Looking to write the perfect job advert and attract the perfect candidate for your new job? You’ve come to the right place.

Because writing a job advert is simple: Write down what qualifications and experience your ideal candidate needs to have, what the responsibilities of the job are, and tell them why your company is so great to work at. 

But with how competitive the job market is at the moment, the qualified and skilled job seekers who are looking for their next role have more choice than ever. These are the candidates you want for your business.

How Do You Write a Job Advert? The 10 Steps to Success

1. Define What Good Looks Like
2. Decide How Urgent Your Hiring Needs Are
3. Focus On What The Candidate Wants, Not Just What You Want
4. Provide Relevant Information About Your Company, Without Going Into Too Much Detail
5. Highlight the Key Details to Grab Attention
6. Include Keywords To Help Your Job Appear First
7. Be Clear With Your Expectations
8. Be Clear With What You’re Offering Them
9. Break Your Job Advert Into Sections, to Make it Easier to Read
10. Company Benefits. What are you offering?

What Should a Job Advert Contain?

First things first, is what information should your job advert contain. What is the crucial, need-to-know info that your applicants want to see before they apply?

When we’re writing job adverts here at Herd, these are the key pieces that we include when writing a job advert: 

• Key details about the job: The job title, salary, location, working environment (hybrid, remote etc.)
• Important information about the company.
• The day-to-day responsibilities of the job.
• Who the person would be working with.
• The requirements to be considered for the role.
• The company benefits.
• Application information: Contact information, how to apply, and application deadlines.

Additional information that you should include if you have would be:

• Who the person would be reporting to.
• Information about what the application process would look like.
• What kind of company culture your business has.
• Information on what progression would look like in the role.

While someone would want to see almost all of this information before they consider applying, some of this information is much more crucial than others. 

Gone are the days when companies could list “Competitive Salary” on a job advert, only discussing salary in the final interview when they are ready to make the offer. Because recent studies have shown that 85% of graduates are less likely to apply to a job that doesn’t have the salary listed. And given how competitive the job market is, vagueness like this will only continue to hurt a businesses chances of securing quality candidates. 

How Do You Write a Job Advert? The 10 Steps to Success

1. Define What Good Looks Like

Your first step is to define what good looks like for you. This can be achieved by looking at anyone who previously worked in the position and by talking to the team who will work with them. What do they need from the person who will be working with them?

And this also allows you to define what your “ideal candidate” looks like: What the “nice to have” qualities for your new hire are, compared to the “must have” qualities. This helps for the entire hiring process, but establishing these in the job advert allows you to clearly state what you want to see from applicants. It also means you get less unqualified applicants to sort through.

2. Decide How Urgent Your Hiring Needs Are

This should then be combined with understanding how urgently you need this person in the business. What outside pressures are on your hiring needs? New client accounts? Employees leaving? 

Because if your hiring needs are urgent, this in turn affects how flexible you need to be. This flexibility should then be conveyed in the job advert. If you’re looking for a PPC Manager and your ideal candidate would have both Paid Social and Paid Search experience, but one is much more important than the other, then put that in the job advert! 

Applicants who aren’t your ideal candidate, but you would consider, would be much more likely to apply if you can show what your must have qualities are. This would give you more options to choose from, and those candidates would be a much better fit for your business.

3. Focus On What The Candidate Wants, Not Just What You Want

Your job advert should be just that; an advert. Too many job ads focus on what the business wants, when your job advert should be selling the business and opportunity. 

Obviously the requirements of the role and the experience required to do the job are important aspects of the job advert. They help you find qualified and quality candidates. They help applicants understand they can do the job at hand and give them the confidence to apply. 

But what you should avoid is filling your job advert with demanding language, focusing on only what you want. Because the quality candidates who have the choice of where to go in their next role and have recruiters messaging them everyday, aren’t going to be interested.

4. Provide Relevant Information About Your Company, Without Going Into Too Much Detail

This one can be tricky. After all, how much is too much information? 

You want to give people a brief overview/ introduction of the company, and keep the specific details relevant to the job. If you were applying for a position, what would be the information that was most relevant to you about your company? 

If you were an SEO Executive, this would look like: the sector or industry the company works in, the clients they work with, the company culture, the progression and training opportunities, and technology, softwares, and channels that the role will focus on.

