Looking for free job advertising?
This guide explains some of the places where UK employers can advertise vacancies themselves for free. Ad Talent does not provide free job advertising. We are a paid fixed fee recruitment advertising service, with campaigns starting from £329 + VAT.If you would like Ad Talent to advertise and manage your vacancy, you can view our recruitment packages or tell us about your vacancy here.
Posting a job for free sounds ideal, particularly when you are running a small or growing business and keeping a close eye on costs. There are several places where UK employers can advertise certain vacancies without paying for the listing itself, and for some roles those options can work very well.
There is an important distinction to make at the beginning of this guide, however. The free job advertising options discussed below are third party services that employers can use themselves. Ad Talent’s recruitment advertising service is not free.
If you are happy to write the advert, choose the platforms, manage the applications and run the recruitment process yourself, free job boards can provide a useful starting point. If you would rather have professional support with the advert, wider job board exposure and the management of your recruitment campaign, Ad Talent’s paid recruitment packages start from £329 + VAT.
Neither approach is automatically right or wrong. The best option depends on the vacancy, the candidate market, how quickly you need to recruit and how much time you have available to manage the process yourself.
Before you advertise, make sure the role is clear
Whether you are using a free job board or paying for recruitment advertising, the quality of the vacancy information you start with has a significant impact on what happens next.
Before writing the advert, make sure you are clear about the responsibilities, salary, working hours, location, working arrangements and the experience or skills somebody genuinely needs to perform the role.
If you are starting from scratch, our free UK job description template gives you a straightforward structure to work from.
You can also look at our UK job description examples to see how responsibilities, essential criteria and role information can be presented for different types of vacancies.
It is worth remembering that a job description and job advert are not quite the same thing. The job description defines the role internally, while the advert needs to take that information and present it clearly to the people you want to attract.
A detailed job description copied directly onto a job board is not necessarily going to make a strong recruitment advert.
Where can you post jobs for free in the UK?
There are several options available to employers who want to manage their own recruitment without initially paying for job board advertising.
Free job advertising can be particularly effective for vacancies with a large local candidate pool, straightforward entry requirements or businesses that already have an engaged audience of potential applicants.
The trade off is normally time, reach or visibility. You are still responsible for creating the advert, setting up and managing the vacancy, reviewing applications, communicating with candidates and running the rest of the recruitment process.
Free advertising also does not necessarily mean that your vacancy will receive the same level of visibility as a paid or sponsored listing.
GOV.UK Find a Job
The Government’s Find a Job service is one of the most obvious places for UK employers to start when looking for free job advertising.
Employers in England, Scotland and Wales can use the service to advertise and manage vacancies online without paying for the listing.
For local vacancies and positions with a relatively broad candidate market, this can be a useful additional recruitment channel.
As with any free advertising option, however, the fact that the listing itself does not cost anything does not remove the work involved in recruitment. Somebody still needs to create a strong advert, monitor the applications, review CVs, respond to candidates and organise the recruitment process.
For a business recruiting occasionally, that may be perfectly manageable. When several vacancies are live at once, or when a role attracts a large volume of applications, the time involved can quickly become significant.
Indeed
Indeed provides free job posting options for eligible vacancies, although free advertising is subject to the platform’s current rules and limits.
Employers can also choose to sponsor vacancies for additional visibility.
For some roles, particularly those with plenty of active candidates, a free Indeed listing may produce a perfectly good response. For other vacancies, competition from newer or sponsored jobs can make maintaining visibility more difficult.
If you are considering a free Indeed listing, check the latest information for employers directly on Indeed, as free posting limits and eligibility can change.
This is an important point with all free job boards. The fact that a platform offers free advertising does not necessarily mean every vacancy will qualify or remain free indefinitely.
LinkedIn can also provide free job advertising options, subject to its current terms and posting limits.
For professional, commercial, sales, marketing, managerial and technical vacancies, LinkedIn can be particularly useful because the formal vacancy can be supported by your existing professional network.
Sharing the role through your company page, asking employees to share it and posting about the opportunity through relevant personal profiles can all increase awareness without necessarily increasing your recruitment advertising spend.
