27 September 2026 · 5 min read · Oscar Markham
How to write a job ad that gets applicants
Most small business job ads in Ireland are written as though applicants are lucky to be considered, and they produce nothing. The people you want are usually employed and reasonably content, which means the ad has to give them a reason to move.
Put the money in
'Competitive rates' tells a tradesperson you are probably below market, because anybody above market says the number.
A range is enough. This single change does more than everything else combined, and the reluctance to do it is the main reason small employers lose candidates to bigger ones who do.
Write for somebody who is not looking
The person you want has a job. They are not scrolling a jobs board, so the ad has to reach them on social and give them a concrete reason to think about it.
Newer vans, better tools, no weekends, local work, no overnight travel, a real finish time. Those move people. 'Fast-paced dynamic team' does not.
- Actual pay or a genuine range
- Where the work is and how far the travel goes
- The hours, honestly, including weekends
- One or two real reasons to move
- Photographs of the actual team and vans
- An application that takes under two minutes
Make applying trivial
Nobody is writing a cover letter from a phone at lunchtime. A short form with three questions and a number will out-perform a careers page by a wide margin.
Then reply the same day. Candidates who are not actively looking cool off within days, and the good ones are gone within a week.
Show the place
People move jobs to somewhere that looks well run. Photographs of a tidy yard, decent equipment and people who look content do more than any list of benefits.
It is also the same content that wins customers, which is why the two efforts support each other.
Written by Oscar Markham, founder of Dublin Growth Digital. We run lead generation for Irish estate agents and trades, reported every Friday in enquiries and booked work.