Why We Introduced Paid Commercial Posting Across Our Facebook Groups
If you've used one of the Construction Jobs Australia Facebook groups over the years, you may have noticed a change.
Commercial posts from employers, recruiters, labour hire companies and industry businesses now require approved posting access.
Jobseekers can still post their availability free of charge. That hasn't changed.
What has changed is the way we handle businesses using the groups to recruit workers, promote services, advertise training or put relevant products in front of our construction audience.
We now call that access a Group Posting Pass.
It wasn't introduced simply to put a fee on something that used to be free. As the CJA network has grown, we've had to become much more deliberate about what gets published, who is publishing it and how much commercial content enters the groups.
Here's why we made the change and what businesses are actually paying for.
The CJA Facebook groups aren't small communities anymore
Construction Jobs Australia originally started with Facebook groups.
Those communities have since grown into a much wider network covering construction, civil, mining and supporting industries across Australia.
Today, our Facebook group network accounts for around 278,000 group memberships across state-specific and national communities.
That includes established groups such as Perth & WA at around 86K members, Melbourne & Victoria at around 44K, two Sydney communities at around 33K each and our All Australia group at around 38K.
People can belong to more than one group, so those figures shouldn't be interpreted as 278,000 unique individuals. But they give a good indication of the scale the network has reached.
You can view the groups and their current sizes directly on our Group Posting Passes page.
As the audience has grown, so has the number of businesses wanting access to it.
And that's where things get more complicated.
More commercial posts means more moderation
A construction Facebook group works because people have a reason to keep opening it.
Jobseekers want relevant jobs.
Employers want workers.
Recruiters want candidates.
Construction businesses may want to promote equipment, training, services or products that are genuinely useful to people working in the industry.
But if every company can promote anything, as often as they like, the group quickly becomes a wall of advertising.
That's not good for the people using it and ultimately isn't good for the businesses posting either.
So we're taking a more controlled approach.
Commercial posting across the CJA network is now moderated separately from ordinary jobseeker activity, and approved businesses can purchase access based on where and how often they want to post.
Facebook itself gives group administrators controls over participation and post approval. Meta has also previously introduced paid subgroup models as a way for group admins to sustain communities, although that is separate from CJA's own Posting Pass model.
So what is a Group Posting Pass?
A Group Posting Pass is approved commercial posting access to selected Construction Jobs Australia Facebook groups.
It isn't a new Facebook feature.
It isn't a Meta advertising product.
And you're not buying Facebook impressions from us.
You're purchasing commercial access from Construction Jobs Australia to publish relevant content within communities that we operate and moderate.
Current options include:
Single Group Post โ $99 AUD
One approved commercial post in one relevant state group.
State Posting Pass โ $198 AUD per month
Ongoing approved commercial posting access to one selected state group.
Multi-State Posting Pass โ $349 AUD per month
Ongoing approved commercial posting access across up to three selected state groups.
All published prices include GST.
Once an eligible account has been reviewed and approved, Posting Pass customers can publish approved commercial content without going through the normal repeat employer approval process each time. Posts still need to follow CJA's group rules and remain subject to moderation. The current inclusions and pricing are published on the Group Posting Passes page.
What are you actually paying for?
The simplest answer is access to the audience.
You're paying for the ability to put your name, business, vacancy, service or relevant offer into an established construction community when you need to.
For a recruiter, that might be the morning a new job order lands.
For a contractor, it might be when another operator or labourer is needed for a project starting next week.
For a plant hire company, it could mean regularly sharing available machinery or services throughout the year, then using the same access when the company needs to recruit.
For a training provider, it may mean putting relevant tickets or courses in front of people already working in construction rather than advertising into a completely general audience.
The use case doesn't have to be identical for every customer.
The common part is the audience.
What aren't you buying?
This part is equally important.
A Posting Pass does not guarantee:
- a particular number of views
- applications
- candidates
- enquiries
- sales
- placements
- Facebook reach
Facebook ultimately controls how content is distributed within its platform.
