Treat the drop as a funnel signal
A lower application count may reflect the job, pay, location, timing, screening friction, or employer reputation as much as the job board itself. Compare recent roles with prior ones before deciding the channel has failed.
Review views, starts, completed applications, screening pass rate, interview rate, offer acceptance, and placement conversion. The point is to find where quality or momentum changed.
Test a channel mix
Useful tests include reactivating qualified past candidates, asking placed caregivers for referrals, building relationships with training programs, participating in relevant local communities, publishing role-specific content, improving organic job pages, and conducting respectful direct outreach.
Give every source a trackable label. A niche source with ten applications and four qualified candidates may outperform a broad source with one hundred applications and two qualified candidates.
Close the measurement loop
Indeed's employer guidance distinguishes source yield, time to hire, offer acceptance, and quality of hire. For an agency, add screening pass rate, client interview rate, placement rate, early fallout, and retention where data is available.
Review performance by role type and market rather than declaring one universal winning channel. A source that works for newborn care specialists may not work for estate staff or part-time nannies.
Agency checklist
- Check whether role conditions changed
- Label every candidate source
- Test two or three channels at a time
- Measure qualified candidates, not volume alone
- Track interview, offer, and placement conversion
- Review results by market and role type