Employer Branding Monetization at Dice

Problem

Dice had historically served staffing and consulting firms—companies that viewed our platform as a transactional tool to fill contract roles quickly. But we wanted to expand into direct-hire employers: tech companies, traditional companies hiring tech talent, healthcare systems building IT teams.

The challenge? We were selling everyone the same thing. Our pricing was commoditized and disjointed: "You want job advertising? Here's 100K impressions." "You want a social boost? Here's 1,000 targeted views." "You want featured jobs? Here's the price." It felt like buying items off a shelf. There was no value story, no differentiation. And for direct-hire employers—who cared deeply about brand differentiation and standing out in competitive tech hiring—our offering didn't resonate. They often said, "No thanks."

Employer branding mattered way more to direct-hire companies than to staffing firms. But we weren't positioned to capture that value. Our revenue from this segment was flat, and we were leaving money on the table with customers who would pay more for the right solution.

Discovery

I started by talking to existing and prospective direct-hire customers to understand: What makes a compelling employer brand on a job platform?

Who I talked to:

• •Current direct-hire customers (healthcare systems, financial services, etc.)
• •Sales team members who worked this segment
• •Talent acquisition leaders at companies not traditionally seen as "tech companies"

Three things surfaced consistently:

• •Compelling visuals and storytelling: They wanted to look like a tech-forward company, even if they weren't traditionally associated with tech. A healthcare system needed to compete with startups. A bank needed to show they weren't stuffy. Current profiles were dated and didn't help them stand out.
• •A tech-centric narrative: Candidates needed to understand why joining their tech team mattered and what problems they'd solve. "We're hiring a Java developer" wasn't enough. They needed to tell the story of their tech stack, projects, and impact.
• •Ability to connect authentically: They wanted candidates to reach out to real team members directly from their branded profile, not just submit applications into a black hole. Personal connection mattered more to them than volume.

The insight: These customers weren't buying advertising impressions. They were buying a way to compete for talent against tech giants. Our pricing didn't reflect that. Our features were scattered. And our value story was absent.

Building the Foundation

The existing company profile was outdated and couldn't support the experience these customers wanted. I led a redesign and systematic migration from the old profile to a new one that became the anchor for our Employer Branding roadmap.

Key capabilities added:

• •Richer visual storytelling: Hero images, culture photos, team spotlights
• •Tech stack and project highlights: What candidates would actually work on
• •Direct team connections: Reach real people
• •Company values and culture: Beyond just "About Us" boilerplate

We launched this in a few months—fast enough to validate demand, but built modularly so we could keep adding features without rewrites.

But the bigger challenge was pricing and packaging. Building the features was only half the battle. We needed to change how we sold them.

Value-Based Bundling

I partnered with our Product VP and strategy/pricing team to completely rethink how we sold employer branding. Instead of à la carte features, we designed value-based bundles (Good, Better, Best) that pulled together:

• •The new company profile (visibility and storytelling)
• •Existing branding offerings (job boosts, social amplification, featured placements)
• •New capabilities like team member showcases and culture content

The repositioning: Instead of "Buy 100K impressions for $X" we said: "Buy this bundle, and your brand shows up everywhere candidates look—search results, job listings, social, and your own profile. You're not buying impressions. You're buying presence and the ability to compete with tech giants."

Each tier was priced based on the value delivered (ability to attract talent), not the cost of features. This required deep understanding of what customers would pay for different levels of presence and reach.

Cross-Functional GTM

Creating the bundles was only part of the work. The real challenge was enabling sales to have different conversations and aligning marketing on the new positioning.

I led monthly stakeholder meetings with:

• •Sales leadership: To train reps on value-based conversations (not feature lists)
• •Marketing: To create materials that told the ROI story, not just listed features
• •Finance: To align on pricing tiers, discounting rules, and revenue recognition
• •Legal: To ensure bundle terms were clear and enforceable
• •CS: To understand how to support customers post-sale

Key enablement work:

• •Sales playbooks: Scripts for positioning bundles as strategic talent competition, not commodities
• •Competitive positioning: How to talk about our bundles vs. competitors' offerings
• •Objection handling: Responses to "Why would I pay more?" and "I just want the features separately"
• •Marketing collateral: Case studies, one-pagers, and demo materials showing branded presence

This wasn't a one-time launch—it was ongoing alignment as we learned what resonated with customers and refined our messaging.

