Performance recruiting buys job-ad reach through measurable campaigns instead of paying a flat price for a listing. This guide compares 8 providers on price, billing model, applicant pre-screening and who keeps the applicant data, using listed prices as of October 2026.
Last updated: Ratings from OMR Reviews, G2 and Capterra, each with its retrieval date
Best for: Employers hiring frontline staff who want managed Instagram and Facebook ads with built-in screening.
AI talent agent pre-screens every applicant via WhatsApp, phone or web.
Every applicant lands in the employer's own talent pool.
Limitation: Ads run only on Instagram and Facebook today; Google and TikTok are to follow, and no applicant volume is guaranteed.
Pricing: Ad spend plus 10%, from a €1,000 budget (as of October 2026).
About Sprad
Sprad is a modular, AI-powered HR platform for recruiting, employee referrals, talent development and HR operations—not just a sourcing product. Its portfolio includes employee referral via WhatsApp, SMS, Teams, Slack and LinkedIn network suggestions; talent management with performance, goals, skills, 360-degree feedback, surveys and people analytics; plus HR helpdesk and automation workflows. New Atlas modules add active sourcing, CV screening, voice interviews and a candidate portal with a living talent pool. Companies can adopt modules individually and connect them as needed, from outreach and qualification through employee development, retention and internal mobility.
Best for: Mid-size and enterprise recruiters wanting automated, multichannel recruitment marketing with performance data.
Programmatic job distribution across 1,000+ partner channels.
A/B campaign testing and channel analytics support budget decisions.
AI candidate matching and automated scoring reduce manual screening.
Limitation: Per-hire costs can be elevated, and preconfigured packages with high per-vacancy budgets may not suit lean teams.
Pricing: Pricing starts at €400 per month.
About HeyJobs
Berlin performance recruiting provider (founded 2016): job ads across 50+ channels, a candidate pool of 4.5 million, HIRE from €400 per month and REACH under €150 per job. Since August 2026 with the AI interviewer Madita.
Best for: Organizations hiring at scale via social media that want less manual ad work.
AI generates channel-optimized ad copy and selects imagery from a licensed library.
Campaigns run across 15+ social recruiting channels with A/B-tested budget allocation.
Limitation: Needs careful initial audience setup, and some campaigns require manual fine-tuning for industry or regional specifics.
Pricing: From €960 per month, scaling with job category, location and channels.
About TalentBait
talentbait is a social recruiting platform from Hamburg. According to the provider, one job runs on up to 15 channels, applying takes about 60 seconds and an AI agent screens by WhatsApp or email. Price per the website: from €700 per job for 30 days, as of October 2026.
Best for: Employers wanting an agency to run Meta and XING ads, video and website.
Paid ads on Meta and XING, video production and websites from one provider.
An AI chat pre-qualifies applicants; a free initial consultation is offered.
Limitation: Not a pure recruiting specialist; campaign control sits with the agency, and independent reviews could not be found.
Pricing: No prices published; free initial consultation (as of October 2026).
About NIRO Media
NIRO Media is a performance marketing agency from Ilshofen, Germany, offering paid ads on Meta and XING, video production, websites and an AI chat for applicants. Prices are not published; a free initial consultation is offered.
Best for: Employers seeking skilled workers who prefer paying per qualified lead.
Billing per qualified lead instead of a flat campaign fee.
Video production is included, with no setup fee.
Broad industry coverage from trades to IT.
Limitation: Fee per lead is not published, and an ad budget of €1,500 to €5,000 per month comes on top.
Pricing: Fee per qualified lead plus €1,500 to €5,000 monthly ad budget (as of October 2026).
About fachkraefterecruiting
Fachkräfte-Recruiting is a social recruiting brand of dot-gruppe in Berlin. According to the provider it bills per qualified lead, video production is included and the ad budget comes on top.
Employers seeking skilled workers who prefer paying per qualified lead.
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How we compare: providers are listed by category, sorted by our editorial ranking, and show ratings and review counts from OMR Reviews with the date of the last update.
More about Performance recruiting providers
Performance recruiting means buying job-ad reach through measurable campaigns and steering the budget by numbers such as cost per applicant instead of paying a flat price for a listing. The providers below fall into four groups: managed platforms (HeyJobs, TalentBait, Wonderkind), agencies (Social Natives, Candidates Attraction), a managed US service (Boostpoint) and a success-fee model (Workwise). Sprad Social Recruiting comes first because it is the only one here that combines a transparent fee (ad budget plus 10 %), AI pre-screening of every applicant and an applicant pool that stays with the employer. All prices below are listed prices as of October 2026.
