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• Cost Per Applicant on Social: 2026 Benchmark Data

  38 items · from https://boostpoint.com/benchmarks/

  • Resources · 2026 benchmark · Published August 12, 2026

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  What a Job Applicant Actually Costs: 2026 Benchmarks

  • Median campaign$13.88
  • Volume-weighted avg$8.02

    Middle half $6.48–$29.74 $2.71 customer service $74.62 therapy roles 70% of the difference between campaigns comes from what happens after the click. Across the 891 social recruitment campaigns in Boostpoint's 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, the median campaign cost $13.88 per applicant and the volume-weighted average was $8.02. Half of all campaigns landed between $6.48 and $29.74. Cost varies by role from $2.71 for customer service to $74.62 for licensed therapy roles — and 70% of the difference between campaigns comes from what happens after the click, not what the ad auction charges. For how these applicant figures sit beside the published cost-per-hire benchmarks, see average cost per hire by industry. Source: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark — 891 Boostpoint-managed campaigns on Meta (1,334 campaign-months), 2026; costs are what advertisers paid for advertising only. How to cite this data: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, https://boostpoint.com/benchmarks/ (published August 12, 2026). Recruitment advertising for frontline employers Want your own campaigns measured against these? That is what we run. Book a demo

  Why this report exists

  Average cost per applicant (2026)

  • Cheapest 10%$2.91
  • Lower quartile$6.48
  • Median campaign (Boostpoint 2026)$13.88
  • Upper quartile$29.74
  • Most expensive 10%$66.45
  • Volume-weighted average$8.02

    Source: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark — 891 Boostpoint-managed campaigns on Meta (1,334 campaign-months), 2026; costs are what advertisers paid for advertising only. The blended average is $8.02. The median campaign costs $13.88 — about 1.7 times as much. Both are correct, and confusing them is a common error in job advertising budget reviews.

  Why the gap exists

  The quartiles that matter

  Cost per applicant by role

  • Cost per applicant by role family, 2026

    Role family Median Middle 50% Blended Apply rate CTR Campaigns

  • Customer service / admin$2.71

    $2.14 – $7.47 $2.98 25% 1.77% 24

  • Caregiver / home care$3.76

    $2.99 – $5.83 $3.87 31% 2.32% 34

  Show 26 more items

  Cost per applicant by role

  • Warehouse / production$9.83

    $3.15 – $18.72 $4.44 20% 1.67% 82

  • Management / professional$16.87

    $4.62 – $60.11 $5.45 16% 1.46% 50

  • Sales$11.61

    $5.99 – $21.17 $6.91 21% 1.45% 100

  • CNA / nursing assistant$7.72

    $6.18 – $12.06 $8.17 18% 1.15% 32

  • Technician / mechanic$13.41

    $7.40 – $23.58 $8.35 16% 1.17% 145

  • Skilled trades$14.14

    $7.58 – $21.49 $10.74 15% 1.07% 35

  • LPN / LVN$12.77

    $7.53 – $21.46 $12.09 21% 1.11% 57

  • Registered nurse$19.08

    $12.76 – $34.84 $20.00 11% 1.15% 173

  • CDL truck driver$26.86

    $17.00 – $42.31 $24.24 8% 0.88% 59

  • Teacher / instructor$30.95

    $16.60 – $56.74 $25.13 8% 1.12% 15

  • Allied health / imaging$54.37

    $10.27 – $106.51 $25.49 10% 1.01% 23

  • Behavioral health / DSP$55.55

    $18.36 – $334.56 $36.39 9% 0.75% 19

  • Therapy (PT / OT / SLP)$74.62

    $44.85 – $171.40 $64.12 5% 0.84% 39 Source: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark — 891 Boostpoint-managed campaigns on Meta (1,334 campaign-months), 2026; costs are what advertisers paid for advertising only. Sorted by blended cost per applicant. Apply rate is the share of clickers who completed the form. Campaigns counts campaign-months.

  The pattern worth naming

  What a wide band tells you

  And what a narrow one tells you

  Cost per applicant by sector

  • Cost per applicant by sector, 2026

    Sector Median Middle 50% Blended Apply rate CPM Campaigns

  • Retail / Corporate$8.58

    $3.72 – $17.76 $3.66 26% $14.74 181

  • Skilled Trades & Field Service$11.89

    $6.50 – $24.89 $6.65 18% $15.96 335

  • Transportation & Logistics$13.34

    $5.26 – $25.17 $10.28 13% $14.82 184

  • Healthcare & Senior Living$15.42

    $7.89 – $39.61 $11.47 16% $25.18 553

  • Behavioral & Education$27.50

    $15.35 – $76.67 $24.45 10% $29.04 81 Source: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark — 891 Boostpoint-managed campaigns on Meta (1,334 campaign-months), 2026; costs are what advertisers paid for advertising only. The ordering is stable and the reason is consistent: sectors hiring credentialed people cost more, because credentialed people abandon forms. The same pattern shows up in our skilled trades and construction hiring data and in manufacturing and industrial hiring, where clicks are cheap and completion is the constraint.

