Your marketing cost per hire is your total recruiting spend for a period divided by the number of people still on the crew two weeks after they started. That single number tells you whether recruiting is working. The steps before it (applicants, replies, screenings, interviews) tell you where it isn't.
This guide uses round, made-up example numbers so you can follow the arithmetic and replace them with your own. It covers marketing costs only; it says nothing about wages, which are yours to decide.
The five numbers to track
Answer first: count people at five points, by role and by source. A spreadsheet is enough.
- Applicants. Everyone who called, texted or applied.
- Reached. Applicants you actually spoke to or got a reply from.
- Screened. Reached applicants who meet your basic requirements.
- Interviewed or trialled. People who came in for an interview or a trial day.
- Two-week hires. People still on the crew 14 days after starting.
Record the source for every applicant: which ad, which board, which referral, which truck decal. Without the source, you can't tell which spend is working.
A worked example
Say you spend $2,000 on recruiting ads over a month for experienced roofers. Here is what comes back:
| Step | Count | Conversion from previous step | Marketing cost per person at this step |
|---|---|---|---|
| Applicants | 50 | – | $40 |
| Reached | 20 | 40% | $100 |
| Screened | 12 | 60% | $167 |
| Interviewed or trialled | 6 | 50% | $333 |
| Two-week hires | 2 | 33% | $1,000 |
Your marketing cost per two-week hire is $1,000. Now look at the conversion column. The worst drop is between applicants and reached: 60% of the people you paid for were never contacted. That is where to act first, not on the ad budget.
What a faster reply does to the maths
Answer first: rescuing applicants you already paid for lowers cost per hire with zero extra spend.
Keep the same $2,000 and the same 50 applicants. Suppose you add an instant text reply and call screened applicants the same day, and your reach rate rises from 40% to 80%. If every later step converts at the same rate:
| Step | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Applicants | 50 | 50 |
| Reached | 20 | 40 |
| Screened | 12 | 24 |
| Interviewed or trialled | 6 | 12 |
| Two-week hires | 2 | 4 |
| Cost per two-week hire | $1,000 | $500 |
The ad didn't change. The reply did. Real results won't be this tidy, but the direction is reliable, which is why our applicant text-back service is often the first fix we suggest.
Finding your own leak
Answer first: compare your conversion at each step with what is realistic, and fix the lowest one.
Use these questions as a diagnostic, step by step:
- Few applicants? The ad's message or reach is the problem. See the job ad guide.
- Many applicants, few reached? Reply speed. Someone needs to answer within minutes, not days.
- Many reached, few screened? The ad is attracting the wrong people. Make the requirements and the type of work clearer.
- Many screened, few interviewed? The handoff is slow, or interview times don't suit people who are working. Offer early-morning or late-afternoon slots.
- Many trialled, few still there at two weeks? The job doesn't match the ad, or day one is chaotic. Show the work honestly with crew video and plan the first week.
Fix one step at a time, and give each change a few weeks before judging it.
Comparing channels fairly
Answer first: compare channels on cost per two-week hire, never on cost per applicant.
A cheap social ad might bring applicants at $15 each while a job board costs $60 each. That looks like an easy decision. But if the social applicants rarely pass screening and the board applicants often do, the board can be cheaper per hire.
Example, one month per channel:
| Channel | Spend | Applicants | Two-week hires | Cost per hire |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Social ads | $900 | 60 | 1 | $900 |
| Job board | $1,200 | 20 | 2 | $600 |
| Referral bonus program | $500 | 4 | 2 | $250 |
The referral line is a reminder that your own crew is often your cheapest recruiting channel. How you structure any referral reward is your decision; check it against your own policies and provincial rules. Note that two hires per channel is a small sample. Run the comparison over a season before cutting anything.
What an empty seat costs
Answer first: estimate lost capacity in revenue terms so you can judge recruiting spend against something real.
Say a full four-person crew completes a $16,000 re-roof in two days, so the crew produces about $8,000 of work per day. Short one person, the same job takes three days, and daily output falls to about $5,300. The gap is about $2,700 per working day.
| Working days short-handed | Work delayed or lost |
|---|---|
| 5 | about $13,500 |
| 10 | about $27,000 |
| 20 | about $54,000 |
These are revenue figures, not profit, and your own crew output will differ. But even rough numbers make the point: a recruiting cost of $500 to $1,000 per two-week hire is small next to a crew running short for a month of good weather. Timing matters too, which is why the hiring season calendar puts most recruiting work before the season, not during it.
Common maths mistakes
- Counting starts instead of two-week hires. Early quits disappear from the numbers and make bad channels look good.
- Judging after one week. Hiring volumes are small. Wait for at least four weeks per channel.
- Forgetting the untracked. If you don't ask "where did you hear about us?" you can't credit the right channel.
- Leaving out free channels. Referrals and truck signs cost little, so they deserve tracking too.
- Cutting spend in the middle of the season. Mid-season quits happen. A small always-on budget usually costs less than an emergency push.
A simple tracking sheet
Set up one row per applicant with these columns: date, name, role, source, reached (yes/no), screened (yes/no), interviewed (yes/no), start date, still on crew at 14 days (yes/no). Keep it in a shared file your company owns, and treat applicant details as personal information under Canada's privacy rules, summarised by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
At the end of each month, add up the columns and divide your spend through them. That's the whole method. If you'd like us to run it with you, see our services or contact us.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as a hire in these calculations?
Someone still on the crew two weeks after starting. Counting day-one starts flatters the numbers, because roofing sees a lot of early quits.
Should we include our office manager's time?
For a full picture, yes. Estimate the hours spent on calls and screening, and add a cost for that time. This guide keeps it to marketing spend so the examples stay simple.
How many weeks of data do we need?
At least four weeks per channel, ideally a full hiring season. Hiring numbers are small, so one good or bad week can mislead you.
Does this include wages?
No. These calculations cover marketing and recruiting costs only. Pay is your decision and is deliberately left out.