How to write an effective job brief for online recruitment advertising
With more than 70% of recruiters failing to properly advertise their vacancies, it’s little wonder applicant rates are up but quality levels are down.
If your applicant response is not hitting the mark, chances are there’s a problem with the job spec. Here’s what you can do to make sure you receive the candidates you want:
Fish with a rod, not a net
The information you use internally is unlikely to satisfy information-thirsty jobseekers, who, contrary to popular opinion, would rather apply for roles they are suited to than those to which they are not. If you email your database advertising new marketing jobs you may decide to keep the details generic in order to attract more interest, from which you can shortlist the best potentials. This is fine but ‘big net fishing’ does not work online, where you lose control of your audience. Hooking specific, relevant, prospects is why you pay to advertise on line. Isn’t it?
Get a consultative service
What works for one media platform may not necessarily work for another. Multi-posting services such as Broadbean allow the advertiser to upload a vacancy once, which is then dispersed to relevant channels. This is clearly a great time-saver but you will receive a myriad of different responses each time you do this, depending on the details of the role. In some instances it may be best to take extra time to post certain roles on specific sites, separately to the rest. Seek the advice of your job board account manager in this regard.
Maximise simplicity
There is a fine balance between relevant information and content overload. Too little information invites speculative applications but too much can lose the interest of potentially relevant ones. By bullet-pointing the key elements of the position you are instantly accentuating the areas of importance. The reader will be drawn to this because the human eye is trained to quickly dissect information before disseminating it to individually inherent triggers. We do not like reading blocks of scribe – it is confusing.
Similarly, do not skimp on the details. Too little information makes us wary.
Job brief example 1:
This is not a good job brief:
Online Advertising Manager | £35,000 pa
We are looking for an Online Advertising Manager to work in our dynamic team who are a really creative and diverse bunch, with some real characters among the team. The work they produce is fresh and innovative. You will report to the Head of Online Services.
Ideally you will have a background in on line marketing with experience working with internal and external stakeholders. Day to day tasks will include search engine optimisation, planning and point of sale. A varied marketing background within the public sector will be considered.
This a great time to join, we are pitching for and winning business left right and centre.
On top of a great salary you will also receive a 20% bonus plus benefits.
Send your CV to info@abcmarketing.com
What’s wrong with this job brief?
- With no discernable skills and no substance to the duties, more or less any marketing jobseeker could consider themselves suited to the role. The floodgates for unsuitable applications is well and truly open.
- What’s with the opening statement, the worm on the hook? Where’s the USP? Aren’t all marketing teams full of ‘creative characters’?’
- Where are the ‘buzz terms’, those key words and phrases jobseekers use to pinpoint the role they want? Is there such a term as “on line marketing?” Surely it’s “online”.
- Why is there no salary range – an indication of how the role might match the jobseeker’s financial criteria?
- Does the phrase ‘left, right and centre’ denote a professional organisation or one that sort of does things as they go?
- Why are the benefits mentioned in passing at the foot of the ad? This may be an after-thought to the writer but the jobseeker will give consideration to how these benefits might help his family, for instance.
- Who is this company, anyway?
- Where possible, never invite applicants to apply for your role in any other way than via the media space you are using. At the end of the recruitment campaign you need to track where the responses came from so you can determine whether to use that media again.
Worryingly, the above job brief is indicative of what we see advertised online every day. Recruiters (both in-house and agencies) complain to their media partners that they aren’t receiving a good response. But is it any wonder why?
Use a posting template
The easiest way to ensure a brief is posted with the requisite information is to follow a guide. Most good recruiters I know are hideous at administration, but they are the same ones bemoaning applicant responses. Using the same process each time guarantees fluidity and consistency in job advertising – an integral part of any contingency/reactive recruiter’s ability to attract the right candidates. The template below is recommended:
Job brief example 2:
This is a good job brief:
Online Advertising Manager | £30,000 – 40,000 pa + 20% bonus & benefits | London
Following significant investment in our retail and online businesses ABC Marketing Company is actively recruiting an Online Advertising Manager.
Reporting to the Head of Online Services the role is responsible for planning, investing and evaluating the online advertising budget to the best commercial effect. This includes management of key messages, copy and creative solutions through to live placement and evaluation.
Key accountabilities
- Management of activity associated with the brand online media / advertising budget outlined in the brand plans
- Working with internal and external stakeholders, take responsibility for planning and executing all online media activity and ensure full command of media spend ROI performance
- Day-to-day management of preferred online media agency
- Deliver clear, concise and reliable reporting on media effectiveness to all stakeholders
- Working with online services content management colleagues to ensure the tracking and tagging of activity is robust across all online channels, including the affiliate network
- Conduct regular media audits of the supplier base
- Close coordination with the SEO Manager, SE Copywriter and Online PR Manager to ensure Display and PPC strategies are optimised
Your knowledge, skills and experience
- Proven track record of optimising online advertising return on investment (ROI)
- Excellent communication skills – able to construct a clear brief on requirements and translate that to an agency to ensure great response
- Extensive knowledge of digital marketing – PPC, Display Banner advertising and SEO
- Experience in developing and executing digital media plans supported by strong creative executions
- Proven track record of managing and auditing digital media and marketing agencies
- Strong organisational skills and experience of balancing multiple projects at the same time
- Evidence of strong people and project management skills
- Evidence of a strategic / commercial customer focussed background
- An interest in public affairs will make this job considerably more enjoyable
We are looking for people with a passion for the customer and who want to work in an exciting environment with significant career opportunities.
The role is based at our Whitehall office which is a 5 minute walk from Westminster tube station.
