Koch Trucking is an industry-leading full-service transportation and distribution company that has gained a reputation for being a company customers can count on since the 1950s. A unique aspect of the trucking industry is that the number of drivers dictates how many customers can be served, so Koch requires a constant stream of safe, professional drivers to maintain a strong business. This makes recruiting an essential element of Koch’s growth and one that their marketing team is highly focused on.
From the beginning of his time with Koch, Nick Kreyer (Director of Marketing) sought to strike the right balance with Koch’s budget, branding, and advertising in order to drive more applications for truck driver positions. His biggest challenge prior to working with Appcast was that the leading job boards were not delivering the steady stream of candidates Koch required, or getting open driver positions in front of candidates searching for jobs on smaller or niche sites. “There’s really no silver bullet in advertising and certainly not for drivers – they’re looking for jobs all over the place. We needed to figure out a new plan that would streamline our job advertising and increase our visibility across markets”, Nick stated.
Optimization of publisher mix allows Koch to cast a wide net while keeping cost-per-hire low
Right off the bat, advertising driver positions via Appcast’s programmatic job ad exchange helped Koch to get in front of thousands more candidates, faster, and diversify their reach significantly. With Appcast’s network of 30k+ job sites, Koch could be confident that they were unlocking new candidates and increasing brand exposure exponentially. “In this industry you need to cast a very large net, and Appcast allows me to do that. It gets our brand out there and it gets our jobs out there.”
Next, Koch’s Appcast Premium team paid close attention to their performance and regularly made campaign modifications, including changes to budget allocation and Koch’s publisher mix, in order to truly optimize their results. This helped Koch to double their applicant volume within their first three months with Appcast, as well as increase their hires by 150% in the same time frame. Nick commented, “Working with the Appcast Premium team is like having an extension of my team. Their focus is not to spend more and more of our money – it’s about taking the time to understand our goals, and then pulling all the right levers to get us the leads and hires we need. We’re always in alignment and it shows.”
Nick has also leveraged Appcast to allocate budget to specific jobs or locations where he needs more drivers. This gives him even greater control of his budget, and the ability to target cities where hiring needs are most urgent. “One thing I love about Appcast is that I can put our budget behind specific jobs rather than blanket regions. I just go to my Appcast Premium team and say, ‘we need a driver in these three cities and I want to give that X budget’. It makes my job easy”, Nick said.
The robust recruitment marketing strategy that Koch has employed since working with Appcast is one that they hope to continue to build over time, particularly as the market for truck drivers changes. Even amidst truck driver shortages, Koch’s hires and hiring costs (specifically cost-per-hire) have remained consistent and in many instances, exceeded monthly expectations.
Nick noted, “Our company is in the best position it’s been in over 40 years, and Appcast plays a huge role in that.”
