By Hannah Eberle
A few months ago, Meta announced that changes were coming to the Jobs on Facebook product. If you missed their announcement or want to learn more about the latest updates, you can read our full breakdown here. Historically, this tool has been a free way for staffing and recruiting firms to get more visibility for open job postings and source candidates through social media. As of February 2022, the organic reach of Facebook Jobs posts will be much more limited in the United States and Canada.
With this latest announcement, you might be wondering if using Facebook Jobs is still worth it and what the best way might be to continue to drive valuable actions. If you’re working to determine next steps for your team, consider the following ideas as ways to derive more value despite this latest development (read the full post for 2 bonus strategies!):
Optimize Facebook Jobs Posts for the Algorithm
One of the most significant changes to the Jobs on Facebook product is that Meta is phasing out all third-party API integrations. With an API, jobs pull automatically and seamlessly from a job board or feed to your Facebook page. This also prevents Page admins from having to post Facebook Jobs manually.
So, while this feature is going away, one positive outcome is the ability to post Facebook Jobs manually again. This gives staffing and recruiting firms greater control over the content and appearance of postings.
- When creating these manual posts, think about what will convince a potential candidate to stop scrolling through their newsfeed, read your listing, and hit the “Apply” button:
- Include pay rates and shift schedules.
- Let the audience know if the position is temporary, temp-to-hire, or direct hire.
- Answer the candidate’s question, “What’s in it for me?” within the first two sentences of the post. People want to know about benefits, opportunities for growth, flexibility, and how the position will impact their quality of life – not just responsibilities and qualifications. Select a photo that matches the job type. If possible, include your logo, a call to action, or the pay rate on the image.
When you make these updates, you increase the chances that users who see the posts you are putting the time and effort into posting will take the desired optimized action!
Define a Facebook Jobs Sharing Strategy
Another change is the retirement of the Jobs Marketplace on Facebook. This feature was similar to the general Facebook Marketplace, where you can buy secondhand goods, but the Jobs Marketplace was exclusively for job listings.
In the Marketplace, your jobs were searchable by location, keyword, and job type criteria, much like a job search on sites like Indeed, LinkedIn or ZipRecruiter. Without this feature, your Facebook Jobs posts lose much of their searchability. Users will only be able to see your listings if they go to the Jobs tab on your Facebook Page or in their newsfeed.
To increase organic reach for your Facebook Jobs posts, try the following:
- When you create a Facebook Job post, ask your team to like, comment on, and share the post. This initial engagement is like kindling to the fire that is Facebook’s algorithm. The more organic activity they detect, the more likely the algorithm will show the post to more users increases. That generates more reach and therefore creates greater opportunities to collect applications.
- Share the posts to relevant Facebook Groups. They are eliminating “Jobs” as a group type, but there will inevitably still be Groups dedicated to job hunting and career tips.
- Extend the reach of your Facebook Jobs posts to users who are likely to be active job seekers and who are already interested in finding new roles.
Put Paid Ad Spend Behind Your Facebook Jobs Posts
Sometimes relying on organic reach alone isn’t enough to gather the desired amount of engagement and applications, despite your best efforts. In fact, on Facebook, organic content is only shown to about 5% of users who follow your Page. If you had 5,000 followers, fewer than 250 followers would see any given post. Organic optimization and group sharing alone will only go so far. That’s where pay-per-click advertising becomes the best solution.
With paid Facebook ads, you set the level of spend you want to put behind each job and can reach thousands of targeted users beyond just those who follow your Page. Keep the following tips in mind when promoting Facebook Jobs postings:
- Being in the staffing and recruiting industry, you MUST declare the employment special ad category on your ads to vouch that you are not using discriminatory advertising tactics. Without this, your ads may get disapproved and can even cause Facebook to disable the feature on your Page.
- Avoid hitting the “Boost” button. While that button offers a quick, easy way to promote your posts, it doesn’t give you the control you need for an effective advertising campaign. A better solution is to set up a Facebook Business Manager account, where you can organize campaigns, build out custom audiences, and conduct more in-depth ad performance analysis.
Need more guidance with implementing these suggestions?
If you’re ready to create a more advanced strategy involving pay-per-click advertising, our digital marketing team is experienced in managing Facebook campaigns and would be happy to help!