At a glance
Best for frontline roles and a pool you keep:Sprad Social Recruiting — ad budget plus 10 %, every applicant lands in your own talent pool
Best for one urgent role, managed service:HeyJobs HIRE — from €400 per job and month, €1,200 minimum budget
Best for many channels and short campaigns:TalentBait — from €700 per 30-day campaign, up to 15 channels
Best for paying only for qualified applicants:Wonderkind — fixed price per qualified applicant (CPQA)
Best for US and UK benchmarks:Boostpoint / Candidates Attraction — published cost-per-applicant medians / flat weekly prices
As of 3 October 2026. Prices are listed prices, individual quotes can differ.
What is a performance recruiting provider?
A performance recruiting provider runs your job ads on social networks and other channels, optimises them while they run and reports on results per click, per application or per hire. That separates it from a job board, where you pay for a listing and wait, and from a recruiting agency, which charges a fee per placement and does the search itself. The common thread is that the budget follows measurable results. DirectEmployers (26 August 2026) puts the core difference briefly: cost per click tells you how many people showed up, cost per applicant tells you how many went through with an application.
Most providers in this comparison focus on frontline and skilled roles: nurses, drivers, tradespeople, warehouse and production staff. Those candidates are reached better on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok than through a career page. That is also the audience for our own Social Recruiting product and the industries we serve, for example healthcare and trades.
How we selected the providers
We looked at eight criteria and only used what is publicly verifiable. Where a provider publishes no price, we say so instead of guessing.
Price transparency: is there a listed price, and does it include the ad budget?
Billing model: flat package, fee on top of ad spend, price per qualified applicant or commission.
Pre-qualification: does someone or something screen applicants before you see them?
Applicant ownership: do applicants end up in your system or stay on the provider's platform?
Channels: which networks run today, and which are only announced?
Target roles: frontline, skilled, white-collar.
Markets and language: DACH, UK, US.
Independent reviews: OMR, jobboersencheck, G2 where they exist, with number and date.
HIRE from €400 per job and month, minimum budget €1,200; REACH under €150 per job from 10 roles
all industries, 10 industry pages
Berlin, DACH
TalentBait
campaign platform
from €700 per 30-day campaign (provider); OMR lists €960 to €1,800 per month
care, trades, logistics, retail, production
Hamburg, DACH
Wonderkind
three AI agents, fixed CPQA
no prices published
care, logistics, field service
Netherlands, Europe
Social Natives
agency, fixed fee per position
€5,000 per position, €3,000 for further ones
industrial mid-market, trades, care
DACH
Candidates Attraction
agency, flat campaign prices
£347 for 7 days, £719 per month
warehouse, logistics, manufacturing, hospitality
London, UK
Boostpoint
managed service, subscription plus ad spend
ad budget from $750 per month and job category, subscription on request
healthcare, trucking, trades, manufacturing
Pennsylvania, USA
Workwise
success fee
14, 18 or 22 % of the annual salary, Premium plus €3,000 setup
all industries
DACH
1. Sprad Social Recruiting: transparent fee and a pool you keep
sprad.io
Screenshot of sprad.io, retrieved 3 October 2026.
Sprad Social Recruiting
Instagram and Facebook job ads with AI pre-screening
Price
Ad budget plus 10 %, from a €1,000 budget that can be split across roles (as of October 2026)
Best for
Frontline and skilled roles where you want to know exactly what you pay and keep every applicant.
Limits
Instagram and Facebook today; Google and TikTok follow. No guarantee of applicant numbers.
Sprad runs your job ads on Instagram and Facebook, where nurses, tradespeople and drivers spend time every day. An AI talent agent pre-screens every applicant via WhatsApp, phone or web, and every applicant lands in your own talent pool. You pay the ad budget plus 10 %, and the budget can be split across several roles. We recommend a runtime of three months.
Why first place: three things are rarely combined. The fee is visible before you start, so you can compare it with any package price. Applicants are pre-screened before your team spends time on them. And you pay for the reach once, but the contacts stay with you, so the next vacancy starts with your pool instead of a new campaign. The honest limits: Google and TikTok are announced, not live, and nobody can promise a number of applications. The product page shows the setup, this article explains why phone and WhatsApp work better than email for frontline roles.
