23 Nov 2020 ● Jade Smith
Is your ad copy engaging prospective candidates?
Writing high-quality job adverts is key to attracting the best candidates to your roles. Candidates may be put off of applying for your vacancies if the ad copy is difficult to read, which only makes hiring for hard to fill roles even more of a challenge.
We’ve put together some top tips for writing your job adverts, to make sure you’re engaging with candidates who then go on to apply.
What makes a good job advert?
Formatting your advert
For candidates to find out the information they need about your role, good formatting is crucial. Walls of text may prevent candidates from wanting to read an advert, resulting in a lack of interaction.
Split your job advert into sections: This allows candidates to digest information and find relevant details more easily. Appropriate sub-headings such as 'Responsibilities', 'About You' or 'Working for Us' are good examples to use.
Ensure your ad is easy to read: Make sure that your sentences are short and get straight to the point. This makes information about job responsibilities or candidate criteria much easier to understand.
Write your ads from scratch: It can be tempting to save time by copy and pasting content from previous adverts. However, without really careful proofreading, this may result in leftover information from previous job adverts and will confuse prospective candidates.
Repetitive adverts with the same wording may also confuse search engines into thinking your adverts aren't unique content. This may make your jobs less visible to candidates who use search engines to find employment.
Persuade the candidate to work for you
Are you selling your roles to the candidates who are clicking on them? Your advert is the key touchpoint for selling your EVP to candidates. That's why it's good practice to include a section in your ads that explains to candidates what it's like to work for you.
Highlighting the qualities of your location, as well as the benefits available to the successful candidate will allow you to win the edge over other employers advertising similar roles. This is particularly important if you're hiring for a competitive job type such as social care or planning.
Find out more about how to develop and define your EVP with our free eBook
Ensure your job advert is relevant
Details as small as keywords can be crucial for targeting the right candidates. When uploading your job adverts, it's important to check that you've tagged them with accurate job types and locations.
This will ensure that your role is being advertised under the sector and location that your candidates expect to see when searching on job boards. When using our eRecruitment tools, always select as many keywords as are relevant to your job title, as this will improve the relevancy of the candidates viewing your job adverts.
Using keywords, such as your job title, in the ad copy will also boost your role's performance. Your job advert will appear higher on search engines such as Google as well as on job boards if your advert contains relevant terms that candidates may be searching for.
Ready to start writing persuasive job adverts?
It's important that your ad copy is professional in order to attract the best candidates to your roles. If your adverts are well-formatted, persuasive, and relevant you are much more likely to engage those candidates.
Download our job advert template
Start crafting adverts to attract talent with a templated designed for public sector hiring managers.