We're also not selling access to member data, and purchasing a Posting Pass doesn't exempt anyone from Facebook's own rules or CJA's group rules.
What we can provide is approved commercial access to the communities themselves.
That's a much cleaner proposition than promising results we don't control.
Why not just let every employer post for free?
For smaller groups, that can work.
At the scale CJA has reached, it creates several problems.
First, there is simply more commercial demand.
Recruitment agencies, labour hire companies, training providers, service businesses and employers can all have legitimate reasons to reach the same audience.
Second, moderation becomes more important as the communities grow.
Not every account submitting a job post is necessarily who they claim to be.
Scamwatch warns that job and employment scams can involve people impersonating employers or recruitment agencies, requesting personal information or asking victims for money. A job appearing on a social platform should never be treated as proof on its own that the person behind it is genuine.
Charging for commercial access doesn't magically eliminate that problem.
It does, however, add another layer between someone creating a Facebook account and immediately using the CJA network commercially.
Posting Pass accounts are reviewed by our admin team before access is approved.
What does the change mean for jobseekers?
Very little changes in terms of how jobseekers use the groups.
Jobseekers do not need a Posting Pass.
People looking for work can continue posting their availability in the CJA groups free of charge.
The bigger aim is to improve the environment they're posting into.
By controlling commercial access, we can be more selective about employer, recruiter and service-provider content rather than letting the groups become cluttered with unrelated advertising.
It also gives us another mechanism for dealing with businesses that repeatedly ignore group rules.
That doesn't remove the need for personal due diligence.
If you're looking for work, you should still check who you're dealing with before sending sensitive personal information, and be extremely cautious if anyone asks you to pay money in exchange for a job.
What does it mean for employers?
For businesses that recruit occasionally, a subscription probably isn't necessary.
That's why we kept a Single Group Post option.
If you've got one role to fill and simply want access to the relevant state community, you can purchase one approved commercial post.
Alternatively, employers wanting a fully hosted vacancy can still advertise a job through Construction Jobs Australia, with our standard job advertising starting from $149 AUD. The hosted job-ad product is separate from a Posting Pass.
The Posting Pass starts to make more sense when hiring becomes recurring.
If you're regularly recruiting in WA, for example, having ongoing access to the Perth & WA community means you're not starting the approval process again every time another requirement lands.
If recruitment is becoming a recurring problem rather than a one-off vacancy, our guide to how to find construction workers in Australia covers some of the wider channels employers can use alongside job advertising.
What does it mean for recruiters and labour hire companies?
Recruitment is where timing matters.
A recruiter can receive a new requirement in the morning and want candidates that afternoon.
Having a commercial post sitting in a moderation queue while the same vacancy is being worked by competing agencies isn't particularly useful.
An approved Posting Pass account gives recruiters and labour hire companies an established route into the selected CJA communities without the normal repeat employer approval delays.
It also means the recruiter can use their own contact details, email address or relevant application link.
For individual consultants, that can be especially useful.
If you're the consultant consistently putting your own vacancies and contact details in front of a relevant construction audience, the value isn't necessarily measured by how many likes one post receives.
The commercial question is whether that ongoing candidate access contributes to hires or placements over time.
The Posting Pass isn't only for recruitment
This is one of the biggest differences between the original CJA Facebook model and where we're heading now.
Relevant industry products and services can also qualify.
That could include areas such as:
- plant and equipment hire
- construction training and tickets
- relevant industry services
- construction products and materials
The content still needs to be relevant to the audience.
A general consumer business can't buy a Posting Pass and start filling a construction group with unrelated offers.
The point is controlled access for businesses that genuinely operate around construction, civil, mining and the industries supporting them.
For smaller businesses, this can make the economics quite different.
A local plant hire business might use its State Posting Pass to promote machines and services throughout the month.
Then, when it needs another operator, mechanic or yard worker, the same approved account can publish a recruitment post.
One subscription can therefore support both business exposure and occasional hiring.
