[[resultsTitle]]

[[item.title]]
[[item.category]]
Issue #[[item.issue__number]] published [[timeFormat(item.date)]]

97 items in RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING

Brainfooder Alexander Chukovski is fast becoming the most cited community member in 2024, mainly for amazing posts like this. We need our niche hero’s to take the time to do experimentation, research and algorithm tracking. Essential reading for ATS providers and recruitment job marketers. Also, I’m fully on board with the conspiracy theory Alex!
Issue #413 published 8 Sep 2024
Here is more or less the same technology, used on the platform side. Indeed’s ‘Invite to Apply’ crawls the candidate resume db, finds those most suitable to the job advertised and then messages them to tell them why. Why does this feel better coming from the platform side? Maybe because its optimising for accuracy, rather than volume. In any case, AI is blurring the lines between sourcing vs advertising - and recruiters jobs will change as a result. PS: anyone on as a candidate on Indeed and been invited to apply? Love to hear from you!
Issue #412 published 1 Sep 2024
Programmatic advertising platforms have the best data on job ad performance. What is most interesting to me is how the guidance from competitor vendors tend to align - we need industry standard job titles, a certain length of copy length and formal rather boring tone. That is, if you want to optimise for application rate. Good post on this on effective job ad writing, and have a play of the free Job Description Optimizer also
Issue #410 published 18 Aug 2024
Brainfooder Alexander Chukowski is an unusually specific contributor to the community - he’s a job specialist who specialises further in SEO for Job Boards. This is a fantastic deep dive into the SEO considerations of migrating a job board.
Issue #406 published 21 Jul 2024
Nice how-to from our friends at Joveo; programmatic is one of those technologies which has achieved widespread adoption in the US, but struggled to make similar headway in UK and mainland Europe. No idea why, because it is the best way to control ad spend, which you would’ve thought would be a priority in 2024. Anyways, if you are thinking of going beyond manual or multi-post job ads, here’s a guide on questions to ask a programmatic vendor. H/T to brainfooder Heather van Werkhooven for the un-gated share
Issue #403 published 30 Jun 2024
Monetization at Indeed
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Really enjoyed the Brainfood Live last week on the Future of Job Boards and Job Advertising. It was inspired in large part by this investor update from Indeed earlier in the year, particularly Chris Hyam’s speech on Monetization. It’s 11 minute watch - really interesting to see the direction of travel - Indeed growing toward the staffing market, rather than the job board market. H/T to brainfooder Gavin Audagnotti for the share
Issue #401 published 16 Jun 2024
I rarely promote my own stuff on this newsletter, but last Friday’s Brainfood Live was so good I have to let more people know about it. Here is my secret Youtube channel, which I basically use as storage for Brainfood Lives. Watch this if you want to hear about recruitment advertising, cost per application, GenAI enabled candidates, LLM’s taking over the job board space in a fascinating and cliche free discussion on the near future. Watch / listen here (scroll to 15.27) for the start of the debate.
Issue #393 published 21 Apr 2024
Hacker News - the Y Combinator message board, has become the de facto locus of conversation for tech startup types. It has a monthly ‘Who is Hiring’ thread, where employers simply add their jobs onto what becomes a massive comment thread. Some person with a lot of time of their hands scraped 10 years of data from these comments and produced the analysis. [Spoiler] - the term ‘hacker’ is now out of fashion for job ads, AI has shot through the roof and remote has become default setting for tech startup devs. Must read for tech recruiters.
Issue #391 published 7 Apr 2024
Mindbending stuff from brainfooder Bill Fischer, on how (true) Web 3.0 is changing the revenue models of Web 1.0 and 2.0. The insatiable data requirements LLM’s need for training may well open up a new revenue model for job boards who have the proprietary data. Comment thread is also fire, including contributions from brainfooders Rich Collins, Doug Monro and other big brains of the recruitment advertising industry. Have a read.
Issue #386 published 3 Mar 2024
More mysteries from Google, who abandon yet another experiment on Google For Jobs, flattering to deceive since 2017. Hard to feel disappointed when the pattern of launching potentially industry impacting innovation in the jobs space, is consistently followed by…..no follow up, abrupt pivots, premature cancellations. Good piece by brainfooder Chris Russell, who along with Alexander Chukovski writing here, Steven Rothberg and Jeffrey Dickey-Chasins might be the big 4 when it comes to being on top of all things job board. Follow them all, for your health.
