Plumbing & HVAC
€35–55
High demand for tradesmen in complete renovations and modern installation. Targeting smart-home interest, plumbing guilds, regional construction-site pages.
Industry: Skilled Trades · Performance Recruiting
Performance recruiting for trade businesses – applications under €50.
A joinery business with 14 employees. Three years of running ads on Karriere.at, Stepstone and regional platforms. Three to five applications per role, of which usually one was halfway suitable. Cost-per-hire per actual hire: 800 to 1,200 euros. Plus the managing director’s hours screening unsuitable CVs. After switching to a performance recruiting funnel: cost-per-application at 38 euros per qualified application by week 4. Three months later two new employees hired – both not actively job-searching at the time of targeting. Ad budget: 800 euros per month. Comparable spend to before, three times the output of suitable candidates.
What we see in trade businesses
Does this sound familiar?
Three patterns we see in almost every trade business that comes to us.
The shift in perspective
Job ads reach the wrong people – performance recruiting reaches the right ones.
Anyone searching on a job portal has a reason: usually they’re unhappy, actively looking for change, or currently unemployed. That’s not the audience that grows a trade business. The tradesmen who make the difference – the ambitious ones, the ones who pull their weight, the ones with standards – are not actively searching. They have a job. But they’re open to something better when it happens to appear on their screen.
That’s exactly what performance recruiting does. Instead of waiting for someone to google „carpenter Carinthia", we target deliberately. On Meta and Google, on passive candidates in a defined region with a clear profile. Ads that appear between posts from friends and family, not in a job portal alongside 200 other listings.
This isn’t theory. Cost-per-application below 50 euros is achievable in almost every trade with this method. The question isn’t whether it works. The question is why most trade businesses still book the same job portals as in 2010. → More on the recruiting marketing approach
What an application really costs
Cost-per-application by trade
Realistic ranges from performance recruiting practice in May 2026. Real values vary by region, season and targeting depth.
Carpentry & Joinery
€28–48
Targeting furniture enthusiasts, woodworking communities, interior-build projects. Visualising workshop and machinery filters ambitious candidates.
Electrical engineering
€38–60
Specialisations matter – smart-home, solar, industry. CPA varies by profile. Solar currently below 40 euros, industry rather 50 to 60.
Painting & Decorating
€32–45
Targeting interior-design interest and heritage-conservation communities. High-quality project images as ad creatives perform strongly.
Roofing & Tinsmithing
€42–65
Tightest market, hardest working conditions, highest CPA. Performance strategy focuses on vocational schools, guilds, industry events. Authentic ad language is decisive.
Cost-per-application refers to qualified applications meeting defined minimum requirements. Industry benchmarks from performance recruiting practice May 2026.
The recruiting system for trade businesses
5 building blocks that work together
We don’t build a job-ad programme. We build a funnel that works every day – even when you have no role open.
Audience build-up for passive candidates
Defining the target region (typically 30–80 km radius), profiles (tradesman, foreman, master), interests (trade-specific). Built across Meta and Google. The audience grows even in quiet phases and is then ready to deploy immediately.
Ads in trade-specific language
No „We’re a long-established trade business". No glossy. Instead: concrete projects, concrete tools, concrete career prospects. Language a tradesman recognises – not an HR department.
Application landing page instead of portal form
Own URL, mobile-optimised, 45 seconds from click to submitted application. Three fields max. No PDF CV requirement, but WhatsApp first contact or short cover note.
WhatsApp first contact
70 percent of trade applicants come from a phone. WhatsApp-first applications increase conversion by 200 to 400 percent compared to mail applications with CV attachment. The formal CV follows after the first contact – only if the applicant truly fits.
Tracking and optimisation
Cost-per-application by channel, quality score after application review, time-to-hire by position. Weekly optimisation routing: what works, what doesn’t, where to shift budget. Recruiting becomes a measurable discipline.
Industry practice example
Joinery business with 14 employees – the CPA trajectory
Starting point. Three years of listings on Karriere.at, Stepstone, regional platforms. 3 to 5 applications per role, of which one was suitable. Cost-per-hire between 800 and 1,200 euros. Three roles open, all three unfilled for months. Managing director spending several hours a week reviewing CVs without result.
Week 1–2 – Setup. Audience build-up for carpentry tradesmen within a 60-kilometre radius. Three audience clusters: active furniture-build interest, woodworking-community members, industrial carpenters from the neighbouring machinery sector. Application landing page built: 3 fields, WhatsApp first-contact option, mobile-first. Tracking setup on every funnel step.
Week 3–4 – First results. Performance distribution started, 200 euros daily budget split across Meta and Google. First qualified application on day 3, cost-per-application at 52 euros. Ad-creative optimisation after 7 days, CPA reduction to 38 euros by week 4. Application volume per week: 8 to 12 qualified.
Month 2 – Scaling. Additional audience clusters added (younger tradesmen from vocational-school catchments). Ad budget stabilised at 800 euros per month. CPA stays between 35 and 42 euros. First hire: a tradesman from the woodworking cluster, in a permanent job at the time of targeting, not actively searching.
Month 3 – Stabilisation. Two employees hired, both not actively searching at the time of targeting. Cost-per-hire (ad spend + setup share): around 950 euros. Comparable to the previous job-portal strategy – but more reliable, faster, with steady applicant flow even when no role is currently open.
The mechanic flips: away from „we wait until someone searches" toward „we run distribution when it suits us". Recruiting moves from bottleneck to predictable process.
Example values from performance recruiting industry practice. Real trajectories vary by position, region, season and targeting depth.
Frequently asked questions
What trade businesses ask before the first call.
What does a performance recruiting setup for a trade business cost?
Setup between 3,500 and 6,500 euros depending on depth (audience definition, ad creatives, landing page, tracking architecture). Ongoing performance management typically 600 to 2,000 euros per month plus ad budget. Cost-per-application sits between 30 and 60 euros per qualified application across most trades. More on the methodology: recruiting marketing pillar.
How long until the first qualified applications come in?
We typically see the first qualified applications between day 3 and 7 after campaign launch. Stable CPA values below 50 euros are achievable after week 2 to 4. By comparison: job ads usually take 4 to 8 weeks until the first suitable application.
Does this also work for very small trade businesses?
From 5 to 8 employees it makes economic sense. Below that the setup investment is often too high relative to hiring frequency. Alternatives for smallest businesses: a reduced setup combined with targeted distribution during a specific search phase – but no continuous system.
What if we don’t currently have an open position?
Audience build-up is most valuable exactly then. We grow the target group during quiet phases so that when demand returns qualified applications come in immediately – without 4 to 8 weeks of setup delay. That’s the main difference between one-off job ads and a real recruiting system.
What happens to applications that don’t fit the first profile?
They go into a talent pipeline. A tradesman who doesn’t fit today because of a different specialisation may be exactly right in six months. Performance recruiting builds a pool of qualified candidates over time who can be addressed for future positions.
Ready for applications below €50 per candidate?
In a free 30-minute call we analyse your current recruiting mechanics, compare your cost-per-hire with industry benchmarks and show you where to adjust. Concrete, with numbers, no sales pressure.
As a thank you for joining: Every participant receives „Umsatz ohne Zufall“ – the book by our managing director Nicolas Fabjan – personally signed by post. No purchase, no obligation. Even if we don’t end up working together.