Understand the Bullhorn Automation Score

The Bullhorn Automation score measures how engaged a contact or candidate is based on their interactions with your emails, website, and job postings. Use this score to quickly identify who is actively engaging with your content so you can prioritize outreach to the right people at the right time.

Common Reasons You Might Need This Article

  • You want to understand what the Automation score means and how it's calculated.

  • You're trying to figure out why a contact's score is high or low.

  • You want to know what actions increase or decrease a score.

  • You're looking for the average engagement score across a group of contacts.

  • You noticed a contact's score changed and want to understand why.

  • A candidate's score doesn't appear in your ATS and you want to know when scores sync.

How the Score Gets Added to Your ATS

A contact or candidate's Automation score only appears in your ATS after Bullhorn Automation captures activity for that person. Activity includes an email open, email click, page view, job view, or job application.

By default, contacts start with a base score of 50 if a note has been added to their record within the last six months. If no note has been added in the last six months, the base score starts at 40. The score updates in your ATS each time new Automation activity is captured.

How the Score Is Calculated

Each action a contact takes increases their score by a percentage of their current score at the time of the action. Because the percentage is applied to the current score, not the original starting score, the impact of each action compounds as the score grows. Scores are rounded to the nearest whole number at each step, and the maximum score is 100.

The weight of each action is listed below. A higher percentage means the action has a bigger impact on the score.

  • Opening a message: 20%

  • Clicking a message: 20%

  • Viewing a page (not a job): 15%

  • Viewing a job: 30%

  • Applying to a job: 75%

  • Viewing an "Action" page: 30% (client contacts only)

  • Viewing an "Interest" page: 75% (client contacts only)

  • Opting out: Score changes to 2

    • This value is set at the time the event occurs, but the score can increase or decrease again based on future activity such as opting back in.

  • Hard bounce: Score changes to 1

    • This value is set at the time the event occurs, but the score can increase or decrease again based on future activity suck has updating the email.

  • 150 days without a note: −20%

The maximum score is 100. Generally, a score over 75 means the contact or candidate is actively engaged.

Score Examples

The examples below show how the score changes step by step as a contact takes different actions. Each percentage is applied to the score at that moment, not the original starting score.

A candidate you haven't spoken to in a year opens your email and views a job

Starting score: 40 (no note in the last 6 months)

  1. They open your email (20% of 40 = +8): Score is now 48.

  2. They click on the email (20% of 48 = +9.6, rounded): Score is now 58.

  3. They view a job (30% of 58 = +17.4, rounded): Score is now 75.

A candidate opens your email and views a job

Starting score: 50 (note added within the last 6 months)

  1. They open your email (20% of 50 = +10): Score is now 60.

  2. They click on the email (20% of 60 = +12): Score is now 72.

  3. They view a job (30% of 72 = +21.6, rounded): Score is now 94.

A candidate opens your email, reads an article, and then goes inactive

Starting score: 50 (note added within the last 6 months)

  1. They open your email (20% of 50 = +10): Score is now 60.

  2. They click on the email (20% of 60 = +12): Score is now 72.

  3. They view an article (15% of 72 = +10.8, rounded): Score is now 83.

  4. They are inactive for 150 days (−20% of 83 = −16.6, rounded): Score is now 66.

A contact you haven't spoken to in a year clicks the "Contact Us" button in an email

Starting score: 40 (no note in the last 6 months)

  1. They open your email (20% of 40 = +8): Score is now 48.

  2. They click on the email (20% of 48 = +9.6, rounded): Score is now 58.

  3. They view your Contact Us page — an "Action" page (30% of 58 = +17.4, rounded): Score is now 75.

Find the Average Automation Score for a Group

You can calculate the average engagement score for a group of contacts or candidates by exporting data from Bullhorn ATS.

  1. Set up a list view in Bullhorn ATS that displays the contacts or candidates you want to analyze (for example, all sales contacts with a specific status).

  2. Add Bullhorn Automation Score as a column in the list view.

  3. Export the list to a .csv file.

  4. Open the file in Excel and calculate the average score for those records.

FAQs

Why doesn't my contact have an Automation score in the ATS?

A score only appears after Bullhorn Automation captures activity for that contact — such as an email open, click, page view, or job application. If there has been no Automation activity, no score will display.

What does a score of 1 or 2 mean?

A score of 1 means the contact's email hard bounced. A score of 2 means the contact opted out. These values are set at the time the event occurs, but the score can increase or decrease again based on future activity — for example, if the contact opts back in or their email address is updated to a valid one.

Does the score reset over time?

The score does not reset, but it decreases if the contact is inactive. After 150 days without a note, the score drops by 20% of its current value.

Can the score go above 100?

No. The maximum Automation score is 100. If a calculation would push the score above 100, it is capped at 100.

What's the difference between the base score of 50 and 40?

Contacts with a note added to their record within the last six months start at 50. Contacts without a recent note start at 40. This reflects the assumption that recently contacted people have a higher baseline level of engagement.