Issue #383 published 11 Feb 2024
Did you know that using ‘you’ language in job ads might now result in worse performing job ads than using ‘we’ language? The most interesting element of this research from Textio is how dynamic applicant preferences are; what was data driven truth in 2019, might well be hackneyed cliche in 2024. Packed full of do-it-today tips, must read for anyone writing or generating job ads
Issue #381 published 28 Jan 2024
Amongst all the changes happening in big tech over the past 12 months, we have kind of forgotten another change which in normal times would be the big news of the year - Google is getting rid of the cookie. This will unquestionably alter the advertising landscape and is going to break a lot of the processes that we currently use to track ad performance, attribution, ad retargeting and the rest. This company decided to pull the bandage off ahead of time and published this highly interesting update on what happened when they did. Must read for anyone in recruitment advertising.
Issue #379 published 14 Jan 2024
One of the more predictable ways in which US employers have been adhering to the letter, rather than the spirit of the law on pay transparency has been to publish wide pay bands on job adverts. Not only not cute, but also not very clever as it seems that having wide pay bands is discrediting to the advertiser, deterring potentially suitable job applicants. Pay transparency is coming and sooner employers get into the spirit, the better it is going to be - for them
Issue #378 published 7 Jan 2024
Brainfooder Alexander Chukovski is such a unique (and therefore invaluable) commentator in our industry. His main thing is talking about technical minutae no one else notices but which have significant second order impact down the line. Any property hosting job adverts would do well to pay attention to this post, which outlines the importance of shifting to Indexing API for site updates if you have not already done so….
Issue #378 published 7 Jan 2024
JD Refresh
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Amazon seem to have been relatively quiet about GAI but we would be foolish to mistake lack of fanfare as lack of capability or interest. Amazon Bedrock’s under-the-radar release provides compelling evidence, especially on industry applications like this job description builder from brainfooder Aaron Lintz. Get into this folks.
Issue #375 published 17 Dec 2023
Google Jobs New SERPS Feature
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Two posts from brainfooder Alexander Chukovski who reports on the so far under reported changes on Google Jobs. The first one is on the information architecture of job ads (for direct employers), the second on the SERPS (for job boards, aggregators). A little bit technical but accessible to most who are posting jobs, Alex obviously worth a follow also.
Issue #371 published 19 Nov 2023
A Unique Halloween Challenge
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Smart, creative (and cheap!) way to use gamification + AI as both a candidate attraction and assessment filter. Cheers for Shay McIntosh for recording the loom to show it works, and H/T to brainfooder Jonny Summers for the share.
Issue #369 published 5 Nov 2023
Google Helpful Content Guide 2023
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
It is extremely useful for our community to have the likes of brainfooder Alexander Chukovski in it, because they make observations on obscure updates on major platforms which might have significant impact on the efficacy of our tools and channels we use. Google content update penalises optimisation hacks such as date updates to re-fresh content. Worth having a read of this if you’re posting jobs or managing content in any way for your employer. NB: Alexander will be joining us for Recruiter Use Cases For ChatGPT - Part 4 later this month. H/T to brainfooder Caroline Hunter for the share
Issue #365 published 8 Oct 2023
EU's War on Behavioral Advertising
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
More regulations, more problems for recruiters. I suspect the EU’s antipathy toward advertising will inadvertently lead to even more advertising as brands respond to less targeting by simply increasing the volume of ads in a saturation strategy. Or maybe brands will simply give up? Great breakdown of the latest regulations and how it impacts advertisers. Don’t forget Google is going to disable cookies in Chrome next year also. The ads landscape is going to be transformed, and that means the digital world will be too. We need to get on top of this, if we are in recruitment advertising.
Issue #361 published 10 Sep 2023
Nice bit of analysis from our friends at Cord, who reviewed candidate behaviour on their platform over time and found some interesting trends - mainly that tech candidates were become more active in applying for jobs, leading more hires via advertising as opposed to search. It’s a strong signal that the market has indeed tightened for tech candidates…
Issue #352 published 9 Jul 2023

Job posts with skills in the requirements section are correlated with an 11% increase in the view-to-apply rate, compared with job posts that don’t list skills among the requirements.

