Recruitment marketing costs are difficult to compare because “recruitment marketing” can mean two different things: winning employer clients for a recruitment agency, or attracting candidates for open roles. Those two funnels need separate budgets, metrics and commercial models.
Budgeting for recruitment-agency client acquisition
Start with the value of a new employer relationship rather than an arbitrary annual marketing range. Useful inputs include average placement fee, retained or repeat client value, enquiry-to-meeting rate, meeting-to-instruction rate and placement conversion.
- SEO for sector, role and location-specific employer intent
- Google Ads for high-intent client searches
- Recruiter-led thought leadership and proof
- CRM follow-up and source attribution
- Outbound or account-based activity where appropriate
Budgeting for candidate acquisition
Candidate marketing should be planned around vacancy urgency, role scarcity, geography, application quality and the percentage of applicants who become placeable candidates. Job boards, search, social, referrals, landing pages and ATS workflows can all play a role.
Measure the two funnels separately
For client acquisition, track qualified employer conversations, job instructions, placements and revenue by source. For candidate acquisition, track qualified applications, interview progression and placement contribution. See our Google Ads budget guide for recruitment and recruitment marketing services.