2. HeyJobs: biggest reach, fixed packages
heyjobs.co
Screenshot of heyjobs.co, retrieved 3 October 2026.
HeyJobs
Berlin-based platform with managed job-ad packages
Price
HIRE from €400 per job and month, minimum budget €1,200; REACH under €150 per job from 10 roles (as of October 2026)
Best for
Employers who want one managed provider across many industries and a large pool of job seekers.
Limits
Fixed packages instead of free channel choice; the 4.5 million candidate pool belongs to HeyJobs, not to you.
HeyJobs, founded in Berlin in 2016, bundles budget into packages: HIRE focuses the budget on one role, REACH distributes it across ten or more. According to the provider, ads run on more than 50 channels. In August 2026 it launched Madita, an AI interviewer for first conversations, as an add-on. The strength shown in employer ratings is support. The recurring weak point is application quality: the employer ratings on jobboersencheck.de score it 4.41 of 7, the lowest category, and an OMR reviewer calls the results not convincing for the cost per position. The recommended runtime is three months.
3. TalentBait: many channels, short campaigns
talentbait.de
Screenshot of talentbait.de, retrieved 3 October 2026.
TalentBait
Hamburg-based recruiting performance platform
Price
From €700 per 30-day campaign according to the provider; OMR lists €960 to €1,800 per month depending on role type (as of October 2026)
Best for
Teams that want one vacancy pushed across many channels in a time-boxed campaign.
Limits
Prices differ between sources; the only OMR review mentions many applications without real intent.
Rating
OMR 5.0/5 (1 review)
TalentBait turns one vacancy into ads on up to 15 channels, among them TikTok, Instagram, Google and Spotify, and adds a short application form with AI screening. There is no subscription. Because the OMR listing has a single review, treat its 5.0 as an anecdote, not a rating. The provider also runs a large content programme with benchmarks and glossaries, which is useful for orientation.
4. Wonderkind: pay per qualified applicant
wonderkind.com
Screenshot of wonderkind.com, retrieved 3 October 2026.
Wonderkind
Dutch provider with three AI agents for attract, qualify and deliver
Price
No prices published; fixed price per qualified applicant (CPQA) according to the provider (as of October 2026)
Best for
Hiring teams that want to pay for qualified applicants rather than for clicks.
Limits
Without public prices you cannot compare before talking to sales; media costs are not shown.
Wonderkind runs ads on Meta, TikTok and Snap. An Attract agent builds and optimises campaigns, a Qualify agent screens applicants with knock-out questions on mobile, and a Deliver agent hands qualified candidates to your ATS. The billing model, a fixed price per qualified applicant, is the closest to a real performance deal in this list. The trade-off is transparency: the website names no prices.
5. Social Natives: agency with a fixed fee per position
socialnatives.de
Screenshot of socialnatives.de, retrieved 3 October 2026.
Social Natives
Agency for the industrial mid-market
Price
€5,000 per position, €3,000 for further positions (as of October 2026, according to the provider)
Best for
Mid-sized industrial companies that want a team to run everything for a few key roles.
Limits
€5,000 per position adds up across many roles; unclear whether the ad budget is included.
Rating
Google 4.9/5 (57 reviews, as shown on the provider's website)
Social Natives positions itself as the recruiting team for the industrial mid-market and names more than 400 customers. According to the provider, it commits in writing to at least five qualified interviews per position. That is a real guarantee, and it is priced accordingly. For two or three critical roles the fixed fee is easy to plan; for twenty open vacancies a budget-based model is usually cheaper.
6. Candidates Attraction: flat prices for high-volume hiring in the UK
candidatesattraction.com
Screenshot of candidatesattraction.com, retrieved 3 October 2026.
Candidates Attraction
London agency for AI-optimised social ads
Price
£347 for a 7-day campaign, £719 per month (as of October 2026); check whether ad spend is included
Best for
UK employers hiring many warehouse, logistics, manufacturing or hospitality staff quickly.
Limits
UK focus; the 60 % lower cost per application is a provider claim.
German
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Candidates Attraction runs Meta and TikTok campaigns for volume roles with a form that takes under a minute. The flat prices make it one of the few providers where the cost of a first test is clear. According to its website, campaigns are built within 24 hours and cut the cost per application by 60 % against job boards. Treat the claim as a provider statement.