…yet doesn’t this chafe against the current consensus TA / HR view that putting more skills in requirements is a bad thing because it leads to too many people erroneously self selecting out? Makes you wonder how many of the things we like to think are true are luxury beliefs which dominate our domain but do not reflect what normal people believe or how they behave. Testable hypothesis this one, so do an A/B on it.
Issue #351 published 2 Jul 2023
Military Maintenance Technician
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
It seems that Brexit Britain has found a new / old way to get rid of unwanted immigration - by shipping them off to war in Ukraine. Astonishing job advert placed by a UK recruitment company specialising in hiring ex-military, offering £20K contract and the promise of UK citizenship to former servicemen (and women I guess?), so long as they from the Middle East and North Africa. DEIB, geopolitics, immigration, candidate shortage…it’s all here in this somewhat innocuous looking job ad.
Issue #346 published 28 May 2023
One of those posts which is so interesting that you wish it were longer; Meta collab with CrowdDNA to observe the lack of compartmentalisation of on vs online for Gen Z, and their greater tolerance of data sharing as an acceptable exchange for free services online. It’s generational stereotyping for sure, but one which I’ve got time for - it matters if you knew the world before the Internet.
Issue #345 published 21 May 2023
What We Look for in Resumes
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
This is actually a really clever recruitment advert. By analysing, documenting and then exposing his internal resume assessment process, founder Chip Huyen is able to describe the qualities of the candidates he is really looking for in a post that went viral with the audience he recruits from. I think this is reproducible technique, and a great example of the value of ‘working in public’ - your internal documentation becomes your marketing.
Issue #329 published 29 Jan 2023
Can Ads Be GDPR Compliant?
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Have you noticed the slow, low key, drip feed of fines on tech companies for GDPR non-compliance lately? Each successful case lays further groundwork for more cases to be brought, such that online advertising as it currently know it may well be entirely non-compliant. That at least is the argument presented in this fascinating post (get past the uncompromising non-UI!), which looks at individual cases and why they were lost by tech companies - mainly because the consent banners were deceptive or nudges users toward acceptance. Includes interesting speculation on what types of advertising might come next. Essential read for all recruitment advertisers / marketers.
Issue #327 published 15 Jan 2023
Meta Behaviour Ad Tracking Illegal
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
The end of Meta has a business will not be mourned by many here, but I suspect we will live to regret the end of the ad-supported big tech era. Everything will move to subscription, and what was once free will only be available to those who can pay. Implications for us too in recruitment - advertising will get dumber, so either we spend more via saturation campaigns, or funnel yet more money into places which promise us relevant audience.
Issue #322 published 11 Dec 2022
Great deep dive into the changes that has been going on with Indeed. Its Jim Durbin, the man Indeed calls "The Indeed Whisperer" complaining about the changes with Chad Sowash and Joel Cheesman. Essential listening folks - do it here. H/T to brainfooder Adam Gordon for the share.
Issue #317 published 17 Nov 2022
The most predictable response to the enforcement of salary transparency on job ads, is that employers resort to the obvious workaround - really large salary ranges Here’s a twitter thread of examples of this type of ‘bad faith transparency’. I wonder how many of these are from employers simply unprepared, do not have bandwidth to go through a proper levelling process or indeed, genuinely could pay anything for the right person. I wonder also how many simply resent the imposition and are publishing ridiculous ranges as a form of protest. Tough to police and not going to happen until transparency reaches its logical end state of ‘all numbers being public’.H/T to brainfooder Josh Willows for the share
Issue #318 published 17 Nov 2022
UK Prime Minister Recruitment Ad
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
The undeniable dysfunction of the UK’s political system has one bright spot - fertile ground for a few laughs, because what else are you going to do? Great witticism from brainfooder Andrew Wood whose observation on the cost of this particular bad hire went viral on Linkedin, to this hilarious-but-true recruitment advert for the vacant post of Prime Minister. H/T to brainfooder Jacob Sten Madsen for the share in the fb group.
