
From Scrolling to Applying: Top Tips to Get More Job Applications From Mobile Users
When life gets busy, people look for the quickest and most convenient ways to get what they need to do done, from restocking essential supplies to staying in touch with loved ones. Where does that take place? The same screen that people spend an average of 4 hours and 37 minutes every day – their mobile devices.
Searching and applying for jobs is no exception.
It’s something that people do travelling on train journeys, stuck in a queue, or during ad breaks. What’s more is that it’s not just discovering interesting things to apply for ‘later’, with access to a desktop. People are increasingly carrying out the process of applying on mobile, with two-thirds of job applications since 2022 being completed like this.

Why should we optimise for candidate pathways on mobile?
Employers and talent attraction teams can’t afford to fall behind in terms of having a smooth and efficient candidate mobile experience – not if they want to keep candidates applying and not lose them to competitors.
And depending on the area of work, ease of mobile application could have even more of an impact:
- Gig workers: 86% of applications are via mobile
- Hospitality: 72% mobile applications
- Transportation: 72% mobile applications
- Real Estate: 69% mobile applications
- Warehouse & Logistics: 69% mobile applications
That means, especially for peak hiring demands where there is a need for a mass of applications, clunky or unintuitive candidate journeys on mobile will shrink the amount of interest and completed applications.
How do you best attract candidates on phones?
Seeing appealing adverts for jobs often happens in short bursts, sandwiched between other activities. This means content needs to be engaging enough to hold our attention amid a sea of distractions.
The Rise of Thumb-stopping’ Job Adverts
To combat the constant battle for attention, marketers are increasingly focusing on ‘thumb-stopping’ content – visuals, videos, and interactive elements that grab us and make us pause mid-scroll.
That might mean…
- Including motion graphics, GIFs and short videos about jobs. Visual content receives 94% more views than text-only content, and subtle movement invites the eye even more.
- Put the candidates needs and interests first. If you’ve only got a couple of moments for your job ad to stand out in a content feed, don’t just talk about what the company wants!
- Try instead highlighting stand-out benefits such as flexible and hybrid working, learning stipends or enhanced parental leave!
- Connect with humour and phrases that sound like how people really talk, not cold and impersonal corporate jargon.
- Emphasise a trait they’ll identify with – if a role involves lots of research for example, make that more relatable by featuring ‘curiosity’ as a key.

Don’t Miss Out on Vertical Formats
Mobile-first formats like daily stories, reels and shorts are a key part of how people engage with content on social. If your team isn’t creating job content for these formats, then you’re missing out on opportunities to get seen by candidates in the spaces that are less congested than the main feed.
- Don’t try to include the same amount of information on vertical job adverts as other assets – keep it short and snappy. Realistically aim for ten words or less or consider a series of connected image (carousel) or motion graphic if you need to bring more across.
- Aim to keep vital content in the main central area of your vertical formats, as different mobile displays may crop the top and sides depending on the device.
- Ad costs are often cheaper for vertical assets as there are less adverts competing to be seen.

How to optimise your job descriptions for reading on mobile
Mobile reading has transformed the way we interact with information, favouring concise, visually engaging, and easily digestible content.
That means it’s more important than ever to approach job descriptions from a marketing approach, rather than just HR and business operations, to ensure that text is attractive and easy to digest – not just by candidates, but also the search engines and job aggregators that may feature your role and extend its reach.
Here’s some mobile reading guidelines that will benefit your job description copy:
- People take around fourteen seconds to work out if they’re going to apply for a job or not, and when viewing on a mobile screen, they won’t necessarily scroll as far as the bottom. Put key benefits, motivations and persuasive information near the top of your job description so candidates won’t have to scroll to find it.
- Shorter job descriptions (up to 300 words) get more applications on average than medium (300-600) or long (600+).
- Include the salary range, rather than describing it as ‘competitive’. Not only is the transparency valued by candidates, but it’s a key factor for job aggregators to pick up your job and amplify it to wider audiences.
- Appear where people are spending their time with programmatic job descriptions. For large-scale employers, this solution sees your job opportunities served to hundreds of job boards automatically, using big data to put your roles in front of the most engaged audiences.

How do you make your application seamless on mobile?
So, you’ve boosted, paid, promoted, and you’ve finally got some candidate traffic for candidates arriving at your careers site – only for a significant amount to abandon or fail to complete their applications.
With 57% of candidates leaving complex application forms, it’s never been more important to streamline your recruitment process of unnecessary questions and badly formatted pages and bring it down to the essentials, rather than the ‘nice-to-haves’. Keep in mind these tips:
- Keep your application process short and concise – if your application can be completed in a couple of clicks, 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.
- Rather than candidates having to go through the additional stage of creating an account, we’ve seen success with our clients who’ve offered an ‘Apply as Guest’ or delay the ‘Create an Account’ prompt option until after the applications have been submitted.
- Beware of using features in your applications such as full-window pop ups that can be frustrating for mobile users and get your site penalised in search listings as hard-to-use.
- Where possible, consider enabling streamlined application options like LinkedIn’s Easy Apply feature that allow for career history to be applied with a single click. Incomplete applications may often be automatically prompted by your ATS systems to fill in missing fields.
- Allow candidates to save mid-way through applications in case they get interrupted using their device or need to transfer to desktop.
What does the future of job seeking on mobile look like?
As employers seek to match what candidates want, we can expect the future of jobseeking on mobile to get more and more fluid and effortless. Imagine application processes in the future being so standardised that one click or swipe via smartphone will be sufficient to apply for a job – as 70% of job seekers predict.
By putting mobile-first design and UX principles at the heart of your talent attraction, you’ll make the most of how candidates right now and in the future use technology to search for jobs.
- Topics:
- News
- Ongoing Candidate Attraction