Is your ad effective?
When you advertise for help, job seekers will screen your ads. They will search your ads for reasons not to spend the time and effort to contact you. In general, the more information you provide in your ad, the greater the chance that a job seeker will find some reason to reject your job without even contacting you.
If the tone in your ad is negative or focuses on warnings about the job, the duties, and the requirements; you are giving people reasons not to contact you. If you go into detail about the specifics of your philosophy or your techniques, you give job seekers a reason to reject your philosophy or techniques and not respond. If you provide a link to your web site in your ads, you may open the door to so much information about you that most anyone can find something they don’t like.
The primary objective of job advertising is to entice people to contact you. The most effective way of accomplishing this is to give a few pertinent facts about the position and word them in such a way that they invite job seekers to ask questions. Your ad should be the bait that job seekers can’t refuse. It should arouse their curiosity and invite them to contact you for answers to their questions.
Here is an example of a well worded advertisement.
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Trainer
REINING
Nationally recognized full service operation located in Colorado has opening for experienced trainer with successful show record. Established clientele are waiting to benefit from your skills and experience. New customer inquiries every week. Opportunity to train horses, compete, and be part of our management team.
Contact Seth Burgess – 303-555-1212 or
seth@equimax.com
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This ad makes the job sound wonderful, but gives almost no information about specifics. The job seeker is left wondering 1) Who are these people? 2) How big is their operation? 3) What do they pay? 4) How many employees do they have? 5)Do they provide benefits? 6) Do I have enough experience to qualify? 7) What are their facilities like? 
What kind of show record are they looking for? 9) Exactly where are they located? 10) What kind of clientele do they serve; beginners, advanced, or both? 11) Where do they compete with their horses on a regular basis? This ad does not give enough information for a job seeker to reject the job. The only way that the job seeker can get answers to the questions the job seeker is curious about is to make contact with the employer. The ad has done it’s job.
