Social Recruiting Budget Calculator

What's Included in This Social Recruiting Budget Calculator

What does a social recruiting campaign cost, and what does one hire cost? This Excel calculator answers both in one sheet. You enter your open roles, region, role difficulty, campaign length and an assumption for applications per hire. It works out the ad budget, Sprad's 10 % fee, the total cost, the applications you need and the cost per hire, as a range of three scenarios: low, medium and high.

The sheet has four parts:

1. Your starting numbers. Yellow input cells with a short note on each, including dropdowns for region, difficulty and scenario.
2. Benchmarks for cost per application. Editable reference values with source: a provider range for DACH and the Boostpoint Social Job Advertising Benchmark 2026 for the USA (891 Meta campaigns, median 13.88 USD). Both are external orientation, not Sprad figures.
3. The campaign cost in three scenarios. Ad budget, fee, total, cost per role, cost per hire, budget per month, plus checks against the 1,000 EUR minimum and the recommended 3 months.
4. A comparison of three billing models. Sprad (ad budget plus 10 %), a flat fee per role such as 5,000 EUR, and a placement commission of 14 to 22 % of annual salary, side by side for the same hires.

The file comes in English and German. Everything calculates itself; you only touch the yellow cells.

Key Features That Save You Time

• A range instead of a single number. Cost per application varies widely by role and ad. Three scenarios show the spread so you can plan with a corridor.
• Cost per hire, not cost per click. The sheet turns applications into hires with your own assumption, so the result answers the question your management asks.
• Sources on every benchmark. Each reference value says where it comes from and what it does not tell you. You replace it with your own data as soon as you have campaign results.
• Fair comparison. Flat fee and commission are calculated on the same hires, so the difference shows in euros. Flat fee and commission rates are example values from provider statements, not quotes.
• Built-in checks. The sheet flags a budget below the minimum and a campaign shorter than 3 months.

How to Use This Social Recruiting Budget Calculator

1. Enter your roles. Number of open roles, hires per role, region and difficulty. Easy means many suitable people nearby, hard means a licence or certificate is needed.
2. Set your applications per hire. The preset of 20 is an assumption. Better: divide applications by hires from the last 12 months in your own applicant tracking.
3. Check the benchmarks. Replace the yellow reference values with your own once you have data. For region USA, enter today's exchange rate.
4. Read the three scenarios. Look at cost per hire in the low, medium and high column. Plan the budget on the medium column and keep the high column as the risk buffer.
5. Compare billing models. Pick the scenario for the comparison and see what a flat fee or a commission would cost for the same hires.

Why This Social Recruiting Budget Calculator Works

Most budget advice for job ads stops at the price of a click. But a click is not an application, and an application is not a hire. The calculator follows the whole chain: budget, applications, hires. That is why the number it ends on, cost per hire, is the one that can be compared with an agency flat fee or a commission.

It also stays honest about what it does not know. Sprad does not yet publish its own cost per application, so the sheet uses third-party figures and labels them as such. There is no guarantee of applicants or hires, and Meta limits targeting for job ads (no age, gender or postcode in the special ad category Employment), so cost per application varies with ad text, image and form.

Who Should Use This

• HR and recruiting teams in trades, logistics, care, production and hospitality who need a budget figure for management.
• Owners and managing directors of small and mid-sized companies deciding between social ads, an agency and a placement fee.
• Staffing and temp agencies planning campaigns for several roles at once.

If you want ads placed and applicants pre-screened for you: Sprad Social Recruiting runs job ads on Instagram and Facebook. An AI talent agent pre-screens every applicant via WhatsApp, phone or web, and every applicant lands in your own talent pool. Pricing is ad spend plus 10 %, from a 1,000 EUR budget that can be split across roles; 3 months is recommended. Google and TikTok follow. See how Sprad Social Recruiting works.

FAQs

What does social recruiting cost per hire?

It depends on role, region, ad quality and how many applications lead to a hire. The calculator shows a range of three scenarios. External benchmarks give an orientation: the Boostpoint Benchmark 2026 reports a median of 13.88 USD per application in the USA, and a provider in Germany names 30 to 80 EUR per application. Both measure applications, not hires.

Where do the cost per application values come from?

From third parties, with the source named in the sheet. Sprad does not publish its own cost per application yet. Replace the values with your own once you have campaign data.

Does the calculator promise a number of applicants?

No. There is no guarantee of applicants or hires. The sheet calculates what a campaign would cost under your assumptions.

Can I use it for other channels than Instagram and Facebook?

You can change the benchmarks to your own values for any channel. Sprad currently runs ads on Instagram and Facebook; Google and TikTok follow.