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Stephen Warnham

User guide: getting the most from your job ad

By following our best practice guide you can increase the views, number of applications and relevancy of candidates that your job ad receives.

Job description

Standing out

Research shows that people now consider more than 30 potential employers during their job search, meaning it’s never been more important for businesses to stand out in the competition for talent. Your job description is your chance to sell yourself, detailing what the job entails, and why each candidate should want to apply for the role. We recommend you use sentence case, avoid using block capitals and excessive use of characters such as exclamation marks.
A brief introduction to your business
The role
What you’re looking for
What you offer

Location

Put yourself on the map

A full postcode on your job advert, increases the number of applications by up to 50%.

Top tips for your location

Job title

Our search technology StepMatch is the best in the business. It intuitively includes similar or matching titles, increasing the reach of a search while boosting the relevancy of the results. It fuels every search, recommendation, alert, and notification on our site. Because of this, we highly recommend using one of our suggested job titles. These match candidate searches, get the best out of our technology – and give you a better response. Simply start typing your job title when creating your ad, and suggestions will appear.

Top tips for your job title

Salary

It pays to be specific

Try to be as specific as possible, ideally listing the exact salary you are offering. Including a salary on your job ad increases applications by up to 20%. If you are using a range, try to keep it as small as possible. Candidates appreciate transparency as it allows them to make informed decisions on the jobs they apply for. You can also add additional information onto your salary, including additional benefits such as the amount of annual leave offered, pension contributions or a company car allowance.

Ways to improve your job ad further

Here are some other factors you can consider to boost the performance of your job ad:

Include a Diversity & Inclusion Statement (D&I)

A D&I statement shows a company’s commitment to creating a Diverse and Inclusive workplace welcoming people of all backgrounds to be part of your workplace culture. By including a D, E&I statement you are appealing to people from all ethnic, religious, and sexual backgrounds to apply therefore increasing and diversifying your talent pool.

List any development opportunities

The number one reason employees leave is due to lack of development opportunities. The average cost of training a new employee is on between £1000-£1600 and the cost of fully replacing an employee is upwards of £30,000 (figures received from various studies).  By displaying what development opportunities you provide, you will attract people looking to start/progress their career rather than having temporary staff.

Emphasise your unique selling point (USP)

By adding a USP you will help candidates distinguish the difference between you and the competition. Adding company benefits and a USP makes the role more appealing and allows candidates to buy into your company culture. USP’s can be any kind of accomplishments such as company growth, sales numbers, awards received, or contributions to social, economic or environmental causes (Charities, taking part in Green Schemes, working with vulnerable people etc.).

Use the Totaljobs Gender Bias Decoder

By using positive, gender-neutral language and by removing any jargon you can increase the number of applications by appealing to a broader candidate pool. We have a highly intelligent system which can remove any gender bias language to make your advert more seamless. Try the Totaljobs gender bias decoder today

Add in screening questions

When advertising your job, you can easily set up screening questions which help you improve the relevancy of the applications you receive. We advise you use it, if there is something the applicant absolutely must have in order to get the role. For example, if they need to have a certain licence, qualification or legal check. It also helps if you have a desired trait that you’d like to filter applicants by, for example: over 5 years’ experience. Anyone who ‘fails’ your screening question will still be able to apply, and will be visible to you, but will sit in your candidate management system in a different folder to those who meet your requirements.

Create a company profile

Create a dedicated page to showcase what it’s like to work for your company. By directing potential candidates to this page, you can increase the relevancy of those applying. Get in touch with Customer Services or your account manager to find out more.

Upgrade to a Premium Job

Our Premium Job ad helps people see what it’s like to work for your company. Use photos and videos to increase the relevancy of the applications you receive. Your branding will deliver up to 16% more relevant applicants than a Standard Job ad, and you are 75% more likely to hire through us than our nearest competitor. Get in touch with Customer Services or your account manager to find out more.

Join our free training webinars for more tips

Join one of our free training webinars for the latest tips and tricks on how to level up your job ads, leverage the full suite of Totaljobs products and streamline your recruitment. Learn more. To find out more about what happens once your ad is live, and how to get the most from your candidate management system, read our next guide: 
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