Budget like a brand team

TL;DR: Most recruitment budgets focus on short-term conversion tactics like job ads. But lasting results come from investing across the full funnel, especially in brand building and consideration. Treat recruitment like brand marketing: attribute influence, not just clicks.  

Positioning recruitment marketing as an investment  

In Part One, we mapped the marketing funnel to the candidate journey. Now let’s look at how budgets align to each stage and why most TA spend is stacked at the wrong end.  

Recruitment marketing is often treated as a transactional cost: ad packs, campaign spends, sourcing tools, all justified based on forecasted hires. But what if we flipped the mindset?  

Start by thinking like a consumer  

Think about your own buying journey. You see the product, scroll past it, get an email, read a review, ask a friend.  

It’s rarely love at first click. You’ve been nudged, influenced, reassured. Recruitment is the same. What shows up in your ATS is just the checkout. The real decision-making? That happens upstream.  

Apply the Brand Team Playbook  

In consumer marketing, budget is allocated across:  

 Awareness Spend  

• Social content, EVP storytelling, careers site experience  

• Long-term brand building  

Consideration Spend  

• Talent pools, behind-the-scenes content, employee stories  

• Transparency and reputation building  

 Conversion Spend  

• Targeted job ads, sourcing campaigns, calls to action  

• The pointy end, but most effective when awareness and consideration are already working  

Why most TA budgets miss the mark  

Most recruitment spend goes into conversion tactics. It’s easy to measure: this ad got X clicks; this source led to a hire.  

But that only tells part of the story.  By focusing on the last click, we miss all the other touchpoints that influenced the decision to apply.  

The power of attribution in recruitment  

Attribution shows what actually influenced someone to apply, not just where they clicked. It helps:  

• Identify which channels work hardest (EVP content, referrals, reviews?)  

• Reveal where your spend is really generating value  

• Design better journeys for higher-quality hires  

At Haines, we see attribution as a strategic tool. Not just for reporting, but for giving TA teams insights, commercial clarity and credibility at the table.  

What happens when you budget like a brand team?  

You move from just filling roles to building:  

• Awareness and preference in your talent market  

• Smoother, more consistent candidate journeys  

• Higher quality hires, faster  

• A TA function seen as a strategic growth partner  

Because job ads? They’re rarely the start. More often, they’re the end.  Let’s move beyond transactional recruitment. Budget like a brand. Build like a business.  

Practical tips - start today:  

• Review your spend across Awareness, Consideration and Conversion – see what that looks like  

• Want a second opinion? Give us a yell