Guide: Key terms,
clearly explained.

162 terms from social recruiting, recruitment advertising, technology, data protection and the industry. Briefly explained, with links to the relevant guides and product pages.

Go to the terms →To the guides →

Basics

What it is
all about.

By the HiCandidate™ editorial team · Updated November 2026

Active job seekers: People who are actively looking for a new job right now and use job boards, search engines or career sites to do so.
Active sourcing: Reaching out directly to candidates who have not applied, for example through career networks.
Always-on campaign: One campaign that runs continuously instead of many individual campaigns per job. With HiCandidate™, new and changed jobs come into it automatically from the feed. More on the Campaign formats page.
Blue-collar recruiting: Hiring for industrial, trade and manual work. These audiences are often harder to find on career networks than on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok.
Brand campaign: A campaign that raises awareness of the employer brand without promoting a specific job. It builds reach and trust for future jobs.
Candidate experience: The overall experience applicants have during the process, from the ad and the form to the feedback.
Candidate journey: A person's path from first noticing the employer, through interest and application, to being hired.
Candidate persona: A description of typical candidates for a job: occupation, motivations, media use and channels. It serves as the basis for audiences and messaging.
Career site: The section of an employer's website with jobs and company information. Applicants often land here after clicking an ad.
Employee referral: Hiring new employees through recommendations from your own workforce, often tied to a bonus.
Employer branding: Building and maintaining the employer brand: how a company is perceived as an employer and why people want to work there.
Employer value proposition (EVP): What an employer offers in return for people working there, beyond the salary.
High-volume recruiting: Filling many similar jobs in a short time, for example in logistics, retail or nursing. This is where automation pays off the most.
Job ad: The announcement of a position with tasks, requirements and offers, as a page on the career site or in a job board. In recruitment marketing, it is the basis of the ads.
Passive candidates: People who are not looking but would switch for the right offer. Ads on social networks can reach them because they are already there.
Performance Recruiting: Recruitment advertising that is measured and managed by results: applications and cost per application instead of just reach and clicks. With HiCandidate™ this is the core, see Performance Recruiting.
Programmatic recruiting: The automated, data-driven buying and delivery of job ads through ad networks and publisher sites. It is steered by performance. At HiCandidate™, programmatic is part of the Performance Plus plan. More in the guide Programmatic Job Advertising.
Recruitment marketing: Using marketing methods for hiring: defining audiences, developing messages, choosing channels and measuring the impact.
Single Boost: A time-limited campaign for a single job, usually an urgent one. It starts without a long setup and stops automatically.
Social recruiting: Hiring through social networks, for example with paid ads, posts or direct outreach. Paid ads also reach people who are not currently looking for a job. More on the Platforms page.
Talent pipeline: Candidates an employer builds and nurtures before a specific need arises, for example through employer branding campaigns.
Talent pool: A collection of candidate profiles who could be considered for future jobs. It requires the consent of the people concerned.

Application and selection

From click
to application.

Applicant quality: How well applications fit the job. It is often measured by the rate of applicants invited or hired rather than by volume.
Application drop-off: Applicants leaving during the application process, for example after clicking the ad or midway through the form. The drop-off rate shows where the path to applying is too long or too complicated.
Application form: The form candidates use to apply. The shorter and more mobile-friendly it is, the fewer people drop off.
Application link: The link that takes candidates to the application. When a job is filled, the link and the ad must match it.
Application process: All the steps from application through screening, interviews and decision to the contract.
Application start: The moment someone begins the application form. It shows how many clicks could actually lead to an application. With HiCandidate™, application starts appear in the dashboard.
Application (submitted): A fully submitted application. It is the number that counts for filling a job, not the click on the ad.
ATS (applicant tracking system): The software that manages jobs, applications and the selection process. With HiCandidate™, jobs come from the ATS and applications flow back to it, see Applications from social ads into the ATS.
Job status: Whether a job is open or filled. With HiCandidate™, ads and costs stop automatically when a job goes offline in the ATS.
Knockout criterion: A requirement without which an application goes no further, such as a required permit or qualification.
Landing page: A page that appears after a click on an ad and is built around one goal, here the application. With HiCandidate™, landing pages can be created automatically from the job data, see Landing pages and pre-qualification.
Lead ad (instant form): An ad with a form that is filled out directly in the platform, without leaving it. With HiCandidate™, data from lead ads on Facebook and Instagram goes automatically into the ATS or to you by e-mail, see Integrations.
Matching: The automatic comparison of a job's requirements with candidates' profiles or details.
Multiposting: Publishing a job to several job boards and channels at the same time, in one step.
Pre-qualification: Checking the most important requirements before anyone opens the resume, usually through a few questions on a smartphone.
Quality of Hire: A measure of how well a hire works out over time, for example in terms of performance and tenure. It can only be assessed after several months.
Quick Apply (one-click application): An application that takes only a few inputs, often straight from a smartphone with prefilled data. It lowers the barrier but can bring in more unsuitable applications.
Recruiting funnel: The funnel model of recruiting: visibility, click, application start, application, interview, hire. People drop out at every stage.
Screening questions: Questions before or during the application that clarify whether someone fits the job, for example about driver's license, shift availability or work experience. More on the pre-qualification page.
Time to Fill: The time from approval or publication of a job until it is filled. Defined differently depending on the source.
Time to Hire: The time from a person’s first application until the offer is accepted. Defined differently depending on the source.

