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How do I use Digital Advertising for Recruitment?

Updated: Oct 14



“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:

 

 

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! And remember, Wheeler Digital is here to help!

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