  The predictability premium

  Where healthcare really sits

  • $12.76 to$34.84

    Role apply rate 11% of clickers finish the form All roles $13.88 median, $6.48 to $29.74 middle half Inside the band. The two places this report finds recoverable budget are an apply rate under 10% and a monthly frequency above 3.0. The program check further down tests both. On a 30-minute demo we place your roles and markets in these bands and show you what an applicant would cost you. Place my registered nurse roles Source: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, 891 Boostpoint-managed campaigns on Meta (1,334 campaign-months), 2026; costs are what advertisers paid for advertising only. Cost per applicant is not cost per hire.

  What actually drives cost

  What that looks like in budget terms

  • Under 5%$53.77

    18% 3% 5–10% $23.13 24% 8% 10–20% $11.11 32% 23% 20–35% $4.41 21% 38%

  • Over 35%$1.61

    6% 28% Source: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark — 891 Boostpoint-managed campaigns on Meta (1,334 campaign-months), 2026; costs are what advertisers paid for advertising only. 41% of all budget ran in campaigns where fewer than one in ten clickers finished the form — returning 11% of all applicants. Campaigns above 35% used 6% of budget to deliver 28%, at $1.61 each.

  What moves apply rate

  The trade-off, stated honestly

  The frequency cliff

  • Under1.5

    $7.85 1% 1.5 – 2.0 $11.48 21% 2.0 – 2.5 $13.39 25% 2.5 – 3.0 $13.65 19% 3.0 – 4.0 $18.76 20%

  • Over4.0

    $26.78 13% Source: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark — 891 Boostpoint-managed campaigns on Meta (1,334 campaign-months), 2026; costs are what advertisers paid for advertising only. Between a monthly frequency of 1.5 and roughly 2.5, median cost per applicant sits between $11.48 and $13.39. Above 3.0 it rises to $18.76, and above 4.0 to $26.78 — double the 2.0 – 2.5 figure. Click-through rate falls in step, from 1.69% to 0.94%. The audience has seen it and stopped responding. 33% of all budget in this study ran above a frequency of 3.0. That's the clearest single pool of recoverable money in the report. High frequency is almost always a budget-to-audience mismatch: a daily spend large enough to saturate the targeted audience within days. The fix is rarely to cut budget. It's to widen the audience — expand the radius, drop an interest filter that was never a real requirement, remove an age band nobody could justify — so the same money reaches more people fewer times. The operating rule: check frequency weekly. When a campaign passes 2.5 within a month, widen the audience or rotate the creative before the cost curve turns. Waiting until cost per applicant rises means paying for the lesson first.

  What a normal campaign actually looks like

  What's in the full report

  Download the 2026 Benchmark Report — free, no form

  How this was measured

  The honest limit of this data

  Benchmark your own program

  If you change only one thing

  • Monthly frequency2.2

    Average times each person in the audience saw the ad in the month. Ads Manager reports it per campaign. One campaign · $1,000 last month $25.00 per applicant One thing to fix: apply rate Apply rate 8.0% 5–10% band: $23.13 per applicant. That band used 24% of all budget for 8% of applicants. Frequency 2.2 2.0–2.5 band: $13.39 median. Under 2.5, inside the operating rule. Keep checking weekly. Against the median $25.00 $11.12 above the $13.88 median for all roles; inside the registered nurse middle 50% ($12.76 to $34.84). On a 30-minute demo we walk through your cost per applicant, apply rate and frequency against these figures, for the roles and markets you hire in. Lift my apply rate Bands from the apply-rate and frequency tables on this page: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, 891 Boostpoint-managed campaigns on Meta (1,334 campaign-months), 2026; advertising costs only.

  A note on what benchmarks can't tell you

  How to cite this report

  Frequently asked questions

  What is a good cost per applicant for job advertising?

  Why is the average cost per applicant lower than the median?

  What is cost per applicant?

  Why do CDL drivers cost more per applicant than caregivers?

  What is the biggest driver of job advertising cost?

  What is a good application completion rate?

  How much budget do you need for social recruitment advertising?

  What is ad frequency and why does it matter for recruiting?

  Can you calculate cost per hire from advertising data?

  Where does this data come from?

  How much should I budget for recruitment advertising per hire?

  • Social job advertising benchmarks for 2026

    Boostpoint's 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark covers 891 Boostpoint-managed campaigns on Meta (1,334 campaign-months). The median campaign cost $13.88 per applicant, the volume-weighted average was $8.02, and the middle half of campaigns ran $6.48 to $29.74. By role, medians run from $2.71 for customer service to $74.62 for therapy roles, with CDL truck drivers at $26.86. Costs are advertising only, before any Boostpoint subscription. Cost per applicant is not cost per hire.

  Want your own program benchmarked against this data?
  Published by the company · confirmed Oct 29, 2026, 1:50 AM UTC

  Observed via

  https://boostpoint.com/benchmarks/

  First observed

  Oct 29, 2026, 1:50 AM UTC

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