Outsourcing recruitment marketing

In-house or outsourced: the costs side by side

Doing it in-house means hiring a recruitment marketer. Public salary data for that role varies: Glassdoor Netherlands reports €3,000 to €4,000 base salary per month based on 30 submissions, while Indeed Netherlands reports €3,780 per month for the broader marketer role based on 2,600 submissions.

But salary is the smallest part of the bill. On top come employer costs, the ad budget you will spend anyway, tooling and job board subscriptions, and three to six months in which the hire delivers nothing yet. And when that person leaves, the knowledge leaves with them.

Outsourcing shifts that from a fixed monthly cost to a variable one. The risk is paying an agency that does not deliver — which is exactly why we work 100% no-cure-no-pay with a 7-day delivery guarantee.

• Fixed cost: salary, employer charges, tooling, subscriptions — whether or not it produces anything.
• Ramp-up: three to six months before a new marketer pays off.
• Key-person risk: when the marketer leaves, the knowledge goes too and the campaigns stall.
• Outsourcing buys you a team and a proven approach instead of one person.

The pricing models in the market

Agencies bill in four ways. The model you pick determines who carries the risk.

• Hourly rate: you pay for time, not results. Predictable for the agency, not for you.
• Fixed project fee: clear up front, but it ends when the project ends — while recruiting never ends.
• Monthly subscription or retainer: the most common model in the Netherlands. You keep paying, including in a month with no results.
• Performance-based, or no-cure-no-pay: you pay for what is delivered. This is our model.

Watch what is not included

With every model, watch what is not included. At almost every agency, ad budget is a separate line on top of the fee. Always ask explicitly what the total monthly cost will be, media included.

What it delivers

Numbers from campaigns we have run ourselves, for agencies like yours.

• Giant Leap Recruitment: 200+ qualified account managers in 90 days, at €8.96 per candidate.
• Bureau In Techniek: 107 mechanics in 90 days, at €30.51 per candidate.
• UBN Uitzendbureau: 82 applicants in 3 weeks.
• CAS additionally delivers 5 to 20 qualified client leads per month on the client side.
• Clients save up to 70% of their time on follow-up work because everything arrives in one place with automated follow-up.

Signs it is time to outsource

• Your vacancies stay open longer than your client accepts.
• You run ads but do not know which channel produces the placements.
• Your recruiters spend more time searching than interviewing.
• You have no pipeline: every month starts from zero.
• You are growing on the candidate side but not on the client side, or the other way around.
• You hired a marketer who does this alongside ten other tasks.

Seven questions before you sign

• Do you work for staffing and recruitment firms or for end employers? That is a different trade.
• What is the total monthly cost including ad budget?
• Who owns the campaigns, accounts and talent pool if we stop?
• Do you steer on reach or on applications?
• What happens in a month with no results?
• How quickly is the first campaign live?
• Can I see numbers from an agency like mine?

What stays yours

Outsourcing does not mean losing control. We build and run the campaigns, the sourcing and the follow-up; you run the interviews and make the placements. All campaigns, ad accounts, dashboards and the talent pool you build up are in your name and stay yours, even if we stop. The real-time dashboard shows you per channel what every euro returns.

Sources

• Salaris recruitment marketeer — Glassdoor Nederland
• Salaris marketeer — Indeed Nederland
• Recruitment Kengetallen Onderzoek 2021 — Werf&