Cost per application cut to a quarter and sessions up tenfold, breaking the dependence on job boards | Dimple Inc.

About the client
Dimple Inc.
HP ： https://www.dimples.co.jp/
Industry: temporary staffing, recruitment, contracted work and outsourcing
Employees: 4,883 (as of December 2025)
What we did: web marketing support (advertising management, SEO article production, website rebuild)

Dimple Inc. (founded 1991, Kita-ku, Osaka) works under the vision of widening where people who make others happy with a smile can contribute, providing temporary staffing, recruitment, contracted work and outsourcing, mainly for shopping centres and department stores across Japan.
Targeting customer-facing sales and reception roles for people in their 20s and 30s, they provide high-quality matching between candidates and companies.
Dimple’s job, career-change and staffing site for sales and reception roles

The problem: acquisition concentrated in one channel, a wall in front of in-house work, and an ageing site

Working to grow acquisition in their staffing and recruitment business, they found it difficult to see the whole picture: among options such as web advertising and SEO, how should budget and people be allocated, and to which targets?

They also faced specific hurdles in each area.

SEO barely started, and a wall in front of doing it in-house
At the time almost nothing had been done and there was little knowledge internally, so writing articles in-house was difficult.
Previous outside work had not reached the quality they wanted, and the gap in content volume against competitors was becoming a concern.

Rising cost per application in web advertising
Applications came mainly from job boards such as Indeed, and they were looking to strengthen acquisition through their own channels.
But their own campaigns at the time were producing a higher cost per application than the job boards.

An ageing job site, and problems with UI and UX
Seven years had passed since the last rebuild, and the design felt dated and the search hard to use.
The application form also had too many fields, which made people drop out, and improving it had become urgent.

What we did: three approaches covering strategy, creative and the site itself

They came to us after attending a seminar on growing acquisition in the recruitment business.
They valued being able to cover web advertising, SEO, article production and a site rebuild together, end to end, and we began working side by side.

1. SEO support with a strategic map

We analysed the market and competitors to identify the keywords that reach people in their 20s and 30s looking for customer-facing sales and reception roles.
We proposed a four-quadrant keyword map showing both likelihood of conversion and search volume, and agreed with Dimple where to focus.
We then built the workflow through to publication together and, alongside writing articles for them, shared our know-how thoroughly so that their own team could run it.

2. Advertising management, starting from the creative

We reviewed the allocation of budget across channels in full and optimised it.
At first we produced creative that would land with the target and iterated on it. Once an in-house designer joined Dimple, we advised on banner design and copy from the point of view of current trends and of users, supporting a smooth in-house operation.

3. A job site rebuild aimed at maximising applications

We renewed the design to suit the sensibility of the main target and substantially improved usability, including search by location.
To realise their designer’s strong feelings about charm and appearance, we worked patiently through adjustments down to individual colour codes.
We also optimised the application form fields that had been a sticking point, so that users can apply without hesitation.
After the rebuild, job, career-change and staffing site for sales and reception roles

Results: a self-sufficient team and outstanding value for money

Through SEO and advertising support and the site rebuild, they have seen the following.

SEO results
Published articles and sessions grew around tenfold.
Beyond organic traffic, the articles also work as assets for newsletters, LINE and other channels, and conversions have kept rising.
Fortnightly reporting deepened SEO knowledge internally, and they now run it well on both fronts, outsourced and in-house.

Advertising results
Through the right channel allocation and better creative, cost per application was cut to around a quarter of where it started.
It is now a strong acquisition channel of their own, not dependent on job boards.

Site rebuild results
The refined design has been well received inside and outside the company, as easier to read and more appealing.
A dramatic improvement in the application form’s user experience delivered a substantial lift in conversion rate.

A comment from Dimple Inc.

“The team at NowVillage got right into the detail with us, down to keyword selection and our regular meetings. Because they stayed so close to us, writing articles in-house has gone remarkably smoothly. We now work on both fronts, outsourced to NowVillage and in-house, and both work because of that careful support at the start.

Even when our requirements were still vague, they picked up the intent and rebuilt it into a strategy, so I would recommend them to any company starting from zero and unsure where to begin with digital marketing.

We have comfortably cleared our first goal of strengthening acquisition through advertising and SEO, so from here we want to focus on improving conversion from application to interview and placement, and on re-engaging existing users, and keep growing.”

The partner behind the acquisition: NowVillage Inc.

NowVillage Inc. is a marketing support company covering web advertising, SEO, website production and the implementation and operation of tools such as HubSpot.

We are not a vendor that simply runs the work and stops there.
We want to be the partner that provides knowledge and systems from behind, so that our clients, who are the ones in the lead, can attract customers and build revenue themselves.

From strategy grounded in solid data analysis to feedback on creative that reflects current trends, we work with you closely, like part of your team.

If you are
unsure how to allocate your digital marketing budget

or wanting to rebuild your website but not sure where to start
please get in touch with us.