5 Best Practices to Source Delivery Drivers on Craigslist

In a recent article, we shared some data on why Craigslist is a great channel to source applicants if you’re looking to hire delivery drivers this year. Long story short: Craigslist not only attracts high-intent job seekers for these roles, but has shown significantly improved cost per applicant (CPA) rates in 2021 compared to the previous two years.

So if you’ve decided to leverage Craigslist to source delivery drivers, there are some best practices (backed by data) you can follow to optimize the performance of your job postings and maximize your ROI.

Many of the best practices listed in this article are related to when you should post your jobs on Craigslist. This is because, while a job posting on Craigslist is for a fixed duration of 30 days, its visibility is not uniform across the entire period.

Our data indicates that more than 75% of clicks and applications via Craigslist are received within the first three days of posting a job. After three days, the posting starts getting pushed down and being replaced by newer postings, leading to a marked reduction in impressions, clicks, and applications over time.

Therefore, if you post your jobs during the times of the month, week, and day when candidates are most likely to engage with them, you can maximize the outcomes of your postings.

Here are 5 best practices to follow when sourcing delivery drivers on Craigslist:

1. Post your jobs closer to the end of each month

On average, the clickthrough (CTR) and click to applicant (CTA) rates are both at their highest during the fourth week of each month. Essentially, not only does a larger number of candidates who view your postings end up clicking on them, the ones who do are also more likely to complete applications. In other words, you end up with a larger pool of both potential candidates and applicants.

Conversely, Week 1 has relatively lower CTR and CTA rates, which limits the number of applications you can receive in the initial few days after posting the job.

2. Post your jobs on Tuesdays and Fridays

Tuesdays and Fridays offer the best combination of high CTR and CTA rates through the course of the week. So it’s a good idea to post your jobs on these days, whenever possible. Sunday does exhibit the highest CTA rate, but its CTR is relatively low, which lowers the number of clicks you receive and hence, the top of your funnel.

Wednesdays should definitely be avoided, as they display the worst performance in terms of both CTR and CTA rates – followed closely by Thursdays.

3. Post your jobs late in the afternoons of each day

Candidates are most likely to click on your job postings between 5 PM and 7 PM local time at each location. During this time, CTR rates rise sharply compared to any other time of day. Outside of this peak, the start of the work day, at around 8 AM, offers a healthy CTR rate – which slowly gathers momentum right up to the dramatic surge at 5 PM.

It’s best to avoid posting jobs after 7 PM till the start of the next work day – when CTR rates exhibit their worst performance at a stretch.

4. Optimize your job headings to boost your CTR

Moving on from the “when” – let’s now cover a couple of best practices on how to post delivery driver jobs on Craigslist for maximized performance.

The heading of your job plays a huge role in attracting candidates and persuading them to click on your posting. With a few smart tweaks to your post’s heading, you can accelerate CTR rates significantly.

The best performing delivery driver job headings on our platform (with an average CTR greater than 25%) had a few things in common. To achieve similar results:

• Mention the job location. This quickly and automatically filters out irrelevant candidates, so you can also expect to see better conversions to applicants.
• Include the hourly rate you’re offering if possible, especially if the amount is attractive. A great pay is always a strong incentive to click on a posting and apply.
• Mention the hiring company’s name. If you have a strong employer brand, it’s another great motivator to drive clicks and applications.
• Try to stick to a job heading length of 45 to 70 characters.

Here are a couple of examples of effective job post headings:

• Delivery Associate – <Company Name> – $16.0/hour
• Delivery Courier – <Company Name> – Manhattan – $25.0/hour

5. Use technology to automate your job postings in bulk – saving time, cost, and effort

Around 80% of the process of posting a job on Craigslist is the same – each time. For example, if you need to post the same job across 10 different locations, you need to go through the entire process of creating and publishing a job posting individually from scratch for each location. When you’re recruiting at scale, such repetitive effort can be frustratingly time-consuming and inefficient.

With the use of technology, you can automate the process of posting jobs – in bulk – saving precious time and effort. Joveo’s CraigGenie solution, part of its advanced programmatic job advertising platform, helps you do just that. Our easy job posting templates facilitate seamless posting and scheduling of jobs on a massive scale, saving hundreds of hours of manual effort per recruiter.

What’s more, CraigGenie allows you to track performance data (all the way from impressions to applications) in real time, at an individual job, job group, or client level – giving you the opportunity to apply any learnings to subsequent postings, as well as report on your performance.

To find out more about how to maximize the value of your Craigslist postings, request a demo today!