Nowadays, it doesn’t matter if you have a great vacancy up for grabs, if you don’t know how to sell it then people won’t be interested. In fact, you need to make the most of your job adverts to ensure that they stand out in an overcrowded market. Especially as a job advert is the first impression a candidate will have of your company; so, it’s crucial that it makes an impact.  

However, job adverts are often neglected due to other demands of the hiring process, but they’re definitely worth investing time and effort in. With a strong job advert, you’ll attract high quality candidates quicker. In turn, this will reduce your time-to-hire and advertising costs.  

But how can you inspire the best candidates to apply? Often, adverts are bogged down with an overload of information and bad formatting which repels applicants. To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of ways to make the most of your job adverts.  

1. Always Display the Salary 

According to research, a vacancy that has a salary displayed, whether as a fixed sum or a band, will receive more applications than one without. If you don’t include a salary, you could be losing a considerable number of applicants to competitors.  

It’s understandable that if you’re not able to offer a competitive salary, you may be worried about putting off potential applicants. However, be as upfront and realistic as possible. By hiding how much you’re willing to pay, you’ll only cause more problems further down the line. You may even damage your candidate experience. 

Plus, without displaying a salary, you might end up attracting candidates who have unrealistic expectations. It will cost you valuable time and resources to filter these out.  

If you’re already displaying a salary but not receiving high-quality applicants, check that you’re offering a competitive rate compared to similar roles in your area.  

2. Highlight the Location 

Similar to salary, a specific location will seriously help to maximize your job adverts. Contrary to common belief, a broad location won’t help your advert to appear more frequently. In fact, most job seekers search for roles by zip code, so an accurate location will complement this.  

Although highlighting a location can be tricky if your roles are regional and spread out over several places, it will certainly help to boost your application numbers. You could always specify one key location and then list the others in the job description.   

3. Keep It Concise 

Candidates will go through many job adverts throughout the job-hunting process; scanning one after the other to find what they’re looking for. Therefore, unless you make your advert easy to read, you could lose potential applicants.  

To make the most of your job adverts, keep them under 500 words, with a clear job title. Bullet points are a snappy and effective way to keep your word count down. Use these to create an engaging job advert.  

Don’t forget that a good format is equally important for a concise job advert. Use headlines such as ‘role’, ‘essential experience’, ‘responsibilities’ to make it easy to digest and apply to. The overall presentation should make candidates want to stop and interact with your job advert.  

4. Include a Video 

A concise and brief job advert could benefit enormously from an accompanying video. In case you haven’t noticed, marketing videos are all over social media right now. If you create something great, people will like and share it; extending the reach of your job advert.  

You could offer viewers a glimpse into your company events, a quick ‘meet the team’ or a tour of the office. You could even create a video testimonial from an employee about working at your company. This kills two birds with one stone, so to speak, as you can brag about your company culture at the same time!  

5. Shout About Your Perks 

If you’re hiring with limited resources, it’s particularly important to highlight your company culture and the perks you’ve got on offer. This can provide you with an advantage over huge, corporate businesses.  

Identify the strengths of your company and what makes you unique. This will show candidates why they should be applying to your roles before those belonging to any other company. Whether it’s flexible working, company gatherings or development and training opportunities that make you stand out, be sure to highlight these.  

Want to Make the Most of Your Job Adverts? 

No matter the size of your company or the resources you have, these are some easy and efficient ways to boost your job adverts and attract more applicants. It’s quite simple, really. Candidates want to know what they’re getting when they apply to your roles. 

Therefore, your priority should be to present the job advert in a clear and informative manner. As traditional methods of advertising job roles go out of the window, it’s also wise to keep up with the latest recruitment trends, such as video marketing. Plus, a little bragging about your company never hurts! Good luck.