10 Quick Tips to Optimized Job Ads

If you’re a corporate recruiter, job ads should be your hiring bread and butter. Realistically speaking, job ads comprise your message out into the applicant world and they can make or break your hiring efforts. We often tell our clients that job ads are essentially the conduit through which they market their company, so getting your job ads right mean that you are creating a killer employer brand, and doing your part to nab top talent.

If you feel overwhelmed at the prospect of creating catchy and optimized job ads, or you’ve recently realized that your company has been posting the same dull job ads for the past ten years, the following quick tips can help:

Tip #1 for Optimizing Job Ads – Speak Your Job Seeker’s Language

One of the most important tips to remember when you’re writing compelling job ads is that you’re writing an ad for applicants, not for your HR department. You’re essentially trying to sell job candidates your job opening, so write it from the perspective of your applicants. Don’t simply write a marketing blurb.

Tip #2 for Optimizing Job Ads – Share Your Culture

Employer culture is all the rage these days, so what better medium to communicate what exemplifies a great culture fit than your job ads? This will help you sell your company by focusing on what sets you apart from your competition.

Tip #3 for Optimizing Job Ads – Skip the Boring Bullet Points

Job ads are infamous for having an endless list of boring bullet points applicants have to dig through to try to get a handle on what the job actually entails. If you really want to attract a job candidate that will be a good fit to your opening, provide a “day in the life” snapshot of what the job entails.

Tip #4 for Optimizing Job Ads – Focus on Minimum Requirements Only

If your job ads contain an endless list of what skills and experience you’d “prefer” your applicants to possess, you could potentially lose out on an otherwise great candidate who didn’t meet one of your preferences. A great example of this is labeling a job as “Master’s preferred” when a Master’s degree is not relevant for being successful in that position. Unless you employ someone who is a stellar employee in that position who also has a Master’s degree, then you’re better off to eliminate preferences altogether.

Tip #5 for Optimizing Job Ads – Highlight Growth Potential

As was previously mentioned, job ads serve as your advertisement to job seekers, so you want to provide information that will sell them on the job. A great way to do this is to promote the opportunities applicants have for career advancement. It may also attract individuals that are more interested in the long-term which can help you with retention later on.

Tip #6 for Optimizing Job Ads – Ditch the Legal Job Description

Job ads should not simply be a copy and paste of your legal job description. If they are, be prepared for slightly less than desirable applicants. Job ads should engage job seekers not scare them away with incomprehensible legal-ease.

Tip #7 for Optimizing Job Ads – Include Benefit Information

After reading well-written job ads, applicants should have a thorough understanding of what your company has to offer them in the way of salary and benefits. If you’re uncomfortable listing salary specifics, then focus on your benefit structure. Again, the goal is to get as many people to apply for your openings as possible.

Tip #8 for Optimizing Job Ads – Keywords, Keywords, Keywords

Top ranking job ads are going to be laced with keywords and keyword phrases that applicants use when they’re searching for jobs. Choose keywords that are likely to be used by applicants ie Accounting vs. Accountant.

Tip #9 for Optimizing Job Ads – Use More than One Common Phrase

If you include different variations of commonly used keywords and keyword phrases, you’re setting yourself to cast a much wider net in terms of attracting high quality candidates.

Tip #10 for Optimizing Job Ads – Describe Your Hiring Process

Superstar applicants expect to be engaged and the easiest way to do this is to list what they can expect from your hiring process in your job ads. These days, people thrive on information, so if you can extend this small courtesy, it could easily make the difference between them applying for your openings versus applying for one of your competitor’s jobs.

Don’t have the time to overhaul your outdated job ads? We can do it for you (for free)! Give us a call to learn more.