This article was updated in October 2023.
- Our online behaviour
- Capturing interest in the age of the ‘8 second attention span’
- The visual advantage: a picture paints a thousand words
- Elevating job adverts with Jobtrain and JTGO ATS platforms
- Measure, test and improve
Just before writing this blog, I shared a post about our great team here at Jobtrain, with an image and a link to all our people profiles on our website. So far it’s been viewed 1,500 times and over 30 people have liked it. That’s about 3 times the level of engagement of any of my other posts but what was so different about this one? I'd included an image of people and it clearly caught readers’ interests.
So how can including images and videos in job adverts make a difference?
Our online behaviour
We live in a society where almost everyone has a mobile phone in their pockets. 90% of job seekers use their mobile for at least some of the their job search to find an opening (Monster). 78% of millennials, 73% of Generation X and more than 57% of boomers are looking for work on the smaller screen, according to Pew Research.
This behaviour and expectation isn’t limited to job searching, it applies to applications too. Our own data shows that of the 31 million applications our Jobtrain ATS managed in 2020, well over half were via smartphones or tablets.
This creates a great opportunity to get your name, brand and jobs in front of a huge audience of potential talent. But with this shift to mobile, our online behaviours and attention spans have changed and reduced dramatically! So it’s no coincidence that the fastest growing social networks are TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest, as they’ve best embraced the visual medium.
Capturing interest in the age of the ‘8 second attention span’
According to a 2015 study from Microsoft, consumer attention spans have dropped to 8 seconds (less than that of a goldfish!). I’m not sure I subscribe to that but we have developed finely tuned filtering skills when we view content online – we are now much more selective - and this behaviour extends to jobs adverts too.
Images and videos can instantly trigger a reaction such as recognition, emotion or identity that plain text will never achieve. Next time you’re scrolling through a newsfeed or social timeline, think about what makes you pause and click?
The visual advantage: a picture paints a thousand words
The old saying still holds true, especially when backed by data.
- Research from Xerox found that visuals increase the willingness of the reader to continue by 80%
- Not only do visuals aid in information retention, but a simple one-minute video can also convey ten times more information than text alone
- Visuals help with information retention too and media is a great way to make your adverts more memorable
Images and videos in job adverts have the power to show off your people, environment, culture and bring to life the experience of what it’s really like to work in your company.
Elevating job adverts with Jobtrain and JTGO ATS platforms
To help our clients using our Jobtrain and JTGO ATS platforms achieve greater engagement with window shopping candidates, as well as improving quality of applications too, we launched Media Rich Job Adverts. This feature allows our clients to create a library of job advert templates enhanced with their own images and videos.
Would you click?
When crafting a job advert, challenge its effectiveness. Would you click and read it? Does it look good on a mobile or tablet? Keep the content concise but enrich it with visuals for maximum impact.
Measure, test and improve
Don’t be afraid to try different approaches. It will likely take a few attempts to get the right content formula for the audience you want to engage, but it will be worth it! For each advert, track its performance (likes, shares, applications) and constantly review, refine and improve.
Articles and job adverts with images are 94% more likely to be read. So, why not take the plunge? You have little to lose and a world of engagement to gain.