How do I use Digital Advertising for Recruitment?
“Why is it so hard to find employees to come work for my company?” “We’ve had these positions open for months.” “We can’t find the right people to fill this position.” “What do we do?”
Sound familiar? So many companies, large and small, are having difficulty filling positions. These positions range from general customer service roles, to food servers at restaurants, and then specifically the higher up positions that require experience, certain certifications, etc.
Why is it so challenging?
According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the latest data shows that there are 8.5 million job openings in the U.S. but only 6.5 million unemployed workers. Also, in 2022, the U.S. Chamber surveyed unemployed workers and found some insight as to what’s keeping people from returning to work:
Two-thirds (66%) of Americans who lost their full-time job during the pandemic say they are only somewhat active or not very active at all in searching for a new job.
About half (49%) are not willing to take jobs that do not offer the opportunity for remote work.
More than a quarter (26%) say it will never again be essential for them to return to work.
Nearly one in five have altered their livelihood, 17% have retired, 19% have transitioned to homemaker, and 14% are now working part-time.
Almost a quarter (24%) say government aid packages during the pandemic have incentivized them to not actively look for work.
Younger respondents, aged 25-34, are prioritizing personal growth over searching for a job right now; 36% say they’re more focused on acquiring new skills, education, or training before re-entering the job market.
Now, more than ever, it seems like recruitment for companies in most industries is at a standstill. There are challenges when it comes to finding the right candidates.
This is where Digital Recruitment Advertising can come in and help alleviate the weight that sits on the shoulders of business owners, HR Directors, and even Recruiting Agencies.
Before we dive into how to best use digital, here are a few tips on recruitment:
51% of talent professionals recruit throughout the calendar year for positions that may open up later on
51% of job seekers are more attracted to an organization that had posted job listings with visual elements (images & videos) than to others that didn’t.
Mobile-friendly job applications receive 11% more submissions
Job ads that include a salary range got 75% more engagement than the job ads that don’t
89% of job seekers agree that an employer’s webpage is important for finding key information.
(sources: https://www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/recruitment-statistics/#gref; https://www.adaface.com/blog/recruitment-statistics/#job-ad)
The candidate application rate goes up by 34% when a job post includes a video
83% of candidates say it would greatly improve the experience if the business provides a clear view of the hiring process.
The median employee tenure in the US is 2 years and ages 25 to 34 average is 2.8 years
Employees are 3x more trusted than employers
75% of professionals are passive job seekers.
Sources: https://blog.aspiration.marketing/recruitment-marketing-statistics; https://www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/recruitment-statistics/#gref
Since these people are hard to reach, may be passively job seeking, and are looking for some kind of image/video in the job that they look for, using digital advertising for your recruitment purposes is a win-win. When you’re looking at Recruitment Marketing, it’s important to understand the Marketing Funnel, as it relates to recruitment:
When we analyze the recruitment campaigns that we’ve run over the last few years, there are a few products that are utilized more often than others to help with the Awareness and Interest mentioned above: Social Mirror, Display, Mobile Conquesting and Facebook/Instagram. While these aren’t the only products we see being used, these are the most common that we’re seeing.
Each Product can be used for different purposes as well, depending on your goal.
Facebook/Instagram and Social Mirror can be used for goals like filling part-time jobs, reaching college students, people with general skills, entry level positions, text heavy ad creative and if you’re tracking conversions, these are two great products to use.
If you are in need of highly specific skill sets, advanced degrees, and tracking conversions, then you may want to use Social Mirror and/or Display Ads as the behavioral targeting categories available are very specific to the job you have.
If you are trying to reach the blue color audience, moms, entry level positions, maybe targeting a competitor’s employees, and if conversion tracking isn’t that important, Mobile Conquesting may be your best choice.
The beauty of using Digital Advertising is the ability to be really specific when it comes to who you want to see your ads. When recruiting for specific roles, it may be more of a select pool of candidates you’re looking for.
