The Job Ad Scorecard: 10 Checks to Score Any Job Ad Out of 100

Everyone has an opinion about job ads. Nobody has a score. So I built one: 10 checks, 100 points.

And if you score your own ad honestly, I don't think your reaction will be "that's unfair." It'll be more like "yeah, I kind of knew that." Because deep down most recruiters know their ads aren't great. They just never had a way to say how not great, or where to start.

Why a score beats an opinion

Think about how a marketing team treats a landing page. Nobody says "I like it" or "it feels a bit off" and leaves it there. They look at what's above the fold, how many fields the form has, how fast it loads, and they test it. A job ad is a landing page. It has one job: get the right person to click apply and actually finish. So it should be audited like one.

The problem with opinions is that everyone has a different one. The hiring manager wants more requirements, marketing wants more employer brand, legal wants more disclaimers, and the ad ends up being a mix of everybody's wishes. A score cuts through that. It's not "I think the salary should be higher up," it's "we lost 10 points because the salary isn't in the first line." That's a much easier conversation.

And you don't fix what you don't measure. If you score your ad today and again after you change it, you can actually see if you made it better, instead of just making it different.

The 10 checks

Each check is worth 10 points. I kept them simple on purpose, so you can score an ad in a few minutes without needing a data team.

1. The job title is something people actually search for. No "Rockstar," no "Happiness Hero," no internal title like "Operations Specialist II, Team B" that only makes sense inside your company. People search for "warehouse supervisor," not "Flow Champion." If nobody types your title into a search bar, nobody finds your ad.

2. The salary is in the first line. Not at the bottom, not "competitive," not "to be discussed." The first line. It's the first thing almost every candidate wants to know, and hiding it just makes people leave to go find a job that tells them. Showing pay is also quickly becoming normal: Indeed's Hiring Lab found the share of US postings with salary info went from 18.4% in February 2020 to 43.7% in February 2023. So if yours doesn't show it, you're starting to look like the exception.

3. The first 3 lines explain what the job actually is. Most ads open with three paragraphs about the company, the mission, the founding year. Nobody cares yet. Someone reading on their phone gives you a few seconds, and if those seconds go to your company history, they don't know what the job is before they scroll away. Try the 10-second mobile test on your own ad and you'll see this right away.

4. "A day in the job" instead of a list of duties. A list of duties tells people what they have to do. A day in the job lets them picture themselves doing it, which is a totally different feeling. "Process incoming orders" means nothing. "You start at 7, grab a coffee with the night shift to hear what happened, and by 9 you've planned the routes for 14 drivers" (a made-up example, but you get the idea) means something. Here's how to turn a list of duties into a day in the job with one short interview.

5. Max 3 must-haves. Every extra requirement makes good people think "that's not me" and close the tab. Usually the hiring manager listed ten things, and if you ask, only two or three are really deal breakers. Here's how to cut your must-haves to three without a fight.

6. One real person, with a name and a quote. Not a stock photo, not "our team." One actual person who does the job or leads the team, with something they really said. It makes the job feel real and it makes the company feel like people instead of a logo.

7. The process and timeline are explained. What happens after I apply? Who calls me, how many rounds, how long does it take? People hate applying into a black hole. Two sentences fix this.

8. Apply in under 5 minutes on mobile. Most people see your job on their phone, so that's where they try to apply. If it takes 15 minutes and a laptop, you lose them halfway. Time it yourself, and if you're over, here's how to get your application under 5 minutes.

9. No account or cover letter required. Making someone create an account before they can apply is like asking for a password before someone can walk into your store. And the cover letter mostly filters out busy people, not bad ones. Ask for that stuff later, if you need it at all.

10. A clear reason to apply now. Why today and not in three months? A start date, a team that's growing, a new project kicking off next quarter. Without a reason, "I'll look at it later" turns into never.

How to score

This part is really simple. For every check you give 0, 5 or 10 points.

• 10 if it's fully there. The salary is in the first line, with a real range.
• 5 if it's sort of there. The salary is in the ad, but at the bottom, or it's a range so wide it doesn't mean anything.
• 0 if it's missing.

No 7s, no 3s. Once you allow those, scoring turns into debating. Three options keep you honest.

