Getting your Ad Seen - Optimising Job Ads for Viewing on Mobile Devices

Mobile devices are firmly integrated into every aspect of our daily lives, with many of us confessing to feeling lost without our mobile device. Due to mobile devices being so quick and efficient, this provides on the go job searching, and presents huge recruitment opportunities. We’re so attached to our phones that 45% of job seekers claim that they use their mobile device specifically to search for jobs at least once a day.

Why should we optimise for mobile viewing?

By not optimising for mobile viewing, your company could be missing a big opportunity as 78% of people in the US would prefer to apply to jobs on their mobile devices if the process were simplified. Google’s new Mobile First Indexing will prioritise mobile sites over desktop to rank your website. If the mobile version of your site isn’t up to scratch, you’re potentially losing valuable candidates. Aspiring applicants have a very short attention span and if a site doesn’t load or display properly they will quickly move onto to the next opportunity with a business that has a well optimised mobile site.

If you think that mobile ads are only useful for attracting millennials, well, you’d be wrong. Around 54% of people aged 44-54 and 35% of people aged 55 and over use mobile devices to search for jobs.
However, the millennials certainly like their mobile devices; about 28% of job seekers—including 53% of 18 to 29 year olds—have used a smartphone as part of a job search.
In general, LinkedIn, Simply Hired and Sonru all report that over 70% of candidates use mobile to browse for career opportunities online.

Who’s having success with mobile recruiting?

Is your careers site optimised for mobile viewing – not sure? Well, use Google’s mobile friendly test to find out whether your web page is optimised for mobile viewing. Another option is to look at popular apps that are currently working well within the recruitment marketplace:

LinkedIn Recruiter – With over 400 million members, it’s not surprising that LinkedIn is the go-to place for recruitment. The app allows easy access to its members and will analyze your team’s activity with LinkedIn’s excellent analytics package.

Workable – Allows you to post to 15 job boards and use an in-app scorecard ranking applicants for their pros and cons. Workable also ties into a larger Applicant Tracking System, which could be useful.

Instajob – Capitalising on mobile user’s short attention span, Instajob allows you to advertise a job by showcasing your brand with images. What better way to advertise your great culture than showing your happy employees or fantastic workplace?

Key points when optimising for mobile viewing

Use a good Applicant Tracking System – A good ATS will have a parsing tool that allows the applicant to import information from their CV straight into your application form. This prevents candidate from spending hours typing in information on a fiddly touchscreen. It also enables you to collate a database of candidate skills for future job posts.
Link your job ad to your social channels – It is much easier for candidates to use native sharing tools such as the ever present Twitter or Facebook icon to share a job post on a mobile device instead of laboriously copying and pasting a link. Making sure that your job ad can be shared easily will let it reach a higher number of candidates.
Include Rich Location Data – Google will display search results based on where the user is at that time, making mobile searching even more worthwhile and relevant.
Develop a mobile app – Downloading an app may seem like a barrier, but it actually saves the candidate time in the long run as their information is there and they then just need to click apply. A good app will earn engagement, and candidates that return time after time during their job search.
Keep your job ad short and concise – If your ad can fit to one screen, it will load quicker and you won’t lose the attention of busy candidates. As they have spent time putting together their CV, the last thing they want is a long and arduous application form and registration process.
Cut out the hurdles – Candidates want to apply on mobile to speed things up, they don’t want to have to register with your site or company, let the candidate get straight to the point, applying for the job. This will help increase applicant to candidate conversion rates.

How will you lose out if you don’t optimise for mobile?

If you don’t ensure that you have the best site for mobile use, you will fall down in the google search results rankings, due to the new mobile first way of indexing. Don’t waste all the time you’ve spent getting your recruitment strategy perfect by losing quality candidates because they find your application process or job ad long and arduous. Optimise for all mobile devices, and you’ll find relevant and valuable candidates flowing through your doors.