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Recruitment video template

Recruitment Video Template: 8 Free Scripts, Scene by Scene

Eight complete recruitment video scripts, written out beat by beat with the timings, the shots and the words. Plus a blank storyboard, the length and ratio every platform publishes, and eight real ads we made playing inside the placements they ran in.

Niels GeominyFounder, RecruitmentAds.com

Read the eight scriptsCopy the blank script

Every other recruitment video template you will find today is a moving layout with placeholder text sitting exactly where the recruitment copy should be. This one is the copy. Eight complete scripts, written out beat by beat, with the seconds, the shot and the words on screen for each one. Free to copy, no account, no watermark.

Under the scripts there is a blank version to fill in, a storyboard grid, the length and aspect ratio each platform actually publishes with the source and the date we read it, and a role matrix that says which script to start from for a warehouse job and which one for a cleared engineering role.

Then eight recruitment videos this product made for real employers, playing inside LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube chrome, each one matched to the script it was built to. Four of the eight scripts have a real example on this page. Four do not, and we say which.

On this page

What is a recruitment video template?

A recruitment video template is a reusable structure for a hiring video: the beats, the timings, the words on screen and the shot for each one. Most tools sell the visual half of that, a branded layout you drop footage into. The half that decides whether the video works is the script.

Both halves matter and they fail differently. A video with no visual template is inconsistent, so every post looks like it came from a different company and nothing accumulates. A video with no script template is worse: it is on brand, it is well cut, and it says nothing a candidate can act on. You can survive the first for a while. The second wastes the media spend behind it.

This page is the script half, because the script half is the one nobody publishes. The visual half is a solved problem: lock a brand frame once, set the type, fix the card positions, and never argue about design again. What does not get solved by a layout is what goes in the first two seconds, when the pay appears, which requirement you state out loud and which one you leave for the interview.

The eight scripts below are ad-shaped. They exist to fill a vacancy or a room, and each one names the situation it is for. If you want scripts for the brand rather than for one opening, that is a different job with a different shape.

Scripts for the brand rather than for one vacancy, including the employee testimonial questions that make or break an interview, are on our employer brand video page.

Eight recruitment video script templates

Eight scripts, each written out in full. They run from eight seconds to seventy-five, they cover the hiring situations most employers actually face, and every one of them names the trap that kills it. Anything in braces is yours to replace. Everything outside the braces is wording you can keep, change, or argue with.

Pick by situation, not by length. The first two cover most vacancies between them. Reach for the others when the situation is unusual: a role that keeps failing to fill, a shift nobody outside your sector can picture, a technical audience that discounts marketing on sight, a room to fill, or a border to hire across.

8 to 12 seconds4 beats

The ten-second scroll stopper: one role, one number, one action

The highest-volume script here and the one most employers should start with. It has no story, no arc and no narrator. It puts the job, the money and the way in on screen before a thumb can move, and it stops.

ten-second-scroll-stopper.txt

4 beats, plain text, free to reuse

{like this} is yours to replace. Everything else is wording you can keep.

Best for
Hourly and shift roles you are hiring for continuously: warehouse, hospitality, retail, care, drivers, trades. Also the right shape for any role where the pay is the strongest thing you have.
Target length
8 to 12 seconds
Format
9:16 for Reels, Stories and TikTok. Cut a 4:5 of the same build for feeds.
What you need to shoot
Nothing you do not already have. Ten seconds of someone doing the actual work, shot on a phone, is enough. A locked-off wide of the workplace will do if you have no people cleared to film.

The trap. Spending the first two seconds on a logo animation. In a paid feed those two seconds are the whole audition, and a logo answers a question nobody asked. Put the brand mark in the corner and give the middle of the frame to the job.

The beats

  1. 0 to 2 seconds

    On camera
    The work itself, already in progress. The van being loaded, the arc struck, the pass being cooked, the ward at handover. No title card, no establishing shot, no drone.
    Words and cards
    {Role title} in {town or city}. Set it on screen in the first frame, not the second. Assume sound off: if the line is not readable, it does not exist.

  2. 2 to 4 seconds

    On camera
    Hold the same shot. Do not cut yet. One card slides in under the title.
    Words and cards
    {The pay, as a number.} Hourly rate, shift rate or annual band. If you genuinely cannot publish a figure, publish the thing that moves it: the shift premium, the licence, the years. Never write competitive.

  3. 4 to 7 seconds

    On camera
    First cut. A second angle of the same job, or a colleague in it. Two shots is the whole edit.
    Words and cards
    {The one condition that decides whether this job fits their life.} The shift pattern, the start time, the site, whether it is inside or outside. This is the line that saves you the screening call.

  4. 7 to 10 seconds

    On camera
    Hold on a person, not on a flat brand card. Wordmark over the footage, bottom corner, inside the safe zone.
    Words and cards
    {One way to apply, and where.} One route. Not a phone number and a QR code and a link. The route you actually check.

What to do with it next

Run it against a second version where beats two and three swap places, so the condition leads and the pay follows. On roles with an unusual shift pattern that order often wins, and it costs nothing to find out.

Real ad built to this script

20 to 30 seconds5 beats

The thirty-second role ad: the default job video

The workhorse for salaried hiring. Five beats, in an order that sells before it qualifies, and qualifies before it asks. If you only ever make one recruitment video shape, make this one and make it every week.

thirty-second-role-ad.txt

5 beats, plain text, free to reuse

{like this} is yours to replace. Everything else is wording you can keep.

Best for
Most professional and salaried vacancies: office, technical, clinical, commercial, management. The shape scales from a single hire to fifty open roles on one template.
Target length
20 to 30 seconds
Format
1:1 for LinkedIn, 4:5 for Meta feeds. Both from the same build, never cropped from each other.
What you need to shoot
One person on camera, or none at all. This script works as a straight card sequence over stock-free footage of your own workplace, which is how most of the examples on this page were made.

The trap. Front-loading the requirements. A list of must-haves in the first ten seconds reads as a door with a bouncer on it. Sell the job, then say who it is not for, in that order. Qualifying works better once someone wants in.

The beats

  1. 0 to 3 seconds

    On camera
    A person in the workplace, mid-action, with the role title set beside them. Brand mark small, in a corner, over the footage.
    Words and cards
    {Role title}, {location}, {employment type}. Three facts, one line. The viewer now knows whether the next twenty-seven seconds are for them.

