Where Our Data Comes From — And How We Know The People Are Real
Every targeting decision in programmatic recruitment rests on a chain of data: your roles, the audiences modeled from them, the inventory that carries the ads, and the applicants who come back. This is how that chain works at TalentXi, and where it is verified.
Where does TalentXi get its data, and how do you know the people are real?
TalentXi starts from data you already have — your employer data or a standard XML job feed — and builds behavioral segments and lookalike audiences from real candidate and employee-performance signals. Campaigns run on verified audience inventory through enterprise DSPs rather than anonymous job board traffic, invalid traffic is filtered before the bid, and every application traces back to the campaign and audience that produced it. Outcomes, including hires, feed back in to sharpen targeting. That is the chain: your data in, verified people out.
The Data We Start From Is Yours
The input to every campaign is the work you already have: roles, locations, requirements and outcomes from your existing employer data or a standard XML job feed. Nothing is scraped from job boards or rebuilt from stale listings, and there is no integration project standing between you and a first campaign.
How Audiences Are Built From It
Your job data defines who the role needs. On top of it, the platform builds behavioral segments and lookalike audiences modeled from real candidate and employee-performance signals — the traits of people who applied, were qualified, were hired and stayed.
- Segments are modeled from real candidate and employee-performance signals, not demographic guesswork
- Lookalike audiences extend what worked on a role to the next one
- Outcomes — including hires and retention — feed back in and refine targeting continuously
- The audience improves with every campaign instead of aging like a purchased list
Where The Inventory Comes From
Audiences are reached through verified audience inventory bought in real-time auctions through enterprise DSPs — display, audio, connected TV, digital out-of-home and in-game. This is the opposite of anonymous job board traffic, where the seller aggregates whoever shows up and cannot tell you who they are. In programmatic buying, publishers stand behind the audiences they sell, and the platform chooses impression by impression whether that audience is worth reaching for the role.
How We Know The People Are Real
Verification is layered across the whole chain, not bolted on at the end.
- Pre-bid invalid traffic filtering: fraud signals are checked inside the auction, before the bid, so fraudulent impressions are never purchased
- No crawlable job posting URL: bots, scraper farms and mass-apply tools cannot find the roles to target them
- Post-click validation: applications are checked after they arrive, not just billed and forgotten
- Full traceability: every application traces back to the specific campaign and audience that produced it, so a bad source is visible and can be cut off
What The Outcome Loop Adds
Verification is not only about rejecting the fake — it is about proving the real. When outcomes flow back from the hire to the media that produced it, targeting is optimized toward confirmed hires, ramp and retention rather than raw application counts. A channel that produces cheap-but-unqualified applicants gets defunded by the system itself, which is a stronger fraud control than any post-hoc filter.
Questions To Ask Any Vendor About Their Data
Use these to pressure-test any platform's data story, including ours.
- Where does the targeting data physically originate — my systems, or lists you bought?
- Is inventory verified audience inventory, or aggregated open traffic?
- Is invalid traffic filtered before the bid or credited after the invoice?
- Can you trace every application back to the campaign and audience that produced it?
- Does the audience improve from hire-level outcomes, or only from clicks and applies?
Each Data Layer, And Where It Is Verified
| Data layer | What it contains | How it is verified |
|---|---|---|
| Job data | Your roles, locations and requirements | Parsed from your own employer data or XML feed — never scraped or stale |
| Audience data | Behavioral segments and lookalikes from candidate and employee-performance signals | Refined continuously by outcomes, including hires and retention |
| Inventory | Open-web impressions via enterprise DSPs: display, audio, CTV, DOOH, in-game | Verified audience inventory; invalid traffic filtered before the bid |
| Applicants | The people who actually apply | Post-click validation, with every application traced to its campaign and audience |
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does TalentXi get its data?
It starts with yours. Roles, locations and requirements enter the system from your existing employer data or a standard XML job feed, so there is no integration project. From there, the platform builds behavioral segments and lookalike audiences modeled on real candidate and employee-performance signals.
How do you know the people you reach are real?
Three layers. Campaigns buy verified audience inventory through enterprise DSPs, where publishers stand behind their audiences, instead of anonymous open traffic. Invalid traffic is filtered before the bid, so fraudulent impressions are never purchased in the first place. And every application traces back to the campaign and audience that produced it, so nothing arrives unattributed.
Do you buy audience data from third-party lists?
Audiences are not stale purchased lists. Segments and lookalikes are built from real candidate and employee-performance signals, then continuously refined as outcomes — including hires and retention — feed back into targeting. The audience quality comes from the outcome loop, not from a one-time data purchase.
What is pre-bid invalid traffic filtering?
It is a filter applied inside the auction, before money changes hands. Each available impression is evaluated for fraud signals before the platform decides whether to bid. Compared with disputing charges after the invoice, pre-bid filtering stops the spend from happening at all.
Why doesn't TalentXi post crawlable job listings?
Publicly crawlable job postings are how bots, scraper farms and mass-apply tools find targets. TalentXi campaigns deliver creative through programmatic channels instead of searchable listings, which removes the easiest way for fake applicants to find the role in the first place.
What happens if a fake application gets through anyway?
Post-click validation checks applications after they arrive, and publisher-level reporting shows exactly which source produced them. Because every application traces back to its campaign and audience, a bad source is identified and cut off rather than silently funded.