Metrics and costs

What gets measured,
and what it costs.

Agency fee: What an agency charges for planning, setup, support and reporting, usually per hour or as a flat fee.
Attribution: Assigning an application to the touchpoints that led to it, for example an ad or a channel.
Break-even: The point from which a solution pays off compared with an alternative, in the calculator for example from a certain number of jobs.
Commission (ad commission): A share of the media budget that a provider charges for operation and management. It grows with the budget.
Conversion: A desired action after contact with the ad, for example an application start or an application.
Conversion rate: The share of visits that lead to a conversion, for example applications per hundred clicks.
Cost per application: The advertising budget divided by the number of submitted applications, a key metric in Performance Recruiting. With HiCandidate™ you see it per channel and campaign, and the cost calculator helps you compare operating costs.
Cost per Hire: The total cost of a hire, including ads, software, agency and internal working time.
Cost per Qualified Applicant (CPQA): The cost per application that meets certain criteria, for example based on screening questions. It is more meaningful than the overall cost per application.
CPA (cost per action): What a specific action costs, in recruiting usually the application start or the application.
CPC (cost per click): What a click on the ad costs. A cheap click is worth little if nobody fills out the form afterward.
CPL (cost per lead): What a contact generated through a form costs, for example through a Lead Ad.
CPM (cost per thousand impressions): The price for a thousand deliveries of an ad, a common pricing model for reach campaigns.
CTR (click-through rate): The share of impressions that lead to a click. A high CTR says nothing yet about applications.
Frequency: How often the same person sees an ad on average. A frequency that is too high often leads to fatigue.
Fully loaded hourly rate: The hourly rate of a person on the team including all costs, such as salary, employer's ancillary costs and overhead. It makes internal working time comparable to an agency fee.
Impressions: The number of times an ad was delivered. An impression is not a click and not attention.
KPI (key performance indicator): A metric used to measure the success of an activity, in recruiting for example cost per application or applicant quality.
Last-click attribution: A model that credits success to the last touchpoint before the application. It undervalues channels that create awareness first.
Media budget: The money that goes to the advertising networks, such as Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok or Google. It comes on top of software or agency costs, see What does social recruiting cost?.
Reach: The number of different people who have seen an ad at least once.
ROI (return on investment): The ratio of result to effort. In recruiting, it is usually looked at as cost per hire compared with alternatives.
Setup fee: The one-time fee for setup, for example for integration and onboarding.
System fee: The fixed monthly fee for the software, regardless of the media budget. The HiCandidate™ plans are on the Pricing page.

Ads and audiences

Who the ad
reaches.

