Recruitment Advertising: How To Scale Your Hiring Process
Gary Zurnamer
December 1, 2023
Recruitment advertising is the heartbeat of talent acquisition.
You are actively drawing quality candidates into your organization, to your jobs, brand, vision and culture.
Your recruitment advertising is also often the first interaction for job seekers who have yet to see your company, and usually when they decide to apply or not.
First impressions count!
These first impressions are also why your Employer Brand matters so much, and we've written a great guide here if you want to improve your Employer Branding and how to leverage modern Video tools to get your message out there.
Video Job Ads Impact: One ongoing report looked at job postings and found that those with video content attracted 34% more applications.
What does good recruitment advertising include?
Great recruitment advertising goes beyond having great copywriting for your positions, although you need that, too.
To create compelling job advertisements for your target candidates, the entire applicant journey matters. This includes your:
- Employer Brand, like Videos and Employee Testimonials, to promote your company and culture.
- Your Employer Value Propositions (EVPs), which cover all of the benefits your company offers.
- Your Social Media presence, which is used to promote your Employer Brand and EVPs.
- Your mission, which needs to align with your ideal candidates (like your current top talent).
- Job descriptions themselves.
- Your careers page and the entire website.
- Your application process, including Video screening.
And all of this is before the applicant talks to a single person in your company!
Job Seeker Preferences: CareerBuilder reported that 45% of job seekers would abandon an application if they found the process too lengthy or complex.
Better experiences for better candidates
- Elevate candidate experience with videos
- Boost application rates
- Empower recruiters with impactful videos
- Screen candidates through video responses
The Evolution of Recruitment Advertising
The landscape of recruitment advertising has transformed over the last 2-3 years in particular with the rise of AI, even further leveraging digital platforms like your own company website, social media, and interactive media like Video, and there are an extensive array of online recruitment job boards and options.
Alongside traditional methods like print in industry magazines and newspapers, companies now harness targeted job advertising through job boards, social media, and their websites - where every detail can be measured and improved upon.
Online recruitment holds multiple advantages over traditional methods - it quickly broadens your target audience, engages your ideal candidates through interactive content like Video and live chat, and offers real-time campaign tracking.
Embracing digital strategies today is a must for most companies to compete, and that is why bigger companies usually have a talent acquisition team that works on every step of the applicant journey.
Artificial Intelligence in Recruitment: From an SHRM report, about 67% of recruiting professionals and hiring managers believe AI and automation help them make better hiring decisions. This shows how quickly recruitment advertising is evolving.
5 Ways to Maximizing the Impact of Your Recruitment Advertising
To amplify recruitment advertising, employing effective strategies is pivotal. Here are steps to enhance its impact:
1. Define Your Target Audience
Clear objectives and targeted audience profiling ensure relevant advertisements, attracting suitable candidates. Ensure you include diversity and focus on skillsets, values and culture.
2. Focus on Employer Branding
Showcase your company's unique selling points, employee values, and culture consistently, enhancing appeal for potential candidates. Promote your Employer Brand on social media and other channels. Here is a neat guide.
3. Leverage Video Content
Videos present a window into your company culture and work environment, captivating active candidates and ensuring the candidates who apply know exactly how it would feel working in your company. Here are 5 video benefits to get you started or open up new ideas.
4. Leverage Social Media, Including Paid Campaigns
With a defined target audience (active job seekers and passive candidates), you can start targeting these exact people on social media. Paid advertising is perfect here and highly cost-effective.
5. Continually Evaluate and Optimize
Regularly assess campaign performance, tweaking based on data insights for improved results. You can use various analytical tools like Google Analytics and the analytics within your social media accounts and CRM.
Recruitment Advertising ROI: From one LinkedIn report, companies investing in Employer Branding and recruitment marketing experience up to a 50% decrease in cost per hire.
The Role of SEO in Recruitment Advertising
When it comes to your recruitment marketing strategy, search engine optimization (SEO) is the organic strategy you can use.
Implementing SEO strategies helps get job postings as far up the page or listing as possible so that people actively scouting for a new position find you.
Focusing on targeted keywords and, if on a website that allows, meta tags and relevant descriptions optimizes job postings in search results. Extend your SEO efforts beyond career sites and social media platforms to enhance job opportunity visibility and maximize the chances of attracting adept candidates.
Social media SEO is vital to widen your candidate pool and could include hashtags and asking your current employees to share your posts.
Benefits of SEO in Recruitment Advertising:
- Improved visibility in search engines and job board results.
- Reaching a broader audience of qualified active candidates.
- Heightened effectiveness and ROI of your overall recruitment advertising.
Leveraging Social Media in Recruitment Advertising
Social media has revolutionized recruitment advertising, enabling direct, engaging connections with potential candidates. Platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter facilitate recruitment advertising to help reach your desired demographics and professional criteria such as qualifications and experience.
Social media is also the perfect platform for showcasing your Employer Brand, sharing your employee success stories, and interacting with your company through engaging content.
Establishing a solid presence and leveraging targeted advertising can boost recruitment efforts and attract higher-quality candidates who resonate with company culture and values.
Key Social Media Benefits in Recruitment Advertising:
- Significantly expand the visibility of job openings.
- Targeted Advertising for reaching candidates based on specific criteria like technical skills, years of experience, previous companies worked at, etc.