  2. 3 to 8 seconds

    On camera
    First card. Keep the footage running underneath it.
    Words and cards
    {The pay or the band.} On screen, in figures, this early. A salary arriving at five seconds is rare enough on a professional feed that it buys you the rest of the video.

  3. 8 to 16 seconds

    On camera
    Cut to the work being described. The screen, the bench, the theatre, the floor, the site. Eight seconds of the actual job.
    Words and cards
    {Two things that are true here and nowhere else.} Not three, not five. The tools you use, the size of the team, who they report to, what they would ship in the first month. Anything that would fit any employer in your sector is doing no work and taking up space.

  4. 16 to 24 seconds

    On camera
    Back to a person, looking at a colleague rather than down the lens.
    Words and cards
    {The one requirement you would genuinely turn someone down for not having.} The gate, not the wish list. A licence, a registration, a clearance, a language, a number of years. Saying it plainly costs you nothing and saves everyone a call.

  5. 24 to 30 seconds

    On camera
    Hold the last frame of the person or the work. Wordmark and action button over the footage, inside the safe zone.
    Words and cards
    {How to apply, and what happens next.} Name the first step and how long it takes. An application with a visible end converts better than a slogan.

What to do with it next

This is the script to templatise. Lock the brand frame, the card positions and the beat timings once, then change only the words per vacancy. That is the difference between a video project and a video habit.

Real ad built to this script

50 to 65 seconds6 beats

Why this job exists: the sixty-second version for a role that keeps failing to fill

For the vacancy you have re-advertised twice. It answers the question every careful applicant asks privately and almost no employer answers out loud: why is this job open, and what happened to the last person in it?

why-this-job-exists.txt

6 beats, plain text, free to reuse

{like this} is yours to replace. Everything else is wording you can keep.

Best for
Newly created roles, replacement hires after a leaver, senior and specialist positions, and any role that has been open long enough that candidates have started to wonder why.
Target length
50 to 65 seconds
Format
1:1 or 16:9. This one belongs on the careers page and in the vacancy itself as much as in a feed.
What you need to shoot
One conversation with the hiring manager, twenty minutes, one room. Plus five minutes of the team working, for cutaways.

The trap. Answering the question dishonestly. If the last person left because the workload was unreasonable and you have not fixed it, this script will get you applications from people who leave in four months. Only make this video if the answer is one you are happy to say.

The beats

  1. 0 to 4 seconds

    On camera
    The hiring manager, already mid-sentence, in the place the work happens. Name and job title set in the corner and left there.
    Words and cards
    Open on the answer, not the question. {The single sentence that explains why this role is open.} Growth, a new contract, a leaver, a gap nobody has had time to cover.

  2. 4 to 15 seconds

    On camera
    Stay on them. One cutaway at most.
    Words and cards
    {What the team looks like today and what is not getting done.} Concrete nouns. The number of people, the thing that is queued, the customer who is waiting. This is where a candidate decides the job is real.

  3. 15 to 30 seconds

    On camera
    Cut to the work. The system, the ward, the line, the site, the ledger.
    Words and cards
    {What the first ninety days look like.} Name the first project by name. A candidate who can picture week one applies; a candidate reading about a fast-paced environment does not.

  4. 30 to 42 seconds

    On camera
    Back to the manager, or to a colleague who would sit next to the hire.
    Words and cards
    {The hardest part of the job, said out loud.} The on-call rota, the legacy system, the commute, the regulator. One honest sentence here does more for trust than the previous forty seconds, and it filters out the people who would have left anyway.

  5. 42 to 55 seconds

    On camera
    The team working, not posed.
    Words and cards
    {What you are offering against that.} The pay, the flexibility, the support, the budget, the person they can go to. This is the trade, stated as a trade.

  6. 55 to 62 seconds

    On camera
    Hold on the manager. Wordmark over the footage.
    Words and cards
    {Who to talk to and how.} On this script, name a person rather than a portal. A senior candidate replies to a human.

What to do with it next

Cut a fifteen-second vertical out of the honesty beat alone and run that as the paid ad. The admission is the hook, and the long version is what people watch after they have clicked.

Real ad built to this script. No published example on this site yet.

40 to 50 seconds6 beats

Day in the life: forty-five seconds of one shift, start to finish

The format that answers what the job is actually like, for jobs where that is the only question that matters. It sells by showing, and it self-selects hard, which is exactly what you want when the cost of a wrong hire is a two-week no-show.

day-in-the-life.txt

6 beats, plain text, free to reuse

{like this} is yours to replace. Everything else is wording you can keep.

Best for
Shift work and hands-on roles: warehouse, production, logistics, kitchens, care, cleaning, field service, security, construction. It is also the best answer to a candidate who has never worked in your sector.
Target length
40 to 50 seconds
Format
9:16 first, because this material is watched on a phone. A 4:5 cut for feeds.
What you need to shoot
One shift, one phone, one person who agreed to be followed. Ten clips of fifteen seconds each is more than enough footage. Get the release signed before you film, not after.

The trap. Filming the good bits only. A day in the life with no cold morning, no heavy lift and no difficult customer in it reads as an advert and gets discounted. Leave one hard thing in and the whole video becomes credible.

The beats

  1. 0 to 3 seconds

    On camera
    The start of the shift, exactly as it looks. The gate, the car park, the locker, the handover.
    Words and cards
    {Time on screen.} {Name}, {role}, {how long they have worked here}. Nothing else yet.

  2. 3 to 12 seconds

    On camera
    The first task. Real speed, no time lapse.
    Words and cards
    {What happens first, and with whom.} Name the person who meets them at the start of a shift. Candidates are screening for whether they will be left alone on day one.

  3. 12 to 25 seconds

    On camera
    The middle of the shift. Three or four cuts. This is where the job either looks interesting or does not.
    Words and cards
    {The part of the job that takes the most hours.} Be accurate about the proportion. If it is eighty percent one repetitive task, say so. The people who are fine with that are the people you want.

  4. 25 to 34 seconds

    On camera
    The hard bit. The lift, the rush, the complaint, the cold, the paperwork.
    Words and cards
    {The hardest hour of the shift, named.} One sentence from the person doing it. This is the beat that makes the other forty seconds believable.

