How to write the perfect job ad
Recruiting tips |

How to write the perfect job ad

Do you often post job ads, but don’t get the desired effects? Ideally, you should post a paid ad. In this article we find out what it is, what are the differences with an organic ad and all the advantages.

Creating the perfect employment ad is more difficult than it looks. Because, while it is true that the companies that publish it have a clear idea – or at least they should – of the personnel and skills they are looking for, it is also true that you don’t know for sure who is going to view it.

The job advertisement is, in fact, the meeting ground between a company that is well acquainted with its history, its people, and its objectives, and an aspiring candidate who, on the other hand, often knows little or nothing about the reality that is offering employment and must make the decision whether to entrust his or her future to it. Of course, it is also true that often a job ad can be seen as one among many and therefore be the ‘landing place’ for those who send out resumes in a hail of flowers.

Similar candidates are certainly not the goal of those who work in HR and want to find the ideal professional as quickly as possible, which is why it is important to create an ad that becomes a crucial touch point in a recruiting marketing strategy.

Let us therefore see how to create it starting from what a job advertisement is, analysing which parts it is composed of, to understand where to put it and what mistakes to avoid. How, in short, to create the perfect ad.

SUMMARY

What is a job advertisement

First of all, let us try to give a definition of what a job advertisement is and then reflect on its importance in the world of recruiting. As the word itself, announcement, says, it is the communication of a position that has just been opened within a company, be it small, medium or large.

The word comes from Latin and is closely related to nuntius which means news, novelty. Therefore a job advertisement indicates a novelty by a particular company.

The main objective is in fact to inform potential candidates that you are looking for new personnel and therefore to attract them to apply.

That is why it should certainly be written in an engaging tone and it goes without saying that you should not only focus on the job description, but also say something about the company and the advantages it offers.

If it is well written, it will in fact attract the best candidates and repel those who, as we said before, send CVs to everyone. It will therefore lead to saving time and money, reducing time to hire and time to fill.

The ideal structure of a job advertisement

Before we move on to how to write the ideal one, let us see how a job advertisement is structured, always keeping in mind to concentrate the salient information in the first 5/10 lines of the text to catalyse the user’s attention.

Here are the parts it should contain:

  • Job title: this is the title of the ad that corresponds with the position sought;
  • intro/attachment: immediately after the title comes that introductory part in which the context in which the company operates, the sector, and for which division of the company that particular position is being sought;
  • requirements: this part includes those that cannot be disregarded and those that are considered a plus;
  • job responsibilities or duties: this is where you have to specify clearly and simply what the person will be responsible for once he/she joins the company, it is a part that should not be overlooked;
  • job classification: as above, you must be clear and say whether you are offering part-time or full-time employment and, if possible, also the reference RAL. In Italy this is rarely indicated, but it can attract many more people, especially those who have to change companies;
  • place of work: where the work will be carried out or if there is the possibility of smart working;
  • company benefits: this part should not be overlooked because not only salary but also one’s own wellbeing is affected by people’s choice. Therefore vouchers, meal vouchers or company canteen vouchers, welfare tools, bonuses and so on should be highlighted;
  • instructions on how to apply: this is the final part, but we can say that it is the highlight for the candidate because it must be obvious how and to whom to send the CV. That is, whether through the platform where the advertisement is published or through an email or an ad hoc page;
  • legal indications: if there is a search for protected categories, the reference law or other similar cases must be included.

How to write a perfect job ad

come scrivere l'annuncio di lavoro perfetto

Having said that, let’s get to the practical part of the ad and all the necessary steps to make sure it is perfect and above all achieves its objective: finding the right candidate(s).

Here are 6 tips to implement immediately.

1. Identify your candidate person

No text can work if you are not clear about your objective and the person you are addressing. That is why before you start writing any ad, it is essential to get to know the candidate well in order to choose the right tone of voice.

The tone of voice, as Valentina Falcinelli says in her book ‘Texts That Speak’, is the sum of all the stylistic, semantic and linguistic choices you make, word after word.

Even before writing the ad, you have to decide whether to be formal or informal, warm or aloof, funny, light or dry, and you also have to choose the terms to use.

Are you addressing juniors for an internship? They are probably recent graduates or with very little experience: there is no point in stuffing the ad with all those terms that may only be used in your company or sector. That would create a wall.

Do you want to focus on the fact that yours is a young company? Definitely avoid being too serious.

In addition to the tone of voice, the choice of channel on which to communicate matters a lot: social networks, job boards and also the format.

Are you looking for graphic designers or designers? Prefer an ad that is more in their vein and that focuses on visuals. Looking for people to write? Win them over with a sentence that makes them immediately identify with the type of work you are offering.

Also, don’t forget that the ad must not be dissonant with the tone of voice of the brand and must still be part of an employer branding strategy.

