In the recruitment world, visibility matters.
Whatever role you’re advertising, your ability to attract candidates relies on your ability to get job adverts seen and read.
The most crucial way to ensure that your job adverts get the visibility needed to succeed is to figure out exactly where to advertise a job, and why.
Considerations to make when you’re determining this include:
- Level of visitors/website traffic that your chosen location will receive
- Level of applications your client would ideally like to receive
- Type of applicant your client is aiming to target
- Price point and budget
Here are AdBuilder’s four top suggestions on where to advertise a job.
Where to Advertise a Job
Niche Job Boards and Networks (Free and Paid Options Available)
If you’re wondering, ‘Where can I post a job for free online and still gain some traction?’
The answer is: Free job boards.
On job boards, you’ll find a huge market of active job seekers.
For example, the popular job site Indeed sees 250 million unique monthly visitors.
Paid or unpaid, that’s a lot of eyes on your adverts.
However, if you want to cut through the noise and minimise advertising costs, consider adding your client’s job ad to niche job boards.
To signify an employer’s dedication to diversity and inclusion, use Pink Jobs, Evenbreak and Investing in Women.
Don’t underestimate the power of local networks and creative community groups either.
For instance, the vibrant and creative city of Bristol has Bristol Creative Industries, a membership network where companies, freelancers and employees come together.
Its dedicated job board is a great source of finding the best local talent.
The good news is that you’ll find these types of networks in every city, so get searching.
Social Media
Social media is another popular option.
Again, when you’re wondering where to post a job for free, professional social networks like LinkedIn should be strong contenders.
According to research conducted by Glassdoor, 79% of applicants use social media during the search for a job.
So why not meet job seekers where they are?
You can use social media platforms to advertise jobs in several ways, including sponsored ad options and free, longer-term content strategies that get people engaged and create a talent pipeline.
Although, if you want to generate quicker responses, we recommend you invest in your personal profile and build up a stronger following before you start advertising a job.
Everyone posts on LinkedIn, but there’s an art to generating real traction and engaging candidates.
- Tell stories – Notice the viral posts on LinkedIn are usually long? That’s because they’re using topical and relatable subjects to create story-led posts.
- Show your face – Unless you’re including valuable infographics or relatable illustrations, use real imagery or videos. (Ideally of you.) It’ll build a sense of familiarity, and candidates will feel comfortable contacting you when you start advertising a role.
- Focus on the hook – When it comes to creating engagement posts, always use the first line to make people stop and look. The hook either needs to be heartfelt or addressing a problem and raising intrigue with a possible solution.
- Optimise your profile – Many recruiters don’t realise that LinkedIn crawls for keywords just like Google does on a website. So, make sure your profile contains all the relevant keywords you need to attract candidates to your page. This approach will make the advertising part easier.
Once you build a pipeline of connections, you’ll find it a lot easier to source candidates organically and develop meaningful relationships.
Google AdWords
Google AdWords is a pay-per-click (PPC) platform on which you can advertise your job listings, causing them to rise to the top of related google searches.
Like social media, AdWords meets candidates where they are, appearing to a huge range of people and generating exposure.
The biggest benefits of using this service are that:
- It produces speedy results, appearing to thousands of job seekers in just a few hours.
- It produces measurable data, useful for future reference.
- It allows you to make adverts live or put them on pause with a simple click of a button.
If you do go down this avenue, make sure you consider the following best practices:
Space
For your sponsored post, you only have space for up to three 30-character headlines and two-character descriptions. So, make them count with your top keywords sourced from Google Keyword Planner.
Keywords
All keywords need to align with the job ad landing page on your site, otherwise, you may struggle to get your ad ranked above competitors bidding on the same word.
Cost per click
To determine how much you can afford to spend per click, work out the expected ROI of each visitor to your job ad landing page.
The best way to do this is to think about how much each hire is worth to you, compared to how many candidates per hire you usually generate and how many applications you get per click.
This measurement will take a few test campaigns before you get a better idea.
Offline
At AdBuilder, we’re digital recruitment experts.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t remember a time before high-speed internet, Indeed and LinkedIn.
Sometimes, the best way to find what you’re looking for is to go back to basics.
And that doesn’t have to be slapping an ad on a billboard and hoping for the best.
One of the best places to gain some offline traction and promote job opportunities is at a job fair, especially popular on university campuses with eager soon-to-be graduates.
Considering exhibiting at a job fair?
Weigh up cost versus return on investment.
Ensure that a potentially pricey option is viable and sensible for your agency.
Exhibitions and networking events can also be highly effective.
Professionals who attend these events have experience and are passionate about what they do.
It’s up to you to engage in a conversation and keep their details for future reference.
Before you attend any event, take a look at the attendees’ list.
You can then target certain people who could be a good fit for an upcoming role.
Once you’ve had a chat and established a rapport, you can contact them on LinkedIn.
It’s direct yet super valuable, especially if you’re advertising for a challenging role.
When You Know Where to Advertise a Job, You Know How to Recruit Effectively
It’s that simple.
Effective recruitment strategies depend on efficiency, research and adaptability.
In some cases, obvious advertisement channels are the ideal solution.
However, sometimes it’s a case of being trying new things.
The most important thing is that you’re measuring your success and adapting as you go.
