In today’s competitive hiring market, the tools you choose to attract, engage and convert candidates can make or break recruitment performance. Job boards are declining in influence, aggregator traffic is fragmented and legacy agency models are slow and costly. This series compares Gaia with eight of the most common direct alternatives, plus the option of “going direct” without a recruitment marketing platform. Each head-to-head is designed to help TA, HR and EB leaders see the differences in targeting, reach, optimisation and flexibility, and choose the right recruitment marketing partner for real hiring results.
Gaia vs Going Direct
Recruiters sometimes try to run campaigns direct on ad platforms without specialist tech. While this offers control, it requires constant manual optimisation, deep channel expertise and large in-house capacity. Gaia automates targeting, budget allocation and optimisation across 11 major channels, delivering better reach and performance without the admin overhead and reducing ad spend wastage. Read the full Gaia vs Going Direct comparison.
Gaia vs Adway
Adway offers rules-based campaign automation focused on employer brand visibility, mainly across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and Snapchat. Gaia goes further with AI trained on 1 billion hiring data points, cookie-free retargeting, full-funnel optimisation and a wider channel mix, delivering measurable hiring results. Read the full Gaia vs Adway comparison.
Gaia vs Wonderkind
Wonderkind provides campaign set-up tools with creative templates but relies on manual rules for optimisation. Gaia’s AI dynamically reallocates spend to the best-performing channels in real time, maximising quality applications while reducing cost per hire. Read the full Gaia vs Wonderkind comparison.
Gaia vs MrWork
MrWork leans heavily on SMS campaigns, which can be effective for direct response but limit reach and targeting precision. Gaia’s multi-channel campaigns reach active and passive talent across the open web, with real-time optimisation and fully branded apply journeys. Read the full Gaia vs MrWork comparison.
Gaia vs Jobtip
Jobtip specialises in social recruitment advertising, especially on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Snapchat and Google. Gaia adds predictive targeting from 1 billion data points, cookie-free retargeting and a far broader channel mix, all managed in one performance dashboard. Read the full Gaia vs Jobtip comparison.
Gaia vs Adver-Online
Adver-Online operates like a traditional agency, manually managing campaign set-up and placement. While this can work for basic brand awareness, it lacks AI optimisation and limits control. Gaia delivers self-serve flexibility or managed service, faster launches, deeper insights and broader reach. Read the full Gaia vs Adver-Online comparison.
Gaia vs Adzuna
Adzuna is a job aggregator with reach across multiple job boards and its own search engine. Gaia replaces job board reliance with targeted, multi-channel advertising that reaches talent before they search, backed by cookie-free retargeting and ATS integration for better conversion tracking. Read the full Gaia vs Adzuna comparison.
Gaia vs Aimwel
Aimwel offers AI-assisted matching based on media performance and dynamic visual ads. Gaia applies its AI across a verified channel mix with full-funnel optimisation, cookie-free retargeting and faster campaign deployment. Read the full Gaia vs Aimwel comparison.
Gaia vs Findem
Findem’s strength is its advanced AI engine with deep entity-based modelling for sourcing. Gaia combines predictive AI with programmatic ad buying across all major digital and social channels, driving engaged applicants straight into branded apply journeys. Read the full Gaia vs Findem comparison.
Both service models give you access to Gaia’s full technology stack, AI targeting and 11-channel reach. The difference lies in how you want to run your campaigns.
Best for
Teams that want fast, flexible campaigns
Teams that want expert-driven, fully managed recruitment marketing
Media spend
Paid by you – giving you control of ad spend budgets
Fully included, optimised for ROI
Campaign set-up
You look after set-up, targeting and launch
Fully managed set-up and launch – we do it all for you
Campaign management
Self-managed by you
Fully managed by Gaia, with access to a team of experts
Creative support
Create your own ads
Strategic creative and employer branding support
Optimisation
View insights and adjust campaigns yourself
Continuous optimisation with oversight by Gaia experts
Strategic support
Live chat, knowledge base, community resources
Dedicated strategists and consultants
Third-party integrations
Integrations dependent on tier
Full range of integrations with ATS/HRIS platforms, set up by our expert team
Best for
Media spend
Campaign set-up
Campaign management
Creative support
Optimisation
Strategic support
Third-party integrations
Teams that want fast, flexible campaigns
Paid by you – giving you control of ad spend budgets
You look after set-up, targeting and launch
Self-managed by you
Create your own ads
View insights and adjust campaigns yourself
Live chat, knowledge base, community resources
Integrations dependent on tier
Teams that want expert-driven, fully managed recruitment marketing
Fully included, optimised for ROI
Fully managed set-up and launch – we do it all for you
Fully managed by Gaia, with access to a team of experts
Strategic creative and employer branding support
Continuous optimisation with oversight by Gaia experts
Dedicated strategists and consultants
Full range of integrations with ATS/HRIS platforms, set up by our expert team
Our fully managed service for teams who want our experts to handle set-up, optimisation and reporting. Ideal if you have limited in-house resources or want to hit the ground running fast.
From strategic creative to ongoing performance tweaks, we do it all so you can focus on hiring. Learn more about GaiaComplete.
Perfect for teams who prefer direct control. You manage your own campaigns within our platform, using the same AI optimisation, ATS integrations and analytics as GaiaComplete.
You set the strategy, launch campaigns and make real-time adjustments as you go. Learn more about GaiaSelf-Serve.
We offer two flexible ways to run smarter hiring campaigns, depending on how hands-on you want to be. Whether you want to manage everything yourself or leave it to our experts, you stay in control of the outcome.
Use the table below for a side-by-side view of our two recruitment marketing solutions. Whichever you choose, you get a recruitment marketing team in your pocket helping you reach better-fit candidates, cut recruitment costs and boost your employer brand.
If you’re already using one of the platforms we’ve compared in this series, or just want to see how much more you could achieve. Book a demo and we’ll show you exactly where Gaia could deliver more impact.