How to Advertise a Job Opening (Tips & Tricks)

When there’s a new job available on your team, publishing it on your careers page isn’t enough. You need to get the word out in the right places to bring in the volume and quality of applications that you need. When you know how to advertise a job opening, you’ll be a lot closer to hiring the right person.

Getting it wrong can be costly, both in money and in headaches! But a solid advertising strategy can get your job opening in front of the right people—and you’ll be proactive about it in the process.

Where Should I Advertise a Job Opening?

There are plenty of options for advertising job openings, both online and offline. Some are free or very low cost. Others can feel costly—but they may be worth the money for certain roles.

Let’s take a look at some key places to advertise. You may have already included some of these in your recruitment plan.

LinkedIn (Most Important)

LinkedIn has long been the most popular social network for job seekers and is the best way to advertise job openings.

All of Insight Global’s thousands of recruiters and account managers use LinkedIn in some capacity, so we have experience with the platform. We’ve also built our company page to have nearly two million followers!

You can use LinkedIn in several ways:

1. Your Company’s LinkedIn Page

Post a status update linking to the job listing on your website. Encourage your followers to apply or to share it with their network in case they have contacts who’d be interested. Posting job openings on LinkedIn costs nothing and quickly gets the word out.

2. LinkedIn Jobs

If you have at least a small budget for advertising job openings, you can use LinkedIn Jobs to promote your role.

This LinkedIn feature lets you target the most relevant candidates, and it gives your job ad greater visibility. You can promote a single free job posting on LinkedIn Jobs, too, with limited features.

3. Your Employees Spread the Word

You may have employees who have vast networks of their own! Use them and their social media followings to help get the word out about your job openings. This can be part of an overall employee referral program, too.

Job Boards

After LinkedIn, the most obvious place to advertise a job opening is on popular online job boards. Some of these let you post jobs for free, but you’ll need to pay to get the best visibility and tools.

Three of the best job boards to advertise on are:

Indeed: Free to post jobs, though you’ll get the best results by sponsoring your job posting. It includes tools to manage multiple job postings and applicants.
ZipRecruiter: A smaller site with a free trial, ZipRecruiter has great customer support and sends your job postings to 100+ other job board sites. You’ll need to pay extra to post to LinkedIn, Monster, and other big sites.
Monster: Another massive job posting site, second only to Indeed, Monster has a wide range of useful tools. You cannot post jobs for free on Monster.

Email Previous Applicants

Chances are, you already have a ready-made list of past applicants. This list most likely comes from candidates who applied for a role in the past and who you potentially already vetted during a past hiring process. Some qualified candidates may have narrowly missed out, and they could be a perfect fit now that your company is expanding.

Here’s a simple email template you can use to contact a past applicant:

Dear [name],

I’m [name], a [job title] at [company name]. You might remember [you applied for / we spoke when … etc] in [month, year].

We’ve kept your resume in our database of talent so we could reach out if a suitable role came up. I’m pleased to let you know that we have a position open for [job title].

I think your skills and experience would make you a great fit for this position. You can find all the details about it at [link to job description on your company website].

If you have any questions, just let me know. I’d be very happy to set up a time to chat about the role.

Best wishes,
[your name]

Local Colleges & Universities

Looking for entry-level candidates? Your local universities’ careers services department will almost certainly have a database of job opportunities that they make available to students. This is a great way to get your role in front of eager job seekers who are about to complete their degree.

If you’re looking for seasonal workers (such as during the summer and holiday periods), local universities and colleges can also be a great source of undergraduates looking for work between semesters.

Glassdoor

You may think of Glassdoor primarily as a site for employees to post reviews of their employers, but you can also use it to post open roles and job opportunities.

If you plan to use Glassdoor or similar career sites for recruitment, you should consider optimizing your company profile and feedback on the site. It’s vital to your hiring process to maintain a strong employer brand, so work to ensure that the feedback is broadly positive in relation to your hiring process, managers, and company culture.

This can often come down to how you treat employees and candidates during hiring and beyond.

Social Media (Beyond LinkedIn)

Although LinkedIn is the most popular social network for a job search, other social media platforms can be useful for advertising open roles. You may want to consider:

Twitter: Useful for any industry, but is particularly popular in the tech and journalism industries.
Facebook: Local groups are a great way to advertise open positions locally, like roles in restaurants, care homes, stores, and construction.
Reddit: You can post roles for free on reddit.com/r/jobpostings, though you may want to post in more specialized subreddits to find higher quality applicants, particularly in tech.

You may also encourage current employees to share openings on social media, especially if you have a system for rewarding employee referrals.

Local Radio or Public Transit

If you’re recruiting for a large number of jobs, particularly hourly roles, then local radio or public transit can help you reach an audience.

Keep in mind that using this creative way to advertise job openings can become expensive, both in terms of the advertising fee itself and for the necessary creative assets (voice recording for radio, images and text design for public transit ads).

Store Front

If your business has a brick-and-mortar facility open to the public, you can use it to advertise your job opening. This could be as simple as putting a “We’re Hiring” poster in your window—ideally with some details about what you’re looking for.

Free Download: Insight Global’s Complete Guide to Finding Employees

Should I Have a Budget for Advertising Job Openings?

Depending on your company goals, you may or may not have a budget for advertising job openings.

If you have a small budget, then prioritize where best to spend it. For example, you may want to focus on advertising the role on LinkedIn and Indeed, as those are two of the best areas to find potential candidates online.

If you’re working with a larger budget, you may want to advertise your job opening in a range of different places. Make sure you track your results for each location, such as number of applications or percentage of candidates that went on to the second stage of recruitment. This will help you see where best to use your budget in the future.

Don’t Forget to Optimize for SEO When Posting Online

Some job hunters will simply head straight to Google and type in what they’re looking for, like “front-of-house restaurant staff NYC.”

When you create a job posting, use some basic search engine optimization (SEO) best practices, such as:

Include the phrases that candidates would type into Google to find the job.
Have a clear and specific title for your job posting (avoid language like “Job Opening” in the title).

Let a Staffing Company Do it For You

If you’re feeling a little daunted by where and how best to advertise your job opening, consider bringing in a staffing company to help.

At Insight Global, we handle the whole process for you while working within your budget. Whether you’re looking for a contractor or permanent staff member, we can take care of it all. We’ll identify top talent, curate the right candidates for you, then take care of onboarding and even payroll. Take a look at what we offer.