ZIP CO LIMITED.. — Call Transcript 2026

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the ZipRecruiter First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I will now hand the conference over to Emilio Sartori, Head of Investor Relations. Emilio, please go ahead. Thank you, operator. Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us for our earnings conference call, during which we will discuss ZipRecruiter's performance for the first quarter ended 31st March, 2026, and our guidance for the second quarter of 2026. Joining me on the call today are Ian Siegel, Co-Founder and CEO, and David Travers, President and interim CFO. Before we begin, please be reminded that forward-looking statements made today are subject to risks and uncertainties relating to future events and/or the future financial performance of ZipRecruiter. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. A discussion of some of the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements can be found in ZipRecruiter's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 31st March, 2026, which is available on our investor website and the SEC's website. The forward-looking statements in this conference call are based on the current expectations as of today, and ZipRecruiter assumes no obligation to update or revise them, whether as a result of new developments or otherwise. In addition, during today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for or in isolation from, GAAP results. Reconciliations of the non-GAAP metrics to the nearest GAAP metrics are included in ZipRecruiter's shareholder letter and in our Form 10-Q. Now I will turn the call over to Ian. Thank you. Good afternoon to everyone joining us today. ZipRecruiter opened 2026 with a strong first quarter, delivering revenue of $107.5 million and beating the midpoint of our guidance. Net loss was $4.7 million, and Adjusted EBITDA came in above the high end of our guidance range at $9.7 million. At ZipRecruiter, our mission is to actively connect people to their next great opportunity. We do that by playing the role of active matchmaker. Increasing direct, meaningful conversations between employers and job seekers is a central focus of our R&D, and in Q1, we saw engagement increase across multiple metrics. First, we launched our next-generation search and matching AI engine in Q1. This represents a massive leap forward in how we drive more conversations between employers and job seekers. This engine delivers two major upgrades: a step change in how we assess candidate qualifications and a new level of precision in interpreting job seeker intent. The results were immediate. Application volume increased by 37% for job seekers using the new engine. While only live for a subset of job seekers, we expect a full rollout by the end of Q2. We also created significant momentum with Be Seen First, a product that empowers qualified, high-intent job seekers to stand out by highlighting exactly why they are a fit for a role. Adoption is scaling fast. Over half of our paid employers now receive Be Seen First responses on their postings. In Q1, 12% of all applicants chose to Be Seen First. Only qualified candidates for a role can utilize this feature, ensuring a high-quality experience for employers. Be Seen First candidates are nearly two times more likely to receive a message from an employer than those using traditional applications. Over the past year, we've deployed multiple products and enhancements across both sides of our marketplace. From ZipIntro and our redesigned resume database to Be Seen First and our next-generation search and matching engine, each innovation is focused on the same goal: driving more conversations between employers and job seekers. This momentum is reflected in both our data and job seeker app store reviews. With a 4.9 rating and over one million combined reviews, ZipRecruiter remains the number-1-rated job search app on both iOS and Android. Over the course of Q1, we saw a notable increase in positive reviews, specifically mentioning getting a call from an employer or landing an interview compared to Q4. We believe the most valuable thing we can do for job seekers is get them into conversations with employers. The most valuable thing we can do for employers is deliver them candidates they want to engage with. The data is moving in the right direction. The app store reviews are one signal. The product data is another. Together, they tell a consistent story. The quality of connections happening on ZipRecruiter is meaningfully improving. All of these improvements were delivered against what remains a sluggish hiring backdrop. In Q1, the quits rate and total hires stayed near their lowest levels since 2015, while job openings were down 3% year-over-year. In spite of this subdued hiring environment, ZipRecruiter outperformed on Q1 results, and we believe this is due to our product improvements and the efficacy of our marketplace. The pace of innovation across our marketplace is accelerating. In a market where many companies are competing on the breadth of their AI capabilities, we believe the long-term winners will be those that translate technology into real outcomes. Employers finding the right person, job seekers landing the right role, that is the bet we are making. We believe the quality of our marketplace has never been stronger, and that we are building a business that will capture disproportionate share as the hiring market normalizes. Q1 is evidence that we are moving in the right direction, and we look forward to showing you more. With that, I'll turn the call over to Dave to share some additional business highlights, financial results, and guidance. Thanks, Ian, and good afternoon. Our performance in the first quarter reflects the continued success of our product-led strategy. I'm excited to share several highlights with you. On the SEO front, we're seeing strong growth in high-intent traffic, despite a year-over-year decline in total web traffic across the hiring category. In Q1, our engaged job seekers, defined as those who applied to job postings, grew 26% year-over-year through organic search. At the same time, we are leaning into generative AI. In March, we launched the ZipRecruiter app for ChatGPT, extending our reach directly into the AI tools job seekers are increasingly adopting. We see this as an early step in broadening our presence across generative AI platforms, and we'll look to expand our integrations over time. Taken together, our increased share of total traffic, 26% year-over-year growth in engaged job seekers through organic channels, and a new distribution footprint across generative AI platforms, we believe ZipRecruiter is gaining share at a moment when cyclical hiring demand remains muted. That combination does not happen by accident, and we believe it positions us to disproportionately capture volume when the hiring market normalizes. After investing over $1 billion over the past 15 years to achieve over 80% aided brand awareness on both sides of our marketplace, we are now leveraging our branding expertise to empower our customers to tell their own stories with multimedia branding. In Q1, we rolled out integrated branded pages for our employer listings on ZipRecruiter, powered by Breakroom, a workplace rating and job marketplace platform, to increase visibility of employers' brands to job seekers. These pages allow employers to move beyond static text and use video, images, and testimonials to showcase their true workplace culture. We look forward to scaling these multimedia capabilities across our entire marketplace. Finally, our enterprise strategy continues to gain traction. Adoption of our automated campaign performance solutions grew over 50% year-over-year as large employers look for more efficient hiring solutions. Our go-to-market improvements drove a 5% year-over-year increase in performance marketing revenue, proving that our technology investments are delivering for employers of every size. With that, I'll now discuss our financial results and guidance. Our first quarter revenue of $107.5 million came in ahead of our guidance midpoint, with a 2% decline year-over-year and a 4% decline quarter-over-quarter. The year-over-year decrease was driven by a soft hiring environment, while the sequential decline reflects post-holiday seasonality, where employers join or return our platform over the course of the quarter. We finished the first quarter with over 63,000 quarterly paid employers, which was flat year-over-year and represented a 7% increase sequentially. Quarterly paid employers remaining flat year-over-year in spite of macroeconomic volatility demonstrates the stability of our employer base. The sequential growth is consistent with our historical seasonal patterns, where quarterly paid employers typically grow over the course of Q1 after the holiday slowdown in Q4. Revenue per paid employer was $1,698, down 2% year-over-year and down 10% sequentially. The year-over-year decrease reflects more muted hiring demand. The sequential decrease was primarily driven by seasonal growth in the number of quarterly paid employers as they ramped up their hiring campaigns over the course of Q1. Our net loss in the first quarter was $4.7 million. Adjusted EBITDA in Q1 was $9.7 million, representing a 9% margin coming ahead of the high end of our guidance range. This compares to an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 5% in Q1 of 2025. Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities totaled $393.5 million as of 31st March. During the first quarter, we repurchased 3.5 million shares, totaling $9.4 million. Moving on to quarterly guidance, our Q2 revenue guidance of $112 million at the midpoint represents a return to flat revenue year-over-year and 4% growth quarter-over-quarter, demonstrating the impact of our hiring solutions despite underlying macro headwinds. Our Adjusted EBITDA guidance for Q2 is $13 million at the midpoint, representing a 12% margin. Looking beyond Q2, we continue to expect hiring demand to follow a typical seasonal cadence throughout 2026, albeit at subdued levels. Under this scenario, we expect to achieve flat year-over-year revenue in 2026, which is a five percentage point improvement over the 5% decline in 2025. In this scenario, we also believe Adjusted EBITDA margins can expand by 5 percentage points from 9% in 2025 to 14% in 2026. This margin expansion reflects our commitment to operational efficiency alongside targeted investments aimed at capturing growth. The stabilization in the business and accelerating pace of innovation we've seen in our marketplace are encouraging. We remain confident that our focus on driving more meaningful conversations between employers and job seekers will position ZipRecruiter to outperform the broader hiring category over the long term. With that, we can now open the line for questions. Operator? Your first question comes from Ralph Schackart with William Blair. Please go ahead. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. First question maybe, if you could talk about the differences you might be observing between SMB and enterprise segments. Sounds like you're making some good traction within enterprise. As 2026 progresses, you know, how would you expect perhaps the behavior within each of these segments to perhaps change? I have a follow-up. Great. Thanks, Ralph. This is Dave. Yes, we've been pleased with the execution we've seen on both sides of the customer segments, SMB and Enterprise. Enterprise mainly comprises performance marketing revenue, that was up 5% year-over-year. That continues a long-term trend of expanding our percentage of revenue that comes from Enterprise. 24% of revenue this quarter. If you go all the way back to our S-1 pre-COVID in Q1 of 2019, we were at 12% of revenue. We've doubled our percentage of revenue, and we expect to continue to expand revenue there over time. As it evolves over the course of the year, I think we expect to, as I said, continue to see that. What we've seen in talking to the customer base from both sides is consistent with the macro data we've seen. We're in a subdued but relatively stable environment, and that captures the mood of employers on both sides of the marketplace. They're responding to conversations being driven, and job seekers are responding to that as we talked a lot about in the letter. We expect to continue to see the benefits of that as we continue to execute this year. As consistent with our guidance, we were guiding to double our top line growth versus what we did Q2 over Q1 last year, showing $4.5 million of growth top line at the midpoint, as opposed to just over $2 million in the same quarters last year. Great. Thanks, Dave. Then just a follow-up, maybe shifting gears a little bit. You talked about, you know, the Zip app for ChatGPT. Just curious what you're learning there. I think you talked about expanding potential integrations. You know, any more color you could add on the product front there would be great. Thank you. Well, the new app went live on ChatGPT, on a percentage basis, the growth of LLMs in general has been impressive as a new traffic source. Overall, LLMs still represent a tiny contributor in the overall mix of where traffic comes from to ZipRecruiter, it's good to be there at the beginning and to enjoy the ride up with them as they become an ever more popular way for job seekers to look for work. If you would like to ask. Great. Thanks, Ian Siegel. Thanks, David Travers. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. The next question comes from Justin Patterson with KeyBanc. Please go ahead. Great. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. I'd love to hear more about just the upcoming rollout of the next generation AI engine. Sounds like that's had some really strong returns so far. How are you thinking about that as a potential market share driver in a market that's still a little bit subdued here? The second question, just as a quick follow-up. We've seen a lot of companies just trying to balance the productivity benefits against the rising token costs from gen AI tools. I'd love to hear more about how you're thinking about that dynamic and what it might mean toward your longer term headcount needs. Thank you. I'll take the second question first and then go to the first question last. AI is permeating really every department within our company. It's driving extraordinary efficiencies across the board, which we haven't looked at as a cost saving opportunity as much as we've looked at it as a mechanism by which we can realize and increase our ambitions. If anything, it has accelerated our roadmap as opposed to saved us money. You can see the output of that acceleration in Q1, where multiple large scale initiatives, some of which had been worked on for over one year, were able to deploy. The next generation search engine is one of those. It increased applications by 37% for the job seekers who were exposed to it. We expect all job seekers to be on the next-gen search engine by the end of Q2. It's really exciting. This algorithm, and the other components of this were, they were retrained to prioritize more meaningful signals, for job seekers in terms of the depth of their interest and roles. We can see that play out when we use those algorithms to deliver results in that they're applying at a far higher rate, and these are jobs that they are far more qualified for at the same time. When they do apply for those jobs and when they are qualified for those jobs, adoption of Be Seen First has been exciting. We saw 12% of total applicants choose to Be Seen First when they applied, and this is conferring an extraordinary advantage to them because employers who are looking at their list are seeing these very interested candidates who have now got a mechanism to show their enthusiasm. They're not just qualified, they're eager, and that is coming through, and employers are engaging with those candidates at almost twice the rate that they're engaging with candidates who go through the normal apply process. Overall, when we look at all the features that we've launched, not just in this quarter, but really over the last three to four quarters, and it's including things like ZipIntro, it's things like our redesigned resume database, the acquisition and deployment of Breakroom. What you see is that the strategy we've built is working, and it's not me saying that. It's not just me. It's the job seekers. I've been really excited reading the reviews and seeing the spike in the specific language that those reviews contain. The job seekers are using the language that we use internally when we talk about our objective. They are saying that they are getting more interviews and they're getting more phone calls from employers. They are saying, "ZipRecruiter works." That's exactly how we look at it internally and how we describe it. It's really rewarding to see the strategy paying off both quantitatively and qualitatively here. There's so many more improvements to come. We're really excited about the momentum we have here, and AI is proving to be an incredible accelerator of our ability to rapidly deploy these improvements. Your next question comes from Josh Chan with UBS. Please go ahead. Hi, this is Karan Singh Ranial. I'm for Josh. Thanks for taking our questions. I wanted to ask on the margin because the margin certainly came way above what we expected. I'm just wondering if you can provide more color on what drove that upside against like maybe your internal expectations, because it also came above the guide as well. Greg, thanks. This is Dave. Good question. Yeah, the EBITDA margins this past quarter did come in above expectations and above the high end of the range we'd said earlier. Obviously, when you look at it from a year-over-year basis, you know, we've been driving efficiency across all three major categories of expense, G&A, sales and marketing, and R&D. However, versus our expectations of what we had last quarter, as we've said many times, we're scientists, not artists, when it comes to sales and marketing investments. This quarter, the team did an extraordinary job of looking for and finding high ROI marketing opportunities and areas to invest in our go-to-market. We saw that in the results, and the results were that we came in above the high end of the range. Obviously, that gives us increasing confidence in our ability to achieve the likely scenario we laid out for the whole year, which is, you know, top line being flat, which is 5 percentage points better than prior year, obviously. At the same time, improving bottom line margins from 9% to 14% for the full year, which is also 5 percentage points improvement along the bottom line. That execution this quarter gave us even more confidence about our ability to do that, and we felt great about it. Very useful. Thank you. That is the end of the Q&A session. This concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.

