Social media recruiting costs from about €1,000 a month for one role, made up of ad spend plus whatever your provider charges on top. Provider prices range from €700 per 30-day campaign to €5,000 flat per position or 14 to 22 % of the annual salary per hire. The ad cost per applicant on Meta has a median of $13.88 in a 2026 US benchmark, with a spread from $2.91 to $66.45. All prices are listed prices as of 3 October 2026.
The five price models, side by side
Providers do not sell the same thing. Some sell a campaign, some a monthly package, some a placed hire. That is why quotes are hard to compare, and why the first question is always: what exactly do I pay for?
| Model | Example (listed price) | You pay for | Risk sits with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat fee per position | Social Natives: €5,000 per position | a managed campaign for one role | you, if the role stays open |
| Campaign or monthly package | TalentBait from €700 per 30 days · HeyJobs HIRE from €400 per month, €1,200 minimum budget · Candidates Attraction £347 per 7 days or £719 per month plus ad budget from £8 a day | reach on a platform, for a fixed period | you, the price does not depend on the result |
| Success fee | Workwise: 14, 18 or 22 % of the gross annual salary | a hire | the provider, but the fee is high per hire |
| Pay per applicant or lead | agencies quote roughly €50 to €300 per qualified application (market range, no price list) | qualified applications | shared, depends on the definition of "qualified" |
| Ad budget plus markup | Sprad: ad budget plus 10 %, from €1,000 budget | the ad spend itself, plus a fixed share | you, but every euro of spend is visible |
The market range for pay per applicant and agency retainers comes from a German agency comparison (drweb.de, 2026) that does not name individual sources. Treat it as an orientation, not as a price list.
What does one applicant cost?
The only open 2026 benchmark we found with a real sample comes from the US provider Boostpoint: 891 managed Meta campaigns, 15 role families, median $13.88 per applicant. The cheapest tenth of campaigns paid $2.91 or less, the most expensive tenth $66.45 or more. Warehouse roles sit at the cheap end, therapy roles at the expensive end.
Three caveats matter. The data is from the USA, not from Germany, the UK or Austria. It counts applicants, not hires: how many of them are qualified and willing to start is a separate question. And it is ad cost only, without agency fees. Industry sources also quote $0.50 to $2.00 per click on Facebook and Instagram, but without a verifiable study behind it.
We have no own campaign data for this article and do not invent any. If a provider promises a number of applicants per week without naming the role, region and budget, treat it as marketing.
Worked example 1: one role, three months
Three months is the run time most providers recommend, because the ad algorithm needs time to learn. Here is what one open role costs on listed prices:
| Provider | Calculation | Total, 3 months |
|---|---|---|
| HeyJobs HIRE | 3 × €400 (equals the €1,200 minimum budget) | €1,200 |
| TalentBait | 3 × €700 per 30 days | €2,100 |
| Sprad Social Recruiting | €1,000 ad budget per month = €3,000, plus 10 % | €3,300 |
| Social Natives | flat fee per position | €5,000 |
| Workwise | 14 % of an assumed €36,000 salary, one hire | €5,040 |
Read this as an order of magnitude, not as a ranking. A package price does not tell you whether ad spend is included, a success fee only becomes due when someone is hired, and with Sprad you choose the budget yourself. The €3,000 is an assumption for this example, not a recommendation or a guarantee of applicants.
Worked example 2: five roles, three months
With several roles the models diverge more. Package and flat-fee prices multiply with the number of roles, a markup model scales with the budget you actually spend.
| Provider | Calculation | Total, 3 months |
|---|---|---|
| HeyJobs HIRE | 5 × €1,200 | €6,000 |
| TalentBait | 5 × €2,100, no volume discount assumed | €10,500 |
| Sprad Social Recruiting | 5 × €3,000 = €15,000 budget, plus 10 % | €16,500 |
| Social Natives | 5 × €5,000 (the provider lists €3,000 for further roles from the same pool, that would give €17,000) | €25,000 |
| Workwise | 5 hires × 14 % of €36,000 | €25,200 |
The Sprad figure is the largest budget in this table on purpose: it assumes the same €1,000 a month per role. A smaller budget, for example €5,000 across five roles, would cost €5,500 including the 10 %. The budget is yours to size.