5. Highlight the Key Details to Grab Attention

The digital marketing hiring market is incredibly competitive. If you search “PPC Executive” on Indeed, you’ll find 260 job adverts in London alone: And that’s just on Indeed. Across all the other major job sites, on Linkedin and on Google search results, there could easily be thousands. So when competition is this fierce, you don’t have long to grab the attention of someone searching for their next role. 

By starting your job advert with the key details your applicant wants to see, you’re more likely to attract the candidates you want. This includes: Salary, location, working environment (flexible working hours, hybrid work, remote working etc.), company culture, and any other attractive qualities you can think of.

6. Include Keywords To Help Your Job Appear First

When you do have so much competition, how can you make your job appear at the top of the pile? Well one way to help, is to include the keywords people use to search for your job: For job adverts these are fairly simple, the job title and the location.

If someone is searching for an SEO Manager job, they’ll search “SEO Manager job London”, or “SEO Manager job remote”. So you need to make sure you have those keywords of “SEO Manager”, “London”, or “remote” included throughout your job advert.

7. Be Clear with Expectations

Once you’ve decided what you need from someone in this role, it’s time to put these into an easy to read format. Job titles don’t mean as much as they used to, and two jobs with the same name can be wildly different. For example, one SEO Manager job may be content SEO based, while another could be more heavily technical SEO focussed. 

Your job advert should contain easy to read bullet points, detailing what the job actually entails, and what experience you need to have for the role. As well as explaining which requirements are flexible, and which would be nice for the applicant to have, but aren’t deal breakers if they don’t have them.

8. Be Clear With What You’re Offering Them

While your expectations should be clear, you should also be clear with what you are offering in return. Because your job advert is just that, an advert that should make someone want to work for your company, and want this job. 

So take some time to include a “Company Benefits” section that details all the benefits that your company offers. Typically, this include things such as:

• Holiday allowance. 
• Training and development opportunities.
• Company incentives.
• Hybrid and flexible working opportunities. 
• Company culture and social rewards/ incentives.
• Mental and physical wellbeing support.
• Financial incentives, such as wellbeing allowance, and bonus schemes. 

9. Break Your Job Advert Into Sections

Perhaps the quickest way to have someone skip your job advert, is to have an advert that looks like this:

Digital Marketing Executive – London – Hybrid & Flexible Working – £25,000 – £29,000 – An industry leading, global in-house marketing agency is looking for a Digital Marketing Executive to join their Central London team. The business works on international campaigns for some of the world’s biggest ecommerce brands, which you will have the opportunity to work on. You will have the opportunity to grow and progress within the company. And you will have the opportunity to work in a completely hybrid and flexible working environment, only needing to come into the office two days a week with more flexibility around this. – Role & Responsibilities: Setting up online campaigns across Paid Search. Monitoring campaigns for fluctuations and discrepancies. Working closely with, the Media Planning and Buying Team Lead, to deliver paid search campaigns for clients. Creating and delivering reports to senior team members on campaign performance. – About You: Experience of working on PPC campaigns. Experience working to performance KPIs is essential: ROI, ROAS, CPA. Google Ads and Google Analytics experience. An adaptable mindset, with the ability to react to changes in the market and industry with ease. A related degree: Marketing, Business, Mathematics etc.

See what we mean?

If the reader has to struggle to find the information they need to consider applying to the role, they’re going to look elsewhere.

Your job advert should be broken up into individual sections that make it as easy to navigate as possible for the reader. The sections should generally look like:

• An attention grabbing introduction.
• About the Company.
• Responsibilities of the role.
• Requirements to be considered.
• The company benefits.

While there is no fast and hard rule of what order these should go in, this is a fairly standard layout. What works for you best, may take some experimentation to find out. 

10. Understand What Your Audience Wants

Of course, you can only attract the best candidates, if you appeal to what they want. Which means it’s crucial that you understand exactly what your “ideal candidate” is looking for from their next role.

In Digital Marketing, studies clearly show what the most important things are to people looking for their next career move: Work/ Life Balance, Salary, Interesting Work, Holiday allowance, and flexible working hours.

So these are the areas to focus on when writing a digital marketing job advert. Different industries will have different priorities, but they will be similarly simple to find. 

Job Advert Examples

Of course the only thing better than telling you how to write a job advert that brings you in the applications, is showing you examples that you can adapt to your business.

Here are a couple of different job advert examples you can use for various levels of seniority.

