Recruitment marketing guides

Every guide we publish, in one place: what a job applicant costs, where to advertise, how to write the ad, what agencies charge, and the industry data behind each. 44 guides, grouped by the question they answer. Figures come from Boostpoint-managed campaigns and are updated as new data lands.

• Start here
• Where to advertise
• Job ads, creative and templates
• Hiring events and volume hiring
• What hiring costs
• Labor-market data
• Process, speed and candidate experience
• Rules and compliance
• By industry

Start here

The eight pages most people should read first.

• What a job applicant actually costs: 2026 benchmarks891 campaigns, the full distribution by role and sector — not a single average.
• What makes a good job adThe seven parts of an ad that gets applications, with a grader.
• Recruiting email templatesSix you will actually use, with a builder.
• How to fill open positions fastTriage for this week, this month and permanently.
• Candidate pipelineSize it from hires backwards, using real apply rates.
• Recruiting analytics: the metrics that matterThe five numbers worth a dashboard, and the ones that mislead.
• How to hire employees for a small businessFour setup tasks and four deadlines, from the EIN to the W-2.
• Recruiting strategies, ranked by what they changeEight strategies ordered by the share of cost variation each one actually explains.

Where to advertise

Channels, platforms and what each one costs.

• Social media job advertisingHow paid job ads reach workers who aren't searching.
• Facebook ads for recruitingRules, costs and setup under the Special Ad Category.
• Instagram recruitingThe same campaign, on the screen where the under-30 pool is.
• TikTok recruitingHow TikTok ads work for hiring, and who they reach.
• Reddit recruitingWhat the SEC filings say the audience actually is, and what the channel is good for.
• Programmatic job advertisingHow programmatic buying works and what it costs.
• Indeed alternatives for employersNine channels graded, with published pricing where it exists.
• Beyond job boardsFive alternatives with cost per applicant attached.
• Facebook ads vs. job boardsA 2026 cost comparison on reach, completion and time to hire.
• How to post a job on FacebookLocal Jobs, Page posts, groups and paid ads — what each one actually reaches.
• How to advertise a job openingWhat every channel publishes, what most of them refuse to, and the order to use them in.
• Geofencing recruitingWhen a fence around a location beats a radius, and when it gets expensive.
• How to find employeesNine ways to get applicants when no one is applying, with what each channel reaches and costs.

Job ads, creative and templates

What to say, how to film it, and templates to copy.

• Job description templates21 frontline roles with duties, pay data and copy-paste templates.
• Recruiting video ideas and scriptsTwelve ideas and three timestamped scripts you can shoot on a phone.
• Caregiver, CNA and nurse job ad templatesAd copy for the roles that are hardest to fill.
• High-converting job ads on socialHow the first two lines decide the application rate.
• Help wanted ad examplesFifteen ads that get answered, taken apart line by line.
• Recruitment flyer templatesFour print formats, ready to fill in.
• Employment application formThe fields a paper application needs, and a version you can print.
• Job posting template and 10 frontline examplesNine blocks, ten openings you can copy, and where a pay range is now legally required.
• 60 recruitment slogansLines by trade, a five-shape formula for writing your own, and the three kinds that backfire.

Hiring events and volume hiring

Filling many seats at once, or on a deadline.

• Open house hiring eventsFive stations, who owns each, and how each one fails.
• Virtual hiring eventsFormats, registration math and what fills the room.
• On-the-spot hiring and walk-insWhether same-day offers actually work.
• Mass hiringStaffing a surge without a surge budget.
• Group interviews for employersWhen the format works, the 75-minute structure, and a planner that sizes the day.
• Peak season staffingPlanning backwards from the first day you need people.
• How to fill open shiftsNights, weekends and the shifts nobody wants — what actually moves the fill rate.

What hiring costs

Agencies, RPO and outsourcing, priced against doing it yourself.

• Staffing agency markup and feesWhat recruiters charge and how the markup is built.
• How staffing agencies make moneyMarkups, fees and where the margin sits.
• RPO costWhat recruitment process outsourcing charges, by model.
• PEO costThe two pricing models, and a normaliser for two quotes.
• Outsourced recruitment marketing feesFive fee models ranked by how checkable the cost is.
• Staffing agency vs. in-house recruitingHow to decide, with the break-even math.
• Therapy staffing costsPT, OT and SLP: the most expensive applicants we measure.
• Talent acquisition strategyA two-page annual plan: forecast from separations, price the channel mix per applicant, name an owner.

Labor-market data

Our own analysis of BLS, JOLTS and HRSA series — the numbers the rest of these guides are built on.

