Social media recruiting providers charge from about €400 per job and month up to €5,000 per position, depending on the model: a flat price per campaign, a fixed price per role, a package, a success fee of 14 to 22 % of the annual salary, or ad budget plus a markup. Most providers do not publish prices at all. This guide lists every price we could verify, each with its date and source, as of 3 October 2026.
The five price models
Before you compare numbers, compare models. A price per campaign and a percentage of a salary are not the same kind of price, and the cheaper-looking one is not always cheaper.
| Model | How you pay | Example | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat price per campaign | fixed amount for a set period | TalentBait from €700 per 30 days | price depends on the channel mix, a new period means a new payment |
| Fixed price per role or package | per position, sometimes per month | HeyJobs HIRE from €400 per job and month, Social Natives €5,000 per position | minimum budgets, minimum terms, how much is media spend |
| Per qualified applicant | pay for each pre-screened applicant | Wonderkind Deliver (fixed price per qualified applicant, not published) | what counts as qualified, who decides |
| Success fee | percentage of the gross annual salary on a hire | Workwise 14, 18 or 22 % | expensive for well-paid roles, minimum terms in the top tier |
| Ad budget plus markup | you set the ad budget, the provider adds a percentage | Sprad: budget plus 10 %, from €1,000 | reach depends on your budget, no applicant guarantee |
All prices compared (October 2026)
Every figure below comes from the vendor's own website unless marked as a third-party source. "Not published" means we found no price on the vendor's site or in independent listings.
| Provider | Type | Listed price | Date and source |
|---|---|---|---|
| HeyJobs | performance platform, Germany | HIRE from €400 per job and month (minimum budget €1,200), REACH under €150 per job from 10 roles | pricing page, 3 Oct 2026 |
| TalentBait | platform, Hamburg | from €700 per campaign and 30 days, no subscription | website, 3 Oct 2026 |
| Social Natives | agency, industrial SMEs | €5,000 fixed for the first position, €3,000 for the second | website, Oct 2026 |
| Workwise | platform, success-based | 14 / 18 / 22 % of the gross annual salary, Premium plus €3,000 setup, internship €500, working student €800 | pricing page, 3 Oct 2026 |
| Wonderkind | platform, Netherlands | not published; German reseller: from €150 per 7 days, from €1,000 per month | vendor site, reseller is a third-party source, Oct 2026 |
| talentsconnect | chat and WhatsApp software | not published | vendor site and OMR, Oct 2026 |
| jobtastic | agency, Coesfeld | not published | vendor site, Oct 2026 |
| Candidates Attraction | agency, UK | £347 per 7-day campaign including budget; £719 per month plus from £8 per day budget, up to 8 roles, 3-month minimum | vendor site, research 30 Sep 2026 |
| Boostpoint | platform, USA | recommended minimum $750 per month and job category, subscription plus ad spend | vendor site, Oct 2026 |
| CareerArc (HireSocial) | platform, USA | $196 and $959 per month, enterprise on request | research 30 Sep 2026 |
| Sprad Social Recruiting | ad management with AI Talent Agent | ad budget plus 10 %, from a €1,000 budget, split across roles | sprad.io, Oct 2026 |
For context: an OMR article from January 2022 put paid recruiting campaigns at around €200 on LinkedIn and €1,000 to €1,500 per 30 days on TikTok, Spotify or Pinterest. Those figures are dated, but they show why a provider's price per channel mix varies so widely. A comparison article by Dr. Web, quoted in market overviews, names about €1,000 to €3,500 per month for agency retainers, €1,000 to €3,000 for set-up and €500 to €1,500 per month for ad budgets. Treat both as market ranges, not as quotes.
Worked example: one role and five roles
The listed prices cannot be compared directly, because the models differ. The numbers below are simple arithmetic from the listed prices, not a benchmark and no promise of applicants. Workwise is calculated with an assumed gross annual salary of €36,000, and only applies if the hire happens.
| Provider | 1 role, 3 months | 5 roles, 3 months |
|---|---|---|
| HeyJobs HIRE | 3 × €400 = €1,200 | 5 × 3 × €400 = €6,000 |
| TalentBait | 3 × €700 = €2,100 (from) | 5 × 3 × €700 = €10,500 (from) |
| Social Natives | €5,000 | €5,000 + 4 × €3,000 = €17,000, if the second-position price applies to every further role |
| Workwise Plus (18 %) | €6,480, only on a hire | €32,400 if all five roles are hired |
| Sprad | €1,000 budget + 10 % = €1,100 | €5,000 budget + 10 % = €5,500 |
Two readings matter. First, the cheapest line is not automatically the best, because the models promise different things: Social Natives promises five qualified interviews per position, Workwise charges only when someone is hired, and Sprad sells reach plus pre-screening, not an outcome. Second, a bigger Sprad budget buys more reach, but no provider can promise a number of applicants. Boostpoint's 2026 benchmark, based on 891 campaigns in the US, shows a median of $13.88 per applicant with a range from $2.14 in warehousing to $74.62 in therapy roles. That is a vendor figure for the US market, useful as an order of magnitude only.
Hidden costs to ask about before you sign
- Is ad spend inside the price? HeyJobs does not say how much of a package is media. Social Natives does not state whether the ad budget is inside the fixed price. TalentBait lists the media budget as included.
