The short answer
A UK recruitment agency should first count which side of its business is short: suitable candidates for the vacancies it holds, or vacancies for the candidates it has. Marketing helps either side, but outreach by a named consultant is usually quicker and easier to measure. Buy marketing once the agency can say whom it wants to attract and who will answer the enquiry.
Key takeaways
- A recruitment agency sells to two groups, hirers and work-seekers, and a quote that mixes them has hidden the real question.
- Count unfilled vacancies against candidates who fit them to find the constrained side before spending anything.
- Outreach is a named person contacting a named person. Marketing attracts people who then contact the agency.
- Outreach starts faster and shows results sooner. Marketing builds slowly and suits an agency that knows its specialism.
- If the consultants cannot name whom they want to attract, the first spend is on that decision.
The evidence on whether recruitment agencies need marketing is thinner than the articles on it suggest. A search for the question returns pages from software vendors and marketing suppliers, and their figures arrive without a source a managing director could check. That does not make marketing a bad idea. It means the question is being answered by the people selling the answer. What can be checked is simpler and sits in the agency's own records: how many live vacancies it holds, and how many candidates it has who could fill them. A UK agency that counts both for one quarter will know more about its marketing need than any comparison page can tell it.
Two markets, one invoice
A recruitment agency runs a candidate market and a client market, and a marketing quote usually addresses one while being sold as both. Take a fourteen-person agency, invented for this example, that places office and finance staff. Its consultants say business is slow. In a week, that can mean two different things. Hirers may not be sending enough vacancies, or vacancies may be arriving that the agency cannot fill. The first is a client problem and the second is a candidate problem. A supplier who offers more website traffic will help whichever side the visitors come from, which may not be the side that is short. For how the buying decision looks at the sector level, see our page for recruitment agencies.
The two sides compared
The two sides differ in who is being persuaded and in what they want to see. The table sets them out for an agency deciding where to look first. The rows are the questions a managing director can answer from records the agency already holds.
| Question | Candidate side | Client side |
|---|---|---|
| Who is being persuaded | A work-seeker deciding whether to register and reply | A hiring manager deciding whether to trust the agency with a vacancy |
| What they want to see | Roles that match, a clear process and prompt replies | Evidence that the agency knows the sector and presents suitable people |
| The count that shows a shortage | Live vacancies with no suitable candidate | Suitable candidates with no live vacancy |
| Quickest first move | A consultant contacting people already on the books | A named consultant contacting named hiring managers |
| Where marketing fits | Pages and adverts that answer the work-seeker's question | Pages that show specialism to a hirer who is checking the agency |
| Who must answer the enquiry | The consultant who owns the vacancy | The consultant who owns the account |
Marketing and outreach are different purchases
Outreach is a named consultant contacting a named person, and marketing is material that makes people contact the agency. Outreach can start this week and costs consultant time. It shows within a month whether the message lands. Marketing takes longer to build, and its first months say little about the third. That is not an argument against it. It is an argument for knowing which one you are buying, because a quote that says more leads has not said which. An agency that already has a specialism and a consultant to answer enquiries is ready to buy marketing. An agency without either would be paying for traffic that reaches nobody.
The wider point about counting what the agency can already see is made in what a tax advisory firm should brief an agency on, where one service line and one kind of enquiry come before any spend. The same logic applies here with the sides of the market standing in for the service lines.
Before you buy marketing
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Get a recommendationA four-question test for the constrained side
Four questions, answered from the agency's own records, point to the side that needs work first. A managing director can answer them in an afternoon, and the answers can be compared quarter to quarter. None needs a supplier.
| Question | If the answer is yes | First move |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Are more vacancies open than candidates who fit them? | Candidate supply is short | Contact the existing database, then consider candidate-facing pages |
| 2. Do suitable candidates sit unplaced for want of a vacancy? | Client demand is short | Consultant outreach to named hirers in the specialism |
| 3. Does a past client now send vacancies elsewhere? | The problem is account care, not marketing | A call from the consultant who owned the account |
| 4. Can the consultants name whom they want to attract? | The agency is ready to brief a supplier | Write the brief, with the side from question 1 or 2 |
Working it through
The test earns its keep when the answer is not the one the agency expected. Back to the invented fourteen-person agency. Suppose its records show twenty-two open vacancies and nine candidates who fit. That points to the candidate side, and the instinct to buy hirer-facing marketing would have been wrong. Suppose instead that two clients have gone quiet since their consultant left. Then the first move is a call, and the agency has just avoided a campaign. These figures are made up to show the method and say nothing about any real agency.
