How to get the best results from online job advertising

Whether you are an experienced internal recruiter or perhaps you have historically used recruitment agencies and exploring the option of posting your job adverts online to directly attract your own candidates, it’s clear to see that you’re not short of options when it comes to advertising jobs on the internet. But, given there are 1,100 job boards in the UK, where do you start? In this article, we explore why a comprehensive approach to advertising your vacancies trumps a single job board approach every time, and why you shouldn’t ignore the power of social media.

43% of job seekers use just one job board in their job search, and which one used will of course vary due to knowledge of the individual and their experience. That’s a pretty important stat to take note of when it comes to deciding where and how you should promote your job vacancies online.

You may think posting your job advert onto a free job site will be enough to attract the right level of interest, but in reality you are just scratching the surface of the potential talent pool of candidates who are looking for work online – and that’s not to mention the 79% of job seekers who use social media as part of their job search. The user experience on each job site varies and this will affect the quality of relevant applications you receive from them. Free sites often tend to bring a high volume of applications but not always the most relevant, which means you could spend many hours trawling through CVs without the best results for your recruitment campaigns.   

There are 1,100 job boards in the UK…

According to Glassdoor, the majority of job seekers say that searching on online job sites is the preferred method for finding a new job, But, with more than a thousand job sites in the UK alone, from national job boards to regional and specialist ones, it’s imperative you make the right decision on where to advertise your jobs online, to reach and attract as wide and as relevant an audience for your job adverts as possible.

The network of job boards within the UK is vast and varied. You have leading job sites such as TotalJobs, Jobsite and CV-Library, regional job boards and specialist job sites for all industries, so you will be forgiven if you are a little stumped when it comes to deciding the best route for advertising your jobs.

Of course, you must consider the nature of the role before you choose which job site to advertise on, and it is inevitable that the response you receive will be different from one job board to the next.

Whilst a targeted approach is important, you just never know where your perfect candidate is searching for new opportunities, so advertising across multiple job boards will always provide you with an increased chance of uncovering your superstar – but that comes at a cost, because we all know advertising on leading and specialist job sites isn’t cheap, unless you are comparing to recruitment agency fees that is!

How can I reach target audience?

It’s all about exposure. The wider the reach, the better the results, and not just in terms of quantity but quality of applicants too. When you post your job adverts online, you want to make sure they’re seen by a relevant audience and that is something that can be achieved through extensive and targeted exposure of your vacancy, and something that can rarely be achieved when advertising on just one job board alone.

Consider using a combination of leading job boards, regional job boards and specialist job boards when advertising your vacancy, but always take into consideration the nature of the role and make sure you take a tailored approach when it comes to advertising your vacancy in order to gain widespread exposure and quality in the results you receive.

The many reasons listed above are why we take a comprehensive approach at JVP to leaving no stone left unturned when it comes to advertising vacancies for our clients across the UK. We utilise a network of 200+ job boards that have been tried and tested for best possible results, taking a tailored approach to advertising vacancies dependent on the type of role, position level, location, and industry.

Always take the time to research the job boards you are considering using thoroughly so you have an idea of the type of results you can expect to receive from the outset.

Employer Branded vs Agency or Non-Branded Job Advertising

When advertising a job online, you’ll sometimes be presented with the option to either have a ‘branded advert’ (which will include your company name and logo, and you’ll be able to provide details within the advert on what makes your company such an amazing place to work!) or a ‘non-branded’ job advert (which will not include your logo and have no mention of who your company is).

Non-branded adverts are the cheaper option when advertising jobs online, but as with most things in this world – you get what you pay for. 75% of potential applicants want to know from the outset who they are applying to and details on what makes the company an attractive place to work – so you need to consider that many applicants will be put off immediately if your job adverts are non-branded.

When it comes to online job advertising, you’ll need to put your marketing hat on! Out of the vast amount on job adverts that are out there, you have to make sure yours stand out from the crowd – and employer branded job advertising where you can list your job with your company logo, eye-catching imagery, and job advert content that will make a lasting impression on job seekers will do just that.

How can I write engaging job advert content?

It’s no good gaining all the exposure for your vacancy if your job advert content isn’t written effectively in the first place. There are plenty of elements to consider when it comes to writing an effective job advert, and it’s not just about making it sound great. It’s a very technical process, and you need to take into consideration keywords that are relatable to your desired audience and search engine optimised (SEO) to ensure your job advert ranks highly on job site search engines.

The content needs to be relevant, informative, and concise, and in a mobile friendly format structured for easy reading.

JVP Group specialises in writing employer branded job adverts to ensure that, not only are the right people finding the right adverts, but that job seekers are going to be encouraged to apply for the role by the way the vacancy and the employer is being marketed. We compiled our top tips in a handy guide which can be found here – we hope this helps!

Should I use promote job adverts on social media?

Given that 79% of job seekers now use social media as part of their job search, we think the answer to this question is clear. And it’s not just the active job seekers who are present on social media – there’s a huge passive job seeker market (70% of the global workforce are passive candidates) who may not think they are looking for work but see your vacancy advertised and before you know it, their application is sitting in your inbox.

Our advice would be to always consider incorporating Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter into your recruitment strategy to ensure your approach is truly comprehensive. You must also pay attention to how you’re promoting your employer brand on these channels through your company pages, as this could very well be the first point of communication a job seeker has with your business, so you need to make it count!

If you are new to advertising your vacancies online, you may be thinking, “Well what’s the best way to promote my job vacancies on social media”?

From our experience, we believe designing visuals to really catch the eye is key. Every job vacancy we advertise for our clients is inclusive of a comprehensive social media recruitment marketing campaign, because we think it is so important to go beyond job board advertising, especially if you want as broad a picture as possible of the talent pool available.

We find that bringing opportunities to life through employer branded visuals and engaging posts is extremely effective for capturing audiences across social media, as their newsfeeds are likely to be flooded with content, so you need to make sure that your posts stand out and they make your intended audience stop in their tracks.

Have a look at some examples of our social media recruitment marketing campaigns here - this should give you some good ideas!

Summary

Whether you’re experienced at online job advertising or are new to the concept, hopefully you find the above insights of use when it comes to devising your own strategy for advertising your vacancies online. Yes, taking the comprehensive approach is more time consuming and costly than a one job board approach, but the results you receive will be worth it – you can trust us on that!

And remember, we’re recruitment advertising and marketing specialists, and we’re here to help!

To discover how our employer branded job advert writing service, multiple job board advertising and social media recruitment marketing solutions will help you to quickly attract the best people, whilst removing the hassle and high costs from the recruitment process, call the JVP Group team on 01745 774 955, or you can click here to schedule a 20-minute free consultation call.