Costs and pricing
Part of How to budget for employer branding costs with a worked example
Which costs should a UK employer branding budget include?
Employer branding cost guide for England: which sources price pay, data protection fees and campaign spend, plus a worked example with labelled pound figures.
What to take away
- Four lines carry a UK employer branding budgetstatutory fees, supplier fees, internal staff time and measurement.
- The main statutory cash cost is the ICO data protection fee, published in three tiers (£52, £78 and £3,763).
- ONS earnings data anchors pay messaging, but it prices no careers site, video shoot or media plan.
- Creative and media work has no official schedule, so each figure needs a written supplier quote.
- Label every number as sourced or illustrative before finance sees it.
The four cost lines every budget needs
Start with categories, not totals. A single lump sum invites challenge, while four separate lines can be tested one at a time.
| Cost line | What it covers | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Statutory | ICO fee, legal review of adverts | Published fee schedule and legal advice |
| Supplier | Strategy, creative, production, media | Written supplier quotes |
| Internal | Recruiter and marketing hours, approvals | Payroll data and time estimates |
| Contingency | Rework, extra shoot days, platform change | Percentage of supplier spend |
The structure behind that table is set out in the costs and budget guide for England, which is worth reading before sending a first draft to finance.
Statutory costs: the ICO data protection fee
Most organisations that process personal data must pay the ICO data protection fee and renew it each year. The tier depends on organisation size, not on how many candidate records you hold.
- 1,Tier £52: no more than 10 staff, or turnover up to £632,000.
- 2,Tier £78: no more than 250 staff, or turnover up to £36 million.
- 3,Tier £3,763: more than 250 staff and turnover above £36 million.
The fee is set by law and reviewed periodically, so confirm the current amount before sign-off.
Candidate data also brings duties under the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR, including access requests and retention limits. Those duties consume staff time rather than generating invoices.
What official pay data covers, and where it stops
The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings is the reference point for pay. Its 2025 release, covering April 2025 and published that October, reported median gross annual pay of £39,039 for full-time employees in the UK.
The survey breaks earnings down by occupation, region and working pattern, so a team hiring nurses in Leeds and engineers in Bristol can quote two medians from one source.
Quote the release period with any figure. A national median rarely survives a hiring manager who knows the going rate for a specialism.
The survey says nothing about agency fees, media spend or the hours your recruiters spend shortlisting.
ONS pay data vs market costs
ONS release
- Pay by occupation
- Yes
- Pay by region
- Yes
- Working pattern
- Yes
- Careers site cost
- No
- Video shoot cost
- No
- Agency cost
- No
- Recruiter hours
- No
Market and internal
- Pay by occupation
- No
- Pay by region
- No
- Working pattern
- No
- Careers site cost
- Yes
- Video shoot cost
- Yes
- Agency cost
- Yes
- Recruiter hours
- Yes
Compliance and advertising costs people forget
Recruitment advertising must meet the CAP Code, which requires adverts to be legal, decent, honest and truthful (ASA advertising codes).
- Legal review of adverts and EVP claims under the Equality Act 2010.
- Accessible careers site content.
- Retention and deletion rules for candidate records.
- Supplier due diligence, including data processing terms.
- Sign-off time across HR, legal and marketing.
Each item consumes internal hours, and that time belongs in the budget even without an invoice.
Compliance cost checklist
- Apply Data Protection Act principles
- Set retention rules for candidate records
- Handle access requests
- Run supplier checks
- Add ICO fee as hard cost
- Confirm tier on ICO page
The advertising rules for England article sets out which claims need evidence before a campaign goes live.
Example: a 12-month plan for a 180-person employer
A professional services firm in Birmingham with 180 staff, hiring 30 people this year, would sit in ICO tier 2. Every figure below is an illustrative example, not a market rate.
| Line | Basis | Illustrative annual cost |
|---|---|---|
| Strategy and messaging refresh | Fixed project fee | £12,000 |
| Careers site rework | Fixed project fee | £9,500 |
| Video and photography | Two shoot days | £6,000 |
| Paid social recruitment campaign | Monthly media budget | £2,400 |
| Measurement and reporting | Quarterly review | £3,600 |
| ICO data protection fee | Tier 2, statutory | £78 |
| Internal coordination | 0.2 FTE | £8,000 |
| Total | £41,578 |
Price the plan in four steps:
- Fix the statutory line once your tier is confirmed.
- Ask three suppliers for the same written scope.
- Convert internal hours into a cost using payroll data.
- Hold contingency at 10 to 15 per cent of supplier spend.
Replace every illustrative figure with a quote before approval. The total moves once real rates arrive.
Comparing supplier pricing models
Quotes rarely arrive in the same shape, which makes like-for-like comparison hard.
- Retainer
- predictable monthly cost, weaker link to output.
- Project
- fixed scope and price, with change requests billed.
- [Performance
- fee tied](/employer-branding-return-on-investment-in-england) to hires, the hardest model to audit.
Normalise each quote to the same scope, timeline and deliverable list before comparing totals.
A quote is comparable only when the scope, timeline and deliverable list match.
The employer branding pricing models in England article explains why a fixed scope protects both sides and how to convert one model into another for comparison.
Common questions
Which ICO fee tier applies to my organisation?
Tier 1 covers no more than 10 staff or turnover up to £632,000. Tier 2 covers up to 250 staff or turnover up to £36 million, and tier 3 applies above those limits.
Is the ICO fee the only statutory cost?
It is the main fixed one. Legal review of adverts, accessibility work and retention rules cost staff time instead.
Can I quote ONS pay figures in job adverts?
Yes, if you name the release period, occupation and region. Do not present a national median as your own pay rate.
What total should a first programme expect?
There is no official total. The 180-person example above lands near £41,578 in illustrative figures, and your scope and quotes will move it.
