Three options. Only one actually works for your business.
Two marketplaces, one website, and an enterprise firm with a thousand consultants
Recruitment is the only marketing problem where you have to win two completely different audiences from the same brand. Candidates Google 'tech recruiter Sydney' and want a consultant who knows their tech stack and won't ghost them after the resume. Employers Google 'IT staffing agency Sydney' and want a firm that can run a retained search for a Head of Engineering without spamming the market. Both are searching at the same time, both have to land on a site that speaks their language, and both are weighing you against Hays, Robert Walters, Michael Page and Robert Half, who have a thousand consultants and a content library that compounds every quarter. The structural problem is that most boutique agencies run one homepage with a generic 'we recruit talent' headline, no separation between the contingent, retained and RPO service lines, no vertical-specialist pages despite the founder being ex-tech or ex-healthcare, and a Google Business profile that says 'Employment Agency' instead of the specialty that actually wins the placement.
Good recruitment-agency marketing is three things, in this order: a vertical-specialist site architecture that separates the lane you actually win (tech / healthcare / legal / finance / construction) into its own H1, its own job-board feed, its own consultant bios, and its own case-study library, so 'tech recruiter Sydney' ranks against the boutique tech specialists rather than getting buried under Hays; a service-line split that makes contingent (15-20% fee, fill-now), retained (25-30% fee, exclusive engagement, retainer paid up front) and RPO (managed-service, 6-12 month engagement) into three distinct pages with their own ad groups so each buyer lands on the page that matches their procurement process; and a dual-funnel content engine where the candidate side runs LinkedIn placement-win posts and 'what it's like working with us as a contractor' content, and the employer side runs case studies on closed retained searches with the actual fill time, candidate calibre, and 90-day guarantee outcome.
Six agents, working in your accounts.
Account Lead, Web, SEO, Advertising, Social Media, and Content. One platform, one bill, you approve the work.
Builds your annual plan around the specialist verticals where you actually win (tech, healthcare, legal, finance, construction) and the service line that pays best (retained > RPO > contingent), rather than chasing every recruitment keyword and competing with Hays on volume. Briefs the other agents so the vertical pages, the LinkedIn placement posts, the employer-side ads and the Google Business profile all push toward the same specialist positioning.
Imports your existing site so you stop paying for hosting plus a CMS subscription, and makes spinning up a new vertical-specialist landing page a five-minute job. Ships clean pages for each lane (tech recruitment, healthcare staffing, legal search, construction labour-hire), each with its live ATS feed (Bullhorn, JobAdder, Lever), consultant bios with real stack knowledge, retained vs contingent vs RPO split, and 90-day guarantee in the footer, to your live site in two taps.
Goes through your live site for the things that actually move recruiter rankings: vertical-specialist H1s ('Tech Recruiter Sydney CBD', not 'Recruitment Agency'), RCSA member structured data, EmploymentAgency schema with the verticals listed, the candidate-vs-employer page-tree separation, and a Google Business Profile that calls out the specialties and the registered ABN. Auto-applies the low-risk fixes.
Launches Google Ads on the queries that actually convert, split into two funnels: employer-side ('IT staffing agency [city]', 'retained search tech [city]', 'RPO provider [vertical]') with higher bids on retained briefs, and candidate-side ('tech jobs Sydney', '[vertical] recruiter near me') with lower bids and a candidate-application landing page. Excludes the 'free recruitment advice' tyre-kicker queries. Runs LinkedIn Sponsored Content for the candidate-attraction side because that's where senior passive candidates actually click.
Turns every placement close into a LinkedIn post in your real account: the retained search you closed, the contract role you filled in 48 hours, the regional GP placement that saved a clinic. Builds the 'specialist recruiter who actually places at this level' trust signal that wins both the next candidate and the next employer. You upload one anonymised placement detail per week, the agent drafts the caption in your voice with the candidate and client names scrubbed, you approve.
Drafts the long-form pieces that rank for the queries hiring managers search before they brief an agency: 'contingent vs retained recruitment, which is better', 'what does an RPO actually cost', 'how long should a senior tech hire take', 'how to brief a specialist recruiter'. Two drafts a month, in your voice, that pull in the hiring manager who's researching the model before they pick a firm.
Your first 30 days.
- Annual plan split across the verticals you actually win in (tech, healthcare, legal, finance, construction) and tilted to the service line that pays best (retained search and RPO over volume contingent)
- Vertical-specialist landing pages indexed and ranking on long-tail 'tech recruiter [city]' and '[vertical] staffing agency [city]' queries
- ATS-integrated job feed (Bullhorn, JobAdder or Lever) live on every vertical page so open roles appear without manual updating
- Contingent, retained and RPO service-line pages split and ranked on their own procurement queries
- RCSA member badge, 90-day candidate guarantee and registered ABN visible above the fold across the site
- Google Ads running as two distinct funnels: employer-side on retained-search queries, candidate-side on '[vertical] jobs [city]' with LinkedIn Sponsored Content for senior passive candidates
- LinkedIn placement-win cadence running weekly off real closes, with candidate and client identities scrubbed via the approval anonymisation pass
- 'Contingent vs retained vs RPO' explainer and 'how long should a senior hire take' guide published as cornerstone trust assets
- EmploymentAgency schema with vertical specialties deployed, Google Business Profile corrected from 'Employment Agency' to 'Recruiter' with the full services list
Recruitment is a two-marketplace business and most boutique-agency websites only address one side, badly. The hiring manager Googles 'IT staffing agency Sydney' and lands on a generic services page that could be Hays. The senior engineer Googles 'tech recruiter Sydney' and sees the same page, in the same words, with no consultant bio that proves anyone there actually knows their stack. Both bounce. Meanwhile the specialist boutique two suburbs over with a real tech-recruitment landing page, a live JobAdder feed, and a weekly placement-win post on LinkedIn wins them both.
Agencies are too dear to actually run the vertical-specialist landing pages, the employer-and-candidate-split ad funnels, and the weekly LinkedIn cadence for $4k a month. Tools are cheap but you write every placement post yourself between BD calls and the retained-vs-contingent explainer never gets written. In-House is the third option: for $299 a month the agents ship the vertical pages, launch the dual-funnel ads, post the placement wins, and keep your Google Business profile and RCSA membership visible. You retain the briefing call (two taps to approve a week's work), and the labour is the agents'. Stop watching Hays and Robert Walters outrank you on your specialty.