First, we want to make sure we’re all on the same page. In this blogpost, we will go into detail on Facebook job ads. Facebook is actually a part of Meta. But what exactly do we mean when we talk about ‘Meta’? The Meta Family consists of the following platforms:
Now that we’ve made that clear, let’s go back to the main topic. The ability to attract and retain new, unique, and innovative talent is key to an organisation’s success. Every manager wants to see their vacancies filled by the most competent candidate, hoping their recruitment investment has been worth it. However, the search for interesting staff is seldom cheap and painless! Recruitment often spirals into an expensive, time-consuming process.
Your strategic approach needs to be spot on to find the talent you are looking for efficiently. You will face several decisions that will echo through the entire process, but one of the most crucial questions relates to the type of candidate your organisation wants to reach.
Active and passive candidates
You can roughly distinguish two types of candidates based on their awareness and motivation towards your organisation.
Active candidates are actively looking for a new challenge and have already prepared themselves for a change of jobs.
Passive candidates aren’t necessarily scanning the job market. They are potentially interested in a tempting offer, but they’re not in any hurry to leave their current position.
Most companies tend to focus their attention and resources exclusively on the eager group of active candidates. Sheer desperation to fill a position often fuels this narrow, rigid focus. After all, active candidates are easy to reach with the existing tools and infrastructure at hand.
The average recruiter will exclusively use the following three channels in their search for the newest addition to their team:
1. Vacancies and ads on job sites such as Indeed
2. Search engines such as Google and Yahoo
3. Self-designed web pages devoted to recruitment for the organisation
If you ask us, this old and ineffective approach misses opportunities for both organisations and passive candidates. The extra preparation will be worth it, to include the possible gems out there in your recruitment strategy.
The group of willing, active candidates makes up about 20% of the total working population, while the laid-back, passive candidates take the lead with 80%. While these individuals are not actively pursuing a new job, they might be open to changing employers when presented with the right opportunity. In other words, this group of passive and potentially competent candidates is four times larger than that of active candidates.
But that’s not all. We have a few more reasons to consider a strategy that aims for passive candidates in store for you.
First of all, passive candidates are generally more experienced and have a stronger skill set, making them the ideal applicant for every recruiter
To a degree, a passive candidate has less competition to deal with. The lack of urgency to change jobs reduces the likelihood of the candidate interviewing with other companies simultaneously.
Thirdly, it can be challenging to find the right person among active candidates for a position that requires a very particular character.
Lastly, the competitive search for in-demand roles alongside economic instability makes passive job seekers more important than ever. Global uncertainty and economic instability are causing individuals to be less inclined to actively seek new career opportunities. Thus, another reason to reach out to passive candidates.
Approaching candidates via Facebook job ads
The question remains: How do you approach people who aren’t really looking for a new job?
One thing is for sure: not via traditional channels. You will only find hungry candidates who are intentionally, and therefore actively, looking for vacancies there. Social media, on the other hand, is not exclusive to intentionality.
In today’s digital landscape, over 60% of the global population is actively engaged on various social media platforms, spending an average of 2 hours and 25 minutes per day in this virtual realm. Amidst the rising popularity of different platforms, Facebook continues to reign supreme as the most frequented social network. When comparing Facebook with LinkedIn, the number of monthly Facebook users worldwide (2.989billion) is significantly higher than the number of monthly LinkedIn users worldwide (310.722 million).
Despite this huge difference between both platforms, 90% of recruiters are still looking for candidates via LinkedIn. Surprisingly, only 26% of LinkedIn users are looking for a job. Add to that the significant amount of recruitment messages clogging candidates’ inboxes, causing them to ignore their incoming messages. On the other hand, Facebook doesn’t pose problems like these. Hence, it is a great platform to reach passive job seekers.
The fact that Facebook users mainly use the platform for sharing photos, status updates, and communicating with friends is not a reason to disregard Facebook as a recruitment channel. At sympl, 64% of the candidates attracted via Facebook are passive job seekers.
Contrary to popular belief, social media platforms do not cater exclusively to the younger demographics. Instead, a wide age range actively uses these platforms. For instance, on Facebook, 54.5% of users are aged 25 to 55. Instagram often associated with the younger generation, also supports this trend; individuals of that same age range make up 60.4% of its total user base.
Even TikTok, generally perceived as a platform for teenagers and young adults, boasts a considerable 56% of users within this demographic range.
These statistics emphasise that platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok hold substantial potential for recruiters to unearth many potential candidates, including passive ones, in a broad age range.
Ready to discover more about Facebook job ads? Check out our Knowledge Hub: it’s full of resources to learn everything you need to know about recruitment marketing.