, MiamiJobs.com and the MediaJobCenter.com by TVNewsCheck in the US this year to Jobiqo’s award-winning job board platform including programmatic ad distribution system by Veritone Hire and Jobiqo AIR.

December 16, 2024, New York, NY / Vienna, Austria – Jobiqo, a global leader in job board technology and programmatic job advertising, has added major partnerships with new clients this year, including The New York Times Jobs Section, Newsday Jobs, MiamiJobs.com, and MediaJobCenter.com, to provide advanced job board platforms and upgrade both the recruitment advertising and the candidate experience. This enhanced platform, which is the technical foundation of TheJobNetwork™,  integrates Jobiqo’s innovative programmatic ad distribution system, social media automation and smart matching technology, setting a new standard for job seekers and employers accessing Jobiqo-powered job board sites.

Jobiqo strengthens media brands’ abilities to grow recruitment advertising revenue with advanced functionality and improves employer access to qualified candidates across all channels, including social media. Powered by Jobiqo AIR and Total Talent Reach, we maximize job posting visibility through optimized ad distribution to active and passive candidates, while continuously monitoring performance to drive better response rates.

“These new partnerships mark an important milestone for Jobiqo, confirming our global technology leadership in enabling media brands to grow recruitment advertising revenue streams,” said Martin Lenz, CEO of Jobiqo. “The adoption of Jobiqo’s platform by prominent media companies in the US for their recruitment advertising underscores a mutual commitment to transforming user experience with the best job board technology. This collaboration represents an extraordinary success and validation of Jobiqo’s capabilities to enhance recruitment strategies at the highest level.”

Jobiqo provides a streamlined experience for both job seekers and employers. As employers navigate today’s hiring challenges, our media partners and Jobiqo are setting a benchmark in recruitment technology, bringing TheJobNetwork™ closer to employers and job seekers alike through an intuitive and data-driven platform that leverages programmatic ad distribution and social media to expand reach and engagement.

2024 was a year of growth for Jobiqo with the expansion of its US presence in the Boston area, appointing George Dratelis as director of partnerships in April and relaunching TheJobNetwork™ which is now powered by Jobiqo. Awards received this year include the Digital Job Advertising Excellence Awards (DJAx Awards) for Best Supplier to the Job Board Industry and the ONREC Award for The Innovative Use of Social Media in the Recruitment Process Award.

Originally published by PR Newswire

ABOUT Jobiqo

Jobiqo is a global leader in job board software and programmatic job advertising. With over a decade of experience, Jobiqo empowers media brands and publishers to monetize their audiences and connect talent with opportunity. The platform offers advanced SEO, AI-enabled search and matching, and programmatic ad distribution, creating seamless recruitment experiences. Jobiqo’s newest technology Jobiqo AIR (Automated Intelligent Reach) is now adding market-leading social media automation, enabling job boards to effectively reach both active and passive candidates across channels where they are most engaged. These capabilities ensure job postings achieve maximum visibility and attract qualified candidates. Additionally, Jobiqo’s platform includes e-commerce capabilities and flexible inventory management, allowing media brands to better monetize their audiences.

Jobiqo further powers the job boards of TheJobNetwork™, a growing network of regional or industry-focused job boards, allowing for maximum reach by smart ad distribution.

The New York Times Jobs Section

Miamijobs.com

MediaJobCenter.com

 

#6 The Rise of AI in Job Boards

AI’s integration into job boards has rapidly transformed the recruitment industry. Alexander Chukovski’s presentation highlighted the growing applications of Generative AI, which significantly lowers adoption barriers by automating processes like job description generation, CV parsing, and candidate screening. This reduces the need for extensive datasets and infrastructure, enabling even smaller job boards to leverage AI for efficiency.

The importance of extraction tasks such as retrieving salary data from job descriptions using generative AI models, and improving click-through rates and organic traffic. The takeaway here – adopting AI for data extraction and enriching metadata can enhance job visibility and user engagement, particularly in search results.

Alexander Chukovski’s blog is an excellent resource for the job board industry.

#5 Niche Job Board Growth Strategies

Ling Wu from Jobiqo hosted an all-female panel session with three job board founders. This discussion focused on strategies to grow within their niche. They delved into how niche sites must compete for talent and an overreliance on organic traffic is not enough. Diversifying your talent acquisition strategies and using programmatic tools to engage with relevant passive candidates is of utmost importance. They spoke about how important it is to use the right technology and partners to support their efforts in growing their job board, for example, Jobiqo AIR helps to automate the creation, distribution and bidding of ads across a plurality of channels. This has been a game changer helping them to drive performance and reach, growing their candidate pool without additional resources needed.

Using the tools that are readily available on the market should not be overlooked. Technology is solving traditional problems that we face in talent acquisition, especially for niche sites helping niche sites to compete and do more with less.

Learn more about Jobiqo AIR here.

#4 Emerging Trends and Challenges

Rob Brouwer (Jobrapido) outlined key trends such as the rise of programmatic recruitment, the gig economy, and the impact of Generative AI on long-term staffing​. The need for job boards to evolve in response to these changes, particularly with the transition from Cost Per Click (CPC) to Cost Per Qualified Application (CPQA) has been discussed​. Employers increasingly value the relevance and quality of candidates over sheer numbers, creating an opportunity for job boards to differentiate themselves through more advanced filtering and screening technologies.