Issue #315 published 23 Oct 2022
No Snowflakes Please
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
A Cheshire pub on the look out for a new chef received a mixed reaction online, after writing ‘no snowflakes please!!’ in the job advertisement placed on a blackboard outside the premises.
No surprises here - and perhaps no excuses - but I do wonder whether we apply middle class corporate values to working class local business a bit too readily. What do you think?
Issue #314 published 16 Oct 2022
Hilarious short collection pro-am job adverts from parents looking for help with Timmy and Tasmin. Unrealistic hiring manager expectations hit the domestic realm 🤣
Issue #312 published 2 Oct 2022
Been sharing these annual reports from Appcast past 3 years, but I realised that I somehow missed 2022. Better share it now, because its probably the definitive report you need to understand when and what to post in job ads. Essential reading. H/T brainfooder Oana Iordachescu for the share.
Issue #308 published 4 Sep 2022
Deep dive into running paid ads on developers (which is hard). I go through first principles, then dive into best practices, targeting, creatives, landing pages, channels and examples from the best developer-focused companies.
Pretty much exactly as the preview describes. If you hire from software engineers and advertising is part of your plan, you need to read this.
Issue #307 published 28 Aug 2022
Join the Dream Team
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Perhaps the slackers like Zuckerberg and Pichai want out of their business can find other forms of work more appealing - maybe like this one from bed manufacturer Casper, who really are looking to hire professional sleepers to test their mattresses. Job is still live folks, so go ahead and apply if you think you’re qualified 😂
Issue #305 published 14 Aug 2022
The Emerging Degree Reset
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Super interesting report from Burning Glass on 51 million job postings, showing a trend of employers moving away from degree requirements and toward more specific skills listings in job ads, the two appearing to be closely correlated. Burning Glass report to download here, pretty essential for recruitment advertisers, I’d say. HBR have a summary post here for easier reading.
Issue #292 published 15 May 2022
So the main idea is the shift the focus of the copy from bullet point lists of requirements, and toward skills / behaviours needed to perform well in the role. These may sound like the same thing, but this post from LinkedIn does a great job of explaining why they are not.
Issue #286 published 3 Apr 2022
Tech Hiring Report 2022
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Exceptionally interesting report which I summarised on a LinkedIn post that went viral earlier this week. Some really interesting data on the changes to tech job listings from 2019-2022, including the collapse of soft skills being advertised(!), the sad decline in the proportion of women applicants to tech roles and the prevalence of job title inflation as recruiters get desperate to attract talent. You’re going to need to give up your email to access to this, but worth it. Have a read here
Issue #286 published 3 Apr 2022
US State Privacy Legislation Tracker
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Pretty clear that we have long since past the peak of ad retargeting as legislation designed to protect user privacy continues to be roll out. Annoying and inevitably, this is in piecemeal fashion with local jurisdictions setting their rules and enforcements. This tracker contains some useful one-pagers and raw data downloads which tracks the legislation state by state in the US. Relevant for recruitment marketers here.
Issue #284 published 20 Mar 2022
Fascinating 40 minute video presentation on how online advertising works. Technical but delivered to the EU commission, so designed to be accessible to the laity. Whether you are an online ad expert or not, you should watch this.
Issue #277 published 30 Jan 2022
SAP Challenge by Deloitte
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Welcome to the first SAP Challenge organized by Deloitte! You will have 15 minutes to give the correct answer to 15 questions.
Interesting innovation from Deloitte, who came up with a recruiting solution for SAP roles they were looking to hire - combine the advert with the assessment. Reminds me of what Toggl do on their careers page. It’s smart thinking for hard-to-hire skills. H/T to brainfooder Symon Irving for the share in the fb group.
Issue #276 published 23 Jan 2022
I’m not sure why programmatic is not already the dominant way in which recruiters advertise. I guess a big percentage of recruiting ads might be auto-posted via ATS, and another percentage may be just episodic off ones which don’t merit further investment in better ways of working. In case lack of awareness is the problem, listen to this podcast with two veterans of the job board space - brainfooders Jeff Dickey-Chasins with Steven Rothberg. Won’t find two people who know more about it than these two - have a listen.