Speaker 6: Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the ZipRecruiter First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I will now hand the conference over to Emilio Sartori, Head of Investor Relations. Emilio, please go ahead. Hello, everyone. hello everyone Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the ZipRecruiter First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. thank you for joining us and welcome to the ziprecruiter first quarter 2026 earnings conference call After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question- and- answer session. after today's prepared remarks we will host a question- and- answer session If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. if you would like to ask a question please press star one to raise your hand To withdraw your question, press star one again. to withdraw your question press star one again I will now hand the conference over to Emilio Sartori, Head of Investor Relations. i will now hand the conference over to emilio sartori head of investor relations Emilio, please go ahead. emilio please go ahead

Speaker 2: Thank you, operator. Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us for our earnings conference call, during which we will discuss ZipRecruiter's performance for the first quarter ended 31st March, 2026, and our guidance for the second quarter of 2026. Joining me on the call today are Ian Siegel, Co-Founder and CEO, and David Travers, President and interim CFO. Before we begin, please be reminded that forward-looking statements made today are subject to risks and uncertainties relating to future events and/or the future financial performance of ZipRecruiter. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. A discussion of some of the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements can be found in ZipRecruiter's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 31st March, 2026, which is available on our investor website and the SEC's website. Thank you, operator. thank you operator Good afternoon. good afternoon Thank you for joining us for our earnings conference call, during which we will discuss ZipRecruiter's performance for the first quarter ended 31st March , 2026, and our guidance for the second quarter of 2026. thank you for joining us for our earnings conference call during which we will discuss ziprecruiter's performance for the first quarter ended 31st march 2026 and our guidance for the second quarter of 2026 Joining me on the call today are Ian Siegel, Co-Founder and CEO, and David Travers, President and interim CFO. joining me on the call today are ian siegel co-founder and ceo and david travers president and interim cfo Before we begin, please be reminded that forward-looking statements made today are subject to risks and uncertainties relating to future events and/or the future financial performance of ZipRecruiter. before we begin please be reminded that forward-looking statements made today are subject to risks and uncertainties relating to future events and/or the future financial performance of ziprecruiter Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements A discussion of some of the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements can be found in ZipRecruiter's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 31st March , 2026, which is available on our investor website and the SEC's website. a discussion of some of the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements can be found in ziprecruiter's quarterly report on form 10-q for the quarter ended 31st march 2026 which is available on our investor website and the sec's website The forward-looking statements in this conference call are based on the current expectations as of today, and ZipRecruiter assumes no obligation to update or revise them, whether as a result of new developments or otherwise. In addition, during today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for or in isolation from, GAAP results. Reconciliations of the non-GAAP metrics to the nearest GAAP metrics are included in ZipRecruiter's shareholder letter and in our Form 10-Q. Now I will turn the call over to Ian. The forward-looking statements in this conference call are based on the current expectations as of today, and ZipRecruiter assumes no obligation to update or revise them, whether as a result of new developments or otherwise. the forward-looking statements in this conference call are based on the current expectations as of today and ziprecruiter assumes no obligation to update or revise them whether as a result of new developments or otherwise In addition, during today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures. in addition during today's call we will discuss non-gaap financial measures These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for or in isolation from, GAAP results. these non-gaap financial measures should be considered in addition to not as a substitute for or in isolation from gaap results Reconciliations of the non-GAAP metrics to the nearest GAAP metrics are included in ZipRecruiter's shareholder letter and in our Form 10-Q. reconciliations of the non-gaap metrics to the nearest gaap metrics are included in ziprecruiter's shareholder letter and in our form 10-q Now I will turn the call over to Ian. now i will turn the call over to ian