  5. 34 to 42 seconds

    On camera
    The end of the shift. Clocking out, the last check, the walk to the car.
    Words and cards
    {What they are paid and what the pattern is.} The number and the rota, together, at the end, where a viewer who has watched this far is ready for it.

  6. 42 to 48 seconds

    On camera
    Hold on them. Wordmark over the footage.
    Words and cards
    {One way to apply.} Keep it to a single route on a video watched at the end of a shift.

What to do with it next

Cut the hard beat and the pay beat into a separate ten-second vertical. Run that as the paid ad and keep the full version on the vacancy page, where people go to decide rather than to discover.

Real ad built to this script. No published example on this site yet.

35 to 45 seconds5 beats

The hiring manager to camera: forty seconds, no production

The cheapest credible video in recruitment. One person, one take, no crew. It works because a named human asking for a specific hire outperforms a polished film that could be about anyone.

hiring-manager-to-camera.txt

5 beats, plain text, free to reuse

{like this} is yours to replace. Everything else is wording you can keep.

Best for
Specialist, senior and hard-to-fill roles. Small teams. Any vacancy where the person watching would report to the person speaking.
Target length
35 to 45 seconds
Format
1:1 for LinkedIn, 9:16 if it is going out from a personal account.
What you need to shoot
A phone at eye height, a window on one side, and a room with soft furnishings in it. Sound matters more than picture, and a wired lapel microphone is the cheapest upgrade available to you.

The trap. Reading a script word for word off a screen. The eyes give it away in the first second and the video loses the only advantage it had. Give the manager the five beats below on a card and let them say each one in their own words, twice, then keep the second take.

The beats

  1. 0 to 4 seconds

    On camera
    The manager, framed from the chest up, already talking. No intro card, no logo sting.
    Words and cards
    {Name}, {role}, and who they are hiring, in one sentence. I am {name}, I run {team}, and I am looking for {role}. That is the whole opening.

  2. 4 to 14 seconds

    On camera
    Same shot. One cutaway of the team or the work if you have it.
    Words and cards
    {The problem this hire solves.} Not the job description. The actual thing that is not getting done, in the words the manager would use to a peer.

  3. 14 to 26 seconds

    On camera
    Same shot.
    Words and cards
    {What the first three months look like, and what the hire would own.} Ownership is the thing a senior candidate is listening for, and almost no job ad states it.

  4. 26 to 36 seconds

    On camera
    Same shot.
    Words and cards
    {Who this is not for.} Name it. If the role is heavy on process and light on invention, say so. Every specific exclusion increases the quality of what comes back.

  5. 36 to 42 seconds

    On camera
    Hold on the manager. Wordmark and role title over the frame.
    Words and cards
    {The ask.} Message me, or apply here, and I read them myself. Only say that last part if it is true.

What to do with it next

This script is also the best sourcing asset you will make. The same forty seconds attached to an outreach message gets replies that a paragraph of text does not, because it proves a real person is on the other end.

Real ad built to this script. No published example on this site yet.

60 to 80 seconds5 beats

The two-person question and answer: seventy-five seconds for technical roles

For audiences that discount marketing on sight. Two colleagues answering the three questions their peers actually ask, unrehearsed, in the room where the work happens.

two-person-qa.txt

5 beats, plain text, free to reuse

{like this} is yours to replace. Everything else is wording you can keep.

Best for
Software, data, security, engineering, laboratory and clinical specialist roles. Anywhere the candidate is more expert in the work than the recruiter is.
Target length
60 to 80 seconds
Format
16:9 for YouTube and the careers page. Pull verticals out of individual answers.
What you need to shoot
Two people, one table, two chairs, forty minutes. One camera on a wide two-shot is enough; a second angle makes editing easier but is not required.

The trap. Letting a recruiter or a marketer ask the questions. The value of this format is entirely in the specificity of the exchange, and a non-practitioner cannot ask the follow-up. Put two practitioners in the room and let the second one be the interviewer.

The beats

  1. 0 to 5 seconds

    On camera
    Both people, mid-conversation, already laughing or arguing. Names and roles set on screen.
    Words and cards
    Open on the sharpest fragment of the whole recording, wherever it sits in the tape. Never open on the introduction.

  2. 5 to 25 seconds

    On camera
    Two-shot, then push to whoever is answering.
    Words and cards
    Question one: {what would I actually be working on in the first month?} The answer has to contain a proper noun. A system, a product, a customer, a piece of hardware.

  3. 25 to 45 seconds

    On camera
    Cut to the thing being described. The screen, the rig, the bench, the pipeline.
    Words and cards
    Question two: {what is the state of the codebase, the estate, the lab, the process?} An honest answer here is worth more than any benefit. Practitioners assume the worst until told otherwise, so tell them.

  4. 45 to 62 seconds

    On camera
    Back to the two-shot.
    Words and cards
    Question three: {how do decisions get made, and who says no?} This is the question that decides whether a strong candidate joins, and it is almost never answered anywhere in a hiring process.

  5. 62 to 75 seconds

    On camera
    Hold on both of them. Wordmark and role over the footage.
    Words and cards
    {The role, the location, the band, and one way in.} Say the band out loud. On this audience, omitting it costs you the candidates who are hardest to replace.

What to do with it next

Each of the three answers is a standalone vertical. That is one shoot and four assets, and the individual answers usually outperform the long cut in feeds while the long cut carries the careers page.

Real ad built to this script. No published example on this site yet.

15 to 22 seconds4 beats

The hiring event ad: twenty seconds where nobody gets rejected

The version almost nobody makes, and the easiest yes in recruitment advertising. There is no role to be turned down from, so the ask is only to turn up. That is a far lower bar than an application form, and it fills rooms.

hiring-event.txt

4 beats, plain text, free to reuse

{like this} is yours to replace. Everything else is wording you can keep.

Best for
Open evenings, assessment days, careers fairs, site tours, apprenticeship intakes and any volume campaign where you would rather meet forty people than read four hundred CVs.
Target length
15 to 22 seconds
Format
1:1 for LinkedIn and Facebook, 9:16 for Stories and Reels. Run it as a dated campaign, not evergreen.
What you need to shoot
Footage of the place people will be standing in. If you ran the event before, use last year's footage of people talking in it, which sells the room better than an empty one.

