The Best Advertising Strategies for Filling Your Open Roles Through Social Media Recruitment

Last updated on February 15, 2024

Are you struggling to find the right candidates to fill your open roles? Social media recruitment may be the solution you have been looking for.

With the vast reach and targeting capabilities of platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, social media recruitment has become an essential strategy for modern recruiters. And the reason why is that you can tap into a pool of potential applicants that was once unimaginable.

However, with so many recruitment marketing strategies available, it can be challenging to determine the approach that best fits your organization’s goals. Paid advertising is a crucial element of successful social media recruitment. It expands your reach, enables precise targeting, enhances visibility, and increases brand awareness, giving you a competitive edge in attracting top talent. By strategically investing in recruiting ads, you can supercharge your social media recruitment efforts and achieve a greater level of success in capturing the workers you need.

Let’s explore the best advertising strategies in social media recruitment!

What is social media recruiting?

Social media recruiting is a recruitment strategy that allows you to target specific demographics, industries, and interests, ensuring that your job postings are seen by individuals who are most likely to be a good fit for your organization.

Thanks to the interactive nature of social media, this innovative approach to recruiting helps Talent Acquisition teams establish a genuine connection with ideal candidates, fostering trust and transparency throughout the recruitment process.

Compared to traditional recruiting channels, social media recruitment has the superpower that no billboards, TV, newspaper, radio, or any other medium can provide:

It’s social. People can share and react to your content in real-time, bond with your company, and spread the word which gives your employer brand image a top-of-mind recognition.

Social media recruiting statistics you need to know

• 84% of organizations are using social media for recruiting, according to SHRM.
• 79% of candidates use social media in their job search, Glassdoor says.
• 73% of Millennials used social media to find their last job, Aberdeen Group reported.

Paid vs. organic social media recruiting: what’s the difference?

Paid and organic social media recruiting are two distinct approaches that you can use to attract candidates on social media platforms. 

They both have their advantages and can be used based on specific goals, budgets, and audience targeting requirements.

Organic social media recruiting relies on existing followers and offers limited targeting options and analytics. You will reach a small audience if you post a job ad on social media without sponsoring it and asking your employees to share it. With organic job ads, the likeliness of generating the amount of quality leads you need is low. 

In contrast, with paid job ads, you pay to promote job postings to a wider, specific audience. Your job ad will appear on the feeds, sidebars, and other designated places on social media of prospects who are not following you and may have never encountered your employer brand before. It requires a financial investment but offers greater control over who sees your content and provides you with a huge opportunity to expand your views.

The benefits of paid recruiting ads on social media

These are the main benefits of integrating social media recruiting into your overall recruitment process:

Higher ROI

Social media recruiting can generate a much higher ROI than traditional advertising if you leverage the right formula.

Targeting with paid ads ensures that your jobs reach the most relevant and qualified candidates, increasing the likelihood of conversions and reducing wasted ad spend. By focusing your resources on the right audience, you can maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of your recruitment campaign, leading to a higher ROI.

Analytics

Social media ads provide advanced analytics and tracking tools. These insights allow you to measure and monitor the performance of your paid ads in real-time so you can continuously optimize your ad campaigns.

Passive candidates

While traditional job postings may attract individuals actively seeking employment, social media allows you to tap into the largest pool of passive candidates in history who may not be actively looking for new opportunities but could be open to a compelling offer. By promoting your open roles through persuasive content, you can capture the attention of these workers and pique their interest in your organization.

Diverse talent pool

Everybody uses social media. That’s the reason paid social media ads are a powerful tool for amplifying your efforts to attract a diverse range of candidates. Paid ads allow you to expand your reach and present your employer brand to a wide variety of employee resource groups, attracting numerous communities where individuals from various backgrounds gather and engage.

The most entry-level prospects

Entry-level employees are capable of accomplishing essential and basic tasks effectively, so any company can benefit from hiring them. Having entry-level candidates on your team can minimize your costs because you won’t have to stretch the skills of an experienced employee.

Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok have the most positive ROI for entry-level positions. With a huge percentage of age groups falling into the category of entry-level candidates, you can entice a massive amount of young workers who may not be found anywhere else. Let’s break it down by platform.

Facebook: 21.5% of users are aged 18-24

TikTok: 22.4% of users are aged 20-29

Instagram: 30.8% of users are aged 18-24

Sets your employer brand apart

By appearing prominently in users’ feeds, your ads grab attention and increase brand awareness among both active and passive job seekers. Consistent exposure through paid ads strengthens your employer brand’s presence, making it more recognizable and appealing to potential candidates.

This increased visibility boosts your chances of capturing top talent who may not have been actively searching for job opportunities. This is super important when you’re offering a job opportunity with a lower pay rate than your competitors. You can stand out against companies that pay more with compelling creatives that grab attention and build trust. And the number one factor that helps you get ahead of the competition is that these ads are not listed together with 30-40 jobs because they are not on job boards.

Watch the recording of our live webinar The Power of Social Media in Recruitment:

3 steps to successful job ads on social media

Make sure you take advantage of these strategies to achieve the best results.

1. Targeting

Targeting the users who can be easily converted into candidates is an ongoing process both in terms of content and technicalities. Make sure that you continuously analyze and refine your targeting strategy based on data and insights to reach the most relevant audience and maximize the impact of your advertising efforts.

Here are the best targeting practices you can leverage:

Define your audience: start by clearly defining your target audience based on their relevant skills and interests in the industry. Understand the characteristics and preferences of the workers you want to reach.

Use audience insights: utilize audience insights tools provided by social media platforms to gain a deeper understanding of your target audience. 

Platform-specific targeting options: each social media platform offers paid, specific targeting options to help you reach the right users. Take advantage of platform-specific features like lookalike audiences, custom audiences, and interest-based targeting.

Utilize keyword targeting: incorporate relevant keywords in your ad campaigns to ensure your ads are shown to users who are actively searching for those terms. By targeting specific keywords, you can increase the chances of reaching users with a high intent to engage and convert.

Retargeting: implement retargeting strategies to reach users who have previously interacted with your website, app, or other digital assets. By placing a tracking pixel on your site, you can serve targeted ads to users who have shown interest in your brand.

A/B Testing: conduct A/B testing with different ad variations, targeting options, or audience segments to determine what works best for your campaigns. Test different messaging, visuals, calls-to-action, and targeting combinations to optimize your ad performance and reach the most relevant users.

2. Content

Content plays a crucial role in the success of social media advertising in recruitment for several reasons. In the fast-paced world of social media, attention spans are extremely short, so engaging and compelling content is essential to capture the attention of potential candidates as they scroll through their feeds. Well-crafted content, such as eye-catching visuals, intriguing headlines, and concise yet impactful messaging, can grab their attention and entice them to learn more about the job opportunity.

Here’s how you can maximize success with content:

Leverage photo or video: the success of recruiting ads highly depends on the visual component of the ad. Visuals can capture attention in a second and evoke emotions faster than textual content alone. Remember, when people encounter your ad on social, it’s not happening on Indeed or any other job board, so in that very moment your ad pops up, they weren’t looking for employment. Consequently, you have to grab their attention related to another topic, career opportunities.

The best performing visual content for recruitment ads are selfie-style videos with individuals inviting to apply for open roles, and imagery that showcase workers performing the work that they enjoy.

Copy: the goal of your copy is to grab attention and not let it go, persuading your prospects to take action – in this case, the action is clicking on your ad and start filling your job application. This is why copy is a game-changer.

The main elements of your job ad’s text that you should pay particular attention to are the headline, the main body, and the call-to-action (CTA). 

Make sure you always see your ad through the eyes of your dream candidates, whether or not they are looking for a job. Ask yourself these questions to check if your content will be successful:

“Would this headline hook their attention?’

“Would they like this creative?”

“Would they click on the ad?”

