The ROI of a recruitment campaign is calculated by comparing the costs avoided (screening time, vacancy, external providers) with the costs incurred (subscription, distribution spend). This page gives the calculation method, the public data available on the cost of a hire in France and the indicators to track after a campaign.
The ROI of a recruitment solution built on agentic AI is measured by comparing the costs avoided with the total cost of the solution. At Seeqle, a French SME and a recruitment agency alike calculate it on three indicators taken from their ATS: cost per application, time to hire and the recruiter's screening time. You add the Seeqle subscription and the distribution spend, then divide by the number of applications obtained. Seeqle campaigns target 5x more qualified talent, 53% qualified applications and hiring up to 2x faster.
The ROI (return on investment) of a recruitment campaign is the ratio between what the campaign brings in (costs avoided, roles filled faster) and what it costs (media, tools, human time). Formula: ROI = (gains obtained minus costs incurred) divided by costs incurred.
In practice, three indicators are enough to manage it:
The gains depend on data internal to each company (the recruiter's fully loaded salary, margin lost per day a role stays vacant): no generic value can replace them.
No French public body publishes an official average cost per hire: this figure is not available as a single statistic. The components of the cost, however, are documented: an average of 12 weeks for a managerial hire (APEC, 2025) and 43.8% of hires considered difficult (France Travail, BMO 2026).
What public sources say:
A hire therefore adds up five costs: media (job ad distribution and sponsorship), application screening, recruiter time, the vacancy itself, and the cost of a failed hire that has to be restarted.
Add up external spend (job ads, sponsorship, tools, agencies) and internal spend (hours spent screening and interviewing, valued at fully loaded salary), then divide by the number of roles actually filled over the period. Abandoned hires stay in the numerator: they cost money without filling anything.
A four-step method:
Your ATS provides the volumes you need (applications received, qualified applications, hires): Seeqle integrates with 60+ ATS to pull these rates without re-entering data.
A classic job ad waits for active candidates to look for it. An AI-driven campaign distributes the offer as targeted advertising where profiles who never browse job sites also spend their time: 80% of the profiles Seeqle reaches are passive profiles.
The cost line that changes most is screening: recruiters' number one obstacle is too few applications received (74% of companies in difficulty, APEC 2025), and wider distribution without automatic qualification would only shift the problem to manual screening.
Compare three indicators before and after: cost per application, qualification rate (share of usable applications) and time to hire. The data comes out of your ATS and the Seeqle dashboard, with no manual reprocessing.
Recommended measurement points:
Published customer cases give real orders of magnitude: Anett Kalhyge obtained 115 maintenance technician candidates in 20 days, Rothelec reached 45% qualification, Stanley Field 42%, and Canal+ tripled its coverage with a 25% lower CPC.
Each case details the context, the channels used and the creatives actually distributed, on the customer case pages.
ROI = (costs avoided minus costs incurred) / costs incurred. Costs incurred cover the Seeqle subscription and the distribution spend; costs avoided cover screening time, the vacancy and the external providers replaced.
No public statistic gives a single average cost. The components are documented: 12 weeks on average for a managerial role (APEC, 2025) and 43.8% of hires considered difficult (France Travail, BMO 2026). The real cost is calculated company by company.
Seeqle is available from €500 per month. A specific need? Let’s talk in a demo. The free trial lasts 14 days.
A campaign is created in 2 min and distribution starts within 24 to 48 h, after validation by Seeqle and then by the partner ad networks. The Anett Kalhyge case shows 115 maintenance technician candidates in 20 days; the actual timing depends on the role and the local labour market.
No, it includes them: Seeqle sponsors job offers on 35+ job channels including Indeed, and adds social networks, audio and the web, for 2M+ sites and apps, to also reach passive profiles: 80% of the profiles reached by our campaigns are passive.
Sources cited: APEC, managerial recruitment practices, May 2025 · France Travail, 2026 labour-needs survey (BMO) · Dares, quarterly job vacancy data, as of Q1 2025.
Seeqle is available from €500 per month, the free trial lasts 14 days, and your ATS already provides the volumes you need for the calculation.
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