The trap. Letting the date share styling with everything else. The date, the time and the address are the entire point of the ad and they are the first things a template will flatten. Give the date its own weight and put the address on screen, not only in the caption.

The beats

  1. 0 to 3 seconds

    On camera
    The room, the workshop, the floor, with people in it. A tag pinned in a corner naming the event type.
    Words and cards
    {Event name} at {employer}. Set it big. This is not a vacancy ad and it should not look like one.

  2. 3 to 8 seconds

    On camera
    Hold the same shot, or cut to a second angle of the same space.
    Words and cards
    {Date, day and time.} Its own card, its own weight, larger than anything else on screen. {Address}, spelled out, underneath.

  3. 8 to 15 seconds

    On camera
    People doing the work the event is about. Two cuts.
    Words and cards
    {The two or three disciplines you want in the room.} This is how an event ad filters without naming a single job title, and it is why it reaches people who would never search for your vacancies.

  4. 15 to 20 seconds

    On camera
    Wordmark over the footage. Action button inside the safe zone.
    Words and cards
    {Just turn up, or register here.} Say which. And say whether there is parking, because on a local campaign that one sentence removes a real reason not to come.

What to do with it next

Run it geographically tight and stop it the morning of the event. Then reuse the footage you shoot on the day as the opening beat of next year's version, which is the cheapest content flywheel in recruitment marketing.

Real ad built to this script

15 to 25 seconds4 beats

The cross-border ad: twenty seconds in the language your candidates think in

For hiring people who do not live where the job is. It is a logistics ad, not a culture ad, and it succeeds or fails on whether it answers the four questions everyone moving for work asks first.

cross-border.txt

4 beats, plain text, free to reuse

{like this} is yours to replace. Everything else is wording you can keep.

Best for
Seasonal and project labour, construction and installation trades, agriculture, logistics, hospitality, healthcare, and any employer recruiting across a border into a shortage occupation.
Target length
15 to 25 seconds
Format
16:9 for YouTube, 9:16 for Reels and TikTok. Subtitle every version.
What you need to shoot
Site footage of the actual work, which needs no translation. Everything else is on-screen text, which means one build serves every language you run.

The trap. Translating an ad written for the domestic audience. The domestic version sells the career; this audience is deciding whether the maths works. Rebuild the message around pay, accommodation, transport and start date, then translate that.

The beats

  1. 0 to 2 seconds

    On camera
    The work in progress on site. No branding above it, no title card. Let the footage say what the job is.
    Words and cards
    {Job title and the country the work is in}, written in the candidate's language, with the destination country named explicitly. Somebody scrolling in another country needs to know where this is before anything else.

  2. 2 to 8 seconds

    On camera
    Same site, second angle.
    Words and cards
    {Pay, and the period it is paid over.} Weekly, monthly, per hour. Cross-border candidates compare a weekly net figure, so give them the one they are comparing.

  3. 8 to 16 seconds

    On camera
    The accommodation, the van, the site entrance. The logistics, filmed.
    Words and cards
    {Accommodation, transport, and start date.} Three cards. Say whether the room is shared. Say who pays for the travel. Say what week they would start. Vagueness here reads as a scam to an audience that has met plenty.

  4. 16 to 22 seconds

    On camera
    Hold on the crew. Wordmark over the footage.
    Words and cards
    {The one requirement that is not negotiable} and {one way to make contact}. A licence, a certificate, a language level, a right to work. Then a single channel, in their language, answered by somebody who speaks it.

What to do with it next

Build one master and swap only the text layer per language. Keep the footage identical across languages so you can compare performance between them and learn which market is actually responding.

Real ad built to this script

Five of the eight carry their message on cards rather than in speech, which is deliberate. Feeds play silent by default, so a script that only works with the sound on is a script that mostly does not work.

All eight are free to use in your own hiring, including commercially. You do not need to credit us and you do not need to tell us. If you want the finished ads that go with the wording, that part is our actual business.

Every script here starts from the job post, so if the post is thin the video will be too: our free job ad template fixes that first.

Humour is the hardest register to script and the one that travels furthest when it lands, and the ads that pulled it off are on our funny job ads page.

The blank script and storyboard template

Two artefacts, both plain text, both copyable. Every incumbent on this search locks its template inside its own editor, behind an account or a subscription. These travel: paste them into a document, a ticket, a message to a colleague, anything.

The blank recruitment video script

Six beats, in the order that works for almost any vacancy. Fill the braces, delete the beats you do not need, keep the order. If you can fill every brace with something checkable, you have a video worth making.

recruitment-video-script.txt

6 beats, plus two checks

{like this} is yours to replace. Everything else is wording you can keep.

ROLE: {job title} | LOCATION: {town or city} | TYPE: {full time, part time, shift, contract}

TARGET LENGTH: {seconds} | RATIO: {9:16, 4:5, 1:1 or 16:9} | PLACEMENT: {where it runs}

BEAT 1, HOOK ({0 to 3s})

VISUAL: {the work already happening, no title card}

ON SCREEN: {role title}, {location}

SAID: {nothing, or one sentence}

BEAT 2, THE NUMBER ({3 to 8s})

VISUAL: {hold or one cut}

ON SCREEN: {pay, band, or the thing that moves it}

SAID: {nothing, or the number said out loud}

BEAT 3, THE REASON ({8 to 16s})

VISUAL: {the actual work being described}

ON SCREEN: {two things true here and nowhere else}

SAID: {one sentence from someone who does the job}

BEAT 4, THE CONDITION ({16 to 22s})

VISUAL: {a person, not a card}

ON SCREEN: {shift pattern, site, or working arrangement}

SAID: {the honest version}

BEAT 5, THE GATE ({22 to 27s})

VISUAL: {hold}

ON SCREEN: {the one requirement you would reject on}

SAID: {nothing}

BEAT 6, THE ASK ({27 to 30s})

VISUAL: {last frame of a person or the work, wordmark over it}

ON SCREEN: {one way to apply}

SAID: {what happens after they apply, and when}

SAFE ZONE CHECK: {call to action inside the documented safe area for this placement}

SOUND OFF CHECK: {every load-bearing line readable with no audio}

Two lines at the bottom are checks, not beats. Do both before the file leaves your machine. Most recruitment video fails on one of those two and on nothing else.