The price anchors, one by one
TalentBait: from €700 per 30 days
TalentBait sells campaigns across up to 15 channels. A third-party listing from May 2024 named monthly price tiers from €960 to €1,800 depending on the role, so check the current quote.
Workwise: 14 to 22 % of the annual salary
Workwise is the success-fee example. It is cheap to start and expensive per hire, which is why it suits few, high-value hires better than ongoing volume.
HeyJobs: from €400 per month, minimum budget €1,200
HeyJobs is the best known package provider in Germany. The pricing page shows a new-customer offer with a struck-through old price of €1,200. The pool of 4.5 million candidates belongs to HeyJobs, not to you.
Hidden costs to ask about
- Is the ad spend inside the price? A "campaign price" can mean fee plus media, or fee only. Ask for the share that actually reaches Meta.
- Minimum budget and minimum term. €1,200 minimum, three recommended months or "up to 8 roles on a 3-month minimum" change the real price.
- Setup and creative. Agencies list €1,000 to €3,000 once for strategy and creative (market range, drweb.de 2026).
- Who owns the audience? On a rented platform pool, applicants stay with the platform. When you stop paying, the reach is gone.
- Your own time. Every unqualified applicant costs minutes. Pre-qualification by chat or phone, for example on the channels frontline workers actually answer, moves that effort away from your team.
Is it worth it?
For roles where candidates are on their phones and do not read job boards, mostly shift and frontline work, social ads are often the cheaper way to reach people. For rare specialists, an ad budget alone rarely works, because few of them are in the target group. The honest measure is cost per hire: all fees, all ad spend and internal time, divided by hires. No public benchmark gives that number for social recruiting in the DACH region, so calculate your own after the first campaign.
Cheaper ways to run it
- Bundle roles of the same kind into one campaign instead of paying per role.
- Pre-qualify with a short chat or form so only matching applicants reach your team.
- Keep every applicant in your own talent pool, so the next role does not start at zero.
- Compare the result with the cost of a job board listing, for example in our pricing overview.
How Sprad prices social media recruiting
Sprad Social Recruiting runs job ads on Instagram and Facebook, where nurses, tradespeople, drivers and other frontline workers spend time every day. An AI talent agent pre-screens every applicant via WhatsApp, phone or web. Every applicant lands in your own talent pool, so the relationships stay with you instead of a platform. Pricing is ad budget plus 10 %, from a €1,000 budget that can be split across roles, with three months recommended. See Sprad Social Recruiting or the pages for healthcare, trades and logistics.
FAQ
How much should I budget for social media recruiting?
Plan at least €1,000 a month per role for ad spend, and three months. Providers add fees on top, from nothing in a markup model to several thousand euros for an agency.
What is a good cost per applicant?
In the 2026 Boostpoint benchmark (USA) the median is $13.88 per applicant, the middle half of campaigns lies between $6.48 and $29.74. Local figures for Germany are not publicly available.
Is social media recruiting cheaper than a job board?
It depends on the role. For frontline and shift roles it often reaches people who never visit job boards. Compare cost per hire, not the price of the listing.
Do I pay per applicant or per hire?
Both models exist. Pay per applicant means roughly €50 to €300 for qualified applications on the market, success fees such as Workwise take 14 to 22 % of the annual salary per hire.
Is there a guarantee of applicants?
No honest provider can guarantee a number of applicants, because role, region, pay and competition decide. Sprad does not promise one either, it gives budget guidance per role.
More on social recruiting
Jürgen Ulbrich
Jürgen Ulbrich has more than a decade of experience in developing and leading high-performing teams and companies. As an expert in employee referral programs as well as feedback and performance processes, Jürgen has helped over 100 organizations optimize their talent acquisition and development strategies.