- Minimum budget and term. HeyJobs HIRE has a €1,200 minimum budget and recommends three months, Workwise Premium has a six-month minimum term, Candidates Attraction three months.
- Offer price or list price? The HeyJobs page shows "from €400 instead of €1,200" for new customers. Ask what the renewal costs.
- Who owns the applicant pool? Most platforms keep their candidate network. If you cancel, the next vacancy starts at zero reach.
- What counts as qualified? Whenever you pay per qualified applicant or per interview, the definition decides the real price.
- Set-up fees. Workwise Premium adds €3,000, and agencies often charge for ad design and landing pages.
The providers in detail
HeyJobs
HeyJobs is the best-known performance recruiting platform in Germany and Austria, with 50+ channels and its own pool of 4.5 million candidates. The pool belongs to HeyJobs. Employer reviews praise support, while applicant quality is the most frequent criticism.
TalentBait
TalentBait publishes the clearest entry price of the agency-style providers: from €700 per campaign and 30 days, without a subscription or minimum term, with media budget, ad design, AI-based channel selection and a dashboard included. The final price depends on the channels you book.
Social Natives
Social Natives sells a fixed price per position and promises at least five qualified interviews per role in writing. That makes it easy to budget, and expensive for several roles at once. The 4.9 rating from 200+ reviews is a vendor claim, so ask for references from your industry.
Workwise
Workwise is the success-based option: you pay only on a hire, and the fee is a percentage of the salary. That fits best where a single hire is worth a lot and you do not want to carry the risk of ad spend. For high volumes of well-paid roles the percentage adds up quickly.
Wonderkind
Wonderkind is the closest model neighbour to Sprad: ads on Meta, TikTok and Snapchat, pre-screening with AI agents, hand-over to your applicant tracking system. It does not publish prices, so you can only compare after a quote.
talentsconnect
talentsconnect is not an ad provider but software for the step after the click: career page, WhatsApp and web chat. It can be combined with ads from another provider, then the ad cost comes on top.
jobtastic
jobtastic is a social media recruiting agency that has worked since 2018 and puts application by WhatsApp at the centre. It publishes no prices and offers a free demo with an individual quote. We could not capture a clean screenshot of its site for this article.
Sprad Social Recruiting
Sprad prices the work in the open: ad budget plus 10 %, from a €1,000 budget that can be split across roles. The AI Talent Agent pre-screens every applicant via WhatsApp, phone or web, and every applicant stays in your own talent pool. Today Sprad runs on Instagram and Facebook, Google and TikTok follow.
Is it worth it?
Social media recruiting pays off where candidates do not look for jobs themselves: nurses, tradespeople, drivers, warehouse and production staff. For those roles, a job board listing reaches only the active minority, as our guide on frontline recruiting by phone and WhatsApp explains. The cost question then becomes: what does one qualified applicant cost, and what do you keep afterwards?
A simple test: if one campaign of €1,100 produces one hire, it costs less than the 18 % success fee on a €36,000 salary (€6,480). If it produces none, you have paid for reach and a pool of people who may fit the next role. Neither outcome is guaranteed, which is why you should ask every provider for references and the cost per qualified applicant in your industry.
Cheaper ways to hire frontline staff
- Run the ads yourself. Cheapest on paper, because you pay only the ad budget. It costs time, and Meta treats job ads as a special category with restricted targeting, so check the current rules first.
- Use a job board for active seekers. See the cost breakdown in our guide to StepStone prices and the StepStone alternatives.
- Choose a budget-plus-markup model. You see what goes into ads and what the service costs, and you can scale the budget up or down.
- Reuse your pool. The second role in the same region is cheaper when applicants from the first are still in your own pool.
Frequently asked questions
How much does social media recruiting cost?
Listed entry prices range from about €400 per job and month (HeyJobs HIRE) and €700 per campaign (TalentBait) to €5,000 per position (Social Natives). Success-based providers charge 14 to 22 % of the annual salary. Many providers publish no price.
Which provider is cheapest?
For one role over three months, the listed prices of HeyJobs (€1,200) and Sprad (€1,100 with a €1,000 budget) are the lowest in this comparison, but the models differ, so compare what is included.
Why do most providers hide their prices?
Prices depend on role, region and channel mix, and agencies sell service on top of ads. A few providers, such as TalentBait, Social Natives and Workwise, publish figures, which makes them easier to budget.
Is the ad budget included in the price?
It depends. TalentBait lists the media budget as included, HeyJobs and Social Natives do not state it clearly, and with Sprad the ad budget is the base of the price and the 10 % is added on top.
Can I change providers without losing my candidates?
Only if the applicants are stored in your own system. With platforms that keep their own candidate network, your reach stays with the platform. With Sprad, every applicant lands in your talent pool.
Sprad Social Recruiting in short
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 the employer's own talent pool, so the relationships stay with the employer instead of a platform. Pricing is ad spend plus 10 %, from a €1,000 budget that can be split across roles. See how Sprad Social Recruiting works or check the pricing page.
More on social recruiting
- How much does social media recruiting cost? Budgets, cost per applicant, examples
- Social recruiting agency pricing: flat fee, pay per applicant or ad spend + markup
- Indeed job ad costs 2026: what a sponsored job really costs
- Job ad costs compared: job boards vs. social media (2026)
- The complete social recruiting guide
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.