The blank storyboard, one row per shot

A storyboard is not a drawing. It is a table that stops you arriving on a shoot with a script and no shot list. Six columns, one row per shot, and the last two columns are the ones people forget.

recruitment-video-storyboard

6 columns, one row per shot

ShotNumber them. You will shoot out of order and edit in order.SecondsIn and out, as a range. Add them up before you shoot, not after.FrameWide, mid or close, and whether the camera moves. Two words is enough.What happensThe action in the shot, in a sentence a stranger could follow.On screenThe exact text, spelled as it will appear. This is where typos get caught.AudioSpeech, room sound, or silence. Write silence when you mean it.
38 to 16Mid, locked offTwo technicians working on the same unit, one talking the other through it{Two things true here and nowhere else}Room sound only, no voice-over

Fill the seconds column first and total it. If the total is over your target length before you have added the call to action, the script is too long and no amount of fast cutting will fix it in the edit.

How many words fit in a recruitment video script

Spoken word counts are the wrong unit for most of these eight, because five of them carry their load on screen rather than in speech. Where somebody is talking, the conversion in circulation comes from Monster's hiring help centre, which states that 150 words produces about one minute of video. On that arithmetic a thirty-second role ad holds roughly 75 spoken words, and a ten-second scroll stopper holds fewer than 25, which is why it is written as cards rather than as a voice-over.

Source: Monster hiring help centre, Script Writing Best Practices , read 2 September 2026.

If you fill both of these and the total in the seconds column is inside the figure the placement publishes, you have a recruitment video that will run. That is the entire job of a template.

How long should a recruitment video be?

Shorter than almost every page on this subject tells you. Only two of the platforms in the table below publish a length recommendation at all: LinkedIn says 15 to 30 seconds for all placements, and YouTube says to keep a skippable in-stream ad under three minutes. The eight recruitment videos on this page measure between 7.38 and 14.04 seconds. The widely repeated advice is 60 to 90 seconds, and no platform recommends it.

Three numbers are in circulation and they do not agree, so here they are side by side with where each came from. Read them as claims with owners rather than as facts, because that is what they are.

The reason to prefer the shorter end is not taste. A feed placement is an auction for attention against everything else on the screen, and a video that has not said the role, the money and the location by three seconds has spent its budget introducing itself. The long formats on this page, the sixty-second why this job exists and the seventy-five-second question and answer, are not feed ads. They belong on a careers page and inside a vacancy, where somebody is already deciding.

  1. The claim

    A standard recruitment marketing video script runs 60 to 90 seconds, or roughly 150 to 200 spoken words.

    Who says so
    Google AI Overview on the query recruitment video script, United States, English
    Read on
    2 September 2026

    What it leaves out. Three of the seven pages that AI Overview cites are YouTube videos aimed at candidates recording video resumes and intro clips, which is a different job entirely.

  2. The claim

    Most video job ads range from 1 to 3 minutes.

    Read on
    2 September 2026

    What it leaves out. The page carries no date and no author, and states no ratio, safe zone or placement anywhere.

  3. The claim

    15 to 30 seconds for all placements.

    Read on
    16 August 2026

    What it leaves out. The only length recommendation any of these platforms publishes for feed advertising. YouTube publishes one too, but it is a three-minute ceiling on skippable in-stream, which is a different placement and a different question. LinkedIn's own technical maximum is 30 minutes, which is a different number and not a recommendation.

Against those three, one measurement. Eight ads this product made for real employers, measured with ffprobe on the files this page plays rather than read off a format label:

What our shipped ads measure

7.38 to 14.04 seconds

8 ads, measured by ffprobe, on the files at the URLs this page plays, on 19 August 2026.

Longest of the eight
14.04 seconds
At a resolution of
1080 by 1080

Eight ads this product made for real employers. No performance claim attaches to any of them; the seconds are geometry, not evidence of effectiveness.

No performance claim attaches to any of the eight. The seconds are geometry, not evidence that short videos work better. What they show is that a complete recruitment video, with the role, the pay, the location, two selling points and a call to action in it, fits comfortably inside fifteen seconds, which makes the 60-to-90-second convention a choice rather than a requirement.

Recruitment video formats and safe zones

Ten placements, with the length each platform publishes, the ratio to cut to, and the safe zone where one is documented. Every figure names the platform's own page and the date we read it. Where a platform publishes nothing, this table says so instead of filling the gap with a guess.

The lengthType column matters more than it looks. A technical requirement is what the ad system will reject a file for. A design recommendation is advice. Nine pages out of ten quote the second as though it were the first.

Safe zones are the areas of your frame that platform chrome never covers. Get them wrong and the call to action ends up underneath a caption, a progress bar or a set of buttons, which is the most common way a well-scripted recruitment video fails silently.

The same specification governs a video job ad and a hiring video, whatever your team calls it internally. The ad system checks the file, not the vocabulary.

To see your own cut inside these frames, with the documented safe zones drawn over it, use the free ad mockup tool.

Open the free ad mockup tool

Recruitment video templates by role and industry

The script is the same shape across sectors. What changes is which fact goes in the first three seconds, and which requirement you say out loud in order to be turned down by the right people. Ten hiring families, with the script to start from and the mistake that family makes most often. If you are looking for recruitment video ideas rather than a script, start here and work backwards.

  1. Warehouse, logistics and fulfilment

    Start fromTen-second scroll stopper

    Lead with
    The hourly rate and the shift pattern, in the first three seconds, as figures.
    Disqualify on
    The lifting requirement, the shift start time, and whether the site is reachable without a car.
    Where it gets watched
    Reels, TikTok and Facebook feed, geographically tight around the site.

    The mistake this family makes. Selling career progression to an audience choosing between three jobs that all pay within fifty pence of each other. Progression matters at month six. Getting to work at five in the morning matters today.

  2. Hospitality, kitchens and food service

    Start fromDay in the life

    Lead with
    The section, the covers, and the rota. Whether it is split shifts is the question.
    Disqualify on
    Weekend and evening work, said plainly and early.
    Where it gets watched
    Vertical, on Reels and TikTok, and pinned on the venue's own account.

    The mistake this family makes. Filming the dining room. Candidates work in the kitchen and the pass, and footage of the customer-facing space tells them nothing about the job they would do.

  3. Retail and customer-facing store roles

    Start fromTen-second scroll stopper

    Lead with
    The store, by name and location, and the hours per week.
    Disqualify on
    Contracted hours versus available hours, which is a common source of early leavers.
    Where it gets watched
    Vertical and 4:5, targeted per store catchment.

    The mistake this family makes. Running one national ad for forty stores. A store name in the first frame outperforms a brand name, because the viewer is deciding on a commute.

  4. Drivers, transport and field service

    Start fromTen-second scroll stopper

    Lead with
    The licence category, the vehicle, the pay, and whether nights are involved.
    Disqualify on
    Licence class, tacho requirements, and the depot.
    Where it gets watched
    Facebook feed and Reels. In our experience this audience is far easier to reach there than on LinkedIn.

    The mistake this family makes. Showing the vehicle and not the route. Drivers choose on the run, the tramping pattern and the home time, and none of those are visible in a shot of a lorry parked in a yard.

  5. Trades, manufacturing and engineering shop floor

    Start fromDay in the life

    Lead with
    The work itself, on camera, before any text. The arc, the machine, the build.
    Disqualify on
    Tickets, certificates and the specific machinery or process experience.
    Where it gets watched
    TikTok and Reels for volume, LinkedIn for the supervisory and technical layer.

    The mistake this family makes. Cutting away from the process too fast. This is the one family where the footage is more persuasive than the copy, so hold the shot and let the work do the selling.

  6. Healthcare, nursing and social care

    Start fromDay in the life

    Lead with
    The setting, the caseload or ratio, and the shift pattern.
    Disqualify on
    Registration, the specialty, and whether nights or on-call are part of the rota.
    Where it gets watched
    Facebook and Instagram for the majority of applications, plus the careers page.

    The mistake this family makes. Filming patients or residents. Consent in a care setting is a serious matter and a video that skirts it will be pulled. Film staff, corridors, handovers and equipment, and get every appearing colleague to sign a release first.

  7. Software, data, security and IT

    Start fromTwo-person question and answer

    Lead with
    The stack, by name, and the band. Both in the first ten seconds.
    Disqualify on
    The seniority and the one technology you genuinely will not train someone on.
    Where it gets watched
    LinkedIn and YouTube. Cut individual answers vertical for Reels.

    The mistake this family makes. Letting a recruiter present. This audience detects a non-practitioner in one sentence and discounts everything after it. Put two engineers in the room instead.

  8. Sales and commercial

    Start fromHiring manager to camera

    Lead with
    The base, the on-target earnings, and what the split actually is.
    Disqualify on
    The ratio of new business to account management. Get this wrong and you hire the wrong animal.
    Where it gets watched
    LinkedIn, and as an outreach attachment rather than only as a paid ad.

    The mistake this family makes. Advertising uncapped commission without a base figure. Strong sellers tend to read that as a warning rather than an offer, because most have been burned by it once.

  9. Graduates, apprentices and early careers

    Start fromHiring event ad

    Lead with
    The intake date, the deadline, and the fact that no experience is required if that is true.
    Disqualify on
    The closing date and the eligibility criteria, both stated on screen.
    Where it gets watched
    TikTok, Instagram and campus channels, run as a dated campaign with a hard stop.

    The mistake this family makes. Filming graduates who have been in the business for five years. Early-careers audiences want to see someone who joined last September, not a polished alumnus.

  10. Regulated, cleared and security-sensitive roles

    Start fromThirty-second role ad

    Lead with
    The clearance or accreditation level, in the headline, because it disqualifies most of the feed on purpose.
    Disqualify on
    Clearance, residency, vetting status and the onsite requirement.
    Where it gets watched
    LinkedIn, organic and paid, at the square ratio.

    The mistake this family makes. Trying to film the workplace. In cleared and regulated environments neither the people nor the sites can go on camera, which is exactly why a card-driven build with a stand-in works and a documentary crew does not.

One rule runs through all ten. The fact you lead with should be the one a candidate would otherwise have to ask for, and the requirement you state should be the one you would genuinely reject on. Everything else can wait for the vacancy page.

Before a colleague appears in anything you will put money behind, get the release signed, and our free employee image and likeness release generator writes one for your jurisdiction.

The difference between a job ad and a job posting decides which of these eight scripts you need, and it is unpicked in what is a job ad.

Recruitment video examples made from these templates

Eight ads this product made for real employers, each one matched to the script above that it was built to. They play inside the actual placement chrome, so a LinkedIn ad reads as a LinkedIn ad and a TikTok ad reads as a TikTok ad, and you can see what the interface covers before you commit a call to action to that part of the frame.

The captions and headlines in the surrounding chrome are illustrative. They are written to the character counts each platform documents, from facts already on record for these ads, and they are not transcripts of the posts the videos ran in.

Result reads No result data. on all eight, deliberately. We hold no cleared performance figure for any of them, and saying so is more useful than an unsourced percentage.

4:5Instagram feed, 4:5, 7.72 seconds

Randstad: courier role, 4:5 feed ad, Instagram

Script: Ten-second scroll stopper

Made with RecruitmentAds.com. Instagram feed, 4:5, 7.72 seconds, measured with ffprobe on 19 August 2026.

The first two seconds

A courier sits on a parked scooter with an Uber Eats box on the back, and the line "word bezorger op de scooter in Rotterdam" is already on screen at half a second. By two seconds the pay, 14,40 to 15,40 per hour, has landed underneath it.

Which beats you can see

Beats one and two, exactly as written. The role and the city are set at half a second and the hourly band lands underneath by two, which is the whole hook beat and the whole number beat inside the first quarter of the video. There is no beat five here: the ad qualifies on the vehicle rather than on a stated requirement, which is the right call for a courier role.

What we would change

The closing frame swaps the footage for a flat navy end card. Next time we would test holding the rider on screen to the end, logos over the footage, so the ad keeps moving until the last frame.

Result: No result data.

