Candidate Retargeting
The candidates who nearly applied are cheaper to win back than new ones are to find.
What is candidate retargeting?
Candidate retargeting is advertising to people who already interacted with your hiring content — visited a career site, viewed a role, or started an application without finishing it. Application abandonment is high in most hiring funnels, so re-reaching that audience is usually the cheapest incremental source of qualified applicants available. Effective retargeting caps frequency, excludes people who already applied or were hired, and is measured on completed applications and starts rather than on impressions served.
Audiences Worth Re-Reaching
Segment the warm audience rather than treating it as one pool — the right message differs sharply by how far the person got.
- Started an application and abandoned mid-flow
- Viewed a specific role page but never began an application
- Visited the career site without reaching a role
- Applied previously for a similar role and was not hired
- Silver-medallist candidates from a closed requisition
Rules That Keep It Efficient
Cap frequency so the same person is not pursued relentlessly, suppress completed applicants and current employees, set a sensible recency window, and vary creative by segment. Retargeting fails when it becomes repetition rather than a reminder.
How It Runs On TalentXi
Retargeting audiences are bought through the same real-time auctions as prospecting, across display, video, CTV, audio, native, DOOH and in-game inventory, with invalid traffic filtered before the bid and reporting visible at publisher and placement level.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is candidate retargeting?
It is serving job advertising to people who have already shown interest in your roles — career site visitors, role page viewers and abandoned applicants — so they return and complete the application.
Does job ad retargeting work?
It is generally the highest-converting recruitment audience available, because intent has already been demonstrated. The gains come from completing applications that were already started rather than from finding new candidates.
Who should be excluded from retargeting?
Anyone who has already completed the application, current employees, and recent hires. Failing to exclude them wastes budget and damages candidate experience through repeated exposure.
How is retargeting measured properly?
On completed applications, qualified applicants and starts attributable to the retargeted audience — not on impressions or clicks, which are trivially easy to accumulate against a warm audience.
Does retargeting work for high-volume hourly roles?
Yes, and often best there, because abandonment on mobile application flows is highest in high-volume hiring. Short, location-specific creative reminding the candidate of shift and pay tends to recover the most applications.