A/B test: Comparing two variants, for example of creative or copy, to find out which one performs better.
Ad auction: The process platforms use to decide which ad is shown to whom. Not only the bid counts, but also the expected impact.
Ad copy: The text of the ad: headline, description and call to action.
Ad fatigue: The effect that the same ad has less impact when it is seen repeatedly. New creatives and lower frequency counter it.
Ad format: The form of the ad, for example image, video, carousel or story. The Video and Static Ads page explains how HiCandidate™ generates formats.
Advantage+ Audience: A Meta feature in which the system automatically finds the right audience, based on inputs from the advertiser.
Bidding strategy: The rule a platform follows when bidding in ad auctions, for example for the lowest cost or for a target value.
Budget allocation: The split of the budget across channels, campaigns and ads. With HiCandidate™, AutoAllocation distributes the starting budget based on the job profile and the Optimizer shifts it to the channels with the most application starts and applications, see Automation and AI.
Call to action (CTA): The prompt to act in an ad or on a page, for example “Apply now”.
Campaign objective: The result a campaign is optimized for, for example reach, traffic or leads.
Campaign structure: The setup of campaign, ad set and ad: the campaign sets the goal, the ad set the audience and budget, the ad the content.
Carousel ad: An ad with several images or cards that users swipe through.
Creative: The visual and content of an ad: image, video, text and design.
Custom Audience: An audience built from your own data, for example from a contact list or website visitors. According to the documentation, they remain possible on Meta for job ads as well.
Daily budget: The most a campaign should spend per day.
Detailed targeting: A Meta feature that narrows audiences by interests and behavior. For job ads it is restricted, according to Meta. See Meta targeting for job ads.
Exclusion: Removing people from an audience, for example those who have already been targeted, or certain locations.
Geotargeting (radius): Targeting by location, usually as a radius around a point. For job ads, Meta requires a minimum radius.
Learning phase: The early period of a campaign when the platform's system is still working out who to show the ad to. Frequent changes make it longer.
Localization: Adapting ads to language, market and culture, beyond plain translation. More on the Multilingual recruiting page.
Lookalike audience: An audience that resembles people who are already known, for example customers or visitors. According to Meta, it is not available for employment ads.
Placement: The place where an ad appears, for example in the feed, in Stories or in Reels.
Retargeting (remarketing): Reaching out again to people who have already had contact, for example visited the careers page but did not apply.
Special Ad Category: A label at Meta for ads about housing, employment, financial products and political topics, with restricted targeting options. With HiCandidate™, the Employment category is set automatically. See Meta targeting for job ads.
Static ad: An ad with a fixed image and text, as opposed to a video.
Story ad: A full-screen ad that appears between other users' Stories.
Target audience: The people who should see an ad. In recruiting, it is defined by occupation, location, interests and media use.
Targeting: Choosing the audience for an ad, for example by location, interests or occupation.
Video ad: An ad in video form, often vertical and short on social networks. With HiCandidate™, videos can be created automatically from the job data.

Platforms and networks

Where the ads
run.

Ad account: The advertising account on a platform, used to run and bill ads. With HiCandidate™, delivery runs through the company's social media pages, and socialtelligence manages the ad accounts.
Ad network: A provider that serves ads on many sites or in many apps, for example Meta, Google or TikTok.
Ads Manager: A platform's tool for creating, managing and analyzing ads. At Meta, it is called Ads Manager.
Aggregator: A service that collects jobs from many sources and displays them in one place, without writing them itself.
DSP (demand-side platform): A platform where advertisers buy ad space in real time and manage their ads.
Facebook Ads: Paid ads on Facebook, in recruiting mainly for broad and blue-collar audiences.
Google Display: Ads in the Google Display Network, which covers many websites and apps. It adds people who are actively searching online to social media.
Google for Jobs: Job search within Google search results. Jobs appear there when they are marked up with structured data.
Instagram Ads: Paid ads on Instagram, in the feed, in Stories and in Reels.
Job board: A platform where employers publish jobs and people search for jobs.
LinkedIn Ads: Paid ads on the career network LinkedIn, with targeting by professional attributes.
Meta (Facebook and Instagram): The company behind Facebook and Instagram and their shared advertising platform. Ads for both networks are run through Meta. See Platforms.
Performance Max: A Google campaign type that automatically serves ads across several Google channels. With HiCandidate™, Performance Max is included from the Enterprise plan.
Programmatic advertising: The automated buying of ad space through real-time auctions, across many websites at once. How this plays out in recruiting is covered in the guide Programmatic Job Advertising.
Publisher network: A group of websites and apps where ads are served. With HiCandidate™, programmatic runs through publisher networks with hundreds of sites.
Reels: Short vertical videos on Instagram and Facebook, in which ads can also appear.
Snapchat Ads: Paid ads on Snapchat, mostly for very young audiences.
TikTok Ads: Paid ads on TikTok, mainly for younger audiences. With HiCandidate™, TikTok is included from the Enterprise plan.

Technology and data

Feeds, interfaces
and measurement.