Issue #275 published 16 Jan 2022
Job Board Doctor Reviews 2021
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Jeff Dickey-Chasins runs through the state of the job board industry, from January to January. Fantastic way to catch up on all the job board / recruitment tech news that you might’ve missed last year. Have a listen here
Issue #274 published 9 Jan 2022
I’m going to make a prediction that two ostensibly progressive ideas - salary transparency in job ads + location agnosticism for the work - are going to collide, and ultimately prove untenable with each other. The impact is going to be far deeper than we are currently able to imagine, including - maybe - the abandonment of adverts as a means of talent attraction.
Issue #274 published 9 Jan 2022
Chief of Recruiting and Accessions
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
This looks like too much of a unique job role not to highlight here - Chief of Recruiting for the United States Space Force. It’s a somewhat sombre advert for what sounds like an amazing opportunity - maybe copy writing is the first thing the successful candidate needs to get right? Someone here should go for this. H/T to brainfooder Grant Clough for the share.
Issue #271 published 19 Dec 2021
With SpaceX and Blue Origin commercialising space travel, the cost-per-seat on a flight to space is going down so rapidly that its become accessible as a PR stunt for recruiting. Hats off to New York Pizza founder, Philippe Vorst, who says “in 2023 we will deliver the first pizza to space”.
Apply to deliver it, here.
Issue #270 published 12 Dec 2021
If you read last week’s post on performance advertising (not many of you did!) then this rather magnificent rebuttal is a must read. It’s rare to see intelligent debate carried out this way, where each protagonist takes care to accurately understand the argument of the other. Look forward to the rebuttal of the rebuttal if they have the energy to do it.
This is all relevant to recruitment advertising btw.
Issue #265 published 7 Nov 2021
Strange, under-the-radar update on how google index and display job adverts. The tone is so low key it’s incongruous with the potential significance of the information. Seems to me we should take note of this, especially if your organisation has an active career page.
Issue #265 published 7 Nov 2021
Genius insight on why ad tracking gives you correlation but not causation. It’s got to work differently in job advertising where discovery is the main value, but perhaps not for employer branding related efforts in marketing. Worth chewing over for anyone who posts ads, has a job which drives web traffic, or wants to build brand.
Issue #264 published 31 Oct 2021
You don’t have to have genius insight to get into this newsletter, sometimes you just need to explain what you are doing. This writer just explains his approach to ‘hyper targeting’ using LinkedIn job ads. You got to read it.
Issue #263 published 24 Oct 2021
How To Write Good Job Descriptions
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
It’s actually a ‘recruitment advert’, but leaving aside this faux pas, the advice on this post poses an interesting question - do we write ads in order to maximise applications (yup) and….is that a good thing? (nope). But we still want to see the volume, don’t we?
Issue #262 published 17 Oct 2021
The Job Board Doctor
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Brainfooders Serge Boudreau and Shelley Billinghurst interview the great Jeff Dickey-Chasins on the state of the job boards. Lots happening in the recruitment jobs advertising space, so lets learn about it here
Issue #260 published 3 Oct 2021
The crazy demand for candidates is accelerating innovation and creativity, as old techniques seem exhausted and ineffective. How about audio only job ads? The audio channels are less congested than the visual ones. H/T to brainfooder Simon McSorley in the fb group.
Issue #258 published 19 Sep 2021
Candidate shortage has suddenly become the No1 priority for almost every recruiter I speak to. I wrote this twitter thread, which condenses AppCast’s excellent white paper on how to increase job ad applicant flow. There are 5 do-it-today tips which you can immediately implement. Check it out here. Also, follow my twitter account, I will be doing more threading from now on.
Issue #258 published 19 Sep 2021
The individual we are looking to hire for the role will have previously been convicted of a domestic burglary……
I’m sure we all agree of the need to actively support the criminally convicted back into the world of work but I have never quite seen it so explicitly stated as this. H/T to brainfooder Matthew Hill for the share in the fb group.
Issue #257 published 12 Sep 2021
Perils of auto-renew / auto-posting job ads. A sad digital monument to more than one broken system.
