How to do an employment ad on Facebook?

Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world, with over 2 billion monthly active users as of 2020. This massive user base makes Facebook a great place to post job listings and recruit new talent for your business. Facebook allows you to target your job ads precisely to reach the most qualified candidates, track their response, and turn social media followers into job applicants. This guide will walk you through the steps of creating an effective employment ad on Facebook to attract top talent for your organization.

Benefits of Facebook job ads

Posting employment ads on Facebook provides several key advantages:

• Huge reach – With billions of daily active users, Facebook provides access to the largest talent pool possible.
• Targeting capabilities – Facebook collects a vast amount of data about its users, allowing advertisers to target based on location, education, skills, job titles, and more.
• Cost-effective – Facebook job ads can cost as little as $5 per day, making it very affordable versus other job sites.
• Ad options – You can boost posts from your Page, promote a specific job listing, or create an entire recruiting campaign.
• Applicant tracking – The Facebook Jobs Manager gives insights into how your job posts are performing and who is applying.
• Brand building – Active job posts showcase that your company is growing and hiring.

Clearly, the ability to hyper-target relevant candidates and track interest makes Facebook a very strategic platform for recruiting.

Step 1 – Creating a Company Page

To run any ads on Facebook, the first requirement is having an official Facebook Page for your business. You can create a Page easily by:

1. Going to facebook.com and clicking on “Create” in the top right.
2. Selecting “Business or brand” as the type of Page you want to create.
3. Entering your company name and contact details, then click “Continue”.
4. Choosing a category that fits your business and clicking “Create Page”.

Spend time customizing your Page by adding a profile image, cover photo, description, and any job listings you may already have. Try to showcase your company culture and values creatively.

Step 2 – Setting up a Jobs Tab

Once your Page is established, you need to set up a Jobs tab that will host all of your job listings and applications:

1. Go to your Page and click “Add a Button” under the cover image.
2. Choose “Jobs” from the options.
3. Click the Jobs tab and then “Post a Job” to create your first listing.
4. Fill out the job details, requirements, location and applicant questions.
5. Make sure the listing is set to “Published” so it goes live on your Page.

Your Jobs tab creates a dedicated place for potential applicants to browse openings and apply directly on Facebook.

Step 3 – Boosting Job Postings

Once you’ve published job listings to your Page, you can start promoting them as ads to reach more qualified people:

1. Go to any published job on your Jobs tab and click “Boost This Post”.
2. Choose your budget, duration, and target location for the ad.
3. Select the detailed targeting criteria, such as job title, skills, education, age, etc.
4. Place your order and the job ad will start running immediately.
5. Track its performance in Facebook Ads Manager for optimization.

Facebook’s targeting really shines here by enabling you to precisely define your ideal applicants. Always test different targeting combinations for the best results.

Step 4 – Creating a Jobs Ad Campaign

For a more advanced recruiting strategy, you can create an entire Jobs campaign with multiple job ads:

1. Go to the Facebook Ads Manager and select “Jobs” as your campaign objective.
2. Name your campaign and set the budget and schedule.
3. Create individual ad sets for each role you want to advertise.
4. Add your job postings and define the targeting for each ad set.
5. Launch the campaign and let the ads start recruiting candidates.
6. Monitor performance to see which roles get the most traction.

This gives you greater structure for running multiple job ads simultaneously while evaluating their comparative success.

Step 5 – Automated Follow-up Messages

Making your job ads interactive improves the candidate experience and your hire rate from Facebook. You can set up automated follow-up messages as part of your Page’s recruitment flow:

1. From your Page, go to Settings > Jobs > Application Follow-Up.
2. Enable follow-ups and create your message templates.
3. Customize timing and triggers tailored to each stage.
4. Personalize messages dynamically with applicant info.
5. Thank applicants, provide status updates, send screening links, etc.

These conversational bots make applying and tracking progress much simpler for jobseekers.

Step 6 – Integrate with an Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

Managing a high volume of applicants from Facebook requires integration with an ATS or recruiting software. Major systems like Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, SmartRecruiters, etc. offer integration with Facebook’s API:

1. From your Page, go to Settings > Jobs > Services.
2. Choose your ATS and connect via API.
3. New applicants will automatically flow into your ATS database.
4. Update applicant status in your ATS and it syncs to their Facebook profile.
5. Track source of hire and other metrics within your system.

This fills your recruiting pipeline at scale while still keeping everything organized.

Key Metrics to Track

To optimize your Facebook job ads, focus on these key performance indicators:

• Cost per applicant – Measures how much you spend to acquire each applicant.
• Applicant quality – Percentage of applicants that move to the screening stage or get hired.
• Time to hire – How many days it takes to go from job post view to hire.
• Source of hire – Percentage of hires that came directly from Facebook.
• Job post reach – Total people who viewed your job listing.
• Job post engagement – Likes, shares, and comments on your posts.
• Apply rate – Number of applicants divided by total job post views.

Analyze this data to refine your targeting, copy, and creative over time.

Optimizing Your Job Ads

Here are some proven tips for improving the performance of your Facebook job ads:

• Spotlight your employer brand – Highlight company culture plus employee benefits and perks.
• Use video – Video job posts stand out in the feed and convey brand personality.
• Leverage employee networks – Employees can share job posts with their own networks.
• Test various formats – Try carousels, single images, slideshows, and video.
• Retarget engaged users – Remarket to people who’ve already shown interest.
• Update targeting over time – Adjust targeting as performance data comes in.
• Promote referral program – Offer incentives for employee referrals from Facebook.
• Give job preview – Share responsibilities, requirements, benefits to attract best fit.
• Highlight urgency – Promote job expiration date to encourage quicker applications.

You’ll need to continually experiment and learn what resonates most with your target audience on Facebook.

Ad Creation Best Practices

When designing your job ads, keep these best practices in mind:

• Lead with eye-catching imagery – Photos or video that show your culture.
• Highlight the job title – Make it bold and clear in the ad creative.
• List the location – Calling out the city builds local appeal.
• Use simple formatting – Too much text will get ignored, be concise.
• Add a strong CTA – “Apply Now” or “Learn More” buttons drive clicks.
• Leverage captions – Use captions to give more job details and benefits.
• Check character limits – Ad text has a strict 125 character limit.
• Provide company context – Briefly explain who you are and what you do.
• Frame the opportunity – Why is this opening exciting or valuable?
• Make it mobile-friendly – Design ads for small screens since most are on mobile.

Always A/B test different creative approaches and wording to see what converts best.

Conclusion

Facebook provides a scalable, cost-efficient platform to recruit quality talent for your open positions. By setting up job ads that precisely target audiences based on characteristics and interests, you can drive highly qualified applicants into your recruiting funnel. Make sure to analyze job ad performance and conversion rates to continuously refine your strategy and creative. With its massive reach, interactive options, and precise targeting, Facebook is one of the best channels available for getting your jobs in front of the right people.