Recruitment campaign design: how to attract candidates who actually fit

Most recruitment campaigns are optimised for volume. More applications, more clicks, more impressions. That sounds productive. But when the wrong people apply in larger numbers, you pay for it later: more time screening, more no-shows at interviews, more people who leave within three months.

At Livewall, we design recruitment campaigns for organisations that care about the quality of who shows up, not just how many. The difference is not budget. It is how the campaign is structured from the start.

Start with why people stay, not why they apply

Most campaigns are built to drive applications. But the right question to start with is: why do your longest-serving employees still work here? What keeps them? What would they miss if they left?

That answer is the foundation of an honest campaign. Not a pitch to get someone through the door. A specific, recognisable story for the kind of person who already belongs.

The campaign is already a selection moment

A well-designed recruitment campaign does more than inform. It filters. A candidate who reads your campaign and thinks 'this is not for me' is just as valuable as one who thinks 'I want to work there'. Both reactions save everyone time.

That requires honesty in the communication. Show what a real workday looks like. Be specific about the nature of the work, the team culture, what the organisation actually expects. Avoid vague promises like 'you'll grow here' or 'we're like a family'. Every employer says that. Nobody believes it anymore.

For Efteling, we built a full employer branding and recruitment platform that let candidates see what working behind the scenes at the park actually looks like. Real stories from real employees, not a brochure. The result: better-prepared candidates, higher offer acceptance rates, and lower early attrition.

Interactive formats outperform static ads for fit

Static banners and generic job descriptions attract generic candidates. If you want people to make a deliberate decision to apply, the campaign has to let them experience something, not just read something.

Interactive formats do this well. A short quiz that reveals whether the type of work suits you. A day-in-the-life video with real employees talking. A preview of the first week that sets real expectations. Not a gimmick, but a tool that works in both directions: the candidate learns something, and you learn something about the candidate.

For Kruidvat, we built a recruitment campaign that let friends apply together. That format deliberately appeals to a specific kind of person, one for whom social connection at work is a driver. It is not a trick. It is a deliberate design choice that targets the campaign at people who will culturally fit.

The EVP is the foundation. The campaign is what people see.

Running recruitment campaigns without a sharp EVP is like building without foundations. You can put something up, but it will not hold.

An Employer Value Proposition is not a list of benefits or a tagline. It is the honest, specific reason why your organisation is the right place for a particular kind of person. It is about culture, the nature of the work, what the organisation gives and what it expects in return.

That EVP determines the tone of the campaign. Which visuals you choose. Which stories you tell. Which channels you use. Without it, recruitment campaigns are disconnected communications that talk to everyone and no one.

For the Bosch campaign, the core idea was attracting people who look beyond the workplace. Employees with ambition and interests outside the office. The Discover Beyond Your Workplace campaign showed what Bosch employees do outside work, and how the organisation enables that. Specific, honest, and aimed at a recognisable person.

Channel strategy follows the audience

Where do the people you want to hire actually spend their time online? That is the only question that matters when choosing channels. Not: where are we already present? Not: what is the cheapest option?

If you are hiring young people for physical retail roles, TikTok will outperform LinkedIn. If you need specialists, targeted programmatic beats broad display. If you want people who already know your brand, retargeting your own audience is more efficient than starting cold.

The working-at website is always the destination, not the starting point. Every channel leads to it. And that site needs to finish the job the campaign started: convert the interested, reassure the uncertain, and let the poor-fit candidates opt out before they apply.

What you measure determines what you optimise

If you only measure clicks and applications, you will get more clicks and applications. The question is whether that helps you.

Better metrics for quality recruitment are: the percentage of applicants who pass first-round screening, offer acceptance rates, and the share of new starters who make it through their probation period. That requires closer collaboration between recruitment and marketing. The campaign does not end at the click.

At Livewall, we always look beyond the first conversion metric. A recruitment campaign only works when the right people actually start.