The effectiveness of this approach depends heavily on the audience you already have.
A business with an established LinkedIn following and an active employee network may generate very good interest. A smaller company with limited reach may find that posting the same vacancy repeatedly does not significantly expand the candidate pool.
You can check LinkedIn’s current guidance on free job postings before advertising.
Can jobs appear on Google for free?
Google for Jobs works slightly differently from a traditional job board because employers do not usually create an account and simply upload a vacancy directly to Google.
Instead, Google can identify eligible vacancies from compatible recruitment websites and careers pages and display them within its job search results.
If your business publishes jobs on its own website, Google’s JobPosting structured data guidance explains how vacancy pages can be structured to become eligible for Google’s job search experience.
The important word is eligible. Correctly structuring a vacancy does not guarantee that Google will display it or that it will appear prominently.
For businesses with their own well maintained careers website, however, it can provide another route through which candidates may discover opportunities.
Use your own social media and professional networks
Not every recruitment campaign needs to begin with a job board.
LinkedIn, Facebook, your company website, employee referrals, industry contacts and your existing professional network can all help spread the word about a vacancy.
For businesses with strong local reputations or engaged online communities, this can work particularly well. Existing employees can also be valuable advocates because they may already know people with relevant experience.
The limitation is that you are largely recruiting from the audience you already have.
If the people you need are not within that network, repeatedly posting the same vacancy is unlikely to suddenly put it in front of a completely different candidate market.
This is where broader job board advertising can become useful.
The hidden cost of free job advertising
Free job advertising can save money on the initial listing, but recruitment itself is never completely free.
Your time has a value.
Someone still needs to write and format the advert, create accounts, manage the vacancy, review CVs, identify suitable applicants, communicate with unsuccessful candidates, arrange interviews and keep the process moving.
If you advertise across several free platforms, applications may also arrive through different systems and inboxes, making the process increasingly difficult to manage.
If a vacancy generates ten applications, this may be relatively straightforward. If it generates 150, recruitment can suddenly become somebody’s second job.
That is why it is helpful to consider the total cost of recruitment, rather than only asking whether the advert itself costs anything.
Free advertising does not automatically mean better value
There is nothing wrong with using free job advertising. If you advertise a vacancy for free and find an excellent candidate within a few days, it has clearly done exactly what you needed it to do.
The problem comes when employers continue using the same approach even when it is not producing the right candidates.
If you spend several weeks reposting a vacancy, sorting through unsuitable applications and struggling to generate enough relevant interest, the saving on advertising begins to look rather different.
There is also a commercial cost associated with leaving a position vacant.
An empty sales territory, understaffed operational team or missing specialist employee can cost a business considerably more than the price of recruitment advertising.
The better question is therefore not simply “Can I advertise this job for free?”
It is:
“What is the most effective and cost efficient way to fill this particular vacancy?”
When paid recruitment advertising may make more sense
This is where Ad Talent fits into the picture.
Ad Talent does not offer free job advertising. We provide a paid fixed fee recruitment advertising service for employers who want broader candidate reach, professional advert writing and more support than managing individual free job boards themselves.
Our recruitment advertising packages start from £329 + VAT.
We can take your vacancy brief or job description, write and optimise the advert and promote the opportunity through leading recruitment platforms, depending on the package selected.
Unlike a traditional recruitment agency, we do not charge a percentage of the successful candidate’s salary. You pay the agreed campaign price and recruit directly from the applications generated.
For employers who need more help, additional support is available, including candidate screening and more comprehensive recruitment management.
That does not mean every employer needs to pay for recruitment advertising.
If a free job board gives you the candidate you need, fantastic.
Our service becomes particularly useful when you want wider reach, do not have the time to manage several advertising channels yourself, need help improving candidate response or simply want a more structured recruitment campaign.
You can compare our recruitment packages and prices here.
A good advert matters wherever you post it
Choosing the right platform is only part of the recruitment process.
The advert itself still needs to give the right person a reason to stop scrolling and take an interest.
Candidates usually want to understand the basics very quickly. What is the job? Where is it based? What does it pay? What will they actually be doing? What experience is required? What working arrangements are available, and what will they receive in return?
