Costs and pricing
Part of How to budget for employer branding costs with a worked example
Employer branding return on investment explained for UK teams
A step-by-step method for calculating employer branding return on investment in England, covering cost baselines, attribution windows and honest reporting.
What to take away
Employer branding return on investment is the value a business attributes to brand activity divided by what that activity cost, measured over a stated period.
- Agree the cost baseline firstfees, salaries, media spend and internal time.
- Pick one primary measure, such as cost per hire or vacancy days, and keep it fixed.
- Set an attribution window before you start, not after the results arrive.
- Report a range, not a single figure, because recruitment data is noisy.
- Keep candidate data handling inside ICO rules throughout.
Set the cost baseline
Start by listing everything the programme consumes. Agency fees, job board spend, careers site hosting, production and internal hours all belong in the total.
Cost baseline checklist
- Agency fees
- Job board spend
- Careers site hosting
- Production costs
- Internal hours at salary plus NI
Internal time is the line teams forget. If a recruiter spends four hours a week on brand content, that is a real cost, priced at salary plus employer National Insurance.
Keep the baseline in pounds sterling and date it. A figure without a period is not a baseline. The costs and budget guide for England sets out the main cost lines if you need a starting structure.
Choose the return measure
Pick one primary measure and treat everything else as supporting evidence. Cost per hire is the most common choice because finance teams already recognise it.
Alternatives include time to hire, offer acceptance rate and application volume per vacancy.
Write down the measure, the formula and the data source before the campaign runs. Changing the measure later is the fastest way to lose credibility with a finance director.
Build the calculation
A simple model works for most teams. Take the change in your chosen measure, multiply by the volume of hires, and divide by total programme cost.
Worked example: 2.5 to 1
2.5 to 1 return ratio
£4,800 annual programme cost
Cost per hire falls £3,200 to £2,900
£12,000 saving across 40 hires
For example, a team paying £400 a month for brand content over twelve months spends £4,800. If cost per hire falls from £3,200 to £2,900 across 40 hires, the saving is £12,000, a ratio of roughly 2.5 to 1 on that measure alone.
Those figures are illustrative. Your own numbers must come from your applicant tracking system and payroll records.
| Input | Where it comes from | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Programme cost | Invoices and timesheets | £4,800 a year |
| Hires in period | Applicant tracking system | 40 |
| Cost per hire before | Finance and recruitment data | £3,200 |
| Cost per hire after | Finance and recruitment data | £2,900 |
| Attributable saving | Calculation | £12,000 |
Set the attribution window
An attribution window is the period you allow for brand activity to affect hiring outcomes. Twelve months is common for permanent roles; six months suits high-volume hiring.
State the window in every report. Without it, a good quarter gets credited to the campaign and a bad one blamed on the market.
Where you cannot separate brand activity from other changes, say so. A range, such as 1.5 to 2.5 to 1, is more honest than a single decimal.
Handle candidate data properly
Measuring return usually means tracking candidates across touchpoints, which brings data protection into scope. The ICO direct marketing guidance explains consent and legitimate interests for candidate outreach.
ONS figures on people not in work help you size the available talent pool, which matters when you claim a campaign widened your reach.
Present the result
Give the board three numbers: total cost, the primary measure before and after, and the ratio range. Add one sentence on what you cannot prove.
Recruitment vendors publish their own customer stories and testimonials, useful for due diligence but not evidence of your return.
If your organisation uses retainer or performance pricing, the pricing models guide explains how each structure changes the cost side of the calculation.
Common questions
How long before employer branding shows a return?
Most teams use a twelve-month window for permanent hiring and six months for high-volume roles. Anything shorter usually captures seasonal noise rather than brand effect.
Should I include internal time in the cost?
Yes. Salaried hours spent on content, events and reporting are a real cost. Excluding them flatters the ratio in a way finance teams will challenge.
What if I cannot isolate the brand effect?
Report a range and name the other factors, such as pay changes or market conditions. A stated range survives scrutiny better than a precise figure you cannot defend.
Is a ratio below 1 to 1 a failure?
Not necessarily. Early brand work often shows weak returns in year one and stronger results later, so track the trend rather than judging one window.