2. Write a catchy ad title

As with newspaper articles, the headline is the first thing that attracts and makes the user decide whether or not to continue reading. It is also the same for advertisements: it must attract attention and make the user decide whether to see what figure is in demand and whether you are in line with expectations.

The title of the advertisement basically corresponds with the role sought, which is why if ‘special’ titles are given in your company, which are not so well known to outsiders, it is better to conform to the market.

Therefore choose a title that encapsulates a sought-after position that is in effect known. And which, from an SEO perspective, allows you to be found via Google by those who, for example, search for ‘job + the role you indicated’. So use English if that job is mostly defined in the Anglo-Saxon manner. Avoid it instead when it makes little sense. Are people looking more for sales or salesman?

Another important thing: if you can, in the title include specific characteristics that you are looking for in the candidate and that add value. For example: PHP developer, SEO expert web master or HR digital strategist.

The more specific you are, the more you attract the right candidates.

3. Best describe the job you offer

Pay close attention to the difference between the job description and the job advertisement. It is often the case that the request for new staff comes from a very specific unit that sends its description of the position sought. This, however, is in no way to be published in the advertisement.

The description is internal and describes the activities the candidate will have to do, trying to make it clear to the advertiser on which aspects to focus. But the job ad itself should not bring out something that helps communication within the company, it should rather be designed to ‘sell’ that position and make it attractive in the eyes of candidates. Without taking anything for granted.

You know the movie ‘The wolf of Wall Street’ where the amazing Leonardo Di Caprio asks ‘Sell me this pen’? That is the case when a banal object is sold in an enthusiastic way and considering the need of the person in front of you.

The same applies to your ad: don’t just explain the position you have open, but try to make the candidate understand how this job could influence his or her life, not only professionally.

4. Think about keywords i.e. How candidates do searches

SEO, which is the discipline of optimising texts for search engines, also applies to advertisements. That is why you need to think about what candidates may type in on Google or on a social networking site like LinkedIn to get to your job.

How do they search for a particular position? What keywords can they use? As we said above, avoid corporate jargon and, if possible, enter the position you are looking for in the singular: each person searches for themselves not for others.

So think: if I were a candidate, how would I go about it, what words would I enter on the engine or within LinkedIn to get to that ad?

You can do this by doing searches on Google: the same engine, in the white bar, suggests related words to the main one as it does at the bottom of the page.

Also think about making the ad ‘beautiful’ to view: i.e. break it down into paragraphs, thus avoiding walls of text (many people read from mobile). If possible, put bold type on keywords but do not overdo it and include bulleted lists to describe related responsibilities.

5. Don’t forget geolocalisation

Work is closely connected to where you already live or want to live. That is why it is important to geolocalise your ad: it allows you to find people on target and makes you avoid applications from candidates who have no intention of moving. Although it can sometimes be useful to widen the radius by publishing an ad not so much for a specific city as for the province or region or the whole country. This is if you offer the possibility of full remote employment.

And if you are looking for specific profiles, geolocalisation can also help you in this: if, for example, you would like to have people who speak very good English, widening the radius abroad could attract people who are outside the borders, but who are eager to return.

6. Consider the life cycle of an advertisement

durata di un annuncio di lavoro

We call it job post rotation: the ad has a life cycle, it does not last forever. That is why knowing about it allows you to optimise its visibility and always propose yourself in the best way.

An advertisement can ‘last’ 30 to 45 days at most, and this even if the vacancy has not actually been filled. This is because if a vacancy is more than a month old, platforms such as LinkedIn tend to show it and people usually do not apply for ‘old’ jobs. They think, in fact, that too many applications have arrived or, even worse, that the candidate has been found but the company has left the ad online.

7. Include the company’s social profiles

Don’t forget to include links to the company’s social channels. This is because it helps potential candidates see at a glance what the company is about and how it interacts with various people.

A well-maintained Facebook or LinkedIn profile, where there is a strong focus on people, can often be worth more than a company page. Moreover, in this way candidates can keep up to date with the latest news and activities and be aware of which profiles are being sought from time to time.

Differences between organic and paid job advertisements

That said, what is the difference between posting an ad for free or targeting a job ad? There is a lot and one or the other responds differently to your recruitment goals.

While an ‘organic’ job ad, i.e. one for which there is no sponsorship, has its own timeframe to be seen and, even when it is, you may not necessarily reach the people you want to, a job ad allows you more visibility and to attract qualified candidates.

Free job boards, it is true, are attractive, easy to use and seem to facilitate the recruiting process, but in reality it is only worth relying on them if you are sure that they attract the right people, otherwise you risk receiving so-called ‘flood CVs’.

With a job ad this does not happen for several reasons. They are ‘tailor-made’ adverts, i.e. based on your needs: you choose how much to spend and you have the opportunity to analyse and consequently identify the audience you want to reach.

Customisation, targeting, choice of channels are some of the advantages. Let us look at them all in more detail.