• The skilled trades shortage, measuredOpenings are below the all-industry rate. The shortage is replacement, not growth.
• The HVAC technician shortage88% of the 40,600 openings a year are replacement, and July needs 58,900 more people than January.
• The healthcare workforce shortage, by role1.3 million openings a year across the five largest roles. 91% of them are replacement.
• Nursing shortage solutions108,960 RN full-time equivalents short by 2038 — 11% in nonmetro areas against 2% in metro.
• Restaurant labor costsLabor’s share of sales fell from 32.3% to 28.9% while hourly pay rose 56%.
• Hiring metrics benchmarksTime to fill, cost per hire and apply rate, with the source series behind each one.
• When is hiring seasonMonth-by-month hiring curves for ten industries, from federal data.

Process, speed and candidate experience

Where applicants are lost after the click.

• Shorten the hiring processCut the application to under a minute and decide within the week.
• UnderstaffingThree numbers that tell you whether the shortfall is structural, and which one is binding.
• Improve candidate experienceTwo levers and nine fixes, in order of cost.
• Video interviewsWhere the step belongs, and the notice and consent rules in three jurisdictions.
• Pre-employment assessmentsValidation, the four-fifths rule and the ADA line, with a calculator.
• Map the candidate journeySix stages and where frontline candidates actually drop off.
• The recruitment marketing funnelStages, conversion rates and how to fix each one.
• How to use text recruitingThe workflow, the rules and twelve message templates.
• Text recruiting softwareAutomating the follow-up that doubles interview rates.
• How to find more candidatesTen ways, ordered by cost and speed.
• Passive candidate recruitingReaching the 23 employed workers for every one who is searching.
• Why you can't find employeesFive fixes, and the market data behind them.
• Interview scorecard templateBuild a weighted scorecard with anchored ratings, then download the CSV.
• Hiring plan templateHeadcount, turnover and time to fill in; how many to hire and by when out.
• Recruitment tracker templateOne row per candidate, your own stages, and the days-in-stage column. Download the CSV.
• Skills-based hiringSwapping a proxy for a measure, on jobs that never required a degree.
• Interview questions to ask candidatesA structured set that scores every candidate the same way.
• How to vet a candidateThe sequence in legal order, with the federal rule that fixes each step in place.
• Recruiting text message templatesTwelve one-segment templates, plus the consent, opt-out and carrier rules that decide whether you can send them.
• How to interview someoneA structured process for supervisors: three criteria, an eight-minute phone screen, a 45-minute format and same-day decisions.
• Working interview: the paid trial shiftWhat a trial shift is, why it is paid time under the FLSA, a four-hour format and what to grade.
• Interview schedulingText first, two slots or a one-tap link, and the reminders that cut no-shows.

Rules and compliance

What you can and can't do in an employment ad.

• Hiring compliance: what attaches at each stageThe four federal deadlines, and the state rules on ads, screening, offers and schedules.
• Meta Special Ad Category for employment adsWhat targeting is removed, and what to do instead.
• OFCCP job posting requirementsAd compliance for federal contractors.
• EEO statementWhen one is required, the exact regulatory wording, and a builder.
• Federal Bonding ProgramFree theft cover on a fair-chance hire, for the first six months.
• Unpaid internship lawsThe federal seven-factor test, and where states go further.
• Work authorizationWhich documents an employer may accept, and what changed in October 2025.
• AI screeningFive different tools, and which rules already bind each of them in 2026.
• Fair workweek lawsFive jurisdictions read at source, and what each schedule change costs.
• DOT drug testing requirementsThe six testing occasions and what each one triggers, with the deadlines.
• WARN Act by stateThe 14 states that add real obligations, and the 5 that only look like it.
• Labor law posters by stateThe official free source for all 51 jurisdictions. You do not have to buy them.

By industry

Cost, channel and role data for the sectors we run campaigns in.

• Healthcare and senior care recruitingRNs, CNAs, caregivers and therapy roles.
• Truck driver recruitingCDL drivers, owner-operators and grads.
• Skilled trades recruitingElectricians, plumbers, HVAC, welders and crews.
• Manufacturing and warehouse recruitingMachinists, operators and production staff.
• Frontline hiringRetail, hospitality, call center, cleaning and security.
• Agriculture and co-op recruitingApplicators, drivers and seasonal crews.
• Compact nursing statesThe 40 states where you can hire a nurse without a second license.
• CNA reciprocityThere is no compact. What actually transfers between states, and the federal floor.
• Healthcare recruiting strategiesPriced by role: caregiver applicants at $3.76, therapy at $74.62.
• MVR checksThe three clocks a motor carrier is running, under 391.23, 391.25 and the FCRA.
• Entry-level driver trainingELDT binds the driver, not the carrier. What a carrier actually has to do.
• Retail recruitment strategiesHoliday hiring is shrinking: 461,500 added in 2025, the smallest peak in the series.
• Landscaper interview questionsWhat to ask crew and foreman hires so they last the season.