A vague advert can generate clicks without generating suitable candidates.
An advert containing an enormous list of unnecessary requirements can create the opposite problem by discouraging good people from applying.
Clarity matters.
If you are unsure whether the underlying role has been defined properly, start with our free UK job description template or look at our UK job description examples.
Do not forget what happens after somebody applies
Getting candidates to apply is only the beginning.
Once somebody has taken the time to submit an application, they should know what happens next.
One of the frustrations we increasingly hear from candidates is being left without any response or update, particularly after they have invested time preparing for and attending an interview.
Good candidate communication does not require a complicated process. Acknowledging applications, setting realistic expectations and letting people know when they have been unsuccessful can make an enormous difference to how they view your organisation.
We explore this in more detail in our guide to candidate ghosting and why good recruitment communication matters.
If candidates need a little help presenting their experience clearly, you can also share our UK CV sample and simple CV template.
Want Ad Talent to advertise your vacancy?
If you want to manage your recruitment entirely yourself, the free job advertising options in this guide may provide a useful starting point.
If you would rather have Ad Talent manage the recruitment advertising for you, our service is paid and fixed fee campaigns start from £329 + VAT.
We can help with professional advert writing and optimisation, wider job board exposure and additional candidate support depending on the package you choose.
There are no traditional percentage based recruitment agency fees, and you know the cost of the campaign before the advertising begins.
Tell us about your vacancy here and we can recommend the most suitable option.
Alternatively, you can view our recruitment packages and prices before getting in touch.
Please note: Completing our vacancy enquiry form is an enquiry about Ad Talent’s paid recruitment advertising services, starting from £329 + VAT. It is not a request for free job advertising.
Frequently asked questions about free job advertising
Does Ad Talent offer free job advertising?
No. Ad Talent is a paid fixed fee recruitment advertising service, with campaigns starting from £329 + VAT.
This article explains some of the free job posting options available through third party platforms for employers who would prefer to manage their own recruitment advertising.
If you would like Ad Talent to advertise and support your recruitment campaign, you can view our paid recruitment packages here or tell us about your vacancy.
Where can employers post jobs for free in the UK?
Employers can consider platforms including GOV.UK Find a Job, Indeed and LinkedIn, as well as using their own social media channels, company website and professional networks.
Each platform has its own rules, eligibility requirements and limits, so always check the current terms before advertising.
Is GOV.UK Find a Job free for employers?
Yes. Employers in England, Scotland and Wales can use the Government’s Find a Job service to advertise vacancies.
Can employers advertise jobs for free on Indeed?
Indeed provides free job posting options for eligible employers and vacancies, subject to its current terms and limits.
You can check the latest information on Indeed’s employer website.
Can you post jobs for free on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn provides a free job posting option subject to restrictions and current platform rules.
You can check LinkedIn’s latest free job posting guidance before advertising.
Is Google for Jobs free?
Google does not operate in the same way as a conventional job board where employers simply create a vacancy directly.
Eligible vacancies can be discovered through compatible job websites and correctly structured careers pages. Google explains the requirements within its JobPosting structured data guidance.
Is free job advertising suitable for every vacancy?
No recruitment channel works equally well for every type of job.
Free advertising may perform very well for vacancies with large active candidate pools, while specialist, senior, competitive or difficult to fill roles may require wider candidate reach.
The important thing is to monitor the quality of the applications rather than judging success solely by how many people apply.
What does Ad Talent charge?
Ad Talent’s paid fixed fee recruitment advertising campaigns start from £329 + VAT.
Different packages provide different levels of advertising and recruitment support, which you can compare on our recruitment packages page.
Is Ad Talent a recruitment agency?
Ad Talent works differently from a traditional percentage based recruitment agency.
We provide fixed fee recruitment advertising and recruitment support, helping employers attract and manage candidates without charging a percentage of the successful applicant’s salary.
You can find out more about how the service works by viewing our recruitment packages.
How do I ask Ad Talent to advertise a vacancy?
If you have a vacancy and would like to discuss paid recruitment advertising with Ad Talent, simply tell us about the role using our vacancy enquiry form.
We can then look at your requirements and recommend the most suitable recruitment option.