9:16TikTok in-feed, 9:16, 7.38 seconds

Vytech: welder and fabricator, 9:16 vertical, TikTok

Script: Ten-second scroll stopper

Made with RecruitmentAds.com. TikTok in-feed, 9:16, 7.38 seconds, measured with ffprobe on 19 August 2026.

The first two seconds

A welder in a full mask works through a bright blue plume of arc light at half a second, with "Constructeur - lasser" already set over it and the Vytech Industrial Solutions logo boxed top left. The first bullet, on the salary package, is fading in underneath by two seconds.

Which beats you can see

The purest version of beat one on this page. The arc is the hook and it needs no explanation, which is exactly the instruction in the script: open on the work already happening, never on a title card. The package beat follows at two seconds, and the benefits named are the specific Belgian ones rather than generic perks, so a welder can price the job from the frame.

What we would change

The arc footage is the strongest material in the ad and it ends around four seconds. We would bring it back for the closing frame, so the ad ends as strong as it opens.

Result: No result data.

9:16Instagram Stories, 9:16, 7.72 seconds

Ilionx: Data Platform Engineer, 9:16 vertical, Instagram Story

Script: Ten-second scroll stopper

Made with RecruitmentAds.com. Instagram Stories, 9:16, 7.72 seconds, measured with ffprobe on 19 August 2026.

The first two seconds

An engineer in a dark red shirt works at a desk in profile, and "Data Platform Engineer" is already set in ilionx crimson across the top left at half a second, with the brand's X mark under it. By two seconds a magenta panel has slid in carrying the salary, €4.000 to €6.500 plus bonus.

Which beats you can see

Beats one and two with the layout problem solved. Vertical is hostile to text, and this cut keeps copy in the left third and the person in the right so nothing overlaps. The salary panel slides in at two seconds, which is the script's instruction to lead with the number on an audience that will check it first anyway.

What we would change

The two lower bullets, "ai gedreven werken" and "altijd werken met de nieuwste stack", are the ones we would iterate on: naming the actual stack would make them pull as hard as the salary line above them.

Result: No result data.

9:16Instagram Reels, 9:16, 8.04 seconds

Profield: defence vehicle mechanic, 9:16 vertical reel, Instagram

Script: Ten-second scroll stopper

Made with RecruitmentAds.com. Instagram Reels, 9:16, 8.04 seconds, measured with ffprobe on 19 August 2026.

The first two seconds

A mechanic lifts an oversized open-ended spanner off a case in a workshop, and "VACATURE: Monteur Defensievoertuigen" is fading up over him inside the first half second. By two seconds the gross monthly band of €2.500 to €4.000, a line about a family firm in Amersfoort, and a purple Meer informatie button have all arrived.

Which beats you can see

All four beats inside eight seconds, which is the tightest execution of this script on the page. The workshop qualifies the viewer before a word of copy does, then money, location and team arrive in that order, and the closing frame holds the subject with the spanner still in his hand rather than cutting to a logo card. Three bullets is the ceiling for a reel and this uses exactly three.

What we would change

The most interesting thing in the ad, building unique military vehicles, sits in the third bullet. We would test it in the headline, where a fast scroller cannot miss it.

Result: No result data.

4:5Facebook feed, 4:5, 12.05 seconds

Grant Thornton: Economic Consulting Analyst, 4:5 feed ad, Facebook

Script: Thirty-second role ad

Made with RecruitmentAds.com. Facebook feed, 4:5, 12.05 seconds, measured with ffprobe on 19 August 2026.

The first two seconds

A purple panel wipes down over a yellow band and the line "Join Grant Thornton as Economic Consulting Analyst" is already set at half a second. By two seconds a consultant has appeared in the curved cutout below it, smiling at the lens, with the Grant Thornton mark parked bottom left.

Which beats you can see

The role ad at half length. Beat one names the firm and the job in a single sentence, so the first frame still works for everyone who watches nothing else. Later frames swap the person and move to the role plus two facts, collaborating across audit, tax and advisory, and London hybrid. That is the script's sell-then-qualify order, executed in twelve seconds instead of thirty.

What we would change

Twelve seconds is generous for a feed placement. We would test an eight second cut with the London line earlier, because location filters candidates faster than a responsibility bullet does.

Result: No result data.

1:1LinkedIn feed, 1:1, 14.04 seconds

Dunhill: cleared Release Engineer, 1:1 square, LinkedIn

Script: Thirty-second role ad

Made with RecruitmentAds.com. LinkedIn feed, 1:1, 14.04 seconds, measured with ffprobe on 19 August 2026.

The first two seconds

A woman in an office with a city skyline behind her is mid-sentence at half a second, with "Release Engineer SME, TS/SCI Clearance" stacked beside her and the Dunhill mark in the corner. By two seconds three facts have stacked underneath: three days a week onsite in Arlington, VA, a band of $130k to $200k, and a note about the regulated government setting.

Which beats you can see

The clearest beat five on the page. Putting TS/SCI in the headline is the script's gate beat moved to the front, and it disqualifies most of the feed on purpose, which is what you want when the eligible pool is that small. The band arrives at two seconds. Dunhill recruits for roles where neither the staff nor the sites can be filmed, so the professional on screen is a generated stand-in and their customer story says so plainly.

What we would change

The fourth bullet, two lines on CI/CD pipelines, is the one we would trim next time. A shorter card there gives the Apply now button more room to land.

Result: No result data.

One recruitment team ran the fourteen-second script across about fifty cleared federal IT roles, and the whole workflow is documented in the Dunhill customer story.

1:1LinkedIn feed, 1:1, 13.08 seconds

Kremer: open evening, 1:1 square, LinkedIn

Script: Hiring event ad

Made with RecruitmentAds.com. LinkedIn feed, 1:1, 13.08 seconds, measured with ffprobe on 19 August 2026.

The first two seconds

Two people talk across a workbench in a Kremer workshop, one holding a clipboard, with a red INLOOPAVOND tag already pinned top right at half a second. By two seconds "INLOOPAVOND BIJ KREMER" is set across the middle and the date and time, 21 mei, 16.30 to 18.30, has arrived in the first green pill.

Which beats you can see

The event script almost line for line. There is no role to be rejected from, so the ask is only to turn up. The date and time arrive in the first pill at two seconds, and the two lower pills filter by discipline, electrical engineering and industrial automation, then energy, security, ICT and technical management. The ad narrows its audience without naming a single job title, which is the whole trick of this format.