Speaker 3: Thank you. Good afternoon to everyone joining us today. ZipRecruiter opened 2026 with a strong first quarter, delivering revenue of $107.5 million and beating the midpoint of our guidance. Net loss was $4.7 million, and Adjusted EBITDA came in above the high end of our guidance range at $9.7 million. At ZipRecruiter, our mission is to actively connect people to their next great opportunity. We do that by playing the role of active matchmaker. Increasing direct, meaningful conversations between employers and job seekers is a central focus of our R&D, and in Q1, we saw engagement increase across multiple metrics. First, we launched our next-generation search and matching AI engine in Q1. This represents a massive leap forward in how we drive more conversations between employers and job seekers. Thank you. thank you Good afternoon to everyone joining us today. good afternoon to everyone joining us today ZipRecruiter opened 2026 with a strong first quarter, delivering revenue of $107.5 million and beating the midpoint of our guidance. ziprecruiter opened 2026 with a strong first quarter delivering revenue of $107.5 million and beating the midpoint of our guidance Net loss was $4.7 million, and Adjusted EBITDA came in above the high end of our guidance range at $9.7 million. net loss was $4.7 million and adjusted ebitda came in above the high end of our guidance range at $9.7 million At ZipRecruiter, our mission is to actively connect people to their next great opportunity. at ziprecruiter our mission is to actively connect people to their next great opportunity We do that by playing the role of active matchmaker. we do that by playing the role of active matchmaker Increasing direct, meaningful conversations between employers and job seekers is a central focus of our R&D, and in Q1, we saw engagement increase across multiple metrics. increasing direct meaningful conversations between employers and job seekers is a central focus of our r&d and in q1 we saw engagement increase across multiple metrics First, we launched our next-generation search and matching AI engine in Q1. first we launched our next-generation search and matching ai engine in q1 This represents a massive leap forward in how we drive more conversations between employers and job seekers. this represents a massive leap forward in how we drive more conversations between employers and job seekers This engine delivers two major upgrades: a step change in how we assess candidate qualifications and a new level of precision in interpreting job seeker intent. The results were immediate. Application volume increased by 37% for job seekers using the new engine. While only live for a subset of job seekers, we expect a full rollout by the end of Q2. We also created significant momentum with Be Seen First, a product that empowers qualified, high-intent job seekers to stand out by highlighting exactly why they are a fit for a role. Adoption is scaling fast. Over half of our paid employers now receive Be Seen First responses on their postings. In Q1, 12% of all applicants chose to Be Seen First. Only qualified candidates for a role can utilize this feature, ensuring a high-quality experience for employers. This engine delivers two major upgrades: a step change in how we assess candidate qualifications and a new level of precision in interpreting job seeker intent. this engine delivers two major upgrades a step change in how we assess candidate qualifications and a new level of precision in interpreting job seeker intent The results were immediate. the results were immediate Application volume increased by 37% for job seekers using the new engine. application volume increased by 37% for job seekers using the new engine While only live for a subset of job seekers, we expect a full rollout by the end of Q2. while only live for a subset of job seekers we expect a full rollout by the end of q2 We also created significant momentum with Be Seen First, a product that empowers qualified, high-intent job seekers to stand out by highlighting exactly why they are a fit for a role. we also created significant momentum with be seen first a product that empowers qualified high-intent job seekers to stand out by highlighting exactly why they are a fit for a role Adoption is scaling fast. adoption is scaling fast Over half of our paid employers now receive Be Seen First responses on their postings. over half of our paid employers now receive be seen first responses on their postings In Q1, 12% of all applicants chose to Be Seen First. in q1 12% of all applicants chose to be seen first Only qualified candidates for a role can utilize this feature, ensuring a high-quality experience for employers. only qualified candidates for a role can utilize this feature ensuring a high-quality experience for employers Be Seen First candidates are nearly two times more likely to receive a message from an employer than those using traditional applications. Over the past year, we've deployed multiple products and enhancements across both sides of our marketplace. From ZipIntro and our redesigned resume database to Be Seen First and our next-generation search and matching engine, each innovation is focused on the same goal: driving more conversations between employers and job seekers. This momentum is reflected in both our data and job seeker app store reviews. With a 4.9 rating and over one million combined reviews, ZipRecruiter remains the number-1-rated job search app on both iOS and Android. Over the course of Q1, we saw a notable increase in positive reviews, specifically mentioning getting a call from an employer or landing an interview compared to Q4. Be Seen First candidates are nearly two times more likely to receive a message from an employer than those using traditional applications. be seen first candidates are nearly two times more likely to receive a message from an employer than those using traditional applications Over the past year, we've deployed multiple products and enhancements across both sides of our marketplace. over the past year we've deployed multiple products and enhancements across both sides of our marketplace From ZipIntro and our redesigned resume database to Be Seen First and our next-generation search and matching engine, each innovation is focused on the same goal: driving more conversations between employers and job seekers. from zipintro and our redesigned resume database to be seen first and our next-generation search and matching engine each innovation is focused on the same goal driving more conversations between employers and job seekers This momentum is reflected in both our data and job seeker app store reviews. this momentum is reflected in both our data and job seeker app store reviews With a 4.9 rating and over one million combined reviews, ZipRecruiter remains the number-1-rated job search app on both iOS and Android. with a 4.9 rating and over one million combined reviews ziprecruiter remains the number-1-rated job search app on both ios and android Over the course of Q1, we saw a notable increase in positive reviews, specifically mentioning getting a call from an employer or landing an interview compared to Q4. over the course of q1 we saw a notable increase in positive reviews specifically mentioning getting a call from an employer or landing an interview compared to q4 We believe the most valuable thing we can do for job seekers is get them into conversations with employers. The most valuable thing we can do for employers is deliver them candidates they want to engage with. The data is moving in the right direction. The app store reviews are one signal. The product data is another. Together, they tell a consistent story. The quality of connections happening on ZipRecruiter is meaningfully improving. All of these improvements were delivered against what remains a sluggish hiring backdrop. In Q1, the quits rate and total hires stayed near their lowest levels since 2015, while job openings were down 3% year-over-year. In spite of this subdued hiring environment, ZipRecruiter outperformed on Q1 results, and we believe this is due to our product improvements and the efficacy of our marketplace. We believe the most valuable thing we can do for job seekers is get them into conversations with employers. we believe the most valuable thing we can do for job seekers is get them into conversations with employers The most valuable thing we can do for employers is deliver them candidates they want to engage with. the most valuable thing we can do for employers is deliver them candidates they want to engage with The data is moving in the right direction. the data is moving in the right direction The app store reviews are one signal. the app store reviews are one signal The product data is another. the product data is another Together, they tell a consistent story. together they tell a consistent story The quality of connections happening on ZipRecruiter is meaningfully improving. the quality of connections happening on ziprecruiter is meaningfully improving All of these improvements were delivered against what remains a sluggish hiring backdrop. all of these improvements were delivered against what remains a sluggish hiring backdrop In Q1, the quits rate and total hires stayed near their lowest levels since 2015, while job openings were down 3% year-over-year. in q1 the quits rate and total hires stayed near their lowest levels since 2015 while job openings were down 3% year-over-year In spite of this subdued hiring environment, ZipRecruiter outperformed on Q1 results, and we believe this is due to our product improvements and the efficacy of our marketplace. in spite of this subdued hiring environment ziprecruiter outperformed on q1 results and we believe this is due to our product improvements and the efficacy of our marketplace The pace of innovation across our marketplace is accelerating. In a market where many companies are competing on the breadth of their AI capabilities, we believe the long-term winners will be those that translate technology into real outcomes. Employers finding the right person, job seekers landing the right role, that is the bet we are making. We believe the quality of our marketplace has never been stronger, and that we are building a business that will capture disproportionate share as the hiring market normalizes. Q1 is evidence that we are moving in the right direction, and we look forward to showing you more. With that, I'll turn the call over to Dave to share some additional business highlights, financial results, and guidance. The pace of innovation across our marketplace is accelerating. In a market where many companies are competing on the breadth of their AI capabilities, we believe the long-term winners will be those that translate technology into real outcomes. the pace of innovation across our marketplace is accelerating. in a market where many companies are competing on the breadth of their ai capabilities we believe the long-term winners will be those that translate technology into real outcomes Employers finding the right person, job seekers landing the right role, that is the bet we are making. employers finding the right person job seekers landing the right role that is the bet we are making We believe the quality of our marketplace has never been stronger, and that we are building a business that will capture disproportionate share as the hiring market normalizes. we believe the quality of our marketplace has never been stronger and that we are building a business that will capture disproportionate share as the hiring market normalizes Q1 is evidence that we are moving in the right direction, and we look forward to showing you more. q1 is evidence that we are moving in the right direction and we look forward to showing you more With that, I'll turn the call over to Dave to share some additional business highlights, financial results, and guidance. with that i'll turn the call over to dave to share some additional business highlights financial results and guidance

