Recruitment Marketing Agency Alternative: Run Your Own Careers Website

The short answer on recruitment marketing agency alternatives

Agencies bring creative skill, campaigns and media buying. A careers website platform gives your team the controls. Many employers keep an agency for campaigns and move the careers website itself onto a platform they run.

This page is for teams who love their agency's creative work but want faster edits, clearer ownership and a predictable cost for the careers website.

Free toolSee your careers website the way candidates doRun the free scan. It takes about two minutes, and you will see what is already working and what could work harder.Find out now

What a recruitment marketing agency can do well

Good agencies earn their fee. Be clear on what you would keep.

• Creative concepts, campaigns and employer brand work
• Media planning and buying across many channels
• Extra hands when your team is small
• Research and an outside view of your brand

Why teams look for a recruitment marketing agency alternative

Teams rarely move because a supplier is poor. They look around when their needs change. These are the reasons buyers give us most often.

• Small edits wait for an agency ticket
• It is unclear who owns the design, the code and the content
• The careers website cost is bundled with other fees
• The team wants to publish stories and jobs content the same day
• A move to a new ATS needs a cleaner connection

How Happydance is different

Happydance gives your team the careers website and keeps the service around it. Four things set it apart.

Your agency can still create campaigns, and your team can publish them. The recruitment campaign landing pages use the same layouts, so campaign work goes live without a rebuild.

Agency-run or team-run: questions at a glance

Use the middle column in your next demo. The right column is how Happydance answers the same question.

When keeping your agency may be the better fit

Being honest about fit saves everyone time. Another route may suit you better if this sounds like you.

• You have no one in-house to edit the site, even with an easy editor
• Creative campaigns and media buying are the real priority
• The agency already runs your site well and the cost is clear
• You want one outside partner for everything

Ten questions to ask every supplier

Use the same ten questions with every supplier on your shortlist, including us. Put the answers in writing and score them in the RFP template.

1. Who edits it? Show me a recruiter changing a page, adding a language and publishing, without a developer.
2. What does it cost over three years? Include set-up, languages, integrations, support and your own team's time. Use the cost guide.
3. Which of our systems does it connect to? Name your ATS and ask how jobs and applications move, and how often.
4. Where does candidate data go? Ask what is stored, where, and for how long.
5. How is speed measured? Ask for Core Web Vitals on live customer sites, not a demo.
6. What about accessibility? Ask for the latest independent audit.
7. Who logs in, and how? Ask whether editors can sign in through your company login, such as Okta or Microsoft.
8. What happens to our search traffic when we move? Ask for the redirect and migration plan.
9. Who owns the content and the design? Ask what you keep if you leave.
10. Can we talk to a customer like us? Ask for references in your sector and size.

Compare on what matters, honestly

A fair comparison starts with your requirements, not our brochure. Write down what you need, test it with your own jobs, and weigh every option on the same footing, including us.

The highest performers are not simply clearer. They are more honest.

Bryan Adams, Sell The Truth

A quick truth test for this page:

• Have you written your own criteria before reading anyone else's?
• Can each claim be tested in a demo?
• Would you be comfortable showing your comparison to every supplier on it?

Stay or switch? A six question check

Keep exploring: four pages to read next

Pick the page that matches where you are in your search. Each one links back to the others, so you can move between guides, your ATS, comparisons and plans.

Free preview: the first six steps of a switching plan

Moving to Happydance

Changing supplier is a project, and we plan it with you. Happydance includes full implementation support from design to data migration. Read the guide to replacing your career site provider and the redesign guide for the steps.

Still choosing? The career site providers guide compares the routes, the cost guide shows how to budget, and the free careers website scanner checks your current site first.