7. Boostpoint: US benchmarks and a managed service
boostpoint.com
Screenshot of boostpoint.com, retrieved 3 October 2026.
Boostpoint
Managed Facebook, Instagram and TikTok job ads for the US
Price
Ad budget from $750 per month and job category; subscription quoted on request (as of October 2026)
Best for
US employers in healthcare, trucking, trades and manufacturing who want a managed service.
Limits
US market only; subscription price is not public.
German
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Boostpoint publishes what few others do: cost-per-applicant benchmarks. Its 2026 figures show a median of $13.88 per applicant across 891 campaigns, from $2.71 for customer service and $9.83 for warehouse and production to $19.08 for registered nurses and $26.86 for truck drivers. The company says $750 funds about 97 CNA applicants or 27 CDL driver applicants. These are US numbers and should not be transferred to DACH one to one, but they show how strongly cost varies by role.
8. Workwise: pay only when you hire
hire.workwise.io
Screenshot of hire.workwise.io, retrieved 3 October 2026.
Workwise
Recruiting platform with a success fee
Price
14, 18 or 22 % of the gross annual target salary; Premium plus €3,000 setup and six-month minimum; internship €500, working student €800 (as of October 2026)
Best for
Employers who want to pay only on a successful hire and accept a share of the salary for it.
Limits
Very high cost per hire for well-paid roles; no budget control over ads.
Workwise is the odd one out: it is not paid by ad budget but by result. The Basic tier costs 14 % of the annual salary and includes a job posting and access to a candidate pool of more than one million profiles. Plus (18 %) adds marketing across 350 channels and Google Ads, Premium (22 %) adds active sourcing and pre-qualification. For a role paying €40,000 the fee is €5,600 to €8,800. For many hires per year, a budget model comes out cheaper.
Decision matrix: which provider fits which situation?
Your situation
Look first at
Why
Many frontline roles, you want to keep applicants
Sprad Social Recruiting
transparent fee, pre-screening, own pool
One or two critical roles, little time
HeyJobs HIRE, Social Natives
managed service, someone else runs it
Short, time-boxed push on one vacancy
TalentBait, Candidates Attraction
fixed duration and price
You want to pay for qualified applicants only
Wonderkind
CPQA model, ask for the price
Few hires, high salaries, no ad risk
Workwise
success fee
You hire in the US
Boostpoint
benchmarks and managed service
What to check in the DACH and EU market
GDPR and data processing agreement: the provider processes applicant data for you. Ask for a data processing agreement and the place of processing.
Meta special ad category "Employment": for job ads, Meta limits targeting options such as age, gender and postcode-based audiences. Ask which limits apply in your country today and how the provider works within them. Do not accept the promise of precise demographic targeting.
Applicant data after the contract: who owns the applicant list, and can you export it?
Language: are ad copy, forms and screening available in the language of your candidates?
Checklist before you sign
Is the price listed, and does it include the ad budget?
What is the minimum term and the notice period?
How is an "applicant" defined: click, form or qualified?
Who screens applicants before you see them?
Do applicants end up in your ATS or pool, and can you export them?
Which channels run today, and which are announced?
Which reports do you get, per role and per channel?
Can the budget be shifted between roles?
What happens to your data at the end of the contract?
FAQ
What does performance recruiting cost?
There is no single price. Listed prices range from €400 per job and month at HeyJobs to €5,000 per position at Social Natives, and Workwise charges 14 to 22 % of the annual salary. With a budget model such as Sprad, you pay the ad budget plus 10 % from a €1,000 budget. All as of October 2026.
What is the difference between performance recruiting and social recruiting?
Social recruiting describes the channel, ads and posts on social networks. Performance recruiting describes the way of buying and steering: budget follows measurable results. Most providers in this list combine both.
Which billing model is best?
It depends on volume. Commission suits few, well-paid hires. Fixed fees per position suit a handful of critical roles. Budget plus fee suits many roles and ongoing hiring, because the cost scales with what you spend.
How long should a campaign run?
HeyJobs and Sprad both recommend about three months so that the ad system can optimise. Short campaigns of 7 to 30 days exist, but they leave little time for learning.
Want to see what a campaign would cost for your roles? The Social Recruiting page has a budget estimate, and the pricing page shows the credits for screening and sourcing.
