When applicant volumes surge, talent acquisition teams are often faced with a paradox: while more applicants can offer a broader talent pool, filtering for the right fit becomes more challenging. Leveraging targeted sourcing channels can help recruiters ensure time and resources are allocated effectively to finding the most suitable candidates.
In this article, we’ll explore why understanding sourcing channel effectiveness is critical in the current market, how to get the most out of your sourcing channels and industry benchmarks to help you stay ahead of the competition.
Rising applicant volumes: Opportunity and challenge
As hiring has eased, we have seen an increase in applicants of almost 50% globally when compared to two years ago. High-volume applicants often signal increased interest in a role or brand, which is great for visibility and having more candidates to choose from, but tough on filtering.
Despite the rise in applicants, recruitment difficulty remains high as organisationsorganizations navigate persistent skills-shortages and face new challenges like the rising use of Gen AI among jobseekers. Recruiters need to strive for quality over quantity, and leverage attraction strategies to encourage great applicants.
That’s why ensuring you’re using the right sourcing channels for each role is so important. With a variety to turn to—from social media and job boards to referrals or internally—knowing which channels are more likely to yield quality candidates who align with the role’s requirements is imperative—that’s where sourcing channel effectiveness comes in.
What is sourcing channel effectiveness
Sourcing channel effectiveness shows the percentage of applications that have resulted in new hires from a specific sourcing channel. This lets you identify the most effective channels for finding talent for your organisationorganization and where you should prioritiseprioritize your efforts. Diving deeper into what channels are most effective for certain role types, functions, or seniorities will enable you to tailor your hiring strategy based on the position to reach the best talent.
Why sourcing channel effectiveness matters
Here are some key benefits behind analysing your sourcing channel effectiveness:
- Enhanced candidate quality: Effective channels attract candidates who align closely with job requirements, making it easier to identify strong prospects and reducing the need to sift through unqualified applicants.
- Increased hiring efficiency: Focusing on top-performing channels speeds up the recruitment process by receiving higher-quality applicants, reducing time to fill and helping recruiters manage high application volumes.
- Reduce sourcing spend: PrioritisingPrioritizing proven channels ensures that budgets and efforts are directed where they’ll have the most impact, maximisingmaximizing ROI.
- Improved candidate experience: When channels attract suitable applicants, the recruitment process becomes more engaging and efficient, leading to a smoother journey for candidates, which is better for your employer brand.
- Informed strategy: Tracking channel performance provides actionable insights, allowing recruiters to adapt to market shifts or different types of roles and continually improve sourcing efforts.
Sourcing channel effectiveness in 2025
So what is the market telling us about each major channel? Based on PageUp data, the graphic below demonstrates the average sourcing channel effectiveness of the most commonly used channels.
Number of applications required for one hire
Job boards, on average, require 74 applications to make one hire. Despite lower effectiveness, they remain vital for a broad reach, employer branding, and awareness. They contribute, on average, 59% of total applications. Consider identifying and focusing on job boards that consistently yield the most hires across role types to maximisemaximize cost-effectiveness.
CareersCareer sites need 46 applications per hire, outperforming job boards in effectiveness by providing a more targeted pool of candidates. To attract and convert the right talent, careerscareer sites should authentically showcase your employer brand, values, culture and benefits. To further boost applicant quality, employers can create targeted landing pages tailored to different talent segments, ensuring a more engaging and relevant experience for candidates.
Social media has historically shown lower effectiveness. However, this does not mean it should be overlooked. Identify and prioritiseprioritize the social channels most frequented by your target talent segments to engage them effectively where they spend time online.
Internal mobility remains a highly effective channel, with only six applications needed per hire. In the current market, organisationsorganizations focus on upskilling and reskilling initiatives to meet talent needs and increase agility. Ensure you have a dedicated internal careerscareer site and actively promote opportunities to drive mobility while reducing sourcing costs and increasing retention.
Talent relationships need just four applications per hire. These candidates already exist within your talent network, showing they are engaged and interested in your organisationorganization. The high effectiveness of this channel highlights the importance of inbound recruitment strategies. UtilisingUtilizing a CRM to nurture and maintain talent pipelines ensures prospects remain engaged until the proper role becomes available.
Referrals are another high-quality source, requiring 10 applicants per hire. Encourage referrals by actively promoting and incentivisingincentivizing referral programs within your organisationorganization.
Industry benchmark data: Sourcing channel effectiveness
To help you formulate your strategy, here is PageUp benchmark data across industries to see how your organisationorganization compares.
The above data is showing the number of applications required from each channel on average to secure one hire.
Implementing a sourcing channel strategy
As you can see, sourcing channel effectiveness can vary significantly between industries. To enhance sourcing effectiveness in a high-volume environment, recruitment teams need to start by looking at your own numbers – how many applications do you require for each sourcing channel to hire one person? What channels are driving the best return on investment?
Use benchmarks and establish goals on what you expect to achieve from each channel. Then, experiment with adjustments, such as modifying ad placements or refreshing messaging, and continually track performance. Regularly reviewing metrics will reveal which channels need fine-tuning and will help talent acquisition specialists stay agile and drive greater ROI.
For more industry benchmarks, check out our industry benchmark tool and request a demo to find out how PageUp can help you take your analytics to the next level.
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