Job boards are getting more expensive and less effective. You’ve probably felt this in your operations. The data confirms it.

Drawing on over 302 million clicks and 27 million applications, Appcast’s 10th Annual Recruitment Marketing Benchmark Report found that in 2025, job openings declined and hiring activity slowed, yet cost-per-application and cost-per-hire both increased dramatically. This wasn’t because candidates were scarce. It was price increases on job boards and programmatic media.

This trend isn’t reversing. StaffingHub’s recent Sourcing Effectiveness Benchmark Report found that 76% of agencies expect job board prices to keep climbing over the next 12 months. If your agency depends on job boards, you will pay more for the same outcomes.

But the cost trajectory isn’t even the biggest problem. The bigger issue is structural: job board costs are disconnected from your revenue. You’re paying for volume, not results. You pay whether a candidate gets hired, whether they stay, and whether they ever work with you again.

Now imagine a sourcing channel where you only pay when you make a placement. Where the cost is tied directly to the revenue it generates. That channel already exists in your agency. You’re probably just underusing it.

It’s your referral network.

Why the most profitable placements come from referrals

Job boards sell reach. But reach isn’t the same as quality, and the gap between the two is where budget quietly disappears.

The numbers tell the story clearly. An analysis of 2025 Avionté customer placements found that referrals led all sourcing channels at 34% of gross profit. Job boards drove just 25%, while also being a major cost center. The Sourcing Effectiveness report adds another dimension: 36% of agencies report that job board hires have a lower than average retention rate. Poor retention means incomplete assignments, emergency replacements, and damaged client relationships. These costs never appear in your cost-per-application calculation but absolutely show up in your margins.

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