Recruiting Advertisements: How to do it right!

According to the ifo Institute, the shortage of skilled workers in Germany is at an "all-time high": almost half of German companies are affected by the shortage of skilled workers. What's more, new generations are entering the labor market: Generation Z, with new values, demands and an awareness of how valuable their labor is.

The role of recruitment and the methods used by recruiters and talent scouts to advertise vacancies have changed fundamentally. The focus in recruitment today is more on "being found" rather than "finding" suitable candidates. For job seekers or candidates looking to change jobs, the nature of how they find and think about a new job has also changed. Information about corporate culture, employee voices and even salaries can be easily obtained via the internet. So it seems only natural to incorporate recruiting ads and recruiting software into a modern recruiting strategy. In this article, our guest author Lotta Wiethe explains the opportunities offered by innovative job ads and gives tips on what to look out for in successful campaigns.

What is meant by recruiting advertisements?

In short: Recruiting ads include all paid job advertisements that can be placed on the internet. In HR practice, digital recruiting channels now dominate and not without reason: application inquiries are generated in particular via online job boards (72.8%), social media channels (63.4%) and search engines (34.8%). (DRX, 2023).

What types of recruitment ads are there?

The possibilities of recruitment advertising are growing and so are the channels that can be used to attract new candidates online.

Social media recruiting

One form that is becoming increasingly popular is advertising via social media, also known as social media recruiting. According to a survey by index, social media recruiting is becoming increasingly important for 73% of respondents compared to job boards (index, 2022). Meta-recruiting (Facebook and Instagram recruiting) is the most relevant, but TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter and other social media are now also used for recruitment advertising.

Job networks & job board recruiting

Relevant job networks such as XING and LinkedIn also offer the opportunity to place recruitment advertisements in addition to a job board. Various recruiting ads can also be booked on job boards such as Stepstone, which highlight the job advertisements separately.

Google Ads Recruiting

Not to be forgotten are the opportunities that Google offers to attract the interest of potential candidates. Paid Google Search ads (SEA) for recruiting ensure that job ads appear at the top of the search results pages. Google Display ads are an interesting recruiting tool in that both active and passive job seekers can be reached. With Google for Jobs, the search engine provider offers another recruiting option that should not be underestimated. Google's algorithm searches job exchanges and career sites for job advertisements and displays them in the so-called enriched search results. The prerequisite for this is that job advertisements are recognized as such by the Google crawler.

Example of Google Job Ads (Quelle: google.de)

4 reasons why you should use recruiting advertisements

1. Visibility & awareness

One of the notable advantages of recruiting advertisements is the increase in visibility. Small and medium-sized companies in particular struggle with visibility as a company and therefore also as an employer. Recruiting ads have enormous potential to counteract this challenge. A large audience can be reached with a comparatively small budget, especially via social media. The option of using emotional images and videos, as well as individual messages and addresses, has a direct influence on an employer's employer branding.

2. Passive candidates

An important factor of recruitment ads is that people who are not actively looking for a job can also be addressed. The main advantage of passive candidates is that they may be ready for a new job with a better offer (e.g. higher salary, more exciting tasks, closer to home), but have not yet taken the step of looking on job boards or similar. This adds valuable talent to the pool of potential candidates.

3. Targeting & performance KPIs

Even though the possibilities for targeting specific target groups in performance marketing have changed considerably in recent years, the scattering losses are significantly lower than with non-digital job advertisements due to intelligent algorithms (especially with meta). With Facebook Recruiting Ads, for example, conclusions can be drawn about which motives perform particularly well on creatives, which gender is more likely to convert and what costs are incurred per applicant lead. This data can be used to make decisions about optimizations and media selection for recruiting campaigns that can take the recruiting strategy to the next level.

4. Cover the entire candidate journey

Potential candidates need up to 40 touchpoints with a company before they decide to apply. It therefore makes sense to keep an eye on the entire candidate journey in recruiting advertisements campaigns and provide the information required by the person at all stages. The advantage of recruiting ads is that they can not only generate attention, but also convert interested parties into applicant leads. With the help of clickable job ads (so-called funnels), applicants can be pre-qualified and then asked for their contact details.