For Social Mirror and Display, here are some common behavioral categories used to find potential employees:
Career Changers > Likely
Education>Graduating College
Education > College Graduate Degree
Life Stages – Recent College Graduates
Lifestyle > Unemployed/Looking for a job
Neutral On Looking For Job In US
Actively Looking For Job In US
Job Seekers
US Hispanic Job Seekers
In Market > Recent Graduate, Job Seeker
By Job Titles
Job Search & Career Opportunities
Mid-Career Switchers
Employment Status – Unemployed
Administrative Jobs
Arts & Entertainment Jobs
Business
Business Decision Makers
Business Professionals
Careers & Employment
C-Level Executives
Communications Jobs
Construction Jobs
Continuing Education
Customer Service Jobs
Education Jobs
Education Professionals
Employed Part Time
Employment Search
Engineering Jobs
Entry Level positions
Executive Positions
Expect to Change Jobs
Finance Jobs
Finance Professionals
Government
Health Care Jobs
Home Service Jobs
HR and Recruitment
Human Resources
Insurance
IT Professionals
Jobs
Level of Education – Advanced Degree
College Degree
High School Degree
Some College
New Hires or Recruitment Services
Recruitment
Small Business Professionals
Young Professionals
You can even target by industry that people are working in:
Industry > Accounting
Industry > Agriculture > Animals & Livestock
Industry > Agriculture > Crops
Industry > Agriculture > Fishing
Industry > Architecture & Design
Industry > Automotive
Industry > Banking
Industry > Banking & Finance
Industry > Banks & Credit Unions
Industry > Business Services > Accounting
Industry > Business Services > Commercial Printing
Industry > Business Services > Graphic Design
Industry > Business Services > HR & Recruiting
Industry > Construction > Architecture
Industry > Construction > Contractors
Industry > Construction > Residential Building
Industry > Consumer Services > Hair Salons
Industry > Consumer Services > Veterinary
Industry > Cultural > Performance Arts
Industry > Education > Colleges & Universities
Industry > Education > K-12 Schools
Industry > Energy, Utilities & Waste
Industry > Finance
Industry > Forestry
Industry > Government Industry
Industry > Hospitality/Hotels
Industry > Hospitals & Clinics
Industry > Investment Banking
Industry > Manufacturing > Boats & Marine
Industry > Manufacturing > Building Materials
Industry > Manufacturing > Textiles & Apparel
Industry > Museums & Art Galleries
Industry > Non-Profit
Industry > Real Estate > Residential
Industry > Retail – Grocery
Industry > Sports
Industry > Staffing & Recruiting
Industry > Transportation & Travel
For Mobile Conquesting, here are some commonly used behavioral categories:
Employment Agencies & Opportunities Visitors
Career & Vocational Counseling Visitors
Dance School Students
Education Center Students
Industrial Technical & Trade School Students
Junior & Community College Students
Barber Schools
Language School Students
Medical Assistant Students
Medical School Students
Nursing School Students
Real Estate Students
Tennis School Students
Tutoring Center Students
Culinary School Students
College & University Students
Business & Vocational School Students
Beauty School Students
And, for Meta (Facebook/Instagram), here are some commonly used behavioral categories:
College grad
Unemployed Looking for work
Application for employment
Career
Career development
Employment
Employment agency
Employment website
Entry-level job
Job hunting
Job interview
Recruitment
Accounting
Advertising
Advertising agency
Affiliate marketing
Agriculture
Air conditioning
Apprenticeship
Architecture
Automobile repair shop
Automotive industry
Biotechnology
Bookkeeping
Business administration
Business development
Call center
Car dealership
Car finance
Coaching
Computer engineering
Computer programming
Computer science
Computer security
Construction
Consumer electronics
Customer relationship
Customer service
Data security
Day trading
Digital marketing
Dog training
Economics
Education
Electrical engineering
Electronics
Email marketing
Facility management
Foodservice
Franchising
Freelancer
Fundraising
Graphic design
Grocery store
Higher education
Home business
Human resource management
Information security
Information technology
Interior design
Internship
Job
Job fair
Journalism
Landscaping
Law
Logistics
Management
Manufacturing
Marketing
Mechanical engineering
Medicine
Metalworking
Nonprofit organization
Part-time
Performing arts
Personal development
Personal finance
Photography
Product management
Professional Development
Project management
Public relations
Public transport
Quality assurance
Recruitment
Sales
Sales management
Security (finance)
Self-employment
Semi-trailer truck
Shift work
Software engineering
Stock market
Supply chain management
Systems engineering
Technology
Telemarketing
Temporary work
Training
Trucks
Urban planning
Veterinary medicine
Vocational education
Volunteering
Warehouse
Web design
There are several ways to target your ads, including behavioral targeting mentioned above. But, I think more importantly, or just as important is the messaging/creative. Below, we’ll take a look at some different samples of creative that we’ve seen have a lot of success.
This piece of creative has a few key ingredients:
People – people love people and using actual employees in your creative can go a long way
Pay – people pay attention to the pay scale and look for that as an initial interest point
“No Experience Necessary” – this limits hesitation for applying
Key Ingredients:
Uses a Story Ad to convey more information
Clear call-to-action button “Apply Today”
Benefits of working for the company
Key Ingredients:
Video – when you have video available, use it! Video typically sees higher clicks
Social Mirror allows you to take advantage of multiple pieces of creative at the same time, leveraging multiple messages to the same audience
Key Ingredients:
Mobile Conquesting creative using .gifs – this client didn’t have video, but utilized the next best thing
Social Mirror creative using multiple images to create a carousel looking ad to highlight multiple positions available
Key Ingedients:
Mobile Conquesting using a .GIF ad and also using people in their creative
Key Ingredients:
Using Facebok/Instagram, but also using Social Mirror – taking their social content and expanding the reach beyond Facebook/Instagram.
Showing people having fun at work
As you can see, there are a lot of ingredients that can make up great creative that converts. But, in order to have the best chance of getting those applications submitted, we also have to look at the bottom of the Recruitment Marketing Funnel.
That being said, we want to share some tips that can help increase the amount of applications that you receive.
Here are a few more tips for Landing Pages that WORK for Recruitment campaigns:
Consider what info a job seeker wants to see and hear.
Give the “elevator pitch” on your company (company history, what makes you special – how you are different from competitors, company philosophy, values, etc.).
Show pictures or videos of your staff in work situations, outside-of-work get togethers, what your environment looks like in “real life”.
What are the great things about working for your company?
What attributes you’re looking for in new team members?
Testimonials from existing staff.
Does your page “inspire” people to want to work there?
List a thorough job description of the open position(s).
Explain what your hiring process is like.
Optimized for mobile devices.
A simple contact us form.
In a time when people are passively looking for jobs, or are being so much more specific in regards to what’s important to them, your messaging should make them excited to work for you. Highlighting benefits and pay, using people, and having video share your message are just a few key ingredients that can help move the needle. But remember, you also want to make sure that your website/landing page is ready for the traffic that’s on its way.
Happy Recruiting!
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