Does a recruitment video work, and what should go in it?

We don't give a fixed percentage for video against photo. The difference depends on the vacancy and above all on the video itself. A weak video simply loses to a strong photo. What we do see again and again across more than 2,800 creatives is where the difference comes from.

On broad platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, much of the real selection happens in the advert itself, not in the audience settings. Someone who recognises themselves in the work they see keeps watching. Someone who can't picture themselves doing it scrolls on. A video can carry more of that than a photo, because it shows more in the same few seconds: what the workshop sounds like, how colleagues talk to each other, how fast the pace is.

The catch is that you are not only competing with other vacancies. You are competing with everything someone sees on their phone, from a clip a friend posted to a dog on a skateboard. A video that opens with a logo, a drone shot of the building or a line about company values has lost the viewer before it has started.

So video works best for roles where the work has something to show, and for employers the audience doesn't know yet. A small company without a well-known name gains little from a polished logo and a lot from a colleague showing what their day looks like. How we produce that kind of footage is described under recruitment content.

The first seconds show the work, not the company. A technician tracking down a fault, a chef in the six o'clock rush, a planner juggling three phones. People who want that job stay. People who don't, drop off, and that is a gain too.

Show real colleagues on the real shop floor. No actors, no stock footage and no AI-generated imagery. Precisely because so much slick and generated content is going around, real footage stands out. The colleague telling the story in the video is the same person who will later show the new hire the ropes, and viewers pick up on that.

Describe an ordinary working day instead of a promise. What time do you start, who do you work with, what is the hardest part of the day. An employer who only says it's a great place to work is saying nothing the competitor isn't saying too. That is where employer branding often goes wrong: too polished, too generic, no concrete story.

Make it for the phone. Vertical format, subtitles on screen, because your video often starts without sound, and don't leave the key information only in what is spoken. The video doesn't have to say everything. Pay, schedule and the steps after applying belong in the text below it and in the job advert.

And use the people who have something to say. A managing director doesn't need to become a recruiter, but one hour per quarter talking about the company, the trade and the plans gives you material for months.

Not as long as most employers expect. In our own adverts, started from August 2024, an application in week 3 was already one and a half times as expensive as in week 1 in half of cases, and from week 9 almost twice as expensive. The same people see the same video again and again, and those who already know it stop responding.

That is why we refresh an advert after around four weeks with a new opening. The smartest moment to plan for that is the filming day itself: shoot several openings, several colleagues and several moments of the day, so you can switch later without filming again. How that works in a running campaign is covered under job marketing.

A new video doesn't fix everything. If you see reach but few clicks, the video and the message are usually the cause. If people click but don't apply, the problem sits in the offer or in the application form. Where it gets stuck decides whether creative is the answer, as we also explain in RPO versus a recruitment marketing agency.

Does a recruitment video need to be professionally shot?

It needs to be easy to follow: sharp picture, clear sound, subtitles. But polished is not the same as good. A video that looks like a commercial gets the reaction a commercial gets. What makes the difference is who is on screen and what they show. A colleague who is honest about the hard parts of the job is more convincing than a perfectly lit presentation.

How long should a recruitment video be?

As long as it takes to show one thing well, and no longer. The first seconds decide whether someone keeps watching, so that is where the work itself belongs. Rather than one long video that tries to say everything, make several short ones, each with its own subject: a colleague, a workplace, a moment in the day. That also gives you material to switch to when the first one wears out.

Which channel should a recruitment video go on?

That depends on who you are looking for. For practical and operational roles, the audience is often on Facebook and Instagram, where a short vertical video works well. For office and specialist roles, LinkedIn plays a bigger part, and there who shares the video often matters more than the video itself. A video that works on one channel doesn't automatically work on another. More on that under channels.

Can I have a recruitment video made with AI?

For an animation that explains a process, yes. But a video that has to show what it is like to work somewhere needs real people and a real workplace. Candidates want to see their future colleagues. The more generated content there is around, the more real footage stands out, and the faster a viewer notices when something isn't real.

SocialFind makes videos with an employer's own colleagues, as part of the campaigns we run ourselves, and measures what each video delivers. If you would like articles like this in your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter.