There’s nothing quite like a bit of healthy competition, especially when you’re up against another business in your industry.
In particular, trying to attract the best professionals to your company is arguably one of the biggest you have to face.
According to Blue Sky PR, 70% of workers around the world is made up of passive talent rather than active job seekers.
Therefore, this puts an added emphasis on being proactive, instead of reactive.
In essence, you have to always maintain a presence within the recruitment game, or your competitors could take some of the best talents from underneath your nose.
Needless to say, this can lead to your business being left behind and having to settle for inexperienced candidates.
What’s the solution?
Well, as the title suggests, Facebook is in actual fact a real key here.
That’s not to say that you should discard our previous advice around LinkedIn paid packages like Recruiter Lite.
In fact, this is a kind of ‘add-on’ or sneaky top tip you can carry out alongside your LinkedIn headhunting work.
Ultimately, the best way to get the upper hand over your competitors’ recruitment efforts is to utilise Facebook Ads.
However, this isn’t an advice article on how to run a lucrative Facebook Ad campaign, it’s actually a cool tip on how to see your rivals’ ads and why you should consider running your own.
In light of Facebook’s new transparency measures, you can now view all ads that are being run by company pages whenever you want.
This means you can see exactly how your competitors are finding their ideal candidates and portraying themselves to their audience with their general posts.
How can viewing your competitors’ ads help with recruiting?
There are a number of ways peeping on your competitors’ ads can help.
For instance, from a marketing point of view, you can see how they are trying to reach your target audience.
With this information, you can then use the same formula for your own Facebook Ads.
But one of the most important elements of this new transparency feature is the possibilities it brings to the recruitment industry.
As you know, attracting staff is difficult at times.
So if your competitors are doing it via Facebook Ads, it’s extremely useful to know how!
While LinkedIn is the obvious choice for professionals and posting new job openings, it’s not always the best idea to pin all of your hopes on one social media channel.
A lot of businesses (including your competitors), may have realised that with so many passive professionals using Facebook for general use, it’s the best way to headhunt them outside of work hours.
Put it this way, if you were an active job seeker, what would you do?
I’m guessing you’d search job boards and LinkedIn for opportunities.
But if you are part of the 70% passive talent, a business pouring money into LinkedIn and job board ads alone might not always reach you.
So if your competitors are aware of this and using Facebook Ads for recruitment purposes, are you happy to sit back and let them advertise to this talented percentage of professionals?
If you haven’t considered using it before, this might be worth thinking about.
How to check your competitors’ Facebook Ads
Before you start utilising Facebook Ads for your own recruitment campaigns, you should use this neat trick to suss out if (and how) your competitors are utilising it.
- Firstly, find your competitor’s page and click on the ‘Info and Ads’ section located on the left-hand side.
- This will then give you access to see what ads your competitor is running in the UK and abroad.
- You won’t be able to see what interaction it’s generated, but you can establish whether they are using it to recruit and get a few ideas if they are.
When looking at your competitors’ recruitment ads, you should analyse it using these important areas:
How have they approached it?
Take a look at the way they’ve constructed the ad content and the tone they’ve used.
Is it fun? Is it corporate?
Are they using industry keywords?
Have they used appealing imagery?
Whether they’ve opted for a video or image, is the creative engaging and exciting?
What’s their call to action?
The final element to consider is their call to action.
How has your competitor invited candidates to apply?
Via a landing page? Email?
By evaluating these aspects of your competitors’ recruitment ads, you can start to see how professionals in your field are most likely or unlikely to engage with.
Final thoughts
While Facebook Ads might not be the be all and end all of recruiting for job openings, it does clearly have the potential to tap into a majority of the passive talent in the UK.
Establishing whether your competitors are using it can give you a good indicator on either how to do it or to recognise that you are getting one over them in the recruitment race.
The main thing to remember is to do your homework on your competitors and then start small.
Just because they might be using Facebook Ads to advertise job openings, doesn’t mean that they are generating a huge interest from the best talent.
Be creative and make your mark, then you’ll have an incredible pool of passive talent throwing themselves at you for your next vacancy.