Exemplary candidate journey through social recruiting, including other digital touchpoints (Source: own illustration)

To summarize: Not all companies are using recruiting ads yet! This means that the competition is relatively low and the costs per lead are also still at a good level.

What makes successful recruiting ads

Understanding the target group

In order to exploit the full potential of recruiting advertisements, it is advisable to first understand the target group and its needs and develop a so-called candidate persona. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Approximately how old is the person? (e.g. between 25 and 35 years old)
• What is important to the person (e.g. corporate culture, flat hierarchies)
• What does the person want to know at first glance? (e.g.: location, salary level)
• How does the person want to be addressed? (e.g.: on a first-name basis, more casual tone)

In the next step, you take the employer's point of view, i.e. why should the person join your company. The following questions can be useful for this:

• What are your strengths as an employer (e.g.: appreciative corporate culture)
• How do you differentiate yourself from the competition (e.g. sustainability projects, sabbatical option)
• How do you want to be perceived? (e.g.: human, innovative)
• What service and benefits portfolio do you offer?
• What are your values and who suits you? (e.g. courageous, self-confident people)

Based on these results, you can create target-group-specific advertising for your personnel recruitment, which also presents you correctly as an employer. Of course, there are some benefits that are particularly well received, such as 35-hour weeks (with the same pay), more than 30 days' vacation or an above-average salary (tip: salary details on job advertisements generate up to 20 % more applications).

But beware! False or half-true promises in job advertisements such as "company car" are useless if these options are only available after three years. Unfulfilled promises are poison for employer branding. So focus on the positive aspects of your job advertisement, but always remain honest.

Content: Photos & videos

The first thing your target group sees are the creatives. Recruiting advertisements work best with photos of real people, or even with recruiting videos. Make sure you use professional (but authentic) content that already relates to the job. Incidentally, stock images can also work well as a quick fix; for better results and increased recognition value (keyword: employer branding), you should invest in a photographer or videographer.

Funnel

Clickable mobile landing pages, so-called funnels, can be used to pre-qualify interested candidates. Possible questions for pre-qualification are

• Type of training/studies
• Years of professional experience
• Specializations
• Starting date
• Desired salary

Free text fields or uploads can also be part of a funnel. However, this can lead to a drop in quantity which, depending on the volume, can severely impair the success of the campaign. In addition to funnel systems, platform lead forms can also be used. These are easier to set up, but offer significantly fewer options.

Attention: Be sure to keep an eye on the AGG (General Equal Opportunities Act). Questions such as gender, age or German language skills can be discriminatory. In view of this, it is better to refrain from asking such questions in your funnel.

Data forwarding

An interested party has registered on your contact form. And now? There are basically two ways in which this data reaches the contacting person.

The data is sent by e-mail to the company's career e-mail. Advantage: You can see new applications immediately and the setup is relatively straightforward. Disadvantage: Especially when there is a high volume of applicants, the mailbox is literally flooded and applicant management becomes a challenge

The data is imported directly into the applicant management software. Advantage: Applicant management is much clearer. Disadvantage: Not all funnel systems or connectors offer interfaces to common applicant management systems.

The most important KPIs for your reporting

Rethinking applicant management

One of the most important, and often neglected, factors in generating hires with recruiting ads the attitude towards applicant leads. Please bear in mind that the majority of applicants have probably signed up via your form on the spur of the moment and have probably not yet looked into you as a company. In view of this, a brief introduction of the company and the benefits of you as an employer should be part of the initial contact. The best way to do this is by telephone with three to five attempts; if this does not lead to the desired success, a short email can be sent.

Which tools help with the implementation and execution of recruiting advertisements?

Project management & planning

monday.com

Trello

Competition analysis

Facebook Ads Manager

Photo Editing

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Lightroom

Visual/ Graphic Design

Canva Pro

Adobe Photoshop

Funnels

Heyflow

Superchat

Connector

Zapier

Real-time reporting

Tableau

Google Data Studio

Application management

Recruitee

Conclusion on recruitment advertising

To summarize: Recruiting ads have become an integral part of a modern recruiting strategy. And not without reason: they offer many advantages and, if implemented correctly, can bring you the employees you need.

One last tip: combine the various recruiting advertisement channels, use synergy effects and compare which channel brings you the most suitable applications.