Analyse this
Some sectors also spend a lot more than others. Law firms spend Marketing budgets Samuel Gordon B
y the time you read this, our 2015 Annual Survey will be out and (fingers crossed)
you’ll all be busy acting on the findings. We’ve packed in a lot of insight and are keen to keep making our analysis more relevant and engaging for you.
In line with this, I’m also pleased to be starting this regular column to share more of our analysis! This month, we’re focussing on your budgets for marketing and attraction.
Benchmark your marketing spend with your sector First, it’s worth reminding ourselves of what we already know. AGR currently captures the total money spent by employers on marketing activities, so we have several years of benchmarks for the marketing spend per hire as well as total budgets for specific things.
According to our 2015 Winter Review, our employers spent a total of £20.5 million on marketing in the 2013-14 season. However, given that these respondents represented around 60% of our membership, the total spend is more likely to be in the region of £35 million across the country.
Per hire, marketing spend was around £2,000 in 2013-14, or around
£27 per candidate application. There are clearly some economies of scale here too. The more graduates that were hired, the less that was spent on each one. Firms who hire less than 25 graduates spend around £3,113 per hire on marketing, while those who employ more than 500 graduates spend much less at around £405.
Some sectors also spend a lot more than others. Law firms spend around twice as much as anyone else, with an average of £5,382 per hire. Retail and Public sector spend the least, with £893 and £833 respectively.
If you’re trying to secure investment for your marketing, it’s worth using benchmarks for your sector and size of intake.
Balance offline and online spending Take note: spending on social media has passed a tipping point. While less than half (44.4%) of employers set a budget for social media marketing in 2013-14, this increased to 52.5% of employers during the 2014-15 season. More employers are allocating money to this activity.
Despite the buzz about marketing to a digital generation though, more money is still being spent on physical rather than virtual
around twice as much as anyone else, with an average of £5,382 per hire. Retail and Public sector spend the least, with £893 and £833 respectively.
activities. The combined spend for on-campus activities and print materials average £41,991 in the 2013-14 season, while the combined average for social media and other online activity was lower at £35,601.
Our data shows that spending on online marketing is important, but it should complement rather than substitute an on-campus presence.
Give marketing a good chunk of your recruitment budgets Marketing seems to be a high share of your total recruitment budgets too. I took a look at total recruitment costs per hire for 2014-15 (from our 2015 Annual Survey) and compared these with the marketing cost per hire in 2013-14. While these two sets of data aren’t directly comparable – they’re
from different surveys carried out at different times of year – they do provide a ballpark estimate of how much marketing matters.
On average, marketing seems to account for around 50% of your total recruitment spend per hire. It seems to be the lowest share of the budget in the Public, FMCG and Energy and utilities sectors and the highest share of the budget in IT. Our data supports the idea that sectors with higher exposure to the public find it easier to attract their candidates, except in the cases where they’re recruiting for specialist skills. This is worth bearing in mind.
How will marketing budgets change in future? Use our data to get your business thinking. We look forward to hearing how you get on. n
www.agr.org.uk | Graduate Recruiter 33
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