Job Advertising Strategies for Better Sourcing Results

Effective job advertising is the cornerstone of successful recruitment. To build a strong talent pool and begin the vetting process, employers must ensure their job ads reach the right audience. However, optimizing this process requires a delicate balance between candidate quantity and quality. Too narrow of a focus may lead to extended hiring timelines and suboptimal hires while casting too wide a net adds administrative strain on recruitment teams.

In this three-part series, we'll be looking at Talent Tech Labs' 2024 report, "Next Generation of Job Advertising: Strategies For Generating the Best Sourcing Results."

In Chapter 1, we'll be covering:

• The importance of optimizing your vetting process to balance candidate quality and quantity.
• Key findings of the report.
• And what's next for the new age of job advertising.

Let's dive in.

Striking the right balance

So, how do organizations achieve an optimal balance of candidate quantity and quality? Recently, talent acquisition technologies such as programmatic advertising and job distribution have helped recruiters target their ads more effectively. Programmatic advertising, which has long been used to market goods and services to consumers, is now being applied to recruitment, enabling recruiters to target the right candidates with precision. This efficiency not only improves job ad effectiveness but also frees recruiters to focus on higher-level strategies instead of managing job posts.

As these technologies become more widespread, we wanted to understand how organizations have developed their job advertising strategies, how these tools have impacted their processes, and the resulting effects on their bottom line. We surveyed companies across various markets to gather insights on current job advertising trends, where budgets are headed, and how new technologies compare to traditional methods.

Traditionally, job ads were placed in newspapers, on the radio, or on TV. The internet changed that with the rise of online job boards like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and Seek, which allowed employers to list roles and find candidates digitally. Job board aggregators soon followed, consolidating listings from multiple sites into one place.

The next shift came with social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, which enabled more targeted job advertising. These platforms have now adopted programmatic advertising technologies, allowing recruiters to serve job ads to specific audiences and demographics, similar to consumer marketing strategies.

Key findings from the report

As stated in the report, "Talent Tech Labs and Veritone surveyed organizations of varying sizes across eight major markets. More than half of the respondents do at least some of their recruiting in the United States, and roughly a quarter hire in the United Kingdom. About 20% also recruit in Europe, primarily France and Germany, and 17.1% are active in Australia and Canada. While many respondents are Veritone customers, the survey was not exclusive to them."

Social media's dominance

One of the standout findings is the dominance of social media in job advertising, particularly LinkedIn. According to the report, "almost 76% of respondents advertise roles on social media, compared with about 68% who post manually to job sites, with job distribution channels coming in third, at 56%."

Programmatic advertising adoption

Despite the growing benefits of programmatic advertising, only a third of respondents currently use it. Interestingly, many companies use both job distribution and programmatic advertising, with over 62% employing both strategies to maximize their reach.

Centralized budgeting

The report also found that "nearly 60% take a centrally determined strategy, and just 7% allow individual departments or hiring managers to manage their own job advertising budgets. Another 6% outsource to a recruitment marketing agency, and about 5% do not actively manage their job advertising budget at all."

Platform preferences

LinkedIn remains the most popular platform, with around half of organizations using it to advertise roles, followed by Indeed and ZipRecruiter, which are used by about a third and a fifth of organizations, respectively. About 25% of organizations use Veritone Hire Job Distribution, followed by Veritone Programmatic at about 15%. Veritone Hire Job Distribution only has about 13% market penetration among respondents who recruit in the United States, but it's used by 64% of respondents who recruit elsewhere.

Job advertising budgets

After a period of budget tightening, job advertising expenditures are expected to rise in 2025, especially in certain categories. While nearly half of the respondents expect their budgets to remain the same, about a quarter anticipate an increase, with another 5% projecting it to increase greatly. As noted in the report: "most organizations expect to spend the same or more on job distribution and programmatic and spend the same or less on recruitment marketing agencies. Furthermore, minor dips in traditional media like radio, TV, and newspaper advertisements seem to be balanced by a significant uptick in social media marketing spend."

Looking ahead

As organizations refine their job advertising strategies, the balance between traditional methods and emerging technologies will continue to evolve. Programmatic advertising, job distribution, and social media are poised to remain critical components of talent acquisition, as companies seek to attract the right candidates with greater precision and efficiency. By staying attuned to these trends, businesses can optimize their recruitment efforts, improve the quality of hires, and navigate the ever-changing landscape of job advertising.

In the next two chapters of our Next-Generation Job Advertising series, we'll cover how budget decisions are made, regional insights, the impact of Veritone Hire, and more.

To learn more, download the report, watch the Next-Generation Sourcing The Dynamic Future of Job Advertising webinar, or explore Veritone Hire's suite of hiring solutions.

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