How to set up a job marketing campaign: structure, channels and optimisation

What is job marketing, and when does it make sense to set up a job marketing campaign?

Job marketing means actively promoting your vacancies through online channels. That's a lot more than simply posting a vacancy and waiting. You reach candidates proactively through platforms such as LinkedIn, various job boards and search engines. Think, for example, of advertising a role on LinkedIn for specialists, a vacancy campaign on Indeed for active jobseekers, and roles via Google Ads for people with a very direct search intent.

Setting up a job marketing campaign is especially worthwhile when responses aren't coming in, when you're chasing very scarce talent, or when you want to grow in a structural, healthy way. You then work with a well-thought-out plan where the audience, the message and the channel choice line up seamlessly. That makes your recruitment marketing campaign more predictable, and far more scalable.

Why setting up a job marketing campaign without a plan often doesn't work

Many campaigns launch straight into advertising without clear choices being made beforehand. As a result, traffic does come in, but disappointingly few applications follow. That's almost always because the audience, the message and the chosen channel aren't properly aligned.

That's why you're best off working with a simple, clear funnel. You build reach first, then spark interest, and then steer deliberately towards action, such as applying directly or requesting an exploratory conversation. KPIs like click-through rate give a decent first impression, but ultimately, it's applications and actual hires that determine the real result.

Anyone taking job marketing campaigns seriously always looks at cost per applicant rather than just cost per click. That gives a far more realistic picture of actual quality.

Setting up a job marketing campaign that actually works, step by step

Step 1: define your recruitment persona

A recruitment persona describes exactly who you're looking for, and what that person values in a job. Think of their experience, motivations and any doubts they might have. Media behaviour plays a big role here too, because you simply want to know where and how someone orients themselves online.

For IT roles, for example, the focus is often on technology and challenging projects. In healthcare, a stable team and working hours tend to matter far more. By nailing this down precisely beforehand, your campaign lands much better, and your chances of a positive response go up enormously.

Step 2: choose your channels

Choosing the right channels determines a huge part of your eventual success. LinkedIn, for example, is extremely well suited to specialist roles. Indeed, on the other hand, reaches people who are very actively job hunting. Google Ads plays perfectly into concrete search queries, and a recruitment campaign on Instagram helps you stay top of mind with passive jobseekers.

A well-considered combination of these channels usually delivers the best result, because it lets you reach both active and passive candidates. That makes setting up a vacancy campaign more effective straight away, since you're making the most of several touchpoints in the candidate journey at once.

Step 3: develop your message and content

Use your existing job ad as a solid starting point, but always rewrite it into a compelling campaign message. Spell out crystal clearly what the candidate will actually do, with whom, and why that's genuinely interesting. Always name the concrete benefits too, such as flexibility, an attractive salary, or strong development opportunities.

Also test several variants as standard practice. A strongly content-driven angle often lands really well with genuine specialists. A more culture-focused message, on the other hand, tends to work better for broader audiences. Compelling visuals and short videos boost engagement significantly, especially when they feel genuinely recognisable to your audience.

Step 4: set up the campaign technically

Set up your campaigns in a logical, structured way, with clearly separated audiences and ad groups. Set your targeting precisely, based on role, region and the experience level you're after. Also make sure you measure exactly which ads actually lead to the best applications.

Smart job marketing software makes it easy to keep an overview and adjust course much faster. Want to see for yourself how all of this comes together in the follow-up and structure? Feel free to take a look at how this process works in everyday practice.

Step 5: set your budget and timeline

The average job ad budget in the Netherlands typically sits between €500 and €2,000 per campaign. This depends heavily on how hard-to-fill the vacancy is, and on the specific region. Always start sensibly with a test budget, and only scale up once you can see what's genuinely working.

A timeline of around three to four weeks usually gives you enough reliable data to make well-considered choices. Split your budget smartly across testing, retargeting and further optimisation.

Step 6: measure and optimise the recruitment campaign

Review your results at least weekly. Pay close attention to reach, clicks, conversions and the number of applications. Seeing lots of traffic but no responses? The bottleneck is often the landing page, or a form that's far too long.

Optimising a recruitment campaign simply means continuously adjusting course. You test new visuals, sharpen your audiences further, and shift remaining budget towards whatever's performing best. That's exactly why setting up a job marketing campaign is, and remains, a dynamic process that needs active management.

Combining channels when setting up a job marketing campaign, in practice

A genuinely strong job marketing campaign always uses several channels at once. LinkedIn delivers substantial, quality reach among professionals. Indeed and Google, on the other hand, pull in active jobseekers directly. Retargeting then helps you successfully reach those interested candidates again, while they're still warm.

For somewhat larger organisations, an ongoing employer branding campaign plays a crucial role in stability and continuity, building lasting recognition and trust over the long term. Working in a bigger team? You'll find more context and useful tips for corporate recruiters, who typically manage several vacancies at once.

Common mistakes when setting up a job marketing campaign

A messy or unclear vacancy page is an absolute guarantee of drop-off. Candidates want to quickly and easily understand exactly what the role involves, and what they can concretely expect from you. On top of that, overly long application forms genuinely lower conversion by a significant margin.

A target audience that's too broad also makes your campaigns needlessly expensive and considerably less effective. A lack of variation in your ads limits how much you can learn, too. And far too many teams still steer purely on clicks, when actual applications and eventual hires are, of course, the real goal.

Finally, proper follow-up is strikingly often missing. Without a well-timed touchpoint once your campaign ends, you lose unnecessarily many valuable opportunities.

Combining a job marketing campaign with LinkedIn outreach

While good campaigns give you excellent visibility, plenty of people won't respond right away. That's exactly why a personal approach via LinkedIn works perfectly as a smart addition. You simply use the insights from your campaign to communicate in a far more targeted, personal way.

With the right tooling, once your campaign ends you can very easily send personal connection requests to candidates who fit your specific audience perfectly. If you want to see how this directly leads to more conversations and considerably less manual work in practice, take a look at this case study.

Special attention for corporate and public sector employers

For larger corporate organisations and the public sector, the emphasis in hiring often shifts slightly. Good benefits and job stability tend to play an even bigger role there. Candidates approaching these kinds of employers also pay much more attention to social impact and long-term security.

On top of that, the whole candidate journey tends to be considerably longer, which makes absolute consistency in your communication really important. That's why the right combination of job marketing and employer branding helps you build trust brilliantly, and stabilise a structural inflow of talent.

A practical example of setting up a job marketing campaign

Say you urgently need a data engineer in Greater London, and you've got a budget of €1,500 available. You split that smartly across LinkedIn, Google Ads and retargeting. In the first two weeks, you thoroughly test two different messages straight away.

After a thorough analysis, you shift the remaining budget entirely to the best-performing variant. At the same time, you start targeted outreach via LinkedIn. That way, you combine maximum reach effortlessly with rock-solid, personal follow-up. It's guaranteed to lead to more quality conversations. Want to see how this plays out in more depth in practice? Take a look at this case study, where we've worked through this approach in detail.

Get started right away with setting up your own job marketing campaign

Always start by sharply defining your specific audience, and only then choose the best-fitting channels. Set a realistic budget, and develop several compelling messages straight away. Then set up your campaign with great care, and steer resolutely towards applications and hires.

By starting relatively small and continuing to test, you'll almost automatically arrive at an approach that genuinely works and scales well. Want to translate this successfully into your own, unique situation? Get in touch for focused, personal advice.