What we would change

The date is the entire point, and it shares its styling with the two pills below it. We would give it its own visual weight and add the address.

Result: No result data.

16:9YouTube in-stream, 16:9, 14.04 seconds

Haldu Groep: metal stud fitters, 16:9 landscape in Polish, YouTube

Script: Cross-border ad

Made with RecruitmentAds.com. YouTube in-stream, 16:9, 14.04 seconds, measured with ffprobe on 19 August 2026.

The first two seconds

Three fitters install metal stud framing on an unfinished floor, under a blue bar carrying a phone number and [email protected], and nothing else for the first second. By two seconds the Polish headline "Oferta pracy: Monterzy Metal Stud w Rijswijk, Holandia" has landed with a Dutch flag beside it and the orange Haldu Groep badge in the corner.

Which beats you can see

Every beat of the cross-border script. The headline names the job and the destination country in the candidate's language, with a Dutch flag beside it, and all four bullets are logistics: weekly pay, free accommodation with a private room, an immediate start, and a category B licence. Nothing about career, culture or values appears anywhere, which is correct for an audience doing arithmetic rather than aspiring.

What we would change

The top bar carries a phone number, which is a hard action to take from a video placement. We would test that space on the pay figure and keep the number for the landing page.

Result: No result data.

4 of the eight scripts have no published example here. All of them need somebody on camera, which is a different production job from the card-driven builds above. We would rather say that than stretch a near miss into a demonstration.

Fifteen recruitment ads, ours and other people's, are taken apart hook by hook on our examples page.

What a square costs you in LinkedIn feed height, with the same creative at three ratios, is on our LinkedIn examples page.

The vertical cuts, and exactly what Reels chrome covers, are on our Instagram examples page.

The same scripts in Facebook Feed chrome are on our Facebook examples page.

Written job ads, as opposed to filmed ones, are collected on our job ads page.

From a job post to a finished video

A script is not a video. Five steps get you from one to the other, and none of them needs a production company:

  1. Start from the vacancy, not from a blank page. Pull the role title, the location, the pay and the two most concrete reasons somebody would take this job. If the post does not contain a number and two specifics, fix the post first: the video inherits whatever the post is missing.

  2. Pick the script by situation and the length by placement. Choose from the eight above, then check the length against the placement in the formats table. A thirty-second script cut for a YouTube bumper is a script that will not run.

  3. Fill the storyboard before you touch a camera. One row per shot, seconds totalled. Most videos that overrun were already overrunning on paper and nobody added the column up.

  4. Build in a locked brand frame, not in a fresh document. Fixed type, fixed card positions, fixed colours, one logo placement. The recognition comes from the format repeating, which only happens if nothing moves between posts.

  5. Check the safe zone and the silent read before you export. Preview the cut inside the real placement chrome, and watch it once with the sound off. If a load-bearing line is unreadable in either test, it is not in the video.

The production half, screen by screen from brief to export, is on how to make a recruitment video.

Where each cut gets posted, organically and paid, is covered on our social media recruiting page.

If you are earlier than this and still deciding what to make, start with the recruitment video guide and come back for the script.

Questions about recruitment video templates

What to say in a recruitment video?

Five things, in this order: the role and the location, the pay or the band, two things that are true at your company and nowhere else, the one requirement you would genuinely reject somebody for not having, and a single way to apply. Everything else is optional. If a line would fit any employer in your sector, it is taking up seconds and doing no work.

Is there a free recruitment video template?

Every script on this page is free, with no email wall and no account. Copy them straight off the page and use them in your own hiring, including commercially. Most free recruitment video templates elsewhere are visual layouts that need a subscription to export without a watermark; this is the wording and the shot list instead, and there is nothing to export.

Can you provide an example of a video script?

There are eight complete ones above, each written out beat by beat with the seconds, what is on camera and what is on screen for every beat. The shortest is the ten-second scroll stopper for hourly and shift roles. The longest is a seventy-five-second two-person question and answer for technical hiring. Four of the eight also have a real published ad on this page that was built to them.

How to make a good recruitment video?

Decide the situation first, then the script, then the length, then the frame. Put the role, the location and the money on screen inside the first three seconds. Film the actual work rather than the building. Say one hard thing out loud, because an honest sentence buys credibility that no amount of production value will. Then check the call to action sits inside the documented safe zone for that placement.

How long is a 3 minute video script?

Around 450 spoken words, on the 150-words-per-minute conversion published by Monster's hiring help centre and read on 2 September 2026. It is also far longer than any recruitment video needs to be. LinkedIn recommends 15 to 30 seconds for all placements, and the eight ads on this page run between 7.38 and 14.04 seconds with the role, the pay, the location and the call to action all inside them.

How to format a script for a video?

Two columns, or three. One column for what is on camera, one for what is said or set on screen, and a narrow column on the left for the seconds. That is the format every script above uses, and it is the format the storyboard grid extends by adding shot number, framing and audio. A prose paragraph is not a script: it cannot be shot from and it hides the fact that the video is two minutes long.

Is there a recruitment video template for PowerPoint?

People search for one and we do not publish one, for a reason worth knowing. PowerPoint exports 16:9 by default, which is the wrong ratio for every placement in this table except YouTube, and it gives you no control over the safe zones that platform chrome covers. The scripts above are plain text and will paste into a slide happily, but the export belongs somewhere that can cut 9:16, 4:5 and 1:1 from one build.

Do I need a video template, or software that makes the videos?

A template if you make a handful of videos a year and somebody in the team enjoys editing. Software if you have more open roles than editing hours, because the cost of the manual route is not the design, it is doing it again next week for the next vacancy. The honest test: count your open roles, multiply by the number of formats you need, and see whether that is a job somebody has time for.

Make one from your own vacancy

Every one of the eight ads on this page started as an ordinary job post. Paste a vacancy link into RecruitmentAds.com and it comes back as a finished set, video and static, inside your own brand template, cut for each placement in the formats table. Or take the scripts, keep them, and make the videos yourself. They are free either way.

Try the free mockup tool

What it costs to run the templated route instead of the manual one is on our pricing page.