RPO or marketing
Campaigns get candidates moving. But who screens them, calls them and guides them to a contract afterwards? Here you'll see honestly where campaign work stops and what else is needed.
What is the difference between a recruitment marketing agency and RPO?
A recruitment marketing agency creates campaigns and delivers reach and applicants; follow-up and selection remain your job. With RPO, marketing is one part of a complete approach: from proposition and campaigns to screening, follow-up and steering toward actual hires.
Recruitment marketing within our approachCampaign agency and RPO side by side
The comparison| Recruitment marketing agency | SocialFind RPO | |
|---|---|---|
| Where responsibility ends | At the applicant or the lead form | At the hire, the whole funnel counts |
| Steering metric | Reach, clicks and cost per applicant | Qualified candidates and cost per hire |
| Candidate follow-up | Not included, speed depends on your team | Screening and fast personal follow-up included |
| Sourcing passive talent | Usually not part of the service | Sourcing and Thought Leader Recruitment in the same approach |
| Feedback loop | Campaign data disconnected from what happens with candidates | Funnel data adjusts campaigns weekly |
| Employer branding | Often strong in creative and visibility | Just as strong, and tied to the entire hiring process |
| Suitable for | Organizations with a strong recruitment engine of their own | Organizations that want to steer toward hires, not clicks |
Applicants are not hires
Where it goes wrong
A successful campaign that nobody follows up on is wasted media budget. Candidates drop out when a response takes days, and the campaign data never tells you why. If you want to steer toward hires, you need the entire funnel in one pair of hands.
How our screening and follow-up worksA campaign is one part of perhaps ten that have to be right before someone is hired. We do not stop at reach, clicks or applications.
When is a campaign agency enough?
If your internal recruitment is in good shape, external creative and media power can be exactly the missing piece. Strong campaigns, your team calling every applicant within a day: that works. Fair is fair, in that situation you don't need to buy a complete approach.
Why campaigns alone often disappoint
The classic pattern: the campaign runs, the applicants come in, and then it goes quiet. Follow-up piles up with an overloaded recruitment team, candidates meanwhile choose an employer who did respond quickly, and the conclusion, unfairly, is that the campaign didn't work. The leak is almost always after the form.
What does RPO do differently?
In our way of working, campaign and follow-up are one system. Recruitment marketing gets the right people moving, screening and candidate follow-up turn them into conversations and hires, and the funnel data adjusts the campaigns weekly. You're not paying for clicks but for a working whole, under your own name.
How do you choose?
Ask yourself one question: where does it get stuck right now, before or after the application? If inflow is too low, creative and media may be the answer. If inflow doesn't turn into hires, the problem sits deeper in the funnel. The recruitment diagnosis pinpoints the leak before you send budget anywhere.
If creative is the answer, video is often the first question. When a video does more than a photo and what belongs in it is covered in Does a recruitment video work, and what should go in it?
Steering toward hires, not clicks?
Tell us how your hiring runs today and where it stalls. You'll hear honestly whether you're missing a campaign, or a funnel.
Frequently asked questions about marketing agencies and RPO
Then the leak is probably between application and interview: slow follow-up, unclear selection criteria or a clunky process. More campaign budget will not fix that. First map out the funnel step by step, then you can see exactly where candidates drop off and what that costs.
Marketing is one of our capabilities, but it is not what we are judged on. Our work only counts when someone starts. That is why every campaign comes with screening, follow-up and funnel data, and why we stop channels that generate clicks but no hires.
We can. Some clients keep their brand agency for broad branding, while we run the recruitment campaigns, funnels and follow-up. What matters is one owner for the whole, so campaigns and follow-up stay aligned.
Because cheap applicants can be expensive. A channel that delivers lots of cheap but unsuitable responses wins on cost per applicant and loses on everything that matters. Cost per hire ties your budget to the only result that truly counts: someone who starts and stays.
Completely. Everything we create appears under your name and within your brand, from ads to messages to candidates. In fact, every campaign should build your employer brand, so consistency with your brand is a hard requirement for us.