Connecting job seekers with hiring managers happens in a variety of ways. Word-of-mouth, networking, promoting from within, cold calling: these are all tried-and-true methods to find candidates for open positions. The speed of technological advancement has changed the hiring landscape and demands that hiring managers look to new methods to reach a wider audience.
According to a survey done by The Cambridge Jobs Board, 85 percent of job seekers reject the popular recruiting websites that bombard with relentless messages and impersonal communication. Those disenchanted job seekers may be uniquely prepared to be reached by thoughtful and powerful recruitment marketing.
Does Advertising Jobs Online Work?
Online job marketing is a $36 billion dollar industry. The sector has seen a 15 percent increase in growth since 2015. So how can your business claim a piece of that hiring pie? Go where the people spend a huge majority of their time.
Online advertising for recruitment requires a diverse skillset: some marketing knowledge, some recruiting knowledge, and the ability to sell your company to a wide variety of eyeballs. Done well, your ad may reach an active job seeker and a disenchanted worker who becomes inspired to make a job switch.
Kepios estimates that 62.3 percent of the global population are active consumers of social media. That’s an astronomical pool to pull from. Even if your small business is really only looking to cover a smaller region of job seekers, that stat suggests your recruiting pool will be active social media users.
Statistics to Know About Your Recruiting Pool
Before you jump headfirst into creating paid advertising, consider defining the non-negotiables for your recruiting pool. This way your ads can be sure to reach out to the right candidates. You can identify metrics with market research, surveys, and analytics. In the modern world, personal data is valuable currency. Here are some of the many metrics to identify and tailor your ad dollars to the right pool.
- Where are they located? Is the position remote? Is it in-person? You might want to tailor your ad to specific time zones or even cities to reach candidates who are able to meet this criteria.
- Education level required. This metric can help you choose which social media platforms to use; ones tailored mainly to teenagers won’t give you candidates with a required Bachelor’s degree.
- Where do they spend their time online? Tools like the Pew Research Center can give valuable insight into where various demographic groups spend time online.
- Specific interests associated with your brand. Knowing candidates’ interests can help you parlay that positive association and experience into work.
How to Craft a Compelling Recruiting Ad
Follow these steps to craft a more appealing ad for recruiting.
- Start with this question: What does the job seeker want to know? This requires understanding some basic metrics which you can acquire from each individual social channel you’re using.
- Choose the right platform. Use statistics and demographic information to make sure you’re targeting the ideal candidate.
- Deliver a punchy message within the first 10 seconds of the ad. Use graphics and word choices that define the value proposition for the viewer immediately. Give just enough information about your company to inspire further engagement.
- Focus on SEO. What keywords will put this ad in front of the right eyes?
- Define the Call to Action: “Click to learn more” or “Click to apply” for example.
- Link the ad to a landing page that is also easily scannable and inviting. Include clear descriptions of requirements, instructions for applying, and information about company culture.
- Critically evaluate your conversion data to figure out where you need to make tweaks to the ad itself or to the platforms where you share it.
Online Advertising Platforms to Consider
When you’re trying to stretch your advertising dollar, it’s important to know the pros and cons of the popular online platforms for reaching your targeted audience. Pew provides some important insight:
- LinkedIn is more popular among those with advanced degrees. 51 percent of adults said they have a Bachelor’s Degree or higher, compared to 10 percent with a high school diploma or less.
- Pinterest is used by more women (46 percent) than men (16 percent).
- YouTube is the most widely used app by people of all ages: 95 percent of adults age 18 to 29 use it, 91 percent of those age 30 to 49, and 83 percent of those age 50 to 64.
- Facebook has the lowest usage from adults age 18 to 29 at 70 percent, with the highest engagement coming from the 30 to 49 age bracket at 77 percent
- Instagram users in America are 52 percent Hispanic, 49 percent Black, and 35 percent White.
- Snapchat is almost entirely the domain of young people, with 65 percent of adults age 18 to 29 compared to 24 percent of those 30 to 49.
- YouTube and Facebook are nearly equally used by urban, suburban, and rural Americans.
- The data suggests that the majority of users visit their platforms of choice every day.
Demographics are a great place to start. After that, most social media sites provide very robust report options that can be customized to the specific metrics that are most helpful for your hiring process. Meta offers stats like reach, impressions, frequency, and clicks among many others. On YouTube, metrics include view rate and if the video was played to 25, 50, 75, and 100 percent.
Manage Your Applicants With ApplicantStack
The sheer volume of reported metrics can be overwhelming to parse and sort. A tool which ties these important metrics to individual candidates helps connect this important work with humans that can fill your open positions. Within ApplicantStack, you can record the results of your marketing recruiting efforts. Each metric becomes a potential valued member of your team. You can also take advantage of the integration with Indeed to utilize the Sponsored Jobs feature and get in front of a wider audience.
- 3 Tips to Improve Communication with Applicants - April 26, 2024
- Understanding Contract-To-Hire and How It Works - April 23, 2024
- Should Your Job Listings Include Salary Information? - April 19, 2024