Speaker 1: Thanks, Ian, and good afternoon. Our performance in the first quarter reflects the continued success of our product-led strategy. I'm excited to share several highlights with you. On the SEO front, we're seeing strong growth in high-intent traffic, despite a year-over-year decline in total web traffic across the hiring category. In Q1, our engaged job seekers, defined as those who applied to job postings, grew 26% year-over-year through organic search. At the same time, we are leaning into generative AI. In March, we launched the ZipRecruiter app for ChatGPT, extending our reach directly into the AI tools job seekers are increasingly adopting. We see this as an early step in broadening our presence across generative AI platforms, and we'll look to expand our integrations over time. Thanks, Ian, and good afternoon. thanks ian and good afternoon Our performance in the first quarter reflects the continued success of our product-led strategy. our performance in the first quarter reflects the continued success of our product-led strategy I'm excited to share several highlights with you. i'm excited to share several highlights with you On the SEO front, we're seeing strong growth in high-intent traffic, despite a year-over-year decline in total web traffic across the hiring category. on the seo front we're seeing strong growth in high-intent traffic despite a year-over-year decline in total web traffic across the hiring category In Q1, our engaged job seekers, defined as those who applied to job postings, grew 26% year-over-year through organic search. in q1 our engaged job seekers defined as those who applied to job postings grew 26% year-over-year through organic search At the same time, we are leaning into generative AI. at the same time we are leaning into generative ai In March, we launched the ZipRecruiter app for ChatGPT, extending our reach directly into the AI tools job seekers are increasingly adopting. in march we launched the ziprecruiter app for chatgpt extending our reach directly into the ai tools job seekers are increasingly adopting We see this as an early step in broadening our presence across generative AI platforms, and we'll look to expand our integrations over time. we see this as an early step in broadening our presence across generative ai platforms and we'll look to expand our integrations over time Taken together, our increased share of total traffic, 26% year-over-year growth in engaged job seekers through organic channels, and a new distribution footprint across generative AI platforms, we believe ZipRecruiter is gaining share at a moment when cyclical hiring demand remains muted. That combination does not happen by accident, and we believe it positions us to disproportionately capture volume when the hiring market normalizes. After investing over $1 billion over the past 15 years to achieve over 80% aided brand awareness on both sides of our marketplace, we are now leveraging our branding expertise to empower our customers to tell their own stories with multimedia branding. In Q1, we rolled out integrated branded pages for our employer listings on ZipRecruiter, powered by Breakroom, a workplace rating and job marketplace platform, to increase visibility of employers' brands to job seekers. Taken together, our increased share of total traffic, 26% year-over-year growth in engaged job seekers through organic channels, and a new distribution footprint across generative AI platforms, we believe ZipRecruiter is gaining share at a moment when cyclical hiring demand remains muted. taken together our increased share of total traffic 26% year-over-year growth in engaged job seekers through organic channels and a new distribution footprint across generative ai platforms we believe ziprecruiter is gaining share at a moment when cyclical hiring demand remains muted That combination does not happen by accident, and we believe it positions us to disproportionately capture volume when the hiring market normalizes. that combination does not happen by accident and we believe it positions us to disproportionately capture volume when the hiring market normalizes After investing over $1 billion over the past 15 years to achieve over 80% aided brand awareness on both sides of our marketplace, we are now leveraging our branding expertise to empower our customers to tell their own stories with multimedia branding. after investing over $1 billion over the past 15 years to achieve over 80% aided brand awareness on both sides of our marketplace we are now leveraging our branding expertise to empower our customers to tell their own stories with multimedia branding In Q1, we rolled out integrated branded pages for our employer listings on ZipRecruiter, powered by Breakroom, a workplace rating and job marketplace platform, to increase visibility of employers' brands to job seekers. in q1 we rolled out integrated branded pages for our employer listings on ziprecruiter powered by breakroom a workplace rating and job marketplace platform to increase visibility of employers' brands to job seekers These pages allow employers to move beyond static text and use video, images, and testimonials to showcase their true workplace culture. We look forward to scaling these multimedia capabilities across our entire marketplace. Finally, our enterprise strategy continues to gain traction. Adoption of our automated campaign performance solutions grew over 50% year-over-year as large employers look for more efficient hiring solutions. Our go-to-market improvements drove a 5% year-over-year increase in performance marketing revenue, proving that our technology investments are delivering for employers of every size. With that, I'll now discuss our financial results and guidance. Our first quarter revenue of $107.5 million came in ahead of our guidance midpoint, with a 2% decline year-over-year and a 4% decline quarter-over-quarter. These pages allow employers to move beyond static text and use video, images, and testimonials to showcase their true workplace culture. these pages allow employers to move beyond static text and use video images and testimonials to showcase their true workplace culture We look forward to scaling these multimedia capabilities across our entire marketplace. we look forward to scaling these multimedia capabilities across our entire marketplace Finally, our enterprise strategy continues to gain traction. finally our enterprise strategy continues to gain traction Adoption of our automated campaign performance solutions grew over 50% year-over-year as large employers look for more efficient hiring solutions. adoption of our automated campaign performance solutions grew over 50% year-over-year as large employers look for more efficient hiring solutions Our go-to-market improvements drove a 5% year-over-year increase in performance marketing revenue, proving that our technology investments are delivering for employers of every size. our go-to-market improvements drove a 5% year-over-year increase in performance marketing revenue proving that our technology investments are delivering for employers of every size With that, I'll now discuss our financial results and guidance. with that i'll now discuss our financial results and guidance Our first quarter revenue of $107.5 million came in ahead of our guidance midpoint, with a 2% decline year-over-year and a 4% decline quarter-over-quarter. our first quarter revenue of $107.5 million came in ahead of our guidance midpoint with a 2% decline year-over-year and a 4% decline quarter-over-quarter The year-over-year decrease was driven by a soft hiring environment, while the sequential decline reflects post-holiday seasonality, where employers join or return our platform over the course of the quarter. We finished the first quarter with over 63,000 quarterly paid employers, which was flat year-over-year and represented a 7% increase sequentially. Quarterly paid employers remaining flat year-over-year in spite of macroeconomic volatility demonstrates the stability of our employer base. The sequential growth is consistent with our historical seasonal patterns, where quarterly paid employers typically grow over the course of Q1 after the holiday slowdown in Q4. Revenue per paid employer was $1,698, down 2% year-over-year and down 10% sequentially. The year-over-year decrease reflects more muted hiring demand. The year-over-year decrease was driven by a soft hiring environment, while the sequential decline reflects post-holiday seasonality, where employers join or return our platform over the course of the quarter. the year-over-year decrease was driven by a soft hiring environment while the sequential decline reflects post-holiday seasonality where employers join or return our platform over the course of the quarter We finished the first quarter with over 63,000 quarterly paid employers, which was flat year-over-year and represented a 7% increase sequentially. we finished the first quarter with over 63,000 quarterly paid employers which was flat year-over-year and represented a 7% increase sequentially Quarterly paid employers remaining flat year-over-year in spite of macroeconomic volatility demonstrates the stability of our employer base. quarterly paid employers remaining flat year-over-year in spite of macroeconomic volatility demonstrates the stability of our employer base The sequential growth is consistent with our historical seasonal patterns, where quarterly paid employers typically grow over the course of Q1 after the holiday slowdown in Q4. the sequential growth is consistent with our historical seasonal patterns where quarterly paid employers typically grow over the course of q1 after the holiday slowdown in q4 Revenue per paid employer was $1,698, down 2% year-over-year and down 10% sequentially. revenue per paid employer was $1,698 down 2% year-over-year and down 10% sequentially The year-over-year decrease reflects more muted hiring demand. the year-over-year decrease reflects more muted hiring demand The sequential decrease was primarily driven by seasonal growth in the number of quarterly paid employers as they ramped up their hiring campaigns over the course of Q1. Our net loss in the first quarter was $4.7 million. Adjusted EBITDA in Q1 was $9.7 million, representing a 9% margin coming ahead of the high end of our guidance range. This compares to an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 5% in Q1 of 2025. Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities totaled $393.5 million as of 31st March. During the first quarter, we repurchased 3.5 million shares, totaling $9.4 million. The sequential decrease was primarily driven by seasonal growth in the number of quarterly paid employers as they ramped up their hiring campaigns over the course of Q1. the sequential decrease was primarily driven by seasonal growth in the number of quarterly paid employers as they ramped up their hiring campaigns over the course of q1 Our net loss in the first quarter was $4.7 million. our net loss in the first quarter was $4.7 million Adjusted EBITDA in Q1 was $9.7 million, representing a 9% margin coming ahead of the high end of our guidance range. adjusted ebitda in q1 was $9.7 million representing a 9% margin coming ahead of the high end of our guidance range This compares to an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 5% in Q1 of 2025. this compares to an adjusted ebitda margin of 5% in q1 of 2025 Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities totaled $393.5 million as of 31st March . cash cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $393.5 million as of 31st march During the first quarter, we repurchased 3.5 million shares, totaling $9.4 million. during the first quarter we repurchased 3.5 million shares totaling $9.4 million Moving on to quarterly guidance, our Q2 revenue guidance of $112 million at the midpoint represents a return to flat revenue year-over-year and 4% growth quarter-over-quarter, demonstrating the impact of our hiring solutions despite underlying macro headwinds. Our Adjusted EBITDA guidance for Q2 is $13 million at the midpoint, representing a 12% margin. Looking beyond Q2, we continue to expect hiring demand to follow a typical seasonal cadence throughout 2026, albeit at subdued levels. Under this scenario, we expect to achieve flat year-over-year revenue in 2026, which is a five percentage point improvement over the 5% decline in 2025. Moving on to quarterly guidance, our Q2 revenue guidance of $112 million at the midpoint represents a return to flat revenue year-over-year and 4% growth quarter-over-quarter, demonstrating the impact of our hiring solutions despite underlying macro headwinds. moving on to quarterly guidance our q2 revenue guidance of $112 million at the midpoint represents a return to flat revenue year-over-year and 4% growth quarter-over-quarter demonstrating the impact of our hiring solutions despite underlying macro headwinds Our Adjusted EBITDA guidance for Q2 is $13 million at the midpoint, representing a 12% margin. our adjusted ebitda guidance for q2 is $13 million at the midpoint representing a 12% margin Looking beyond Q2, we continue to expect hiring demand to follow a typical seasonal cadence throughout 2026, albeit at subdued levels. looking beyond q2 we continue to expect hiring demand to follow a typical seasonal cadence throughout 2026 albeit at subdued levels Under this scenario, we expect to achieve flat year-over-year revenue in 2026, which is a five percentage point improvement over the 5% decline in 2025. under this scenario we expect to achieve flat year-over-year revenue in 2026 which is a five percentage point improvement over the 5% decline in 2025 In this scenario, we also believe Adjusted EBITDA margins can expand by 5 percentage points from 9% in 2025 to 14% in 2026. This margin expansion reflects our commitment to operational efficiency alongside targeted investments aimed at capturing growth. The stabilization in the business and accelerating pace of innovation we've seen in our marketplace are encouraging. We remain confident that our focus on driving more meaningful conversations between employers and job seekers will position ZipRecruiter to outperform the broader hiring category over the long term. With that, we can now open the line for questions. Operator? In this scenario, we also believe Adjusted EBITDA margins can expand by 5 percentage points from 9% in 2025 to 14% in 2026. in this scenario we also believe adjusted ebitda margins can expand by 5 percentage points from 9% in 2025 to 14% in 2026 This margin expansion reflects our commitment to operational efficiency alongside targeted investments aimed at capturing growth. this margin expansion reflects our commitment to operational efficiency alongside targeted investments aimed at capturing growth The stabilization in the business and accelerating pace of innovation we've seen in our marketplace are encouraging. the stabilization in the business and accelerating pace of innovation we've seen in our marketplace are encouraging We remain confident that our focus on driving more meaningful conversations between employers and job seekers will position ZipRecruiter to outperform the broader hiring category over the long term. we remain confident that our focus on driving more meaningful conversations between employers and job seekers will position ziprecruiter to outperform the broader hiring category over the long term With that, we can now open the line for questions. with that we can now open the line for questions Operator? operator

