Elements of strong job ads

Your job ad can address your target audience and explain why your position may be of interest to them.

Strong job ads typically include the following elements:

• Job title and role description: Select the appropriate job position titles, headings and the first sentence for your job ad.
• Expectations: Provide enough information, such as required skills, so candidates can determine whether they might succeed in your role.
• Company culture and industry: Align your job ads with your brand to build trust with potential candidates.

Tips for writing types of job ads

The format of job ads may differ, depending on the medium. For example, social media recruiting may involve an intriguing post with only the job title and salary expectations and a link to your career site for more information. These tips can help you customize your approach to writing job ads:

Writing job ads for startups

Many people research a company’s employer brand before applying for or accepting a position. Employee reviews help verify that others enjoy working for the company or that the employer is reliable and fair.

Consider these tips if your start-up has few reviews:

• Company story: Link to your About Us page and share your startup’s story, including your origins, history and key leadership. Outline your vision for the company’s future and your commitment to current and future employees.
• Job requirements: It’s common for employees in startups and other small businesses to complete cross-functional tasks. For example, a team lead may also complete a coordinator’s responsibilities or onboard new employees. Explaining this during the interview process might help reduce employee turnover and align expectations.
• Job benefits and perks: Quality candidates benefit from understanding what distinguishes your company from competitors. Clearly explainingyour company’s benefits and perks can help you compete with more established employers.

Writing job ads to attract quality candidates

When creating a general job ad for potential candidates in your industry, you may address the following:

• Expectations: Candidates benefit from knowing what your company expects from them. Use the ad to highlight the job’s duties and responsibilities. You can also explain how your business supports employees as they work to achieve company objectives and their career goals.
• Company culture: Quality candidates likely want to work for innovative companies or those that provide a welcoming team culture. Use your ad to illustrate how your organization challenges and rewards top performers.
• Industry-specific benefits: Do competitive research to determine what other companies in your sector offer. Experienced candidates in your niche may expect similar benefits.

Writing job ads for specialized jobs

Your open role may require recruiting from a labor market with high demand and low supply. For example, your company may operate within a specific niche, such as cloud engineering. Successful job ads for such positions can include:

• Industry-specific language: Your target audience understands the technical details of the role. Use language that helps people with relevant skills determine whether their skill set aligns with your position.
• Pay transparency: While you may not need to include salary ranges in your job ads, it can help candidates determine whether to apply.

General tips for writing job ads

The following tips may help you create job ads for any position:

• Conciseness: Use short paragraphs and sentences and integrate bullet points to help candidates quickly locate important information in the posting.
• Inclusive language: Avoid gendered or biased terms that may unintentionally discourage qualified candidates from applying.
• Call-to-action (CTA): Tell candidates the next steps if they’re interested in the role. You might provide a link with more information about the job or invite them to apply via email or an online application system.
• Impact of the role: Demonstrate how the role contributes to the success of your business to help candidates understand their place in your organization.
• Proofread content: Check spelling, grammar and formatting before posting to ensure your ad appears professional. You might also have a manager or professional from the HR team review the posting to help prevent errors.

3 job ad examples

Depending on your advertisement and open position, you may want to post a short banner or text ad, a longer job listing or something in between. To ensure optimal exposure for your listing, consider several ad types.

The following examples demonstrate how various formats may work:

Example 1: Short banner or text ad

Use short, engaging copy for social platforms, job boards or display ads with limited character counts. Focus on the role, the location and one primary benefit to entice professionals to click on the ad.

Now hiring: Customer service representatives, remote work.

Join a growing team that values work-life balance and offers opportunities for advancement. Apply today.

Example 2: Longer promotional job ad

This format may work well in email marketing and newsletters, on social platforms with longer character counts and on websites.

Use your leadership and organizational skills in a project management position.

We’re expanding our project management team and seeking professionals with Project Management Professional (PMP) credentials or up to five years of experience in project leadership or continuous process improvement.

In this role, you’ll oversee teams working on product development and process improvement initiatives. You’ll work with senior-level leadership to align budgets and project goals and develop milestone schedules to support success. We’re seeking a PMP who’s passionate about creative problem-solving and team coaching.

Apply today or find out more about our other available roles.

Example 3: Full job post listing

You can use this detailed format on your career pages, job boards like Indeed and paid ad placements for high-value or hard-to-fill positions.

We’re hiring a director of content creation!

Location: San Francisco, CA

About the role:

We’re seeking a director of content creation to help shape our brand’s voice and lead a growing internal and external content creation team. In this role, you’ll oversee daily production of content and develop strategies to support multichannel content performance.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and execute a brand-aligned content strategy
• Lead a team of writers, editors, designers and video producers
• Partner with search engine optimization (SEO), product and lead generation teams to ensure content drives measurable results
• Establish and maintain brand voice and tone guidelines across all content formats
• Monitor performance and use data to improve reach and engagement
• Manage vendor relationships, budgets and content calendars

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing or a related field or equivalent experience
• Five or more years’ experience in content creation with demonstrated success driving leads or traffic
• Strong leadership and project management skills
• Understanding of SEO best practices and content analytics tools

Benefits:

• Competitive compensation, including an annual performance bonus
• Health, vision and dental insurance
• Generous paid time off (PTO) and vacation policies
• Professional development and leadership training opportunities