Recruiting video ROI calculator for recruiting videos:
How to convince your management
With concrete figures from cost factor to investment – the CFO argument that works.
Reading time: 10 minutes | Updated: February 2026
You are convinced: A recruiting video ROI can be clearly calculated – but how do you convince your management? Your CFO asks: “What are the concrete benefits?”
A legitimate question. And fortunately one that can be answered with real figures. Because vacancies cost your company hard cash every day – but this is rarely calculated so clearly.
What does an unfilled position really cost?
Most companies massively underestimate the real costs of a vacancy. Here is the calculation for a typical specialist position (annual salary: 60,000 euros):
| Cost block | Calculation of | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Loss of productivity | 50% annual salary (additional workload for team, loss of customers) | 30.000 € |
| Recruiting costs | Job advertisements, HR time expenditure, headhunter if necessary | 8.000 – 25.000 € |
| Onboarding | 6-12 months to full productivity (approx. 20% salary) | 12.000 € |
| Risk of misplacement | If the employee is hired quickly due to pressure (30% of cases) | +40.000 € |
| Total vacancy costs | Per vacant specialist position (Ø 127 days open) | 50.000 – 107.000 € |
Source: DIHK Fachkräftereport, own calculations based on industry averages
The 4 Recruiting Video ROI levers
A professional recruiting video attacks four areas simultaneously:
1. more qualified applications
Job advertisements with video – whether explanatory video or recruiting film – receive an average of 34% more applications. More importantly, applicants are a better fit because they already have a realistic picture of your company from the video.
2. shorter time-to-hire
If applicants already know the company, interviews and decision-making processes are shortened. Our customers report 20-40% shorter time-to-hire – that means fewer weeks of lost productivity.
3. lower fluctuation
Applicants hired through an authentic video are less likely to quit in the first 12 months. Realistic Job Preview has been proven to reduce early turnover by 15-25%.
4. reach beyond paid channels
A good recruiting video is shared – by employees, in social networks, in industry groups. This is organic reach that you don’t have to pay for separately.
Recruiting video ROI calculation: A concrete example
Assumptions: Company with 5 open specialist positions per year, annual salary Ø 55,000 euros, current time-to-hire 127 days:
| Position | Without recruiting video | With recruiting video |
|---|---|---|
| Time-to-hire (Ø) | 127 days | 89 days (-30%) |
| Productivity loss / job | 19.164 € | 13.415 € (-5.749 €) |
| Savings in 5 positions | – | 28,745 € / year |
| Reduction in misplacements (-20%) | – | approx. 16,000 € / year |
| Total savings Year 1 | – | approx. 44,745 € |
Investment recruiting video: 8.000 – 12.000 €
ROI in the first year: 273 – 459 %
The video works for several years – the ROI continues to increase every year.
The CFO argument: How to present the business case
When you go into budget approval, you need a clear structure. Here is the tried and tested argumentation:
Step 1: Identify actual costs
“Last year, we did not fill X vacancies for an average of Y days. This corresponds to a productivity loss of Z euros.”
Step 2: Name levers
“A recruiting video has been proven to reduce our time-to-hire by 20-40% and early turnover by 15-25%. In concrete terms, this means…”
Step 3: Investment and amortization
“The one-off investment of X euros will pay for itself within Y months. From then on, every vacancy week saved is pure profit.”
Step 4: Emphasize sustainability
“Unlike a job advertisement, which expires after 30 days, a professional video is effective for 3-5 years. The cost per filled position therefore decreases with each use.”
What a good recruiting video must do
Not every video achieves these recruiting video ROI figures. It depends on the right implementation:
- Authenticity beats high gloss – real employees, real everyday work. Applicants immediately notice whether this is fake
- Clear message in the first 8 seconds – Why would anyone want to work here? This must be clear immediately
- Target group defined – A video for engineers looks different from one for nurses or IT specialists
- Multiple uses planned – LinkedIn, career site, job fairs, internal communication. Consider format variants right from the start
- Call-to-action – What should the viewer do? Apply, find out more, book an appointment?
Conclusion: Recruiting video is not a marketing budget – it is HR efficiency
The biggest mistake in the budget discussion: The recruiting video is categorized as a marketing expense. This is wrong. It is an HR efficiency measure with a directly measurable impact on vacancy costs, time-to-hire and fluctuation.
If you do the math – how much does each vacancy cost your company every day? – the investment in a professional recruiting video quickly becomes very small.
The question is not whether you can afford a recruiting video. The question is whether you can afford not to have one.
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