Proving ROI

A few months after launch, sales came back with feedback: "This sounds great, but can we prove ROI to help with renewals? Customers want to know if branding actually works."

This was a critical retention question. If we couldn't show value, bundle adoption would stall and renewals would suffer.

I partnered with our data team, marketing, and sales to evaluate how branding correlates with candidate engagement and applications. This was analytically complex—there are confounding factors:

• •Number of jobs posted
• •Types of jobs (senior vs. junior, in-demand skills vs. niche)
• •Existing brand strength outside Dice
• •Geographic location and market competitiveness

But we identified clear patterns through cohort analysis:

• •Companies with strong branded profiles saw higher candidate engagement rates (profile views, time spent, applications)
• •Candidates spent more time exploring jobs from well-branded employers (indicating quality over spray-and-pray)

We turned this into case studies and success stories that sales could use:

• •"Company X increased candidate engagement by Y% after purchasing Better bundle"
• •"Healthcare system saw XX more qualified applicants with enhanced branding"

These weren't just renewal tools—they became part of the new customer sales process, showing prospective buyers that branding was an investment with measurable returns.

Launch & Results

We launched the Good/Better/Best employer branding bundles with:

• •Clear differentiation between tiers
• •Sales enablement and training on value-based conversations
• •Marketing materials focused on talent competition, not feature lists
• •Early adopter customers as beta testers to refine messaging

Sales adopted the new positioning quickly because it gave them a stronger story than commodity pricing. Marketing embraced it because it differentiated Dice from competitors who still sold impressions and clicks.

Revenue & Monetization:

• •30% ACV lift from customers buying bundles vs. à la carte features
• •Higher attach rates for branding packages in the direct-hire segment (compared to historical staffing segment rates)
• •Larger initial deal sizes as customers bought Better or Best upfront rather than starting with minimal features

Customer Behavior:

• •Upsell path established: Customers who started with Good bundle had clear upgrade path to Better/Best
• •Lower price objections: Value-based positioning reduced "too expensive" pushback

Go-to-Market:

• •Sales conversations shifted from transactional (how much for X impressions?) to strategic (how do we compete for talent?)
• •Marketing materials improved: Focus on outcomes (attract better candidates) vs. inputs (get more views)
• •Retention narrative strengthened: ROI data and case studies became renewal conversation tools

Organizational Impact:

• •Pricing as product capability: Demonstrated that monetization strategy is product work, not just finance/sales decisions
• •Data-driven storytelling: Established pattern of using engagement data to prove product value
• •Cross-functional GTM model: Regular stakeholder touchpoints became standard for other initiatives requiring sales/marketing/organizational alignment

Key Learnings

Pricing reflects your understanding of customer value. Our à la carte model told customers we saw ourselves as an ad platform selling commodities. Bundling around "brand presence everywhere" reflected what direct-hire employers actually cared about—competing for talent against tech giants. The pricing change was a strategic repositioning, not just a financial exercise.

Monetization is a cross-functional discipline. This wasn't just product work. It required sales enablement, marketing alignment, data analytics, finance partnership, and ongoing stakeholder communication. I spent as much time in alignment meetings as in product design. Monthly meetings kept everyone on the same page as we learned and adjusted our approach.

"Good enough" research can unlock big changes. I didn't run months of pricing studies or extensive market research. I talked to customers, synthesized what mattered, validated with sales feedback, and tested bundles with early adopters. Rapid iteration beat perfect analysis. We could refine pricing after launch based on real adoption data.

ROI storytelling is part of the product. Building the feature isn't enough. Proving its value through data and case studies became a product deliverable that enabled both sales and retention. If we'd launched bundles without the engagement correlation work, adoption would have been lower and churn higher. Making value visible is as important as creating it.

Anchor new pricing on new capabilities. Launching bundles alongside the redesigned company profile gave us credibility. If we'd just rebundled old features at higher prices, it would have felt exploitative. New capabilities justified new pricing models and gave customers something tangible to point to when explaining the upgrade internally.