The advantages of a job ad

The advantages of a employment ad are several, let us look at them one by one.

You can find people for the most ‘difficult’ roles

If you have worked in HR for a long time, you know that not all job vacancies are easy to fill and a lot depends on the role required and what the market offers.

Asking for a person to have a certain type of experience and a minimum of years, with knowledge of specific programmes, two languages or more, is a very selective and niche search. Those searches for which you rely on a head hunter or paid advertisements on sites where you can actually find qualified personnel. Also, you can work inbound. What does this mean? That those who are particularly specialised not only check out certain sites instead of others, but do very targeted searches on Google with niche keywords.

You have an easier time finding candidates who reside in a certain area

Local’ searches are not particularly easy either, and if you have ever started a selection for a specific area that you had no knowledge of, perhaps to open a new office or a decentralised office, you know this. A job ad can also help you in this respect: you could set up a campaign targeting people who reside in a certain location and have certain characteristics.

With an organic job ad, published everywhere, it is difficult for this to happen and you run the risk of having candidates who could perhaps relocate but are not yet in the area. And if you are in a hurry, this definitely does not play on your side.

Speed up time to hire and to fill

Free job advertisements often end up in the queue as time passes and so you risk that an urgent search you are doing will drag on even longer. Moreover, reposting your ad on the job board will not guarantee that it will be among the first to be seen. If you want this to happen, you can do this with a paid job advertisement that will keep your job search active and among the first places.

You can fulfil urgent requests

Have you been told that you have to finish the whole recruiting process in a month or less? Is there a need to replace a team member who has been injured or is ill? Whatever the reason for the urgency, if you are in a hurry, you should focus on paid advertisements. Whether it’s on LinkedIn, Indeed, or another job board, you can take advantage of all the features to get your ad seen in the shortest possible time by bringing out its urgency.

You can pay per click and… save money

What is used in marketing, i.e. the pay per click campaign also applies to… recruitment marketing. Instead of running a paid ad with a fixed fee, you can pay according to the clicks it receives. This is similar to Google AdWords: you use keywords such as the job title to attract high-quality leads or certain skills. In addition, PPC campaigns track results. This is a great way to see what works and to determine how much to spend on future advertisements.

What mistakes to avoid when writing the job ad?

Here are some mistakes to avoid when writing the job ad

  • Publishing an ad without an image and even worse not using the right one. The picture, like any online text, is attractive so it must be relevant. If you do not have archive photos, use free sites such as Pixabay, Unsplash, Pexels. Be careful to choose a photo that has not already been used by others.
  • Write an ad without considering keywords: as we have seen, this does not allow you to be found on the web and is therefore counterproductive for recruiting marketing.
  • Sweeten your company, your values, your culture. It is fine to tell people about yourself, but you have to be truthful. This is because nowadays candidates can find information everywhere (like on Trustpilot) and because, even if you have attracted them, they will realise that what you have written is not true at the first or second interview. Or even worse at the onboarding stage. And this could be detrimental in terms of employee retention.
  • Do not consider the candidate experience or even analyse it. Posting a job ad without assessing what experience people have, especially from mobile, checking the functionality of the forms, the ease of applying, etc., is an auto-goal. One then has to understand if a candidate gives up because they have too many fields to fill in or perhaps cannot attach their CV. Therefore, the candidate experience is most important! One solution could be to use more advanced features such as semantic forms, so that the candidate does not have to enter data manually, which will instead be automatically extracted from his or her attached CV. One can also ask to record a video presentation thus collecting a Video Curriculum.
  • Avoid tracing the origin of applications: this is crucial in order to understand which channel works better than others and to get to know your candidate even better. With the Inrecruiting software it is possible to track the origin of the candidate.
  • Give space to follow up: it is not enough to publish the ad and wait for applications. As long as it is online, you have to check the company’s reputation, if there are any negative reviews that may have an impact on the candidate and, if so, try to counter it by explaining more about what generated certain processes. You can set up a notification system to find out if there is bad talk about the company or where it is mentioned.

To avoid all these mistakes it is essential to rely on ATS software such as Inrecruiting. This is because it helps you, for example, to implement a system that, once the application has been completed, notifies the person, reassuring them about the selection process and its timing. If the candidate is then not suitable for that position, it does not mean that he or she cannot have other opportunities: thanks to the software you can include him or her in the hiring pipeline, for example.

With the software you can set up an automatic reply email, you can manage the interview agenda, you can enter notes on candidates and much more.

Where to post the job advertisement?

Here too, software can be a great help to multipost your job advertisements on many job boards but also on the main social networks, primarily LinkedIn but not only.

If job boards like Indeed, Jobrapido, Infojobs etc. are important to attract candidates, the role of social media in the recruiting world is increasingly fundamental. That is why, beyond the vacant position, it is good to always take care of one’s digital presence and aim to create a relationship with the people who might one day join the company.