How to write your 2to3days job advert. Brilliantly!

It’s my ideal job. I’m applying now!

That's what you want 2to3days candidates saying when they read your job ad. Talent is the beating heart of your company and, to hire great people, your job advert must be impactful, informative, thought-provoking and well written. 

This step-by-step guide was created by our recruitment and digital experts to help you create job adverts on 2to3days.com that not only engage and persuade our job-seekers, but which also optimise highly efficiently on search engines, ranking your 2to3days job listing page at the top of search results on google and other search engines.  

Google changed the rules!

In October 2021, to improve the relevance of job adverts, Google introduced new ‘rules’ that govern the searchability of job adverts. Below we’ve summarised the key principles of Google’s new ‘job listing rules’. 

  1. Avoid duplication – try to resist copying content from previous adverts you have written but instead find fresh ways of describing the vacancy in the job title and description
  2. Avoid Plagiarising content -  don’t fall into the trap of copying text from other sites because it sounds good - google will pick up on this and ignore your listing, so your job ad will reach a smaller audience via search results
  3. Flexible Job Arrangements – Be sure to tag all flexible work arrangements and benefits applying to your vacancy, e.g. work from home, job-share or remote working allowed. The 2to3days job ad form allows you to mark these features. Google is looking for them. 

Writing your advert

Our job ad template is straightforward to use. The following guidance will help you add an edge to your job ads on the 2to3days platform, giving it the best chance of engaging our talented and experienced job seeking community. Remember, the more comprehensive and specific your job ad listing the better chances our email job alerts will reach the most relevant candidates the instant your job is posted live.

Job Title 

Provide a clear, recognisable job title; avoid abbreviations, jargon or unnecessary information. Do not mix job titles or job levels as this will not increase your response rate.

Hiring Organisation

Defaults to the name of your organisation or company (as per your employer profile created in 2to3days). But you have the option to overwrite if you’re hiring on behalf of another company. i.e. if you’re a recruitment agency or if your organisation has multiple employer brands

Company Logo

Defaults to the logo you added to your 2to3days organisation or company profile, but you have the option to replace with the logo or an organisation you’re hiring on behalf of. Remember, candidates are far more likely to apply to a job advert with a company logo. For logos, we accept jpeg or png files, ideally square and not smaller than 200x200px.

Job Industry and Occupation Category (or Discipline)

Select one from each of the drop-down menus we provide 

Job location 

Enter the name of the town or city together with the postcode of the candidate’s work location. In the case of working from home or remote working (tele-commute) then provide the postcode of where the candidate will be reporting into. If your job has the option of working from multiple locations, then please show these locations in the job description (below) but enter UK in the job location field. 

Location type 

Select between Office-based, Work From Home or Telecommute 

Contract type

You need to select a minimum of one field. This is a mandatory field

  • Fixed term
  • Freelance
  • Full time 
  • Part time  
  • Permanent 

Employment type

You can select all that apply 

  • Jobshare 
  • Maternity Cover 
  • Non-Executive 
  • Returnship

Flexible working arrangements  

Here you can select the best way to describe the flexible working arrangements available for this job. Tick all that apply. This field is optional.

  • Agile working
  • Annualised hours
  • Compressed hours
  • Flexible working 
  • Hybrid working 
  • School hours
  • Staggered hours 
  • Term time only

Salary

It pays to be specific! 

Including a salary on your job advert not only increases applications by 20% but, with Google’s new rules, job adverts that don’t mention a salary will be penalised, which restricts the visibility of your job ad on 2to3days.

Here you have the option to either show the expected remuneration or a salary range. If the salary provided is the pro rata salary or FTE, please ensure you make the distinction.

Job description

This is your chance to sell the role. What makes your company special? Put yourself in the shoes of a candidate; why should someone want to come and work at your company? 

We recommend you use sentence case, avoid using block capitals and excessive use of characters such as exclamation marks. Also triple check for grammar and typos as you will be doing your company a grave disservice if they slip through the net! 

We are huge fans of job adverts written in an informal but professional way. Allow the personality of the job and the culture of your company to shine through naturally.

It’s important you provide as many specific details as possible. Far too often the free text copy of an advert is vague with sweeping generalities. This creates ambiguity for the potential candidate and makes it harder for the candidates to get excited about the role, apply and interview well. It is also important that you remove gender bias language. Get a few colleagues of the opposite gender to review your description with fresh eyes if you can. 

4 top tips to removing gender bias from your adverts

  1. Simplify your criteria - presenting an exhaustive list of requirements can put women off applying. Research has shown that men will apply when they only meet 60% of the requirements whilst women will only apply when they meet 100%. We encourage you to only list what is essential. Look to use a maximum of 4 bullet points per section. 
  2. Promote your company’s diversity; A good way to attract a broad range of applicants is to state your commitment to fostering an inclusive and dynamic working environment. Backing this up with evidence to emphasise how your organisation promotes this kind of culture will make individuals feel more welcome and supported.
  3. Check your choice of words - Research has shown that the language used in job listings can influence a person's decision to apply. It found that the average advert featured twice the number of phrases with a masculine tone, thus drawing in more male applicants. 
  4. Use this free gender-bias checker; paste your draft job description into this handy and free online gender-bias checker

Describe your company

  1. A brief introduction to your company
    Describe who you are and what your company does and why you do it.  It is also really key that you explain the culture and ethos of your company as well as the size and nature of the team they will be joining. This is also a great place to give a shout out about the golden nuggets that make your company a special place to work
  2. How you support flexible working
    The more you are able to explain how the role can be done flexibly the better. 2to3days candidates want to work flexibly - the more you are able to bring to life how in reality what working flexibly means for your company the better. 
  3. Summarise the role and responsibilities
    Succinctly explain what they will be responsible for and what they will be doing on a day-to -day basis
  4. Previous skills and experience
    We encourage you to list only what is essential. If you require a certain number of years with this qualification be sure to state this as well. 
  5. Qualifications required and desired
    If this job requires specific qualifications, please ensure you list them all.
  6. Attitude and characteristics
    What sort of person would excel at this role? 
  7. Travel
    Do you require them to travel with this role? Be that locally, nationally or internationally, let them know and also how often they’ll be expected to travel.

Immediate Start

If the job requires an immediate start (or at least has a desired start date for the role very near in the future), then use our form to state this criteria. 

Applicants right to work 

The default is the right to work in the UK. If instead you need them to have the right to work in the EU then select the second option. 

Please select how you want to receive applications 

You can choose to receive applications within your 2to3days account. If this option is selected then applicants’ CV and covering letter (if you have requested one) will be uploaded to your employer profile dashboard where you and any colleagues whom you’ve set-up as users of your employer profile, can access, review and manage the applications.

If you prefer 2to3days candidates to apply via your company’s career page then select the option to ‘apply via my employer website, and you will be asked to insert the URL of your company’s career page. 

Listing start and expiry date

The automatic closing date for your advert is 30 days from the date your advert goes live. However you are at liberty to reduce the advertising period by clicking on the calendar and selecting a date within 30 days. You can of course schedule your job listing to go live on a future date.

Unique Job Ad ID (or reference)  

We will auto-populate this field and allocate your job ad a unique ID. You can use this or overwrite with your own unique job reference if you have one.

Days per week

Use this optional field to enter expected days per week the candidate will be working