Veterinary Voices – Episode 260

Why Spending More on Job Ads Doesn't Work

Julie South [00:00:06]

Welcome to Veterinary Voices, culture storytelling conversations for forward-thinking vet clinics. I'm Julie South, and this is episode 260.

Veterinary Voices is brought to you by VetClinicJobs – helping forward-thinking vet clinics build recognition so they attract vets and nurses, not just post job ads and pray someone will apply.

Last week we talked about why better words don't work – why rewriting your ad doesn't solve a recognition problem.

This week we're talking about month 3 in the recruitment cycle. You're about 10 weeks in. Posting everywhere hasn't worked. Rewriting hasn't worked. And you start thinking maybe you just need to spend more money. Premium features, boosted posts, upgraded listings.

Julie South [00:01:01]

Maybe even go to a recruitment agency.

Stay with me to the end, please, because I've got a question about how much you've spent trying to make the same broken system work better.

If you've been posting your job ad for a while, this is for you. You're about 10 weeks in, hypothetically, into advertising right now. You've posted on multiple platforms, you've rewritten the ad a couple of times, maybe 3 – and you're still not getting the applications that you want.

The platform starts sending you emails. Upgrade to premium placement. Feature your listing.

Julie South [00:01:44]

Boost your ad to reach more candidates, they say. Stand out from the competition, they say.

And you start thinking, maybe visibility is the problem. Maybe my ad isn't being seen enough. Maybe if I just get it in front of more people, someone will apply.

So you upgrade. Premium listing. Featured placement.

Julie South [00:02:09]

Top of the search results. Maybe you boost it on social media as well. Promoted post. Sponsored content. Maximum reach.

You refresh your credit card and you wait.

The platform sends you analytics. Your ad was seen by 5,000 people this week.

Julie South [00:02:30]

Your listing appeared at the top of search results 847 times. Your boosted post reached 12,000 accounts.

Big numbers. Impressive reach. Surely this time something will happen.

But those numbers are measuring the wrong thing. They are measuring exposure. How many eyeballs potentially saw your ad. How many times it appeared on someone's screen.

They are not measuring recognition. They're not measuring whether anyone actually stopped scrolling, whether anyone actually registered what they saw, whether anyone actually thought, "Yes, this is my kind of clinic."

Because exposure without recognition is just really expensive noise.

Julie South [00:03:33]

Month 3 in the job advertising cycle is when the money conversation starts getting somewhat uncomfortable.

You're now spending maybe $800, $1,000, perhaps more across multiple platforms. Premium listings, featured placements, boosted posts. Maybe you've even gone to print media – really expensive print media.

And what are you getting? Maybe one more application than you got in month one. Maybe the same result. Maybe nothing at all.

Your team is asking how it's going.

Julie South [00:04:13]

Your manager is asking about the recruitment budget. The role's been open for 10 weeks now and everyone's covering, everyone's stretched, everyone is tired.

And the recruitment agencies start circling – LinkedIn messages, cold calls, email sequences – along the lines of: we have candidates actively looking, or we can fill your role in 2 weeks. Or maybe, "Let us take this off your plate."

Month 3 is when agencies start looking tempting. Sure, it's $15,000 to $20,000, but at least something would happen. At least you'd get applications. At least you could stop throwing money at job boards that aren't working.

But you're not quite ready to spend that much yet.

Julie South [00:05:07]

You're still hopeful. Maybe one more platform, maybe one more upgrade, maybe you can still do this yourself.

But there's something else happening in month 3 that most clinics don't realise – you're starting to get recognised, just not in the way you want.

Vets and nurses who check job boards regularly are starting to notice your ad. They're seeing it week after week – same clinic, same role, still advertising – and they're starting to wonder: why is it taking them so long to hire? What's wrong with that clinic? Is it a toxic workplace? Do they have a retention problem? Is there something they're not saying in the ad?

Your continuous presence on the job board isn't building trust. It's building concern. Red flags. Warning signs.

This is recognition. It's just recognition of the wrong kind.

Julie South [00:06:12]

You're becoming known as the clinic that can't fill their role, the clinic that's been advertising for months, the clinic that maybe has problems.

And ironically, the more money you spend to keep the ad visible, the more you're reinforcing that negative recognition.

So what's the alternative – what creates the right kind of recognition that you keep going on about?

Well, it's not better job ads, and it's not more platforms, and it's certainly not premium placement. It's what we call culture story centre infrastructure – a permanent dedicated place where your team's real stories get to live.

Not on social media where they disappear. Not on your website that's been purpose-built for your pet-owning clients. Instead, it's somewhere built specifically for vets and nurses to discover you, to watch you, to stalk you even, and decide if you're their kind of people before you even need to advertise.

That's not a job board upgrade.

Julie South [00:07:26]

That's a completely different category.

Premium placement amplifies recognition. It doesn't create it. You're paying for better positioning of content that people are filtering out. You're paying to be unknown more prominently – or worse, you're paying to be more visible as a clinic that's been desperately advertising for 10 weeks. Or maybe more.

Because if the problem was reach, someone would have solved recruitment by now. Someone would have built a platform so big, with so much reach, that every clinic posting there would get perfect applications.

Julie South [00:08:13]

But that platform doesn't exist because reach is not the problem.

Right now, somewhere, a clinic is looking at their recruitment budget. They've spent over $2,000 – multiple platforms, premium features, boosted posts – and they're wondering whether to upgrade again or to finally acknowledge the agency that's been circling and calling them.

They're exhausted. The role's been open since before Christmas. Their team is burned out. And they know that something has to change.

Meanwhile, another clinic just posted their job ad – standard listing, no premium features, no boosted posts, basic straightforward job ad.

Julie South [00:09:01]

Within 3 days, that clinic will have 4 applications from vets and nurses who already recognise them, who've been watching them, who have been waiting for them to have an opening – who understand what they're walking into because they've been building that picture for months.

That clinic built a culture story centre infrastructure before they needed to advertise. So when they did advertise, the ad worked just as it was meant to. Not because it was premium – because they weren't unknown.

And they won't be on the job board for 10 weeks becoming recognised as that clinic that can't hire. They'll fill the role and disappear.

Julie South [00:09:53]

That's the kind of recognition that you want.

I promised you a question – actually, it's two questions.

You're spending thousands to become known as the clinic that's been advertising for months. What if you spent that building recognition as the clinic that people have been waiting to work for?

And if you're ready to make that shift from spending on noise to investing in recognition, what's your very next step going to be?

If you're listening to this and wondering what you can actually do differently, please get in touch. I'd love to have a chat to see where you're at and what you can do next. Email me: julie@vetclinicjobs.com.

Stay tuned and follow us, because next week we're going to be talking about month 4 – what happens when spending more money doesn't work either, when you start trying random things: social media posts, asking staff to share, updating your website – all the DIY tactics you try when you're running out of options, and why those won't work either.

Julie South [00:11:09]

This is Julie South signing off and inviting you to go out there and be your most fantabulous self.

And remember, when vets and nurses can see that you are their kind of people, you stop hiring strangers because you're welcoming people who already feel like they belong.

Until next week.