AutoAllocation: The AI-based initial allocation in HiCandidate™: it reads the job title, description, tasks and required skill set, identifies suitable audiences and distributes the starting budget across the relevant networks.
Automation: Software carrying out recurring tasks on its own, here for example creating ads, distributing budget and ending campaigns. More on the Automation and AI page.
Conversions API: An interface that reports results such as applications from the server directly to an ad platform, instead of via the browser.
Corporate design (CD): A company's consistent visual identity: colors, fonts, logo and imagery.
Crawler: A program that automatically fetches and reads web pages, for example from search engines or AI services. With HiCandidate™, jobs can also be read from the careers page.
CSV export: Exporting data as a spreadsheet file that can be processed further in Excel or other programs.
Dashboard: The overview where campaign metrics are collected. With HiCandidate™, it shows impressions, clicks, application starts, applications and costs by channel and campaign. See Dashboard and reporting.
Feed: A machine-readable file or interface that delivers jobs in a fixed format, usually from the ATS. More on the Integrations page.
Interface (API): A defined connection through which programs exchange data, without anyone sending files back and forth.
JSON feed: A feed in JSON format, a lightweight data format that programs can process easily.
Multilingual content: Delivering ads and pages in several languages so candidates are addressed directly in their own market.
Optimizer: Ongoing optimization at HiCandidate™: budget moves to the channels with the most application starts and applications, not to those with the most clicks.
Reporting: The regular analysis and presentation of results, for example as a report, PDF or export.
REST API: A widely used type of interface that is accessed through standard web addresses and methods. HiCandidate™ offers a REST API with token authentication for job, campaign and performance data.
Structured data (JobPosting): Additional machine-readable information on a page. With the JobPosting schema, a job ad can appear in search engines and in Google for Jobs.
Synchronization (sync): The regular comparison of two systems so that both have the same data. With HiCandidate™, the sync with the ATS runs at least three times a day.
Template: A preset that defines design and layout, for example for ads in your corporate design.
Token authentication: A method in which a program identifies itself with a secret key instead of a username and password.
Tracking link: A link with extra parameters that shows which ad led to a visit or an application.
Tracking pixel: A small piece of code on a website that reports visits and actions to an ad platform, so ads can be evaluated based on them.
Uptime (availability): The share of time that a system is reachable.
UTM parameters: Additions to a web address that show which source, medium and campaign a visit came from.
Webhook: A notification that one system automatically sends to another as soon as something happens, for example when an application comes in.
XML feed: A feed in XML format. Many ATS, job boards and career sites deliver jobs this way. With HiCandidate™, an XML or JSON feed is enough to import the jobs.

Data protection and law

What to keep in mind
when handling data.

AGG (German General Equal Treatment Act): The law that prohibits discrimination based on, for example, gender, age or origin. It also applies to job ads and candidate selection.
Consent: A person's voluntary and informed agreement to the processing of their data, for example for tracking or for being added to a talent pool.
Cookie banner: The prompt on a website where visitors decide whether cookies and tracking services may collect data.
Cookies: Small files in the browser that recognize returning visits. Advertising and analytics usually require consent.
Data minimization: The principle of collecting only the data needed for the purpose. For an application form, that means asking only for what the decision requires.
Data processing agreement (DPA): The contract that governs how a service provider processes personal data on behalf of someone else.
First-party data: Data that a company collects itself from its visitors and applicants, as opposed to purchased data.
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation): The EU law on the protection of personal data. It also applies to applicant data. This glossary does not replace legal advice.
(m/f/d): The addition in job ads that addresses all genders. It is meant to avoid discrimination in the job posting.
Non-discriminatory targeting: Targeting ads without excluding protected groups. That is why Meta restricts options such as age and gender for job ads.
Personal data: Any information that can be linked to a specific person, such as a name, e-mail address or résumé. Applicant data is included.
Retention periods: The periods after which applicant data must be deleted if it is no longer needed. Which ones apply is a question for data protection and legal counsel.

Industry and models

Who works
with whom.

Client (multi-tenancy): A separate, dedicated area for one client within a software. Multi-tenancy means that many clients work in one system, each with their own settings and data.
Connect plan: The HiCandidate™ plan for job boards and aggregators: the campaign engine as a white label via REST API, with your own branding, your own domain and your own customers.
Headhunter: A person or agency that approaches specialists and executives directly and with a clear target.
In-house recruiting: Recruiting done by a company's own HR department, as opposed to an agency or service provider.
Multibrand: Several brands in one account. With HiCandidate™ this is available from the Enterprise plan, see Solution for companies.
Reach package: A fixed package that job boards can use to sell their customers social media reach for a job, without setting up campaigns one by one.
Recruiting agency: An agency that handles ads, campaigns and reporting for recruiting. Whether an agency or software is the better fit is covered in the guide Choosing social recruiting software.
Recruitment consulting (placement): Placing candidates with a company that hires them directly, usually for a success fee.
RPO (recruitment process outsourcing): Outsourcing part or all of recruiting to an external provider.
Staffing agencies: A company that places, leases or recruits staff. HiCandidate™ manages all clients in one platform, see Solution for staffing agencies.
Temporary agency work (staff leasing): An employer lends employees to another company for a fee. Agencies need many jobs and fast hiring for their recruiting.
White label: A service that a provider delivers under another company's brand. With HiCandidate™, the Connect plan brings the campaign engine into a job board's platform as a white label, see Solution for job boards.

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Guide: Key terms, clearly explained.

What it is all about.

From click to application.

What gets measured, and what it costs.

Who the ad reaches.

Where the ads run.

Feeds, interfaces and measurement.

What to keep in mind when handling data.

Who works with whom.

Missing a term? Tell us.