What the first month looks like on each side
The first month should produce a count, not a campaign. For a candidate shortage, the consultants contact people already on the books about the open roles, and the agency records how many reply and how many fit. For a client shortage, each consultant chooses a short list of named hiring managers in the specialism and contacts them with one placed profile that fits their likely needs. In both cases the number to write down is the reply rate to that contact, because it shows whether the message is the problem or the audience is. A supplier brought in after that month can start from a message that has been tested in conversation, which is cheaper than testing it in public.
Keep the record plain: the date, the side, the role of the person contacted and the reply. A spreadsheet is enough. The record also settles a dispute that arises in most agencies sooner or later, which is whether a quiet quarter was the market or the effort.
Reading the numbers at the end of the quarter
Compare the same four answers each quarter, and change only one thing at a time. If the vacancy count rose and the candidate count did not, the candidate side is still short and the first quarter's work has not yet reached it. If both rose, the constraint may have moved to something the test does not measure, such as the speed at which consultants reply. An agency that changes its outreach and its supplier in one quarter cannot say which change did what. A managing partner who has seen two quarters of the same four answers can brief a supplier on a specific gap, and a supplier given a specific gap can be judged against it.
The rules sit on both sides
UK employment agencies and employment businesses operate under the Employment Agencies Act 1973 and the Conduct Regulations 2003, as amended. The government's overview of the Conduct Regulations describes them, and the regulations themselves carry separate provisions on charges to hirers and on payments to work-seekers. This article does not say what any agency may advertise or charge. It says only that a brief to a supplier should name the side being marketed to, because the rules that apply depend on it, and that the agency's own adviser should read the current text before any copy is approved.
What a good supplier asks first
A good supplier asks which side is short before it quotes. It asks who answers a candidate enquiry and who answers a hirer enquiry, and how fast. It asks whether the consultants will take calls from the pages it builds, and whether an assistant could cite those pages at all. A supplier that sends one package for every recruitment agency has told you it has not asked. The same test for a specialist in another regulated sector is set out in what an insurance broker should look for in an agency. How we introduce one specialist, and how the fee works, is set out in how it works.
When not to buy marketing yet
Do not buy marketing until the agency has counted both sides and named whom it wants to attract. If the consultants have no specialism to describe, a supplier will invent one, and it will sound like every other agency. If nobody owns the follow-up, enquiries will go unanswered and the spend will look wasted when the fault is internal. And if the real problem is a lost client, a phone call costs less than any campaign.
Frequently asked questions
What recruitment agencies ask about marketing and outreach.
Does a recruitment agency need marketing?
Sometimes, but not before it knows which side of the business is short. A UK recruitment agency with plenty of vacancies and too few suitable candidates needs candidate supply work. One with candidates and too few vacancies needs client-side work. Marketing is one way to supply either, and it is rarely the quickest.
What is the difference between marketing and outreach for a recruiter?
Outreach is a named consultant contacting a named person, such as a hiring manager or a candidate. Marketing is material that attracts people who then contact the agency. Outreach is quicker to start and easier to measure. Marketing builds slower and is worth buying once the agency can say whom it wants to attract.
Should an agency spend more on finding candidates or finding clients?
On whichever side is the bottleneck this quarter. Count unfilled vacancies and candidates who fit them. If vacancies outnumber suitable candidates, candidate supply is the constraint. If candidates outnumber vacancies, client demand is. The answer can change between quarters, so the count is worth repeating.
Are there rules on how a UK agency may market to work-seekers and hirers?
Yes. UK employment agencies and employment businesses operate under the Employment Agencies Act 1973 and the Conduct Regulations 2003, as amended, and the regulations treat hirers and work-seekers separately. This article does not say what any agency may do. Read the current text and ask the agency's own adviser.
When should a recruitment agency hire a marketing agency?
When the consultants can say in a sentence whom they want to attract and who owns the follow-up. Before that, an outside supplier fills the gap with generic activity. A recruitment agency that cannot answer both should settle them first.
Sources and useful reading
- GOV.UK, overview of the Conduct Regulations 2003, for the statement that employment agencies operate under the 1973 Act and the 2003 Regulations, as amended.
- legislation.gov.uk, The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003, for the separate provisions on hirers and work-seekers. The version linked is the regulations as made, so check the current amended text.
This article is commercial decision support and is not legal advice. It does not say what any agency may advertise or charge, and an agency should ask its own adviser. The agency, its vacancies and its candidates are invented to show the method. The government material is summarised from search results, not from a full reading of each page, so read the current text before relying on it. No market statistic is quoted because none from an independent source could be confirmed. Sources were located on 20 October 2026.