One tip: score the ad the way a candidate sees it. So open it on your phone, from the job board or the ad, not the version in your ATS or the Word doc the hiring manager sent you. Those are often two very different things.

What the scores mean

0–40: leaking. Your ad is losing good people before they even get to apply. Probably the salary is hidden, the first lines are about the company and the form is long. Good news is, this is the easiest range to improve, because the fixes are obvious.

40–70: average. You've got the basics, but nothing makes you stand out. This is where most "decent" ads end up, and that's the dangerous part, because average feels fine. It's also exactly where everyone else is, so nobody remembers you.

70+: strong. People can find it, understand it in a few seconds, picture the job and apply without effort. From here it's mostly about testing, like trying different titles or hooks, not about fixing basics.

Fix the 3 lowest checks first

When people see a low score, they want to rewrite the whole ad. Don't. That takes weeks, it needs approval from five people and you won't know what actually made the difference.

Just take the three checks where you scored lowest and fix those. If you got a 0 on salary, a 0 on apply time and a 0 on "a day in the job," those three alone can be 30 points. Then score again.

Some of them take five minutes, like moving the salary up or adding two sentences about the process. Others take a bit more work, like cutting the application down or interviewing someone for a day in the job. But even the hardest ones are an afternoon, not a project.

And if you want to go one step further after that, look at the language. A lot of points are lost in the words, which is what I wrote about in The Cliché Tax. And if you're running the ad on social media instead of a job board, read Stop Writing Job Ads for Job Seekers, because the scroller needs a different first line than the searcher.

The scorecard

Copy this into a doc or a spreadsheet and score your ad. Use one column per ad if you want to compare a few.

The AI prompt version

If you want to score a bunch of ads fast, paste this into ChatGPT, Claude or whatever you use, with the ad text below it. One thing: AI can't time your application or see your form, so for checks 8 and 9 you'll have to tell it, or check yourself.

You are a recruitment marketer auditing a job ad like a landing page.
Score the job ad below on these 10 checks. Each check gets 0, 5 or 10 points. No other numbers.

1. Searchable job title: is the title something a candidate would type into a job search? (no creative or internal titles)
2. Salary in the first line: is a real salary range in the first line?
3. First 3 lines: do the first 3 lines explain what the job actually is?
4. A day in the job: does it describe a real day in the job instead of a list of duties?
5. Must-haves: are there 3 or fewer hard requirements?
6. One real person: is there a named person with a real quote?
7. Process and timeline: does it explain what happens after applying and how long it takes?
8. Apply time on mobile: [I'll tell you: it takes ___ minutes on my phone]
9. No account or cover letter: [I'll tell you: account required yes/no, cover letter required yes/no]
10. Reason to apply now: is there a concrete reason to apply now (start date, new team, project)?

Scoring:
- 10 = fully there
- 5 = partly there or in the wrong place
- 0 = missing

Give me:
1. A table with each check, the score, and one sentence on why.
2. The total out of 100 and the range: 0-40 leaking, 40-70 average, 70+ strong.
3. The 3 lowest checks, and for each one a concrete rewrite I can paste into the ad. Use only facts from the ad. If a fact is missing (like the salary or a start date), write [ADD: what's missing] instead of making something up.

Job ad:
"""
[paste the job ad here]
"""

That last line in the prompt matters. If you don't tell it to leave gaps open, AI will happily invent a salary range or a team lead named Sarah. Which makes your score look better and your ad less true.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to score a job ad?

About five minutes by hand once you've done it a couple of times, most of that is timing the application on your phone. With the AI prompt it's even faster, but you still need to check the mobile apply part yourself.

What's a good job ad score?

70 or higher is strong. Between 40 and 70 is average, which is where most okay ads end up. Under 40 means you're leaking candidates, but that's also where you get the most points back for the least work.

Can I score a job ad with AI?

Yes, use the prompt above. AI is good at checking the text, like the title, the first lines and the number of requirements. It can't see your application form, so tell it how long applying takes and if you ask for an account or a cover letter.

Should I rewrite the whole job ad if the score is low?

No. Fix the three lowest checks first, score again and see what changed. Rewriting everything at once takes way longer and you won't know which change actually helped.

Sources

• Pay Transparency in Job Postings Has More than Doubled Since 2020, Indeed Hiring Lab (March 2023)