Digital Marketing Job Description – Junior Job Advert Example

Job Title: Digital Marketing Executive

Location: London – Hybrid & Flexible Working

Salary: £25,000 – £29,000 + Discretionary Bonus

An industry leading, global in-house marketing agency is looking for a Digital Marketing Executive to join their Central London team. The business works on international campaigns for some of the world’s biggest ecommerce brands, which you will have the opportunity to work on.

You will have the opportunity to grow and progress within the company. And you will have the opportunity to work in a completely hybrid and flexible working environment, only needing to come into the office two days a week with more flexibility around this. This is a role with real freedom, as the business wants to work with you.

Digital Marketing Executive Role & Responsibilities

As Digital Marketing Executive, you will have the opportunity to gain experience working on the entire project or Paid Search campaigns. Your responsibilities will also include:

• Setting up online campaigns across Paid Search.
• Monitoring campaigns for fluctuations and discrepancies.
• Working closely with, and being supported by, Media Planning and Buying Team Lead, to deliver paid search campaigns for clients.
• Creating and delivering reports to senior team members on campaign performance.

About You

The business is committed to your professional development, and offers internal and external training, to help you progress in your Media Buying career. The business does ask that you have:

• Experience of working on PPC campaigns.
• Experience working to performance KPIs is essential: ROI, ROAS, CPA.
• Google Ads and Google Analytics experience.
• An adaptable mindset, with the ability to react to changes in the market and industry with ease.
• A related degree: Marketing, Business, Mathematics etc.

Company Benefits

You are trusting the company with the next stage in your career, so they want to create an atmosphere, culture and role that makes you want to stay. As Digital Marketing Executive you can expect a fantastic work environment and a superb benefits package that includes:

• Private healthcare.
• Discretionary performance bonus.
• Hybrid and flexible working suited to your personal needs.
• 25 days holiday: With the option to carry on unused holiday days.
• A £2,000+ individual training budget, to support your professional development.
• The opportunity to work on some of the world’s biggest retailers and ecommerce brands.

Digital Marketing Job Description – Senior Job Advert Example

Job Title: Head of Digital Marketing

Location: London/ Hybrid

Salary: £80,000 – £100,000 + Performance Bonus and Commission Structure

About The Company

An industry leading, global retailer is looking for a Head of Digital Marketing to take the lead on their SEO strategy. The business has thousands of stores spread across the globe and is a Fortune 100 company. They pride themselves on their training and development and offer real career progression: even for a Head of Digital Marketing.

Ideally, you will have strong SEO experience in a similar role and are looking to join a business where you will have the creative freedom and support you need to grow the businesses eCommerce revenue. While based in London, the business offers a hybrid and flexible working environment, whatever works best for you.

Head of Digital Marketing Role & Responsibilities

As Head of Digital Marketing, you will take charge of eCommerce SEO strategy and efforts, across the multiple businesses the brand owns. Additionally, your new role will include:

• Continually develop the businesses SEO eCommerce strategy, staying ahead of industry changes.
• Being hands-on when necessary.
• Ensuring that best SEO practice is adhered to in all SEO efforts.
• Delegating work to SEO Managers and Executives.
• Being involved in the development of the growing team of SEOs.
• Collaborating and coordinating with the other digital departments of the business.
• Communicating with senior stakeholders, providing them with quarterly reports and forecasts.
• Managing agency support, from the agencies that work with the business.

Your Skills & Experience

• Strong rounded SEO experience. Ideally specialising in Technical SEO, but not necessary.
• Strong leadership skills, who enjoys working with people and leading a team.
• Consumer and eCommerce experience is ideal.
• Staying up to date on industry news and innovations, incorporating these industry changes into your work and the work of the teams.
• Experience managing multiple projects across different brands and businesses.
• A results driven and analytical mindset.

What’s in it for you

You are trusting the company with the next stage in your career, so they want to create an atmosphere, culture and role that makes you want to stay. As Head of Digital Marketing, you can expect a fantastic work environment and a superb benefits package that includes:

• Discretionary, performance-based bonus.
• The company offers flexible and hybrid working options to suit your needs, so you can work however works best for you.
• A personalised training and progression programme and an annual training budget for external training opportunities.
• Shares and stock schemes.
• Life insurance and family health insurance.
• Monthly car allowance.

Given how competitive the job market is right now, even a perfectly written job advert may not help you find the candidate you need. If you’re looking for your next hire in the digital marketing market, we can help. 

Here at Herd Digital, we guide our clients through the whole hiring process. We write the job adverts for you, as well as find and screen candidates, so you only see the candidates that are best for you. Click here for more information, and hire your next digital marketing expert today.