With roughly 1 billion total users and over 310 million monthly active users, LinkedIn is undeniably the powerhouse when it comes to professional networking and finding top talent.

In addition to those figures, on LinkedIn, 61 million people are looking for jobs every single week, so it’s worth posting a job advert and casting your net in hopes of catching some great talent. 

However, posting a job on LinkedIn can be quite a complex and expensive duty and there are a few things you should consider before doing so.

Here, we’ll break down everything you need to know about the costs of posting a job, the options available to you, and alternatives.

What is LinkedIn job posting?

LinkedIn allows companies and recruiters to post job adverts on their platform for free and at a fee. Recruiters can post a job ad and set certain barriers for applicants and have tons of candidates apply with their resumes.

The job ad will appear on the search results when candidates search for a specific role, or it may pop up if the ad seems relevant to a person’s LinkedIn profile. Below are promoted posts (paid posts) and recommended jobs.

When you post a job on LinkedIn, expect the number of applicants to be in the hundreds and even higher if it’s fully remote. So be prepared to filter out scores of unqualified candidates. 

Types of job posts on LinkedIn

There are two types of job posts on LinkedIn; a free job post and a promoted job post. 

Free job posts

LinkedIn allows you to post one job post for free. The job post is visible to your connections and gets a basic search result rank on LinkedIn’s job search, usually after the first few pages of a search.

You will also have access to an applicant management tool that allows you to filter candidates.

Promoted job posts

If you want to reach more candidates or post more than one job at a time, you’ll have to invest in promoted job posts.

Promoted job posts push your job towards the top of the search results, appear in the ‘recommended jobs’ section for candidates that match your job description, and LinkedIn will alert relevant candidates as soon as the job post goes live.

How much does it cost? 

LinkedIn charges for promoted job posts on either a Self-serve model or a contract. 

Self-serve (Cost-Per-Click) 

With the Self-serve model, you set a daily budget or total budget for the job post and LinkedIn will charge you for every click you get on your post.

You won’t be charged for clicking on your own job post, for multiple views from the same LinkedIn profile, or for views from users who aren’t signed into LinkedIn.

For example, if you set your total budget to $600 for 30 days, the job post may not reach that amount in clicks but will automatically pause if it does. You’ll then have to increase the budget or close the ad. If for instance your ad only reaches $465 of the $600, you’ll get the remainder back in ad credit. 

Image credit: Taplio

This also applies if you set out a daily budget. However, you can be charged up to 1.3x over the daily average budget in one day.

LinkedIn determines the cost of each click by evaluating:

• The number of similar jobs on the market.
• The job’s location.
• The traffic on competing job ads.

In other words, the cost-per-click will go higher or lower based on the activity for similar jobs on that day. 

You can calculate the cost of each click by dividing the total spend for the day by the number of views the job has received. 

Contract

The second option is a contract. This model is reserved for accounts that meet certain criteria, so you’ll have to contact the LinkedIn team to see if you qualify.

If you do indeed qualify, LinkedIn will give you the option of signing up for a 6-month or 12-month contract in which you set detailed targeting criteria for potential candidates, activate your campaign, and get billed for every qualified candidate that applies to your job post. 

For example: You’re recruiting a Blockchain developer with experience in both Solidity and Rust, is based in Berlin, and is fluent in both English and German. You set these as must-haves with the LinkedIn team, sign up for the job post to run for 6 months, and get billed at the end of the 6 months for every qualified candidate who applied. 

Pricing for these job posts contracted with LinkedIn can vary. But you can count on about $1500 - 3000 per job post that is active for a limited period.

This model is used somewhat in collaboration with LinkedIn. They essentially boost your job post and set parameters to recruit for you and get paid for every qualified candidate that applies. However, it can get very expensive at the end of your contract.

Monitoring your job posts

You can monitor your spending at any point from your account, view analytics on your job ad(s), and change the budget, granted the total amount hasn’t been reached.

Simply click on the “Jobs” icon on your LinkedIn home page and then on ”Manage job”.

You’ll also have access to an applicant management tool in the “Jobs” section where you can view the profiles and resumes of candidates who applied. 

The billing cycle

The billing cycle begins on the day you create the job post and you will be charged every 30 days until you reach your budget or if you close your ad beforehand. If you choose to close your ad, you can resume it at any time or create a new one with the credit balance of the original ad.

Alternatives

As LinkedIn’s sales and recruitment products are generally very expensive, you might be wondering what else is out there. Here are a couple of options: 

Job boards

You can find tons of relevant candidates by posting ads on job boards, such as

Indeed

Indeed is the most popular job search engine that connects employers with a vast pool of qualified candidates.

They offer a pay-per-application model where you only pay for applications that meet all your requirements.

You get increased job post visibility and ad placement in job seeker search results, on the Indeed search homepage, and in job seeker emails. 

Monster

Monster is a diverse online job search platform. Their job posting includes a monthly subscription plan that gives you the flexibility to promote an unlimited number of jobs and lets you search and engage candidates with Monster’s CV Search. 

You can also Invite multiple team members to collaborate for no additional charge. 

Glassdoor

Glassdoor started as an employee review site that allowed people to post anonymous reviews of their company and insights into their salary and quickly became a global job board where employers and recruiters could post job ads. They now have over 67 million monthly users.

Glassdoor offers recruiters a do-it-yourself 30-day job listing for $190 and also lets you post 10 jobs for free.

Alternative professional networks

Stackoverflow

Stack Overflow is a widely recognized and highly popular online community for software programmers and developers. Originally known for its question-and-answer format, Stack Overflow has evolved to offer a dedicated job board that connects tech companies with talented professionals.

They have a tight-knit community of highly qualified software developers but charge over $5000 per year to post a job on the platform. 

XING

Xing is a professional networking platform similar to LinkedIn, primarily used in German-speaking countries and parts of Europe, and has a user base of just under 20 million. You can post job posts and choose the price as ads on XING work on an auction basis, meaning that your ad competes with other ads aimed at the same target talent pool. 

So for top candidates, this could come at a price. 

HeroHunt.ai

HeroHunt.ai is an AI-powered talent search engine that leverages all of the popular online platforms, including LinkedIn, GitHub, StackOverflow, and Twitter to find over 1 billion candidates at a fraction of the cost of LinkedIn’s products. 

Simply parse a job description and get tons of qualified candidates in your search results. You can then set up email sequences to engage with the top candidates as well as receive analytics on your engagement and go fully autonomous with RecruitGPT. 

Plans start at $97 per month which gives you full contact details of 1 billion+ candidates with unlimited searches. 

It is worth your time to give the free trial a go and see for yourself before investing in LinkedIn’s job posting.