Employer brand gets pushed off because there’s always a “real priority.” But the delay isn’t neutral. When you don’t have a useful message, you’re forced to buy attention. That extra spend is the ad-spend tax.

Weak brand. Weak message. Higher spend.

A weak employer brand doesn’t just make you look generic. It makes your paid recruiting tactics more expensive.
Because generic messaging doesn’t earn attention. It has to purchase it.

Sharable line: A weak employer brand is an ad-spend tax. When you don’t have a useful message, you’re forced to buy attention.

“We’re hiring” isn’t a message

Candidates already know where jobs live. Job boards exist. LinkedIn exists. Your ATS exists.
Findability is handled. Choice is the problem.

Sharable line: “We’re hiring” isn’t a message. It’s an expense. Because the moment you say nothing, you have to pay to be heard.

Generic messaging requires volume

When you don’t know what makes you different, you default to generic.
Generic requires more impressions to get the same response. More boosts. More spend.
And once low conversion becomes “normal,” the budget becomes recurring.

Sharable line: If your ad can’t answer “why you” in the first five seconds, you’re not recruiting. You’re buying lottery tickets.

One line to delete from every job post

Delete: “We’re hiring.”
 Replace it with a useful opener that creates choice:

  • This role is for someone who wants ___.

The move to use this week

Pull your last 10 paid job ads or sponsored posts. For each one:

  • Review the first 60 words.
  • If you lead with “we’re hiring,” awards, culture claims, or generic hype, rewrite the opening using:
    • This role is for someone who wants X.
    • In the first 90 days, you’ll do Y.
    • You’ll love this if you care about Z.
  • Run the rewritten version for a week with the same budget and targeting.
  • Compare:
    • click-through rate
    • apply-start rate
    • quality of inbound (screen pass rate, interview-to-offer, etc.)

This is how you start reducing the ad-spend tax without a massive “branding project.”

Watch this episode here:

‍