If you run a dealership group, you already know technicians are the hardest hire on the lot. We wanted to know exactly how hard, and what actually helps, so we looked back at twelve months of Indeed results for one regional dealership group we work with: 429 campaigns and more than 37,000 applications across technician, service advisor, sales and support roles.
Here’s what stood out, and how it changed the way we plan.
Technicians need a customized plan for each skill level
Entry level technician postings, like lube and quick service roles, brought in applications for about $4 – $8 each, and general service technicians for about $6 – $10. Experienced or brand certified technicians cost about $26 – $40 per application with standard sponsorship and $84 – $100 with premium placement.
Because the gap is that wide, we run certified technician openings as their own priority campaigns with their own budget.
Look at the posting before adding money
For one dealership, a certification listed as required turned out to be only preferred. Reposting the role with the certification the shop truly needed cut its cost per application by more than 75 percent.
Premium placement is a short term tool
Within the same role, premium placement cost more per application, ranging from about 50 percent more for service advisors to more than three times as much for certified technicians. It also spent about twice as fast. However, quality of candidate is what we were asked to measure to and quality applications increased significantly.
Rural stores need a longer runway
Experienced technician postings ran about $12 to $16 per application at metro stores and about $62 at rural ones. Posting some rural jobs into the nearest metro brought that down to about $39. For isolated stores we now plan longer timelines from the start, and we pair the ads with direct outreach to candidates via sourcing platforms and relocation campaigns as the opening extends.
Frontline costs follow the seasons
Parts and lot roles cost about $2 – $5 per application early in the year and more than doubled by late summer when competitors increased for these lower wage roles.
About these numbers
They come from a single regional dealership group’s Indeed campaigns during a year when Indeed itself changed pricing and placement processes by reducing organic visibility. Previously roles that we would have received significant organic traffic for (over 50%) are now down into the single digits as a percent of candidat traffic. We use them as starting points for planning and every new client’s plan is built from their own history.
Related reading: how we approach dealership hiring and hyper targeted job advertising.