About the company
This is your chance to become part of our continuing success story. ABC Marketing Company is quickly emerging as one of the country’s leading marketing consultancy businesses, with an enviable reputation for producing award-winning campaigns. Voted no.1 company to work for by our community we have tremendous backing and fly the flag for a sustainable environment.
Applying
Please submit your CV and an individual cover letter outlining your experience for this role, via the ‘upload CV’ button attached to this post.
Even to the untrained eye the two job brief examples are stark and the quality job content is important, there is one other significant element to ensuring you receive the applicants you want:
Set pre-qualifying questions
Only receive the candidates you want to see by providing barriers-to-entry. Yes, your application numbers will reduce, but the ones you do receive will be relevant. This saves time and frustration, allowing you to hasten the recruitment cycle.
Summary
Every time a recruiter posts a job advertisement online, it should be considered whether the description answers all the questions expected if it. If it were you looking for a job, would you be excited by job example 1 – even if you managed to find it? Unlikely. Does the brief shout ‘life-changing opportunity’ or ‘another one of those I may be suited to?’ If the latter, take time to correct the issues.
It is the responsibility of every recruiter to ensure the information promoted on behalf of either their client or organisation, is as premium as it can be. Optimising job content will make the difference between a good response and a poor one; a smooth recruitment campaign and a headache; a new employee and an empty desk; and a placement fee and a P45.
By partnering with the right digital recruitment platform (job board) you will be able to seek professional advice from industry experts who know how to optimise job advertising to guarantee better results – for both the jobseeker and recruiter.
Simon Lewis | Editor | Only Marketing Jobs
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You do make some good points, which I certainly don’t disagree with. However, I don’t like your example of a “good” advert. Although neat and tidy, it does look like you’ve copied and pasted from an original job spec (like so many recruiters nowadays). In this world of micro-blogging, it’s a very good exercise to try and write an advert to a maximimum number of letters/words, it certainly makes you focus on what is important. What words will Job seekers type in to a search engine? You could re-write that advert in 200 words and have more impact on candidates – ESPECIALLY in marketing.
Your example of a bad advert, is an example of trying too hard to write off spec, and certainly doesn’t contain anything of any relevance.
I make no claim to these thoughts being original, but what I have learnt from industry specialists. But the best way of getting your advert noticed by the right people, before your competitors find them, is to optimise the ability of your advert rising to the top of search engines and having an immediate impact when someone does land on it.
Rob, thank you for your comments, which I don’t diagree with but to pick up on a couple of points and put the article into context:
1. The ‘bad job ad’ can be found on our website. Someone has written this, ‘off-spec’ or not. This was not the worst example, either.
2. The ‘good’ advert (which can also be found on our site) may well have been copied and pasted from an original spec (it’s not my spec), but does it matter? As you say, it is neat & tidy but more importantly it draws the reader in and gets them to ‘buy’ the information.
This article is about optimising quality application results (rather than inviting any Tom/Dick/Harry to apply), so if in making a spec longer it guarantees a ‘better fit’, who cares?
Re search engines: I used the ‘good advert’ as an example of how to pull in jobseekers with searchable terms. For the role, it contains all these.
Whilst I agree less can definitely be more – especially in marketing – I do not agree that restricting the ad to a set number of words has more impact. This can be made in the headline/intro without compromising important information. Is there room, for example, in 200 words to tell the reader about the company and benefits – equally as important to most as the role itself?
Also to note (and perhaps I should have explained in the post) this piece is about finding a job via a job board, not through punching ‘online advertising manager’ into Google. SEO in that regard is a different subject/article.
The point re: 200 words is more to get the recruiter or copy writer to focus on what is important, rather than it being a better way to display an ad. And because of this, would ultimately display better search results.
But I think we’re discussing from different angles, as you say
! Although I’d still argue that for a recruiter, the battle is between pulling people in with relevant content with your ad vs still leaving candidates intrigued enough to pick up the phone to ask more questions. Give too much away, and you risk a few candidates passing on by!
From a jobseekers perspective though, you look at title, money, location, company, skills needed. So in that respect – love your blog post
!!!
Also, from a personal point of view, I can’t bear the pre-qual questions; lazy recruitment!!
I saw the title of this article on the discussion board of the LinkedIn Major Players’ group. For the first time in my career I find myself out of my network and in the harsh cold reality of a job seeker. Back home I had a reputation and worked with a talented recruiter.
Along the way I have discovered that it is a rare recruiter who really is connected and has the trust of their clients. As a job seeker it is nearly impossible to tell if the recruiter is qualified or not. One clear sign for me is the way the job brief is written.
I would not waste my time applying to the first one for I cannot be sure that it is a real job or if a recruiter fishing. If a recruiter did not place it then it is a company that did not value the future employee enough to spend the effort to consider what the role would entail. I would consider applying to that job the equivalent of chucking my CV into black hole.
The second one I would notice and spend time researching to find out more information. If it was through a recruiter and not through the company directly then I would make sure it was NOT a contingency search before applying. Again it would be a circular file for my CV.
Directly for the company I would try to find out as much information as I can about the company. One critical bit would be if they use keyword scanning. To deal with this is to completely write the CV for scanning. You all know the story of the plastic surgeon’s CV that was submitted by HR for a military recruitment for a contractor. He had the education, the language skills, had prior military experience as a young man and had performed “SPECIAL OPERATIONS”.
Frankly something is wrong with the entire system. Hiring managers feel they are not getting the talent they are looking for. Candidates cannot tell if a job is a good fit or not. Decent manners have become a rarity. Everybody loses.