Choosing a recruitment marketing agency

Which ten questions should you ask an agency?

• Do you work for staffing and recruitment firms or for end employers? An agency that works for employers does not know your double audience of candidates and clients.
• Can I see numbers from an agency like mine? Not from a corporate or a webshop, but from a staffing, contract staffing or direct hire firm.
• What is the total monthly cost, including ad budget? Media is almost always a separate line.
• Who owns the campaigns, ad accounts, dashboards and talent pool if we stop?
• Do you steer daily on reach or on applications? Reach can be bought, applications cannot.
• What happens in a month without results? Keep pushing until you get a concrete answer.
• How quickly is the first campaign live?
• Who does the work - the team from the sales meeting, or somebody else?
• Can you deliver clients too, or only candidates?
• What do I have to keep doing myself?

Which red flags should you look out for?

• Reports about reach, impressions and views, without applications or placements.
• Campaigns and ad accounts registered in the agency's name instead of yours.
• An annual contract with a notice period before a single result has been delivered.
• Cases without numbers, or numbers without context - "more applicants" is not a result.
• Benchmark figures without a source, or a recent year stamped on an old study.
• One message for candidates and clients at the same time.

How do you compare proposals fairly?

Agencies charge in different ways, which is why quotes are rarely comparable. Convert everything back to the same number: what does one qualified applicant cost me, and one placement?

• Add fee and ad budget together into one monthly amount.
• Divide that by the number of applications the agency realistically promises.
• Ask about the lead time to first delivery, not to the first campaign.
• Ask who carries the risk if nothing is delivered.

How does Leadstars itself work?

We work exclusively for staffing agencies, contract staffing firms, direct hire firms and recruitment agencies - not for end employers. We work on a retainer plus implementation fee, with a guarantee on the agreed lead volume and a 7-day delivery guarantee, and all campaigns, accounts, dashboards and the talent pool you build remain yours.

Numbers from our own campaigns: 200+ account managers in 90 days at €8.96 per candidate for Giant Leap Recruitment, 107 engineers in 90 days at €30.51 per candidate for Bureau In Techniek, and 82 applicants in 3 weeks for UBN Uitzendbureau.