Writing a clear and effective job advert is the first step to a successful recruitment advertising campaign.

Mastering the art of your advertising can bring a plethora of benefits to your recruitment strategy; you’ll be able to attract candidates quicker, which will in turn reduce your time-to-hire and advertising costs. Additionally, a well-written job advert will provide candidates with a great first impression, both of the role and your company.

However, HR and recruitment professionals are busy and often bogged down with heavy administration. As such, you might find that you don’t have as much time as you’d like to spend writing your job adverts.

We’ve compiled a list of 10 quick changes you can make to your job adverts to instantly improve them; some of these tips can take as little at 30 seconds to complete and make a real impact on the response to your campaign.

And don’t forget, with our Unlimited Job Ads you can experiment with your ads knowing it will not cost you anything to do so.

1. Make sure you pitch your ad correctly

By nature, those wanting to work in your sector are caring, nurturing “warm and fuzzy” kinds of people. They like communication and being spoken with, not to. If your ad is very cold, aggressive and sterile, chances are it will not appeal to the people you want to hire.

Take advantage of the ability to include pictures and/or videos. They are a great way for a potential candidate to get a feel for your business plus they really make your ads stand out from the crowd.

2. Include a salary

Including a salary within your advert is probably one of the quickest ways of improving the response that your role receives.

A competitive salary helps to attract candidates and will also filter out any applicants with unrealistic salary expectations. Additionally, it gives applicants an idea of the level of the role which means that you’ll likely end up with a greater number of more relevant candidates.

If you regularly choose to omit salary information from your job adverts, give it some further thought. The pros of including a salary within your advert usually outweigh the cons.

3. Cut out any jargon or internal acronyms

Before you give your advert an in-depth proofread, quickly skim it and check for any confusing terms that might not make sense to anyone outside of your business.

There are so many adverts out there that contain jargon and acronyms that aren’t widely recognised; try and refrain from using too much ‘business talk’ and write like a human instead.

4. Include some information about your culture

Don’t just talk about what your business does; candidates can find this information out from your website. Instead, focus on your company culture, your working environment and what you’re like as an employer. This information isn’t as readily available and will be what candidates really want to know.

It will also allow potential candidates to identify whether they’d be a good cultural fit for your business or not.

5. Read your advert out loud

You might think that a simple spell check will be enough to rid your advert of spelling or grammatical errors. However, we strongly recommend taking a couple of minutes to read your advert out loud.

Listen out for any jarring sentences or clumsy wording. An advert that flows nicely will be easier for potential candidates to read.

6. Clearly list the essential requirements

Some job adverts scatter the essential requirements for the vacancy throughout the copy; we’d advise against this and suggest listing all the skills that candidates need as bullet points.

This will make all essential requirements clear and easy to understand, and will increase the chance of attracting more suitable candidates for your vacancy.

7. Read other job adverts

It’s important for your advert to be unique and reflect your business but you should also do your research.

If you have a spare 10 or 15 minutes, take a look at some other job adverts – ideally ones which are advertising roles similar to yours.

Make a note of what you like about the adverts and what you don’t like. What do you think works well and what doesn’t? Pay particular attention to the language used and the layout of the text.

8. Why would they want to work for your company?

It is a competitive market, so what makes your business different? Why would a candidate want to work with you? Why do your current employees like working there? What benefits could I expect (training, allowances, bonuses etc).

Have you ever stopped to consider “would I apply to our ads”? If you have to think about it, you probably need to craft a more attractive ad.

9. Pop in helpful, extra information

Try and be as helpful as possible within your advert by providing the practical information that applicants want, such as working hours, the amount of travel involved (if any), who the successful candidates will be reporting to.

This is information that will only take a couple of minutes to add in but will reduce the amount of questions that you receive later on in the process.

10. Add in a clear call-to-action

A jobseeker has read your advert and likes the sound of it. Great – what now?

A clear call-to-action rounds off your advert nicely, rather than ending it abruptly, and provides details of how jobseekers can apply. This could be as simple as writing ‘To apply for this role, please click on the Apply button below’. It only takes a few seconds to add in and makes the process much clearer for candidates.