Recruitment ads are an essential component of any complete recruitment strategy.

Placing ads on career sites and social media, particularly LinkedIn, is an excellent way to attract new candidates without extensive outreach.

Like product adverts, the best recruitment ads tend to float to the top and capture the most interest. Great-looking ads also improve recruitment metrics, as strong employer brands reduce turnover by 28% and cost per hire by around 50%.

This is a guide to creating the best recruitment ads, with some great examples of recruitment ads for inspiration.

What are the key components of a recruitment ad?

There are a few different types of recruitment ads. For example, businesses can advertise positions on company websites, job boards, social media, print publications, or billboards.

Social media is a key emerging channel, as around 49% of professionals actively engage with social media to keep track of available jobs.

If plenty of text space is available, e.g. on a job board like Indeed, then it’s important to maximise the space provided to provide candidates with enough information on their potential responsibilities, pay and compensation packages.

At a time when candidate attraction is so important, job adverts should include important details such as salary and benefits. As specialist recruiter Mike Jones states:

“At a time in the Recruitment industry where job advert response can be low, being as transparent as possible is essential to allow candidates to decide if a job is right for them. And if we now throw into the mix the cost of living increasing on what seems like a daily basis, candidates want to know if the salary is good enough to match their needs.”

If a business intends to post a recruitment ad on social media, then the text should be limited in favour of graphics and visual appeal. The same applies to billboards. On the other hand, print adverts occupy a middle ground and need both textual and graphical features.

Here is a list of do’s and dont’s that apply to all recruitment ads:

1. DO: Be specific about the job role. While using slang like “marketing guru” or “sales ninja” might help adverts stand out from the crowd, they need to be balanced with a proper description of the role.


2. DON’T: Waffle too much. Job adverts must be concise enough to encapsulate all relevant information about the job. While some minimalist adverts use humour rather than detail, this isn’t appropriate for all jobs.


3. DO: Incorporate consistent company culture and values. This means describing the business neatly and succinctly, including its missions, goals, purpose and main values. Company values and style guides can be stored in recruitment software, which provides teams with access to recruitment assets.


4. DON’T: Use too much jargon. Jargon is sometimes unavoidable in sectors or roles which demand niche skills, like software development. But generally, jargon hinders rather than helps job adverts.


5. DO: Focus on graphics. When graphics are required, they need to stand out. Dull or morose corporate branding probably won’t stand out from other brands’ at-times outlandish ads, which we’ll show shortly.


6. DON’T: Appeal to just one gender. Harvard found that gendered wording in job ads can deter both women and men, but women are most likely to suffer. This is especially common in fields like engineering, construction and manufacturing. Harvard found that “words such as competitive, dominant or leader are associated with male stereotypes, while words such as support, understand and interpersonal are associated with female stereotypes”. Be mindful of how ad copy affects demographic appeal.

8 sensational examples of recruitment ads

For inspiration, we’ve assembled eight great examples of recruitment ads across different sectors, industries, styles and formats.

1: Recruitment ad for design consultancy
This superb ad for home design consultants uses a simple, clean graphic and hook to magnetise the reader. As a result, the ad resonates with designers and artists who see the staircase - it’s a simple way to capture attention from a target skillset or background.

The remainder of the ad is quite minimalist and doesn’t give too much away, which you often see in great graphical recruitment ads.



2: Recruitment ad for computer engineers
This fun ad has been reincarnated in a few different forms over the years and asks candidates to solve a maths problem that gives them the phone number to ring.

Again, this ad effectively targets certain skill sets and backgrounds. Recruiters should, in theory, get leads from those qualified to solve the problem.


Microsoft released their own version of the ‘maths problem recruitment ad’ for a software developer job in the UK.



3: Bartender ad
Another humorous ad that targets bartenders. Humour is a common strand that unites many graphical recruitment ads - it captures attention and helps businesses stand out from the mundane.

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Building the perfect recruitment ad

Despite evident differences between these ads, the visuals and graphics all deliver something unique that hooks the viewer and captures their attention. In that sense, recruitment ads are very similar to product ads.

They give away enough information to provide the viewer with a general overview or lead, but most ads leave a lot to the imagination. It’s worth mentioning that employers often produce multiple variations of their ads for different channels.

Businesses can manage recruitment assets in software like Hiringmaster, which provides team members with seamless access to textual and visual assets.

Posting on job boards like Indeed is slightly different as there’s more text space to take advantage of. The example above illustrates how recruiters can use space to their advantage by summarising key roles comprehensively and drawing attention to competitive rewards packages.

Conclusion

Recruitment ads should be clear, impactful and detailed enough to convey vital information without weighing viewers down.

Consistency is essential - ads should conform to the same style guides and incorporate the same details. Hiringmaster centralises information and assets, helping team members collaborate while keeping recruitment ads and posts consistent.

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