Ongoing consolidation in the industry is expected, with major players like LinkedIn and Indeed capturing a significant portion of the market​. Job boards outside the top tier will need to innovate and offer genuine value to stay competitive in an increasingly crowded space.

#3 Data Analytics for Performance Optimization

Barny Ritchley (CV Library) underscored the power of data analytics in enhancing performance for both recruiters and job seekers. AI has revolutionised the ability to analyse vast amounts of data to derive deeper insights, allowing job boards to identify pain points and improve matching accuracy​.

Quality over quantity should be the focus of job boards. Rather than overwhelming recruiters with thousands of irrelevant applications, analytics can help refine candidate search criteria to deliver better matches​. Job boards can adopt AI-driven tools to assist recruiters in targeting qualified candidates more effectively, reducing the risk of losing high-potential hires due to overwhelming volumes of unsuitable applications.

#2 Generative AI and Its Impact on HR & Recruitment

James Neave (Adzuna) discussed how generative AI is reshaping HR practices and job boards by automating job applications, video-based interviews, and job description creation​. The rise of automated job applications has shifted the focus from quantity to quality, making it essential for job boards to filter and rank candidates based on relevance and suitability, rather than just driving traffic​.

Adzuna’s use of AI tools, such as ValueMyCV and Prepper, exemplifies how AI can personalise the candidate experience by providing salary estimates, job preparation insights, and enhanced job matching. Job boards that adopt similar AI tools can enhance their service offerings by providing more personalised job searches and automated candidate screening.

#1 Enhancing User Experience (UX)

Jennifer Johansson (Placed) underlines how job boards must prioritise user experience (UX) to meet the expectations of modern candidates, particularly Gen Z and Millennials, who now constitute the majority of the global workforce.​ These users prefer personalised, mobile-optimized job search experiences and are more likely to engage with visual content.

The dual-sided nature of job boards, catering to both employers and job seekers, means optimising the experience for both is critical. Jennifer stressed the importance of quality data and ensuring candidates can quickly and easily apply to roles​. For job boards, focusing on tailored, efficient application processes is key to retaining users and boosting conversion rates.

Conclusion: What This Means for Job Boards

AI and data are the future of job boards. From optimising user experience to improving candidate matching and recruitment efficiency, job boards must embrace these technologies to stay relevant and competitive.

Key action points for job boards:

• Invest in AI for automation, candidate engagement, and metadata enrichment.
• Use quality programmatic tools for talent acquisition that are readily available like Jobiqo AIR
• Prioritise quality over quantity by using data analytics to deliver more relevant matches.
• Enhance the user experience with mobile-optimised, personalised job search journeys (If you are not mobile-first google will not even index you)
• Stay informed on emerging trends, such as the shift from CPC to CPQA and the rise of programmatic recruitment.

About Job Boards Connect: a dedicated event series for the Job Board industry – hosted bi-annually in the beautiful city of London. The event brings industry experts and technology leaders together to collaborate, discuss trends, learn and discover innovation in this space.

Unique collaboration addresses the growing demand for modern recruitment technology from professional accredited bodies.

 

Redefining recruitment solutions for the UK’s 8,000 membership organisations and associations, Jobiqo, a global leader in job board technology and Think Publishing, the UK’s market-leading content membership engagement services announce a new strategic partnership. This new venture, Think Recruitment Solutions powered by Jobiqo, combines award-winning AI-enabled job board technology with leading content membership engagement services.

For many UK membership organisations, limitations in size and access to leading technology have been significant barriers to engaging memberships effectively. This partnership directly addresses these challenges by offering tailored recruitment solutions that enhance the candidate experience fostering more meaningful interactions between accredited members and prospective employers powered by state-of-the-art technology.

“Job boards can be a core service that adds immense value to the professional members while driving significant revenue – when done right and not simply treated as an afterthought. The first crucial step must be a quality platform. Jobiqo’s leading job board software made this a natural fit, enhancing the experience, and offering more personalised content to professional members.” Martin Lenz – CEO at Jobiqo

“This is a perfect union for recruitment technology in the UK. Combining Jobiqo’s excellent job board platform and Think Publishing’s proven track record of turning communications challenges into commercial solutions, will only enhance candidate engagement whilst continuing to grow its revenue.” John Innes – Executive Director at Think Publishing

Jobiqo and Think Publishing are united in their mission to unlock the full potential of recruitment technology. The two companies aim to ensure that the accelerating demand for modern recruitment technology amongst membership organisations is met.

 

About Jobiqo

Launched in 2011, Jobiqo enables media brands and publishers worldwide to build next-generation job boards and career marketplaces to engage talent. Now serves 300+ job boards globally and is responsible for 20 million applications. Jobiqo’s complementary programmatic job advertising platform allows job boards and career marketplaces to engage with their audience through various channels.

About Think Publishing

As the UK’s leading membership content agency, Think drives membership organisations to deliver content programmes that start conversations and build engaged, invested communities. As part of this, Think Recruitment Solutions empowers organisations to develop their recruitment solutions matching membership organisations’ goals and audiences. Think ensures job boards offer maximum value to members, meaningful engagement for employers, and optimal revenue.