Evaluate recruitment campaigns using spending, qualified applicants, starts and retained hires from aggregated exports. Define comparable hiring cohorts, calculate cost per outcome and separate those measures from a financial ROI that requires verified monetary benefits.
Recruitment marketing ROI needs a verified monetary benefit as well as campaign spending; hiring counts alone do not supply that benefit. When the value is unknown, evaluate campaign cost per qualified applicant, per start and per retained hire. Those measures answer an employer's budget question without turning employees into assumed revenue.
Choose the role family, location, campaign intake dates and qualification rule. A campaign attracting candidates for one kind of job is not directly comparable with a campaign recruiting for a different skill level or work schedule. Keep those cohorts separate before ranking sources.
Define qualified applicants against the documented job requirements, not a different screening threshold for each channel. The US Office of Personnel Management's job analysis guidance describes examining job tasks, required competencies and their relationship as the foundation for assessment and selection. That supports a practical measurement rule: establish job-related qualifications first and count against the same rule afterward.
Also define the hire milestone. An accepted offer, a scheduled start and an employee who actually starts are different events. This example uses actual starts. Its retention measure asks whether the employee remains employed at an agreed checkpoint after the start date, rather than whether the recruiting system still lists an open offer.
The financial formula is explained in marketing ROI versus ROAS. Here the immediate task is to reconcile campaign cost with observed hiring outcomes. If finance has not approved a supported monetary benefit, leave the financial ROI field uncalculated.
Start with the applicant tracking export, campaign invoices and the employment status summary. Resolve duplicate people and conflicting source assignments within the employer's controlled records, then export counts by campaign. The analysis table does not need applicant names, contact details or resumes.
Use one person per campaign cohort under a fixed source assignment rule. If an applicant appears in several channels, assign the person once or keep an explicitly unassigned group. Do not credit the same start in full to every campaign touched.
The hiring summary should include applications, qualified applicants, actual starts, starts eligible for the retention checkpoint and retained hires among those eligible starts. The cost file should include campaign media, allocated creative work and campaign administration. If recruiter compensation, agency fees or assessments are outside that scope, label the result as campaign cost rather than total recruiting cost.
Keep shared campaign software allocations consistent. Marketing automation ROI addresses the neighboring question of evaluating those recurring workflow costs; it should not determine how many qualified applicants this hiring cohort contains.
An illustrative US industrial distributor compares two campaigns for the same role family and hiring location. The January 2026 campaigns lead to starts through March 31, 2026. The employer observes employment status through June 30, 2026, so every included start has reached the 90-day checkpoint.
The campaign spending ledger contains:
| Channel | Media (USD) | Creative allocation (USD) | Campaign administration (USD) | Total campaign cost (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A: job advertising | 9,000 | 2,000 | 1,000 | 12,000 |
| B: targeted outreach | 5,000 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 8,000 |
| Total | 14,000 | 3,500 | 2,500 | 20,000 |
Place the following joined summary in columns A through G, starting on row 2. Qualified applicants are a subset of applicants, and retained hires are a subset of checkpoint-eligible starts.
| Channel | Campaign cost (USD) | Applicants | Qualified | Starts | Checkpoint eligible | Retained |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 12,000 | 240 | 96 | 12 | 12 | 10 |
| B | 8,000 | 100 | 60 | 10 | 10 | 9 |
| Total | 20,000 | 340 | 156 | 22 | 22 | 19 |
In Excel, calculate the outcome costs in columns H through J and checkpoint retention in K:
H2 = IF(D2>0,B2/D2,"")
I2 = IF(E2>0,B2/E2,"")
J2 = IF(G2>0,B2/G2,"")
K2 = IF(F2>0,G2/F2,"")
Fill down for Channel B. For costs stored separately with channel in column A and amount in column B, aggregate each channel using:
=SUMIFS(Costs!B:B,Costs!A:A,A2)
Microsoft's SUMIFS documentation explains adding values that satisfy criteria. Use already allocated campaign charges in that sheet so shared invoices are not counted again. Covirage is not affiliated with Microsoft.
| Channel | Cost per qualified applicant (USD) | Cost per start (USD) | Cost per retained hire (USD) | Checkpoint retention |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 125.00 | 1,000.00 | 1,200.00 | 83.3% |
| B | 133.33 | 800.00 | 888.89 | 90.0% |
| Total | 128.21 | 909.09 | 1,052.63 | 86.4% |
Dollar ratios are rounded to cents and retention percentages to one decimal place. Totals use the summed inputs, not averages of channel ratios. For example, combined cost per retained hire is =SUM(B2:B3)/SUM(G2:G3), or 20,000 / 19 = $1,052.63.
Channel A has the lower cost per qualified applicant, but Channel B has the lower observed cost per retained hire. That is a reason to investigate the later hiring stages, not proof that Channel B caused better retention. Differences in start dates, manager practices and individual roles can still affect the comparison.
Check that 14,000 + 3,500 + 2,500 = 20,000 agrees with campaign spending. Confirm that 12 + 10 = 22 starts match the hiring cohort, and that 10 + 9 = 19 retained hires match its checkpoint status records. Every channel should satisfy retained hires no greater than eligible starts, and eligible starts no greater than starts.
If a channel has no qualified applicants or retained hires, show the relevant outcome cost as undefined and report the spending alongside the zero count. A blank status is an unresolved record, not automatic evidence of departure or retention.
Use these reconciled results to choose the next campaign test and its outcome criterion. Improve marketing ROI covers broader campaign changes; for recruitment, the employer must still approve the role mix, budget and hiring outcome being evaluated.
Bring a sample of your own aggregated hiring outcomes and campaign cost export to Covirage; it maps the columns, and its tools compute and check cost per outcome using your stated cohort. The external AI model explains the results with every figure traced to its rows. Create a free Covirage account, which takes about a minute, then set up your business and bring your files.
See Excel analysis for the supporting file-based analysis.
You can calculate campaign cost per hire, but a financial ROI also needs a supported monetary benefit. Assigning an arbitrary dollar value to each hire does not establish that benefit. Report outcome costs and retention while keeping unverified financial returns uncalculated.
No. Campaign cost may cover media, creative work and campaign administration. Total recruiting cost can include recruiter labor, agency fees, assessments and other hiring expenses. Label the scope and apply it consistently rather than comparing a narrow campaign measure with a broader recruiting total.
Use a common start cohort and allow every included hire to reach the retention checkpoint. Report recent starts separately until they mature. Treating employees who have not reached the checkpoint as retained makes newer campaigns appear better without comparable evidence.