Top marketing analytics that all recruiters should be measuring in 2026

Keeping pace with changing algorithms, user behaviour and other external influencing factors is challenging work for marketers. While the metrics that were tracked five years ago still matter, they now sit inside a broader ecosystem with a greater array of formats and additional concerns to keep up with including short-form video, consent-first identity, multi-touch journeys, creative signals, and much more all of which agencies must closely monitor.

But stripping back all the noise, it should be remembered that the key goal of measuring all this information is to show which marketing actions actually lead to hires. That’s why we have selected the top marketing analytics for recruiters to monitor in 2026, and highlighted why they actually matter.

SEO rankings and discoverability signals

Yes, continue to track keywords for core pages, but don’t stop there; also identify the full range of locations where candidates actually find the business, whether that’s Google Discover, People Also Ask, video search results or the dozens of other potential attribution points. To better understand the data, watch impressions and click rates from these locations and notice which pages appear as rich results, then use those trends to decide whether to refresh an article, add a short clip, or answer a question more directly, whichever approach will catch passive searchers’ attention first.

Traffic volume and quality

Raw traffic data is noisy and often unclear, however there is a way of cutting through. By pairing traffic counts with quality signals including pages per session, paths that lead to role pages and how far people watch your videos, then looking deeper and breaking traffic into behaviour cohorts, for example, quick scanners versus engaged visitors, and comparing conversion rates, firms can make hiring decisions based on groups that came from those visits, not on visits alone.

Traffic source and platform attribution

It’s key to move away from ‘last-click thinking’ and instead build a multi-touch view that incorporates all touchpoints, including social media, short-form platforms, newsletters and creator partnerships. Marketers should also look to track the micro-moves that matter such as profile visits from TikTok, saves on LinkedIn carousels, referral clicks from creator posts and, more broadly, value the discovery moments and the small actions that actually bridge social interest to an application.

Engagement quality and content signals

Replace single-number thinking with richer engagement measures like scroll depth, watch-through and completion for short clips, time spent on document carousels and interaction rates on polls and Q&A.

Crucially, combine this approach with reading exits through intent, as someone who watches 90% of a 30-second role clip represents a far warmer lead than a person who glances at the homepage briefly and then disappears.

Location and audience fit

Geographical data is useful but often incomplete, and doesn’t take into account the growing number of online users utilising VPNs. To counter this, layer the information with behaviour and mobility signals that spot targeting issues faster. If a region has lots of traffic but few conversions, for example, it suggests that either the messaging is off or the roles don’t match the audience. For remote and hybrid roles, measure engagement by time zone and then focus further outreach where concentrated interest exists.

New vs returning visitors and consented cohorts

Repeat and consented visitors should represent any recruitment agency’s highest-value audience and while professionals must of course track new vs returning users, they should give more weight to those who have opted into emails, newsletters or communities. From here, use hashed, consented identifiers to create targeted cohorts that can be re-engaged with using personalised short clips, role drops and staged micro-screens.

Goals conversions and costed hiring outcomes

Working in partnership with consultants, marketers can define clear funnel stages from profile visits, micro-screens, applications, screened candidates, interviews through to hires. From here, assign a value to each step and track cost-per-stage and cost-per-hire across channels then combine these with time-to-hire and quality-of-hire so all marketing decisions are tied to real commercial outcomes.

Channel-specific analytics for short-form platforms

Short-form video content, if being utilised, needs its own lens and set of measurement techniques. These can include hook retention in the first three seconds, full watch rates, profile visits, bio-link clicks and conversions from pinned CTAs with success gauged through A/B test creator-led versus brand-led clips and measuring uplift in community joins and micro-screens. Treat spikes in virality and engagement as inputs to the sales funnel that can be converted into consented leads.

Operationalising metrics

Identifying metrics is one step, actually making use of them is another, far more challenging task. Start with implementing consent-first tracking and pass hashed identifiers into the organisational CRM to be able to conduct full cohort analysis and build a multi-touch attribution model that includes short-form platforms and newsletter opens. Equally, standardise conversion values so channels compare on hires, not impressions, and use watch-through and micro-action rates to tweak creative quickly, letting conversion and cost-per-hire decide where you scale.

The best agency marketers use their analytics as proof of the methods and tools that drive client and candidate acquisition, rather than collecting data and dashboards for the sake of it. They focus on being discoverable where candidates search and scroll, pay attention to the types of engagement that show genuine interest, and join up consented audiences across touchpoints so that their metrics predict outcomes rather than just describe activity. It’s important to keep it practical; stop celebrating raw reach and start measuring the small actions that reliably lead to interviews; use multi‑touch attribution to credit the moments that nudge people toward applying; treat consented cohorts as the highest‑value audience and feed them short, targeted content that converts; and let every report answer a single question, did this help us to hire someone, that should be the fundamental and underpinning question driving all activity.

If your business is looking to identify the right analytics to drive growth in 2026, get in touch with our team today.

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