Headlines:

What Should You Be Doing With Your Job Advertising Budget?

Over the last few years, with the labor market being red hot, it was easy to decide what to do with your agency’s job advertising budget. When demand for workers increases, you increase your job advertising.

Now that the market is declining and job orders aren’t flooding the doors as they once were, people are asking “Well, what does this mean for my job advertising budget?” While there is no one answer for this, here are some options and ideas for pivoting your efforts to get the most ROI.

1. Lower Your Budget / Reallocate Funds?If you notice that your budget isn’t going as far as it once did or you are seeing your active job orders go down, it could be a sign that you should lower your ad spend. If you previously had $1,000 for 10 active jobs ($100 per job on average) and now only have 5 active jobs, that’s $200 per job on average. You might think you will get twice the applications, but there’s no guarantee; you could just be wasting your company’s funds.Rather, why not scale back your budget to correlate with your job postings? You may see that you get a better return from your efforts. The other benefit of lowering your budget is that you can reallocate those unused funds to support other operations in your business.
2. Become More IntentionalWhenever you are thinking about adjusting your budget, it provides a great chance to reevaluate your current Recruitment Marketing strategy and see if it makes sense based on your company vision.Let’s say all your job advertisements (postings) pull from one singular budget. There’s not much control or intention with that strategy. You may find that your most profitable areas aren’t getting the attention they should be!If job orders go down, your budget doesn’t have to either. By taking a deeper look into your strategy and how it relates to your business goals, you can become more intentional with your job advertising efforts and be just as aggressive.The biggest tool to help you in this decision-making process is data. Take the time to look at your job advertising performance and how it helps your business reach its goals, and that will give you a much better idea of how to pivot to continue growing!

Big Data: Snapshot – Manufacturing and Healthcare:

Manufacturing:

Throughout 2022, manufacturing jobs grew at a steady pace. Despite uncertainty in the economy, jobs in the industry continue to grow with about twice the amount of open jobs compared to 2022.

Wage gains in the manufacturing sector also increased throughout the year, highlighting the competition for workers. Expect wage gains to continue throughout Q2 of 2023 until demand for workers is more balanced to job seekers.

With unemployment still at a historic low, advertising costs for manufacturing roles will likely continue to increase throughout the year.

Healthcare:

The healthcare industry is unique in that it is fairly recession-proof, and we continue to see that as we go throughout 2023. There are increasing open jobs in all subsectors of healthcare, and combined with nursing strikes throughout the U.S., competition for healthcare workers grows as well.

Wage trends went up and down throughout 2022. Increasing quickly earlier in the year, but then starting to plateau towards the end of the year. Slowing rates is a possible sign in terms of less competition in the industry, but if demand for workers continues to grow, we may see wage gains increase again.

Healthcare has traditionally been one of the most difficult and expensive industries to recruit for. While that doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon, the strong job gains that continue are encouraging for the market.

Tip/Trick of the Month:

Breaking Down “What’s In It For Me?”:

When creating a job posting, you are not just trying to lay out the duties and responsibilities of the job. You have a specific candidate, or target audience, in mind for the ideal employee. Because of that, it’s not enough to just have a list of bullet points; you need to market the position correctly!

Our Recruitment Marketing team stresses “What’s In It For Me?” or “WIIFM” to our clients. When we speak about “WIIFM,” we are referring to what’s in it for the job seeker: what benefits or value do they receive from applying and possibly taking on the position?

This is a great time to think outside the box and differentiate your brand from competitors. You need to think about why your ideal candidate would want to take the job. Is it a flexible schedule? Possible overtime? The ability to travel while on the job?

Then you need to highlight that benefit (perk) early into the job description to grab the job seeker’s attention.

“Do you enjoy being out and about and looking for new places to explore? This position offers an amazing opportunity to travel to various locations and see the country!”

By highlighting what’s in it for me (the job seeker), your team can create stronger job descriptions to help bring in more candidates and improve your employer brand!

Are you ready to learn more about how Haley Marketing and the recruitment marketing team can help drive improved results from your job advertising budget? Contact our team today to learn more and set up a free recruitment marketing consulting call!