Speaker 6: Your first question comes from Ralph Schackart with William Blair. Please go ahead. Your first question comes from Ralph Schackart with William Blair. your first question comes from ralph schackart with william blair Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 7: Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. First question maybe, if you could talk about the differences you might be observing between SMB and enterprise segments. Sounds like you're making some good traction within enterprise. As 2026 progresses, you know, how would you expect perhaps the behavior within each of these segments to perhaps change? I have a follow-up. Good afternoon. good afternoon Thanks for taking the question. thanks for taking the question First question maybe, if you could talk about the differences you might be observing between SMB and enterprise segments. first question maybe if you could talk about the differences you might be observing between smb and enterprise segments Sounds like you're making some good traction within enterprise. sounds like you're making some good traction within enterprise As 2026 progresses, you know, how would you expect perhaps the behavior within each of these segments to perhaps change? as 2026 progresses you know how would you expect perhaps the behavior within each of these segments to perhaps change I have a follow-up. i have a follow-up

Speaker 1: Great. Thanks, Ralph. This is Dave. Yes, we've been pleased with the execution we've seen on both sides of the customer segments, SMB and Enterprise. Enterprise mainly comprises performance marketing revenue, that was up 5% year-over-year. That continues a long-term trend of expanding our percentage of revenue that comes from Enterprise. 24% of revenue this quarter. If you go all the way back to our S-1 pre-COVID in Q1 of 2019, we were at 12% of revenue. We've doubled our percentage of revenue, and we expect to continue to expand revenue there over time. As it evolves over the course of the year, I think we expect to, as I said, continue to see that. Great. great Thanks, Ralph. thanks ralph This is Dave. this is dave Yes, we've been pleased with the execution we've seen on both sides of the customer segments, SMB and Enterprise. yes we've been pleased with the execution we've seen on both sides of the customer segments smb and enterprise Enterprise mainly comprises performance marketing revenue, that was up 5% year-over-year. enterprise mainly comprises performance marketing revenue that was up 5% year-over-year That continues a long-term trend of expanding our percentage of revenue that comes from Enterprise. 24% of revenue this quarter. that continues a long-term trend of expanding our percentage of revenue that comes from enterprise 24% of revenue this quarter If you go all the way back to our S-1 pre-COVID in Q1 of 2019, we were at 12% of revenue. if you go all the way back to our s-1 pre-covid in q1 of 2019 we were at 12% of revenue We've doubled our percentage of revenue, and we expect to continue to expand revenue there over time. we've doubled our percentage of revenue and we expect to continue to expand revenue there over time As it evolves over the course of the year, I think we expect to, as I said, continue to see that. as it evolves over the course of the year i think we expect to as i said continue to see that What we've seen in talking to the customer base from both sides is consistent with the macro data we've seen. We're in a subdued but relatively stable environment, and that captures the mood of employers on both sides of the marketplace. They're responding to conversations being driven, and job seekers are responding to that as we talked a lot about in the letter. We expect to continue to see the benefits of that as we continue to execute this year. As consistent with our guidance, we were guiding to double our top line growth versus what we did Q2 over Q1 last year, showing $4.5 million of growth top line at the midpoint, as opposed to just over $2 million in the same quarters last year. What we've seen in talking to the customer base from both sides is consistent with the macro data we've seen. what we've seen in talking to the customer base from both sides is consistent with the macro data we've seen We're in a subdued but relatively stable environment, and that captures the mood of employers on both sides of the marketplace. we're in a subdued but relatively stable environment and that captures the mood of employers on both sides of the marketplace They're responding to conversations being driven, and job seekers are responding to that as we talked a lot about in the letter. they're responding to conversations being driven and job seekers are responding to that as we talked a lot about in the letter We expect to continue to see the benefits of that as we continue to execute this year. we expect to continue to see the benefits of that as we continue to execute this year As consistent with our guidance, we were guiding to double our top line growth versus what we did Q2 over Q1 last year, showing $4.5 million of growth top line at the midpoint, as opposed to just over $2 million in the same quarters last year. as consistent with our guidance we were guiding to double our top line growth versus what we did q2 over q1 last year showing $4.5 million of growth top line at the midpoint as opposed to just over $2 million in the same quarters last year

