Recruiting suitable candidates is always important, but due to the tight labour market the pressure is just a little higher. Organisations spend a lot of money on different recruitment methods and these are abundant. As an HR professional you can choose from working at sites, social media, job boards, internal recruitment departments, recruitment agencies, recruitment events. The ideal candidate is a pin in a haystack. Unless you can turn the game around!

Targeted advertising: we want you!

A new trend in the HR field is targeted job advertisement. What's that? Simply put: online advertising with vacancies. This works in exactly the same way as all online advertisements, namely by targeting a specific profile. If I take my profile as an example, you'll see that I work in HR and love cycling. So advertisements for cycling shoes, new wheels and challenging HR jobs are shown on my channels.

Advantage over traditional recruitment methods

There are a number of advantages of targeted job advertising over traditional recruitment methods.

1) Detailed selection

The great thing about this system is that you can select a very specific target group that is of interest to you. And that can be quite detailed, such as: between 25-40 years old, interested in Finance, living in a radius of 20km from Amsterdam, with an HBO or WO education. Then you can let that group get in touch with your company and the vacancy online. In this way you increase the quality of the applications, with a greater chance of a good match.

2) Quickly in contact

Thanks to the Internet, you are able to reach the target group that is of interest to you very quickly. Anyone who meets the desired profile can apply for the vacancy with a click of your mouse. Compare that to a recruiter who tries to approach everyone personally. In this way you will quickly be in contact with candidates, which shortens the recruitment process.

3) Passive candidates

In addition, you reach passive candidates. These are candidates who are not actively looking for a new job, but who are open to a nice offer. Compare it to a soccer player who has a good time at Ajax, but of course is always open for a transfer to Barcelona. With a work site or a job board you only reach the active candidate who is looking for a new job.

Importance of employer branding

The success of target job advertising, however, depends on the message that you as a company send out to potential candidates. Without strong employer branding and well thought-out job branding, target job advertisement is generally unsuccessful. Before you start with job advertisement, it is therefore important to think about the message you want to send out as a company. Questions like: Who are we as an employer? What makes us unique? Why do our employees work for us? What makes the job offered so interesting? The answers to these questions are packaged in an attractive message aimed at the ideal candidate. Only then will your target group actually show interest in your company and the vacancy. That is the moment when targeted job advertising really gets an added value compared to traditional recruitment methods.

Do you want to use targeted job advertising, but are you looking for support in setting it up? Then give us a call, we'd like to think along with you.