Truckers. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em. If you’re a carrier, you need drivers. And if you’re not currently hiring, I bet two bucks that you will be within a month or two.
Turnover is the name of the game, honcho. When the time comes, and your trucks are sitting empty, you better be prepared. With the industry expecting a 25% increase in growth over the next 10 years, and with truckers retiring and leaving their vocation on a daily basis, it’s high time to start thinking outside the box in how you recruit.
There are a million ways to go about winning the hiring game. But for now let’s dive into how you can utilize Facebook as a great channel for sourcing and recruiting drivers.
A lot of people are on Facebook
Obviously. You’re probably on Facebook. Maybe you’ve even got a tab open right now. The astonishing (to some, depressing) truth is, 79% of all adults online are active Facebook users. 74% of those people check their Facebook on a daily basis. We all have our vices.
The great part is, if you choose to advertise your lanes on Facebook, you’re reaching millions of potential hires, granted you play your cards right.
More importantly…
A lot of young(er) people are on Facebook
The trucking industry needs new blood. The average age of a driver is 55.When asked about aging truckers, Derek Leathers, CEO of trucking giant Werner said:
“The trucking industry average age is about 10 years older than the average age across other comparable industries like manufacturing and construction. So as those retirements are taking place, we're just not seeing the same level of new entrants into the industry."
With drivers retiring on a daily basis, it’s more important than ever to find young people to place in those still warm seats. As it happens, the average age of a Facebook user coincides with the average age of a new trucker. That’s about 35 years old, in case you were wondering.
That means Facebook is a breeding ground for recruitable, fresh-faced youngsters just waiting to dive into their careers. You need those people to see you, hear about you, and recognize you.
If you can get to them on Facebook, you can get them excited about your company even when they’re not actively looking for work. That effort alone will put you ahead of the competition.
Facebook reigns supreme as the social media for truckers
Reaching people is all well and good, but you need to make sure you’re reaching truckers. We’re talking qualified, CDL-A possessing truckers. Are they using Facebook?
Well, data shows that they are indeed, using Facebook. In fact, about 60% of the all truckers use Facebook as their primary social media, on a regular basis.
If your resources are limited, and you’re exploring social media as a form of job advertising, then Facebook is your best bet at getting the best return on your investment.
You can target drivers according to your exact needs
Facebook is flexible. It allows you to mess around make your own rules and targets. The amount of control you have over who sees your ads is huge compared to other job boards. This is great because it means you’re in charge of the process, but there are some downsides that come with that, as well.
The problem with that approach is, you need to know what you’re doing. It’s not exactly a user friendly system, so you will probably need a specialist to squeeze the most value out of your ad dollars.
A Facebook ad well targeted and placed can bring in leads like wildfire, for pennies per lead. A bad ad can cost you well over twenty dollars per lead. It’s not exactly something you want to gamble with, if you can help it. Luckily, there are some workarounds.
How to target efficiently
There’s two - actually three ways you can go about creating your Facebook ads. Here are the pros and cons of each approach, so that you can choose which option is more suitable for your situation. Warning: Impartiality not guaranteed.
-
Do it yourself - This method means you get to keep full control over the process. There’s a lot of drawbacks, and as usual they come down to money and time. If you’re not experienced in the field of creating Facebook ad targets, you’re going to struggle to create a target audience that performs well. There’s a lot of factors at play when it comes to creating good Facebook demographics, and optimizing audiences takes several iterations of ads before you find a strategy that consistently performs well. If you have the time and resources to do this, then go ahead.
-
Hire a specialist or agency - This is an approach I would advise against. Hiring Facebook ad specialists can be of help, but generally will be very expensive. Now, price may not be an issue if you’re getting your money’s worth, but specialists and agencies charge a “middle-man” premium. You can cut out that middle-man entirely and still get the best results.
-
Do it through YouCruit - A blog promoting its own product? Blasphemy. Seriously though… by posting to Facebook from YouCruit, you’re winning. We’ve got our own programmatic package that makes sure your hiring efforts are constantly adapted by a smart AI that gets you the most bang for your buck. I could say so much more, but is it necessary? No middle-men, just proven ad targets pre-optimized for you, so you can spend your time wisely.