Speaker 7: Great. Thanks, Dave. Then just a follow-up, maybe shifting gears a little bit. You talked about, you know, the Zip app for ChatGPT. Just curious what you're learning there. I think you talked about expanding potential integrations. You know, any more color you could add on the product front there would be great. Thank you. Great. great Thanks, Dave. thanks dave Then just a follow-up, maybe shifting gears a little bit. then just a follow-up maybe shifting gears a little bit You talked about, you know, the Zip app for ChatGPT. you talked about you know the zip app for chatgpt Just curious what you're learning there. just curious what you're learning there I think you talked about expanding potential integrations. i think you talked about expanding potential integrations You know, any more color you could add on the product front there would be great. you know any more color you could add on the product front there would be great Thank you. thank you

Speaker 3: Well, the new app went live on ChatGPT, on a percentage basis, the growth of LLMs in general has been impressive as a new traffic source. Overall, LLMs still represent a tiny contributor in the overall mix of where traffic comes from to ZipRecruiter, it's good to be there at the beginning and to enjoy the ride up with them as they become an ever more popular way for job seekers to look for work. Well, the new app went live on ChatGPT, on a percentage basis, the growth of LLMs in general has been impressive as a new traffic source. well the new app went live on chatgpt on a percentage basis the growth of llms in general has been impressive as a new traffic source Overall, LLMs still represent a tiny contributor in the overall mix of where traffic comes from to ZipRecruiter, it's good to be there at the beginning and to enjoy the ride up with them as they become an ever more popular way for job seekers to look for work. overall llms still represent a tiny contributor in the overall mix of where traffic comes from to ziprecruiter it's good to be there at the beginning and to enjoy the ride up with them as they become an ever more popular way for job seekers to look for work

Speaker 6: If you would like to ask. If you would like to ask. if you would like to ask

Speaker 7: Great. Thanks, Ian Siegel. Thanks, David Travers. Great. great Thanks, Ian Siegel. thanks ian siegel Thanks, David Travers. thanks david travers

Speaker 6: If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. The next question comes from Justin Patterson with KeyBanc. Please go ahead. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. if you would like to ask a question please press star one to raise your hand To withdraw your question, press star one again. to withdraw your question press star one again The next question comes from Justin Patterson with KeyBanc. the next question comes from justin patterson with keybanc Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 4: Great. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. I'd love to hear more about just the upcoming rollout of the next generation AI engine. Sounds like that's had some really strong returns so far. How are you thinking about that as a potential market share driver in a market that's still a little bit subdued here? The second question, just as a quick follow-up. We've seen a lot of companies just trying to balance the productivity benefits against the rising token costs from gen AI tools. I'd love to hear more about how you're thinking about that dynamic and what it might mean toward your longer term headcount needs. Thank you. Great. great Thank you very much. thank you very much Good afternoon. good afternoon I'd love to hear more about just the upcoming rollout of the next generation AI engine. i'd love to hear more about just the upcoming rollout of the next generation ai engine Sounds like that's had some really strong returns so far. sounds like that's had some really strong returns so far How are you thinking about that as a potential market share driver in a market that's still a little bit subdued here? how are you thinking about that as a potential market share driver in a market that's still a little bit subdued here The second question, just as a quick follow-up. the second question just as a quick follow-up We've seen a lot of companies just trying to balance the productivity benefits against the rising token costs from gen AI tools. we've seen a lot of companies just trying to balance the productivity benefits against the rising token costs from gen ai tools I'd love to hear more about how you're thinking about that dynamic and what it might mean toward your longer term headcount needs. i'd love to hear more about how you're thinking about that dynamic and what it might mean toward your longer term headcount needs Thank you. thank you