Why we think moderation makes the groups more useful
The goal isn't to create the highest possible number of posts.
It's to keep the communities useful enough that people continue visiting them.
That means balancing jobs, jobseeker posts, industry information and relevant commercial content.
It also means saying no to unrelated advertising, repetitive spam and accounts that don't follow the rules.
Approved commercial access gives us a clearer line.
Jobseekers remain free.
Businesses using the audience commercially need approved access.
Relevant businesses can participate.
Unrelated advertising doesn't belong there.
That's easier for members to understand and easier for us to administer consistently.
How onboarding works
We've deliberately kept the process simple.
Choose the Single Group Post, State Posting Pass or Multi-State Posting Pass that matches where you want to post.
Payment is completed through Stripe Checkout. Stripe supports hosted payment pages for one-off and subscription payments.
Once the purchase is confirmed, CJA reviews the business and posting account.
Eligible accounts are then approved for the selected group or groups.
There's no requirement to create a separate CJA job-board listing unless you actually want one.
You can use your own commercial post, application link, email address or other relevant contact details.
What about GST?
Construction Jobs Australia Ltd is a UK-registered limited company operating the Construction Jobs Australia platform and network.
For Australian sales, we are registered through the Australian Taxation Office's simplified GST registration system for non-resident businesses.
The ATO's simplified system allows eligible non-resident businesses to register, lodge and pay Australian GST.
All prices published for CJA Posting Passes include GST, so the price you see is the price you pay.
Can I cancel a monthly Posting Pass?
Yes.
There is no long-term lock-in on the monthly State or Multi-State Posting Pass.
Customers can access the Manage Subscription option through our Contact page, which links directly into Stripe's customer portal.
Stripe's customer portal supports subscription management and cancellation, including cancellation immediately or at the end of the current billing period depending on the configuration.
If the pass is no longer giving your business value, you should be able to cancel it without having to chase us through a lengthy retention process.
Why we're making the change now
CJA has changed considerably from the small Facebook communities it started with.
The groups are now one part of a wider construction network that includes the Construction Jobs Australia job board, Facebook Pages, WhatsApp channels, our LinkedIn page, email subscribers and other industry distribution channels.
You can read more about how Construction Jobs Australia developed on our Founder Story page.
As that audience grows, maintaining open commercial access doesn't make much sense.
Paid posting gives us a clearer way to control commercial activity while keeping ordinary access free for the workers the communities were created for in the first place.
It also means businesses that genuinely value the audience can use it consistently rather than hoping a commercial post makes it through moderation.
We think that's a better balance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do jobseekers have to pay to post?
No. Jobseekers can continue posting their availability in Construction Jobs Australia groups free of charge. Posting Passes apply to commercial posting by employers, recruiters, labour hire companies and approved industry businesses.
Does a Posting Pass guarantee applications or views?
No. A Posting Pass provides approved commercial posting access. It does not guarantee Facebook reach, applications, candidates, sales or placements.
Can service businesses use a Posting Pass?
Yes, where the product or service is relevant to the construction, civil or mining audience. This can include suitable training, plant hire, industry services, products and related businesses.
Can I include my own application link or contact details?
Yes. Approved posts can include relevant website links, application links, email addresses and contact details.
Do I need an ongoing subscription for one vacancy?
No. A Single Group Post is available for businesses that only need one approved commercial post. CJA also offers separate hosted job advertising if you would prefer the vacancy listed on the Construction Jobs Australia job board.
Can I cancel a State or Multi-State Posting Pass?
Yes. Monthly Posting Passes can be cancelled through the subscription-management link available on the CJA Contact page.
Want to see the groups before deciding?
You don't need to take our word for the size of the network.
Visit the Construction Jobs Australia Group Posting Passes page to see the available Facebook groups, current membership figures, recent network performance and Posting Pass options.
If you're unsure whether you need a Single Group Post, State Posting Pass or Multi-State Posting Pass, you can also contact Construction Jobs Australia before purchasing.