From Metrics to Multiples: How Recruitment Marketing is Growing Up

Key takeaways from our London Lunch & Learn

On the 1st of October 2025, SourceFlow’s Lunch & Learn London brought together recruitment marketers, operations leaders and agency founders to answer one question:
How do we prove the commercial value of marketing in recruitment?

Across four sharp, practical sessions, one message came through loud and clear: recruitment marketing is evolving from activity-driven to outcome-driven. 

Here’s a recap from the day’s expert speakers:

Key Takeaways

• Marketers should measure success based on revenue and placements, not impressions or follower counts.
• Recruiters and marketers need to work together, using CRM and performance data to improve efficiency and results.
• Structured marketing plans supported by competitor analysis and clear value propositions help create stability and alignment.
• Marketing plays an important role in increasing a recruitment business’s value and preparing it for investment or sale.
• Strong brands, client advocacy, and consistent communication all contribute to higher business valuations.
  
  

1. From Likes to Placements – Proving the ROI of Recruitment Marketing

Catherine Henderson, Director, Boudicca Consulting

Catherine opened the afternoon with a rallying cry for marketers to be battle ready; equipped with data that connects their work directly to revenue.

Too often, she said, marketing teams measure the wrong things. LinkedIn followers, clicks, and impressions might be helpful indicators, but they don’t hold up in a board meeting.

“If your marketing can’t be traced to meetings, jobs or placements, it won’t win the budget conversation.”

She encouraged marketers to turn KPIs into commercial metrics: mapping campaigns to client meetings, tracking cost-per-placement, and building consistent feedback loops with recruiters and finance.

2. Data is your Friend – but do your recruiters know it?

Saeed ‘Si’ Bor, Founder, EmbeddedOps

Next up, Si reframed how data underpins performance. Recruitment, he said, runs on ratios and data is the bridge between effort and results.

He split agency data into two critical types:
Performance data (what’s being done) and CRM data (what’s being learned). Used together, they reveal not just how consultants perform, but why.

He urged agencies to modernise their coding models, capturing the qualitative detail learned in calls, not just LinkedIn-style filters. Done well, that data powers smarter targeting, stronger conversion ratios, and more meaningful marketing campaigns.

Marketers must collaborate with operations, understand recruiter metrics, and use CRM as an engine for performance, not a filing cabinet.

3. Understand > Define > Action: Building a Market-Driven Marketing Strategy

Jade Brar-Haase, Founder, Branded by Aquila

Jade shifted the discussion from data to direction, explaining how structured planning builds resilience and alignment across teams.

Her three-step approach combined competitor analysis, customer insight, and measurable activity to form a marketing plan everyone can commit to.

“Quick wins are fine,” she said, “but they won’t get you through a downturn.”

She also shared a SAFE scoring framework (Suitability, Acceptable, Feasible) to help leaders prioritise activities and keep teams focused on what moves the needle.

4. What Buyers Pay For: How Marketing Drives Valuation in Recruitment

Kashif Naqshbandi, Founder, Stratifex OS

Closing the afternoon, Kashif brought a private equity lens to recruitment marketing showing how brand, positioning, and data all affect valuation.

After leading two successful PE exits, he revealed how buyers look beyond profit and into narrative: growth gets you noticed, but story gets you paid.

He outlined practical levers for marketers to strengthen enterprise value: keep any single client under 10% of revenue, build multi-threaded relationships across the C-suite, and nurture measurable advocacy through NPS or case involvement.

Marketing isn’t just a cost centre, it’s a value creator. The story you tell through your data, content, and relationships directly shapes your business’s perceived worth.

What’s Next?

Across the afternoon, teams compared playbooks for connecting websites, CRM and operations data so that marketing activity is consistently tied to meetings, jobs, and revenue. Recruitment marketing is evolving from activity-driven to outcome-driven, and those who prove value with data and frameworks will shape the industry’s future.

You can check out the slides from the event by clicking here.