Our secret test for hiring excellent digital engineering marketers

Digital marketing requires a keen analytic mind.  At ENGINEERING.com we give all job applicants a quiz to see whether they’ve got what it takes to win.

We start our interviews like everyone else, with the usual introductions and resume review to understand the candidates work history. But once that’s done, we hand each candidate a pencil and paper test and leave them alone for a while. 

Here’s an example question from our quiz:

A client wants to run a campaign to drive traffic to their free trial landing page on their web site. 

You test two traffic driving techniques.

1. An engineering site charges $20 CPM.  You buy 100,000 banners and get a CTR of 0.5%
2. You spend $200 on our LinkedIn group page and get 50 clicks

 

Which of these campaigns is better value, assuming that the audience is equally relevant?

 We find that people who can easily answer this question are wired differently than most of the marketers who come through our door.  Unlike most people who studied marketing in college, these folks don’t dream of producing TV ads for shampoo.  They are more analytic, and they enjoy brain teaser style puzzles. 

 So if your marketing team needs people who can drive audience for lead generation campaigns, webinars or sponsored posts, consider giving them a quiz.  It works for us.

 PS. If you are feeling brave, give your answer to the test question in the comments.