- Build your Employer to show your company culture, diversity and unique traits that pull the best candidates in.
- Engage with candidates in real-time; even if it prompts them to send an email, it is still human contact and acknowledgement.
The Importance of Your Employer Branding in Recruitment Advertising
Your Employer Branding is pivotal in effective recruitment advertising, emphasizing your company culture, mission, and employee benefits. A strong company brand often leads to higher application rates and superior candidate quality.
Think about Google. They get hundreds of thousands of applicants a year and employ approx. 7,000 people a year. That's because everyone wants to be part of the Google vision - and Google can pick and choose from the world's best talent. That's due to their strong Employer Brand.
Your Employer Brand is also critical to retention rates, improved job satisfaction, and a more positive company culture. Here is one statistic every company should be paying attention to:
Retention Rates: From one LinkedIn study, organizations with a strong employer brand have a 28% lower turnover rate than those with weaker brands.
Benefits of Employer Branding in Recruitment Advertising:
- Attracts quality candidates aligned with company values.
- Boosts application rates and candidates' desire to work for you.
- Elevates your company as an employer of choice in your industry.
- Enhances employee retention and workplace engagement.
- Gives your company a wild advantage.
Targeted Job Advertising for Recruitment Success
A one-size-fits-all recruitment strategy rarely works these days.
Targeted job advertising is the strategy for success, tailoring job ads to reach specific audiences and attract the ideal candidates with the skills and experience you're looking for - across all recruitment channels.
Targeted job advertising involves using relevant keywords and great copywriting throughout your entire recruitment marketing funnel to ensure your job ads reach candidates deeply interested in opportunities in your industry.
Be it through job boards, social media, or specialized websites, targeted job advertising amplifies recruitment strategies and your candidate journey.
The Power of Video in Recruitment Advertising
Video content stands as a formidable force in recruitment advertising, especially when it comes to reaching qualified talent who are likely working and need more time to digest other types of content.
Unlike text such as blog posts, Video is ideal for showing your core values, company culture, work environment and atmosphere, along with your team dynamics to job applicants (both active and passive).
By integrating video content into recruitment ads, organizations present a personalized, authentic portrayal that attracts the ideal candidates.
If you would like to know more about the benefits of Video for recruitment advertising, please click here, as there are a lot of examples you can use right now in your job advertising.
Using a Recruitment Advertising Agency
If you don't have the skillsets in-house, then a recruitment advertising agency might be the way forward.
These agencies are experts at getting the most out of job boards, social media, building talent pools, and other recruitment strategies. These agencies generally have in-house media, design, and copywriting skills specific to recruitment, setting your ads apart and bolstering your employer brand.
Collaborating with a recruitment advertising agency can provide numerous advantages, as working with them could help you tap into their media channels, design, copywriting abilities, and social media management for companies that don't have the time.
The good recruitment agencies strike a balance between creativity and information. They should know how to help you elevate your employer brand, attracting talent in sync with your values and culture.
Benefits of a recruitment advertising agency:
- Experts in recruitment advertising.
- Can provide new ideas and strategies.
- In-depth understanding of industry trends.
- Can provide data and reports to understand the ROI.
FAQs
What is recruitment advertising?
Recruitment advertising includes all communications an organization uses to attract talent and is crucial in attracting quality candidates.
What options do employers have for recruitment advertising?
Employers have various options and channels to choose from, including job sites, employer branding, SEO for career sites, social media outreach, and recruitment advertising agencies if you do not have the skills or time in-house to reach the right potential applicants.
What role does social media play in recruitment advertising?
Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter can be leveraged to connect with potential candidates, promote job openings, showcase the employer brand, and engage with candidates through interactive content. There is also where video content shines.
How does video content contribute to recruitment advertising?
Video content allows organizations to visually showcase their company culture, work environment, and team dynamics, making job opportunities more appealing to potential candidates and is vital to social media recruiting.
What is the importance of employer branding in recruitment advertising?
Employer branding helps create a positive image, attract candidates aligned with the company's values, and differentiate the organization from competitors by showcasing unique selling points, company culture, and employee testimonials.
How can organizations optimize their recruitment strategies?
Organizations should define their hiring goals, target audience, focus on employer branding, leverage targeted job advertising, and stay ahead of industry trends to optimize their recruitment strategies.
What role does SEO play in recruitment advertising?
SEO strategies help increase the visibility of job postings and career sites in search engine results, reaching a larger pool of candidates actively searching for job opportunities online.
How can recruitment advertising benefit organizations?
Recruitment advertising enhances the visibility of job opportunities, builds the Employer's Brand, attracts high-quality candidates, saves time and resources, and optimizes the hiring process.
What does the future hold for recruitment advertising?
The future of recruitment advertising may involve further integrating digital strategies, such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and gamification, to streamline recruitment and attract top talent.
Conclusion
In conclusion, effective recruitment advertising is crucial in attracting quality candidates and enhancing the hiring process and applicant journey.
Leveraging the power of SEO, social media, and video content can significantly enhance recruitment advertising results and reduce your cost-per-hire. Your Employer Brand is at the forefront of all of this and is used to become an "employer of choice", often promoted through the social media channels your company already uses.
At the core of recruitment advertising is Video content, as it is a more engaging way to interact with qualified applicants and tell your company story.
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