Get More Candidates from Indeed

Chances are that you are spending most of your recruitment advertising budget with Indeed.

Indeed is a wonderful platform but … It is very easy to get lost in the sauce. From getting your job ad seen, to managing the best way to reach out to candidates. In this blog we will go over some indeed best practices to help you understand Indeed a little better.

Is there a difference between a job description and a job ad?

Job descriptions are not job ads and job ads are not job descriptions. Descriptions are straight forward. They show the functions of the job, the requirements, and the benefits. On the other hand, a job ad sells candidates to the job. Job ads have 2 audiences: The job seeker ( we’re trying to get them to click on the job post and complete the application ) and the job board search engine ( we want the search engine to index the ad and show it to as many job applicants as possible ).

In the hyper-competitive candidate market, job ads are more important than ever. If your ad fails to sell the candidate on the opportunity, get them to click and apply, it doesn’t matter where you place the ad or how much money you spend, you’ll lose the vast majority of great candidates.

Job Post Content, What really matters in my job posts?

Keywords always help. If you’re with an agency, ask for a market report for your jobs and that will include a keyword report with the most searched terms.
One trick is to add job titles from jobs that people could transition from easily into the job body.
Change up your job titles to use what other competitors are using. For example, we changed one job from “Electrical Instrument Assembler” to “Electrical Manufacturing Technician.”
Keep descriptions short and make sure the first paragraph is clear. A Job Description is NOT a job ad.
Salaries in the ad… do it or not? YES

How much should I be spending on Indeed?

Start from the end; keep the goal in mind. Too many recruiters think they have a gut feeling about what a budget should be. Take a look at your recruiting funnel and analyze it, from hire to apply.

Hires needed → Qualified Candidates to Interview → Applies → Cost per Apply

How many hires do you want to make? Think about how many people you need to interview to make those hires. How many people should apply to get the number of qualified candidates you need to interview? Finally, Indeed doesn’t sell you applications, they sell you clicks. How many clicks do you need to get a certain number of people to apply?

How do you find out what you are spending on indeed today?

Get in touch with your Indeed account manager, and see who is spending what across all your accounts. Go over the past 3-6 months: see how much you’ve spent and how many candidates you’ve received.

Organic ads… where do they work?

Organic is free traffic, so always make sure you have an organic job post going. They can be very effective.

Don’t duplicate jobs or you will lose organic traffic; there can only be one source of truth on Indeed, but duplicating an organic job post will always take your money for sponsored ads.

Refreshing jobs… myth or not?

Don’t do that if you’re sponsoring positions. It takes time for jobs to find their CPC bid ( cost per click ) and budgets to work themselves out. If you refresh jobs, you’re losing data that the job has been working to build up. Leave sponsored jobs alone but refresh organic jobs about once a month. If you refresh too often, Indeed’s quality team will flag those jobs and they might not get as much traffic.

Job Salaries

“If I don’t put a salary on a job, the candidate won’t have expectations and it’ll be easier on recruiting.”

The truth is that Indeed has an incentive to put a salary because it increases the click-through rate. If you don’t provide a salary, they’ll provide an estimate since job posts with salaries get 22-28% more clicks.

There’ll always be employers that pay more and those that pay less than the competition, you can always use a pay range even though it might be skewed to one end or the other.

Time to Hire!

The company’s timing to make a hire is not the same as a candidate’s timing.

Whereas a candidate might be looking to get a job within a week or a month, according to a new Talroo report, the average time to fill an entry level position is around 44 days. Candidates, however, are not waiting 44 days to get hired.

Want to hear more best practices for Indeeds? Check out the is episode of Pivot 2 First

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Dominic Antonio

Dominic is PivotCX’s Recruiting Marketing Manager. He has been a core part of the team for 6 years.
He’s skilled in digital ad buys, technical recruiting, content marketing, email marketing, website management, CRM management, social media, ad copy writing.

Favorite Business book: Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Favorite Fiction book: John Steinbeck’s East of Eden

Favorite Movie: Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Final Thoughts: Good recruiting is relational, not transactional; it’s a conversation.