Issue #253 published 16 Aug 2021
Is this the most Australian job ad ever? Self deprecation is hard to communicate, but our friends down under seemed to have mastered it (see New Zealand police for another example). Simple, low cost, super powered employer branding. H/T brainfooder Hassanah Rudd for the share.
Issue #253 published 16 Aug 2021
NASA is looking for healthy, motivated U.S. citizens or permanent residents who are non-smokers, age 30 to 55 years old, and proficient in English for effective communication between crew and mission control. Crew selection will follow standard NASA criteria for astronaut candidate applicants.
Well brainfooders, what are you waiting for? Read more here, apply here
Issue #253 published 16 Aug 2021
Google 'directApply'
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Somewhat under-the-radar update on Google for Jobs data schema, designed to reduce the steps required for a candidate to apply for a job discovered on GfJ. Google’s own technical update here, Chad and Cheese with a podcast overview here, Search Engine Land with a good post overview and brainfooder Steve Rothberg with an excellent breakdown of what it means for job boards and employer brand experts.
Issue #250 published 25 Jul 2021
The Jargon of Jobs
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Are you guilt of using jargon in your job adverts? Canva researched over 40 million job ads to identify which industries and which states were most guilty of ‘taking it to the next level’. Fun bit of research - have a read
Issue #247 published 4 Jul 2021
Social Media Use In 2021
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Pew Centre Research on some 1500 US adults on what social media they use. Method of data collection (calling people up??) skews this information but it is still useful to discern a segment of the US population gets its media. Online report here, download here
Issue #245 published 20 Jun 2021
Outrageous offer from the founder of AppSumo, who figured out that a recruiting fee would cost $100K whichever way you slice it, so why not push it out as a public bounty that anyone can claim? Have a read of the spec - I would imagine quite a few of us here would be able to hustle up a few names to submit as candidates. Twitter thread here, blog post here.
I’m not kidding - you should really give this a shot if you can.
H/T to brainfooder Martyn Redstone for the share in the fb group
Issue #244 published 13 Jun 2021
Apple Robbed The Mob's Bank
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
The fact that Apple has somehow got away with hijacking half the ad market, and still managed to retain public support due to Tim Cook’s masterful positioning as a privacy advocate is going to be a case study in framing the narrative. Excellent post here unpacking how the heist went down, what it means for advertising in general, and perhaps its downstream impact on the future of an Internet where pay-to-access walled gardens are the only game in town.
Issue #243 published 6 Jun 2021
Apple’s narrative on ad tracking as a noble defence of privacy comes under critique from sharper minds keen to the company’s impulse to dominate new markets. Fewer minds sharper than Benedict Evans, who breaks down the Apple strategy, what it means for advertisers, and maybe even - because the Internet is largely ad funded - to all of us. Essential reading
Issue #240 published 16 May 2021
iOS 14.5 & Recruitment Marketing
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Apple pushes the nuclear button with App Tracking Transparency Big deal for any recruitment advertisers as attribution is going to get wrecked as the vast majority of users likely decide to opt out. Brainfooder Jelmer Koppelmans wrote this recruitment centric breakdown earlier in the year and it still relevant so must read if you are involved in recruitment marketing or advertising. LinkedIn also has a good collection of commentary on it - read it here
Issue #238 published 2 May 2021
With the cookie era coming to an end, it is imperative that recruitment marketers, advertisers and brand builders understand what is coming next. And we better be quick, as it seems what is next is already here with this soft launch experiment of Federated Learning of Cohorts or FloC. This is Google’s new way of ad targeting folks. A topic for Brainfood Live, clearly, but you might as well get a primer on it, here
Issue #234 published 4 Apr 2021
dearMoon 8 Crew Members Wanted!
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Space X’s civilian Mission to the Moon will take place in 2023. In 2018, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maesawa or ‘MZ’, bought all 9 available seats - and now is opening up the remaining 8 for anyone to apply to join. Be cool to get a brainfooder to the moon wouldn’t it? It’s for real so apply here if you wanna….
Issue #230 published 7 Mar 2021
Clever bit of recruitment advertising by our buddies at MatchHR, using the song titles of a Spotify playlist to communicate a recruitment message. Probably not a scalable method, but undeniably clever and a great example of being creative in your recruiting.