Speaker 3: I'll take the second question first and then go to the first question last. AI is permeating really every department within our company. It's driving extraordinary efficiencies across the board, which we haven't looked at as a cost saving opportunity as much as we've looked at it as a mechanism by which we can realize and increase our ambitions. If anything, it has accelerated our roadmap as opposed to saved us money. You can see the output of that acceleration in Q1, where multiple large scale initiatives, some of which had been worked on for over one year, were able to deploy. The next generation search engine is one of those. It increased applications by 37% for the job seekers who were exposed to it. I'll take the second question first and then go to the first question last. i'll take the second question first and then go to the first question last AI is permeating really every department within our company. ai is permeating really every department within our company It's driving extraordinary efficiencies across the board, which we haven't looked at as a cost saving opportunity as much as we've looked at it as a mechanism by which we can realize and increase our ambitions. it's driving extraordinary efficiencies across the board which we haven't looked at as a cost saving opportunity as much as we've looked at it as a mechanism by which we can realize and increase our ambitions If anything, it has accelerated our roadmap as opposed to saved us money. if anything it has accelerated our roadmap as opposed to saved us money You can see the output of that acceleration in Q1, where multiple large scale initiatives, some of which had been worked on for over one year, were able to deploy. you can see the output of that acceleration in q1 where multiple large scale initiatives some of which had been worked on for over one year were able to deploy The next generation search engine is one of those. the next generation search engine is one of those It increased applications by 37% for the job seekers who were exposed to it. it increased applications by 37% for the job seekers who were exposed to it We expect all job seekers to be on the next-gen search engine by the end of Q2. It's really exciting. This algorithm, and the other components of this were, they were retrained to prioritize more meaningful signals, for job seekers in terms of the depth of their interest and roles. We can see that play out when we use those algorithms to deliver results in that they're applying at a far higher rate, and these are jobs that they are far more qualified for at the same time. When they do apply for those jobs and when they are qualified for those jobs, adoption of Be Seen First has been exciting. We expect all job seekers to be on the next-gen search engine by the end of Q2. we expect all job seekers to be on the next-gen search engine by the end of q2 It's really exciting. it's really exciting This algorithm, and the other components of this were, they were retrained to prioritize more meaningful signals, for job seekers in terms of the depth of their interest and roles. this algorithm and the other components of this were they were retrained to prioritize more meaningful signals for job seekers in terms of the depth of their interest and roles We can see that play out when we use those algorithms to deliver results in that they're applying at a far higher rate, and these are jobs that they are far more qualified for at the same time. we can see that play out when we use those algorithms to deliver results in that they're applying at a far higher rate and these are jobs that they are far more qualified for at the same time When they do apply for those jobs and when they are qualified for those jobs, adoption of Be Seen First has been exciting. when they do apply for those jobs and when they are qualified for those jobs adoption of be seen first has been exciting We saw 12% of total applicants choose to Be Seen First when they applied, and this is conferring an extraordinary advantage to them because employers who are looking at their list are seeing these very interested candidates who have now got a mechanism to show their enthusiasm. They're not just qualified, they're eager, and that is coming through, and employers are engaging with those candidates at almost twice the rate that they're engaging with candidates who go through the normal apply process. Overall, when we look at all the features that we've launched, not just in this quarter, but really over the last three to four quarters, and it's including things like ZipIntro, it's things like our redesigned resume database, the acquisition and deployment of Breakroom. What you see is that the strategy we've built is working, and it's not me saying that. We saw 12% of total applicants choose to Be Seen First when they applied, and this is conferring an extraordinary advantage to them because employers who are looking at their list are seeing these very interested candidates who have now got a mechanism to show their enthusiasm. we saw 12% of total applicants choose to be seen first when they applied and this is conferring an extraordinary advantage to them because employers who are looking at their list are seeing these very interested candidates who have now got a mechanism to show their enthusiasm They're not just qualified, they're eager, and that is coming through, and employers are engaging with those candidates at almost twice the rate that they're engaging with candidates who go through the normal apply process. they're not just qualified they're eager and that is coming through and employers are engaging with those candidates at almost twice the rate that they're engaging with candidates who go through the normal apply process Overall, when we look at all the features that we've launched, not just in this quarter, but really over the last three to four quarters, and it's including things like Zip Intro, it's things like our redesigned resume database, the acquisition and deployment of Breakroom. overall when we look at all the features that we've launched not just in this quarter but really over the last three to four quarters and it's including things like zip intro it's things like our redesigned resume database the acquisition and deployment of breakroom What you see is that the strategy we've built is working, and it's not me saying that. what you see is that the strategy we've built is working and it's not me saying that It's not just me. It's the job seekers. I've been really excited reading the reviews and seeing the spike in the specific language that those reviews contain. The job seekers are using the language that we use internally when we talk about our objective. They are saying that they are getting more interviews and they're getting more phone calls from employers. They are saying, "ZipRecruiter works." That's exactly how we look at it internally and how we describe it. It's really rewarding to see the strategy paying off both quantitatively and qualitatively here. There's so many more improvements to come. We're really excited about the momentum we have here, and AI is proving to be an incredible accelerator of our ability to rapidly deploy these improvements. It's not just me. it's not just me It's the job seekers. it's the job seekers I've been really excited reading the reviews and seeing the spike in the specific language that those reviews contain. i've been really excited reading the reviews and seeing the spike in the specific language that those reviews contain The job seekers are using the language that we use internally when we talk about our objective. the job seekers are using the language that we use internally when we talk about our objective They are saying that they are getting more interviews and they're getting more phone calls from employers. they are saying that they are getting more interviews and they're getting more phone calls from employers They are saying, "ZipRecruiter works." That's exactly how we look at it internally and how we describe it. they are saying "ziprecruiter works." that's exactly how we look at it internally and how we describe it It's really rewarding to see the strategy paying off both quantitatively and qualitatively here. it's really rewarding to see the strategy paying off both quantitatively and qualitatively here There's so many more improvements to come. there's so many more improvements to come We're really excited about the momentum we have here, and AI is proving to be an incredible accelerator of our ability to rapidly deploy these improvements. we're really excited about the momentum we have here and ai is proving to be an incredible accelerator of our ability to rapidly deploy these improvements

Speaker 6: Your next question comes from Josh Chan with UBS. Please go ahead. Your next question comes from Josh Chan with UBS. your next question comes from josh chan with ubs Please go ahead. please go ahead

Speaker 5: Hi, this is Karan Singh Ranial. I'm for Josh. Thanks for taking our questions. I wanted to ask on the margin because the margin certainly came way above what we expected. I'm just wondering if you can provide more color on what drove that upside against like maybe your internal expectations, because it also came above the guide as well. Hi, this is Karan Singh Ranial. hi this is karan singh ranial I'm for Josh. i'm for josh Thanks for taking our questions. thanks for taking our questions I wanted to ask on the margin because the margin certainly came way above what we expected. i wanted to ask on the margin because the margin certainly came way above what we expected I'm just wondering if you can provide more color on what drove that upside against like maybe your internal expectations, because it also came above the guide as well. i'm just wondering if you can provide more color on what drove that upside against like maybe your internal expectations because it also came above the guide as well

Speaker 1: Greg, thanks. This is Dave. Good question. Yeah, the EBITDA margins this past quarter did come in above expectations and above the high end of the range we'd said earlier. Obviously, when you look at it from a year-over-year basis, you know, we've been driving efficiency across all three major categories of expense, G&A, sales and marketing, and R&D. However, versus our expectations of what we had last quarter, as we've said many times, we're scientists, not artists, when it comes to sales and marketing investments. This quarter, the team did an extraordinary job of looking for and finding high ROI marketing opportunities and areas to invest in our go-to-market. We saw that in the results, and the results were that we came in above the high end of the range. Greg, thanks. greg thanks This is Dave. this is dave Good question. good question Yeah, the EBITDA margins this past quarter did come in above expectations and above the high end of the range we'd said earlier. yeah the ebitda margins this past quarter did come in above expectations and above the high end of the range we'd said earlier Obviously, when you look at it from a year-over-year basis, you know, we've been driving efficiency across all three major categories of expense, G&A, sales and marketing, and R&D. obviously when you look at it from a year-over-year basis you know we've been driving efficiency across all three major categories of expense g&a sales and marketing and r&d However, versus our expectations of what we had last quarter, as we've said many times, we're scientists, not artists, when it comes to sales and marketing investments. however versus our expectations of what we had last quarter as we've said many times we're scientists not artists when it comes to sales and marketing investments This quarter, the team did an extraordinary job of looking for and finding high ROI marketing opportunities and areas to invest in our go-to-market. this quarter the team did an extraordinary job of looking for and finding high roi marketing opportunities and areas to invest in our go-to-market We saw that in the results, and the results were that we came in above the high end of the range. we saw that in the results and the results were that we came in above the high end of the range Obviously, that gives us increasing confidence in our ability to achieve the likely scenario we laid out for the whole year, which is, you know, top line being flat, which is 5 percentage points better than prior year, obviously. At the same time, improving bottom line margins from 9% to 14% for the full year, which is also 5 percentage points improvement along the bottom line. That execution this quarter gave us even more confidence about our ability to do that, and we felt great about it. Obviously, that gives us increasing confidence in our ability to achieve the likely scenario we laid out for the whole year, which is, you know, top line being flat, which is 5 percentage points better than prior year, obviously. obviously that gives us increasing confidence in our ability to achieve the likely scenario we laid out for the whole year which is you know top line being flat which is 5 percentage points better than prior year obviously At the same time, improving bottom line margins from 9% to 14% for the full year, which is also 5 percentage points improvement along the bottom line. at the same time improving bottom line margins from 9% to 14% for the full year which is also 5 percentage points improvement along the bottom line That execution this quarter gave us even more confidence about our ability to do that, and we felt great about it. that execution this quarter gave us even more confidence about our ability to do that and we felt great about it

Speaker 5: Very useful. Thank you. Very useful. very useful Thank you. thank you

Speaker 6: That is the end of the Q&A session. This concludes today's call. You may now disconnect. That is the end of the Q&A session. that is the end of the q&a session This concludes today's call. this concludes today's call You may now disconnect. you may now disconnect