Done right, the headline sparks curiosity and makes the reader want to learn more. That’s why your headline should be clear, short, and captivating. A proven phrase we have seen performing extremely well is this:  “NOW HIRING [full/part]-time [job title] in [location], and similar ones. Don’t shy away from using emojis like poking fingers in the headline because people tend to stop the scroll when an emoji is included. Experiment with upper and lower case letters to see which one works better.

The body should include all the necessary information you’re prospects are looking for in a job. But the key here is to present these pieces of information in the most concise and shortest way possible. The average attention span for ads is 1.3 seconds. That’s super short. Write a copy that is not only easy to read but worth reading.

Lastly, your CTA is essential for providing clear instructions, increasing candidate engagement, and driving conversions. By using a well-crafted CTA, you can create a sense of urgency and increase the chance of getting quality leads. Your CTA should always point to one action, otherwise candidates can get confused and churn. Determine the one thing you want them to do next and use only that in your CTA as the main action. For example, “Apply Now”.

3. Conversion

The primary goal of a recruiting ad is to attract qualified candidates who are a good fit for the job and the organization. Conversion plays a vital role in acquiring these high-quality candidates.

When candidates convert by submitting their applications, it indicates their interest and engagement with the job opportunity. So, building a strong talent pool is easier when conversion rates are high. And the key to that is the applicant experience. Our data have shown that a streamlined process that prioritizes the applicant’s journey can generate 10-15x better conversions.

Before a prospect converts into an applicant, they go through the following candidate journey:

1. Awareness: the candidate views your ad and gets to know you
2. Consideration: the candidate starts thinking this job may be a good fit for them and enter the interest state
3. Interest: the candidate envisions their life working for your company and they decide they would give it a go
4. Application: the candidate takes the first commitment by applying for your job

Content is responsible for the stages 1-3. It should help you raise awareness, make the prospect consider the job, and finally raise interest in it. Ultimately, it should be interesting enough that candidates actually apply for your position.

Once they have interest in your job, you have the opportunity to convert them into candidates. So what they see when they are ready to make the move is paramount. That’s why we developed interactive conversion pages at Boostpoint so that your candidates can apply directly in the social media app after they click on the ad, without ever leaving the platform.

Unlike in the case of traditional job applications, the candidates send no resume and cover letter to the employer to enter the job application phase. Instead, they answer a few quick, specific questions that prescreens them for you immediately which humanizes the whole candidate experience and makes them feel they are part of a conversation. The result? They feel appreciated so they will less likely churn.

Following up with candidates is also a key part of successful conversion. It demonstrates your commitment, improves the candidate experience, and increases the chances of securing qualified candidates, and avoiding no-shows. With Boostpoint’s automated text message follow-up tool, you can connect with candidates right after they apply for your roles and easily 2x your applicant-to-interview ratio.

How to come up with ad content if you don’t have a marketer employed?

If you don’t have a marketer employed and need to create recruiting ad content that works, you can still develop effective and compelling content by following the steps that we have explained above. However, if you don’t have hours to work on these ads, Boostpoint Create.AI can do it for you.

Boostpoint Create.AI is a new recruitment AI tool that will help you create unlimited recruiting job ads in seconds. From organic and paid social media ads to text message workflows, our new solution will generate professional recruiting ad content for you so that you can attract top-tier talent while saving time and money. Click here to grab your FREE early access and start creating recruitment marketing content easily!

Wrap up

Paid advertising plays a crucial role in maximizing the effectiveness of social media recruitment efforts by expanding reach, increasing visibility, and attracting top talent. By utilizing effective targeting strategies, crafting compelling content, and focusing on conversion, you can enhance your recruitment campaigns and achieve greater success in attracting qualified candidates. The availability of recruitment marketing tools like Boostpoint further streamlines the process of creating engaging ad content, capturing qualified leads, and saving resources. Embracing social media recruitment and leveraging the power of paid advertising can help you overcome the challenges of finding the right candidates and gain a competitive edge in the recruitment landscape.