Issue #226 published 7 Feb 2021
Nothing new in sneaking in recruitment ads in the source code but this idea was clever timing which foresaw that traffic to whitehouse.gov was going to spike following the inauguration of Joe Biden as President of the United States. Well done the recruiter who suggested putting it in there, love to know who that might be. A brainfooder? I hope so. H/T brainfooder Bas van de Haterd for the share in the fb group
Issue #224 published 24 Jan 2021
Some of LinkedIn’s content was really good this year. Even some of the curation 😉. This post was one of the best, picking out some great examples of creative job posts which any of us can really get on with tomorrow. As a good a listicle as there was in 2020.
Issue #220 published 27 Dec 2020
Superb visualisation of where ad money has been going over the past 40 years, decline of TV is obvious, as is that of newspapers, losing out to big tech (main reason why broadcast media is so anti big tech…). Always opportunities for those who are early to new channels - whats next for us in this space? Worth a brainfood live early in the new year I think.
Issue #218 published 13 Dec 2020
Pretty spectacular assembly of creative job advertising. Love some of these, especially the in-game advertising in Animal Crossing. Some very easy-to-try examples also - get inspired and give one of these ideas a try. H/T to brainfooder Denys Dinkevych for the share
Issue #209 published 11 Oct 2020
I believe brainfooder Katrina Kibben mentioned this point in Brainfood Live a couple weeks ago - which caused me to look a bit deeper in the brainfood content queue and I fished out this post in response. Pretty much spot on. Must read if you’re writing job adverts
Issue #199 published 2 Aug 2020
Fascinating story on a platform ‘nudging’ employers to offer flexibility in job postings by repositioning the option to do so on the job creation flow, which in turn led to increased applicant rates after the job was posted. Can be read from an information architecture / UX point of view, and / or from the job seeker sentiment perspective. Either way, it’s definitely brainfood. H/T brainfooder Bas van de Haterd for the share
Issue #191 published 7 Jun 2020
Fantastic report from our buddies at Appcast - comprehensive and accessible. Must read for anyone thinking about recruitment media spend for 2020. H/T Mario Santiago for the share.
Issue #158 published 23 Apr 2020
Our buddies at Google Hire are putting together some excellent content. Some of it, straight-out-of-the-box useful. 50 free job posting sites, in one place. Check it out, here. H/T brainfooder Lauren Bass for the share
Issue #112 published 23 Apr 2020
Research from Appcast on 400 million ads and 3.7 million applications. Write shorter headlines, focus on benefits, mobilise optimise your job listing and pay attention to your Glassdoor ranking. Accessible report - download it here
Issue #93 published 23 Apr 2020
1000 Different People, The Same Words
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Some interesting primary research from our buddies at Textio here. It turns out, people in the same companies use the same words in their job postings. The interpretation is that this maybe an important cultural signifier. Don’t underestimate the impact of copy / paste though. Thanks to brainfooder John Sumser for the share. 
Issue #62 published 23 Apr 2020
Google for Jobs - Explained
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Google’s entry into the jobs space may be the story of the year for recruitment tech. Our buddies at LevelUp Ventures have created a simple and accessible explainer - check it out. 
Issue #54 published 23 Apr 2020
Excellent tips on job ad writing here from my buddy and long time brainfooder Lars Schmidt. My main takeaway: directly address the persona you want to apply for the job. Lars is also running the HR / TA benchmarking survey right now -please take a minute now to complete. 
Issue #76 published 23 Apr 2020
Great rejoiner from my buddy and long time brainfooder Rob Long on the value of free job posting sites. Don’t be a snob: here’s why you should use free job boards, and why advice against it is flawed.
Issue #59 published 23 Apr 2020
LinkedIn’s Talent Solutions blog really is a must follow. It’s all in-platform stuff but when it’s a platform you’re using everyday anyway, what’s the problem? Great insight on what makes an effective job post - read it here
Issue #96 published 23 Apr 2020
Richard Collins and the crew at ClickIQ have quickly become favourites of brainfood, mainly for quality data driven content like this. How much you should spend on your graduate recruitment advertising? Insight from 3000 job ads here. 
