Google Ads for recruitment: job vacancies and employer branding through SEA

For many companies, recruitment has become just as competitive a market as their commercial market. Finding good people takes effort, costs money and demands the same approach you are used to from your lead generation. Google Ads is an underrated channel here: you reach both the people actively looking for a new job and the people who are not yet thinking about a move but who fit your profile. In this article we show you how to use Google Ads for recruitment, for vacancy campaigns, candidate sourcing and employer branding, and why you are better off steering on applications and hires instead of on clicks.

This article belongs to our broader overview of what SEA is, where you can see how search ads fit into the bigger picture. Recruitment is simply an application of those same principles, with candidates instead of customers as the target group. If you want to see how that same SEA logic plays out in a concrete sector, read how to use Google Ads for construction companies and installers to bring in project leads.

Why Google Ads works for recruitment

Most recruitment budgets go to job boards and LinkedIn. Those are valuable channels, but they miss one group: people who look for work outside those platforms. Someone who types “accountant vacancy Antwerp” or “working at [type of company]” into Google is showing clear intent at that moment. With Search ads you sit right at the top, at the exact moment the candidate is actively searching.

On top of that, through Display, YouTube and remarketing you reach the far larger group of passive candidates: people who are happy in their job but open to something better if it comes along. In a tight labour market those are often exactly the profiles you need most. The advantage of Google Ads is that you steer both groups from a single account and can see how together they feed your flow of applications.

Vacancy campaigns on the search network

Start with the layer closest to an application: Search. Here you build campaigns around the keywords candidates use when they are concretely looking. Think of job titles combined with your region, terms like “vacancy”, “job”, “apply” or “working at”, and possibly specific skills or sectors.

A few points of attention that make recruitment campaigns different from commercial campaigns:

• Local focus. Most candidates look for work within an acceptable commuting distance. Tight geographic targeting prevents your budget from leaking away to people who will never apply.
• Honest ad copy. Promise in your ad what the job actually involves. Inflated copy delivers clicks but no suitable applications, and you only see that back in the quality of your intake.
• A strong landing page. Do not send candidates to a generic vacancy list, but to a page that makes the role, the culture and the next step clear. The quality score and your conversion rate depend heavily on that relevance.

On the search network you usually use audiences as an observation layer on top of your keywords, so you can see which profiles convert best and adjust your bids accordingly.

Reaching passive candidates through Display and YouTube

Not everyone is actively searching. For hard-to-fill roles you also want to be visible to people who are not looking yet but who do fit. This is where Display and YouTube come in. With these campaign types you show your employer story to a broader audience, targeted on interests, sector or behaviour.

Do not expect direct applications here. Display and YouTube are primers: they make you known as an employer and plant the idea that there is something interesting to be had. Judge these campaigns on their role at the top of the funnel, then, not on an application per click. The pitfall is that they show attractive numbers on impressions and views while they do not yet deliver candidates. That is normal; they do their work further down the funnel.

Remarketing: candidates who already looked

Anyone who visited your vacancy page but did not apply is a warm candidate. Applying is a big step, and people often drop off to hesitate, to talk it over, or simply because the moment was not right. Remarketing keeps you visible during that consideration period.

You can refine your lists based on which pages someone visited, so that whoever viewed your vacancy for a specific role gets a more targeted message than a fleeting visitor. On the search network this works through RLSA, where you apply a higher bid or an adjusted message when a previous visitor searches again later. For recruitment with a longer decision time, remarketing is almost always worthwhile.

Employer branding versus concrete vacancies

It is tempting to throw everything into one campaign, but employer branding and concrete vacancies call for different messages. A vacancy campaign is targeted and task-driven: this role, this place, apply now. An employer branding campaign is broader: this is who we are, you will enjoy working here, this is what you get back.

They do reinforce each other. Candidates who already know your brand through employer branding apply more easily when they later see your vacancy. Keep the campaigns separate so you judge each one by the right yardstick, but see them as parts of one whole. That is exactly how we look at advertising: not as loose actions, but as one orchestrated engine in which every layer plays a role.

Steer on hires, not on clicks

The biggest difference between recruitment advertising that works and the kind that swallows budget lies in how you measure success. Clicks and even applications say little if they do not lead to suitable people. A campaign that delivers a hundred applications of which none fit is more expensive than a campaign with ten applications that produce two hires.

That is why you connect your conversion tracking to what happens after the click. Just as in B2B lead generation you feed offline conversions back from your CRM, in recruitment you feed the outcome back from your ATS, your applicant tracking system. That way you see per campaign, per keyword and per audience not only how many applications came in, but also how many of them qualified and were eventually hired. Only with that data can you shift budget to the campaigns that genuinely bring people on board.

If you would rather not work all this out yourself, you can bring in a google ads specialist who ties your recruitment campaigns to applications and hires instead of to vanity numbers. We treat recruitment advertising with the same discipline as commercial lead generation, because the logic is identical.

Frequently asked questions about Google Ads for recruitment

Is Google Ads suitable for recruiting staff?

Yes. With Search you reach actively searching candidates at the moment they are looking for a job, and with Display, YouTube and remarketing you reach passive candidates and keep your employer brand visible. The channel is especially valuable for roles that are hard to fill.

How do I measure whether a recruitment campaign works?

Not by clicks or applications alone, but by suitable candidates and hires. Connect your conversion tracking to your ATS, so that per campaign you see which applications qualified and were eventually hired.

What is the difference with advertising on job boards?

Job boards reach people who are already searching within that platform. Google Ads additionally reaches people who search outside those platforms, plus passive candidates through Display and YouTube. It complements your existing channels instead of replacing them.

Should I advertise employer branding and vacancies separately?

Keep them separate in different campaigns, so you judge each one by the right yardstick. A vacancy campaign you steer on applications, an employer branding campaign on reach and awareness. Together they reinforce each other.

Ready to steer your recruitment on results?

Recruitment advertising is only valuable if it brings suitable people on board, not if it shows the prettiest click figures. Do you want to know which campaigns actually fill your vacancies and which ones only swallow budget? We are a small team that moves fast and steers on qualified applications, not on vanity numbers.

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