Issue #96 published 23 Apr 2020
Why Maslow Thinks Your Job Ads Suck
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Great post from Workable’s Matt Buckland on incorporating Maslow’s psychology of human needs framework into your job ad. Likely many of us already do some elements of this, but equally likely not in the right order of priority. Have a read.
Issue #131 published 23 Apr 2020
I got into a conversation about online advertising on LinkedIn this week, and brainfooder Ryan Irving chimed with some real value add comments. It led me to discover this post he had written on how to improve your job ad. It’s excellent - improve your ad writing and have a read here
Issue #165 published 23 Apr 2020
Our buddies at ClickIQ are running a fascinating sector-by-sector series on recruitment ad spend. This week, it’s retail. Digestible how-to, backed with data aggregated across the ClickIQ platform. If you spend money on paid recruitment advertising, you need to read this series
Issue #102 published 23 Apr 2020
Important lawsuit against Facebook, with big implications for targeted ads. Facebook job ads can now be exposed to search, on the basis that not doing so would be exclusionary. This means more irrelevant applications, less value for employers paying for the ad. Begs important questions on the nature of job discovery - is everything that isn’t an open advert inherently exclusionary?
Issue #143 published 23 Apr 2020
Facebook’s ‘pivot to privacy’ was always going to have huge implications for recruiters. Earlier this year, it was the end of Graph Search; now it’s big changes on advertising. This is a great overview post by Jelmer Koppelmans - must read.
Issue #152 published 23 Apr 2020
Job Descriptions
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Brainfooder Rob Kelly, CEO of Ongig, has been putting together an amazing resource on the artefact which still powers most of the recruitment world - the Job Description. History, method, case study - it’s all here. PS: H/T Pedro Oliveira for first bringing this to my attention.
Issue #110 published 23 Apr 2020
Great to see The Muse bring on a data scientist to blog about job ad performance. Some interesting analysis here on word count and how it correlates to CTR. Thanks brainfooder Chris Raw for the share
Issue #60 published 23 Apr 2020
In 2018 there is no more space for “Post and Pray” says Kiril Nikolaev, who has helpfully put together this list of programmatic advertising platforms for us to review. Great to see friends of brainfood - OnRecruit and ClickIQ in amongst the best. 
Issue #83 published 23 Apr 2020
Some excellent analysis again on Google for Jobs from Jeff Dickey-Chasins - a.k.a the Job Board Doctor. We need to pay attention this and to him. Also make sure to follow Joel Cheeseman, another commentator with a lot to say on Google for Jobs. 
Issue #39 published 23 Apr 2020
This Is How Ad Retargeting Works
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
Amazing twitter thread from Chris Yiu which is not only educational about a technology / technique which is readily applied to recruitment, but also a mature appraisal of the dangers of crude legislative corrections. Read until the end. 
Issue #88 published 23 Apr 2020
Forget the innocuous headline, this is big news from Indeed. Job adverts published by 3rd party recruiters will no longer be appearing in organic search as of next year. Along with GfJ prioritising direct employer ads, it’s clear that the era of the ‘blind agency advert’ is coming to an end. If you’re a recruiter who posts ads, you need to read this post.
Issue #106 published 23 Apr 2020
Tactical/Operational Wargamer
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
How about this for a job? Literally play games for a living. Scenario modelling of this type - a form of training AI - is purported to be the silver lining the clouds of workforce automation. For now though, this looks like a dream job for some gamer out there. 
Issue #65 published 23 Apr 2020
With the news that ‘look-a-like’ audience targeting has been ruled illegal under GDPR rules, it’s probably best to get in on facebook advertising whilst the getting is good. This excellent post from Vox Media shows us what makes an effective facebook advert.
Issue #148 published 23 Apr 2020
Big List of Job Posting Sites In 2020
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING
The job advert remains a staple of the TA work we do - and even though we love to explore more creative and innovative ways to ID talent, a well written and well written job advert still has its place in your toolkit. Check out over 500+ sites to post jobs, broken down by country and territory, here
Issue #168 published 23 Apr 2020
Google for Jobs - G4J - was touted as the Indeed killer when it was first launched, but it seems that the early promise has given way to the trough of the disillusionment. What is going on? Fine speculation by Chris Russell here.
Issue #163 published 23 Apr 2020