11Aug 2026

Does it cost to post a job on Indeed? UK employer guide

Security officer stamping UK job posting

Posting a job on Indeed can be free, but most employers sponsor posts to get real visibility. Sponsored Jobs use a flexible daily budget and a pay-per-click or pay-per-application model, with no flat upfront fee. Free hosted posts are available up to three times per calendar month, typically staying live for 30 days. From July 2025, Indeed began enforcing a £25/day minimum per sponsored job in the UK, which sets the practical floor for any paid campaign. Most employers running competitive security roles budget £25–£75/day for standard posts and £75–£200/day for harder-to-fill or multi-location roles.

The short answer: posting on Indeed costs nothing if you stay within the free allowance, but sponsored visibility starts at £25/day per job in the UK as of July 2025. A typical 14-day sponsored campaign therefore incurs several hundred pounds at the lower end of the usual budget range.

Your three immediate options:

  • Post free — use your three free hosted posts per calendar month for lower-urgency roles.
  • Set a small sponsored trial — run a £25–£50/day budget for 3–5 days to measure cost per applicant before committing to a full campaign.
  • Consider a sector niche board — for security roles specifically, Securityjobsboard concentrates relevant applicants and reduces irrelevant clicks from day one.

Key takeaways

Posting on Indeed is free up to three times per calendar month, but sponsored visibility starts at £25/day per job in the UK as of July 2025, making realistic campaign budgeting a non-negotiable step before you post.

Point Details
Free post allowance Up to three free hosted posts per calendar month, each live for up to 30 days.
Sponsored minimum (UK) £25/day per job from July 2025; budgets cannot be pooled across multiple listings.
Typical campaign spend A 14-day sponsored campaign costs £350–£1,050 at the £25–£75/day range for standard security roles.
VAT and billing Indeed invoices UK employers with VAT; VAT-registered businesses can reclaim as input tax.
Niche alternative Securityjobsboard offers sector-focused posting with BSIA affiliation, reducing irrelevant clicks for security hires.

Table of Contents

How does Indeed sponsored job pricing actually work?

Indeed does not charge a flat fee per job listing. The model is budget-driven: you set a daily spend limit, Indeed uses that budget to show your post to relevant candidates, and you pay only when someone clicks through or starts an application.

Two billing models are available:

  1. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) — you are charged each time a candidate clicks your job listing. Cost per click varies by role, location, and competition.
  2. Pay-Per-Started-Application (PPSA) — you are charged when a candidate begins filling in your application form, not merely when they view the listing. This model tends to deliver higher-intent candidates because you only pay for people who took a concrete step.

The pricing process runs like this:

  1. Create or log into your Indeed employer account and write your job post.
  2. Choose whether to host the post for free or sponsor it.
  3. Set your daily budget (minimum £25/day in the UK from July 2025).
  4. Validate your payment method — Indeed requires a card on file before the post goes live as a sponsored listing.
  5. Your job runs and accumulates spend against the daily cap until you pause it or the campaign ends.
  6. Indeed issues an invoice; UK employers receive a VAT-inclusive bill through the employer dashboard.

Pro Tip: Start with a 3-day trial at the minimum daily budget before scaling. Three days gives you a real cost-per-applicant figure for your specific role and postcode, which is far more useful than any industry average.

Free posts versus sponsored jobs: what do you actually get?

The distinction matters more than most employers realise, especially for security roles where candidate quality and speed of hire both count.

What a free hosted post includes

A free post appears in Indeed’s general search results. It stays live for up to 30 days and costs nothing. The catch is visibility: free posts sit below sponsored listings in search results and receive significantly less traffic as the post ages. You can run up to three free posts per calendar month under the standard allowance.

For a door supervisor vacancy in a large city with plenty of active candidates, a free post can still generate applications. For a niche technical security role or a post in a less-populated area, free visibility is often insufficient.

What sponsoring adds

Sponsoring moves your listing into prioritised placement, meaning it appears above organic results for relevant searches. You can also target by location, job type, and candidate profile. The practical effect is faster applicant flow and more control over when and how your budget is spent.

  • Free posts: no cost, limited visibility, suitable for non-urgent or high-demand roles in competitive candidate markets.
  • Sponsored posts: £25/day minimum, higher placement, faster applications, better for urgent or specialist hires.
  • Free post drawback: visibility drops sharply after the first week as newer posts push yours down.
  • Sponsored post drawback: costs accumulate daily, so a poorly written job ad burns budget on low-quality clicks.

Pro Tip: If a free post generates fewer than two applications in its first five days, switch to a sponsored campaign rather than waiting out the full 30-day period. The opportunity cost of a slow hire almost always exceeds the sponsorship fee.

Typical UK budget examples for security roles

Third-party pricing analysis shows that cost-per-click on Indeed ranges widely depending on role seniority, location, and how many other employers are bidding for the same candidate pool. Here are three realistic scenarios for common security vacancies:

  • Entry-level security operative (e.g., retail or events): Daily budget £25–£40, campaign length 7–10 days, estimated gross spend £175–£400. These roles attract a broad candidate pool, so lower budgets often suffice.
  • Experienced door supervisor or mobile patrol officer: Daily budgets for mid-level roles often range moderately higher over a similar campaign length. Competition is higher in urban areas; London and Manchester typically sit at the upper end.
  • Corporate security officer or specialist technical role: Higher budgets over longer campaigns are common for specialist technical roles. Niche skills and security clearance requirements shrink the candidate pool, which pushes up cost per application.

Variables that shift these figures:

  1. Location — London and major cities carry higher CPC due to advertiser competition.
  2. Salary displayed — roles with a visible salary range consistently attract more applications per pound spent.
  3. Job title clarity — “SIA Door Supervisor, Manchester” outperforms “Security Professional Required” in click-through rate, reducing cost per relevant applicant.
  4. Market conditions — tighter labour markets raise ad competition and push CPC upward.

Pro Tip: If you are recruiting across multiple locations simultaneously, note that the £25/day minimum applies per job listing, not per employer account. You cannot pool a single £50/day budget across two separate posts; each requires its own minimum.

How to estimate your total Indeed spend

The formula is straightforward:

Estimated total = daily budget × number of days

For a PPSA campaign, add a second calculation:

Estimated cost = estimated applications × cost per application

Market data shows cost-per-application figures vary considerably by role and market. Use these sample calculations as a planning baseline:

Scenario Daily budget Campaign length Estimated total spend
Short trial (entry-level role) £25/day 5 days £175
Standard campaign (door supervisor) £50/day 14 days £400
Competitive campaign (corporate security) £100/day 7–10 days £400

A few billing points UK employers should note:

  • All figures above are net of VAT. Indeed invoices UK employers with VAT added, so your actual payment will be higher unless you reclaim VAT through your accounts.
  • Indeed charges against your daily budget in real time and stops serving the ad once the daily cap is reached.
  • You are billed for actual spend, which may be slightly below your daily cap on quieter days.

Billing, invoices, promotional credits and VAT

How payment validation and invoicing work

Before a sponsored post goes live, Indeed requires a valid payment method on file. You add a card through the employer dashboard under billing settings. Once validated, Indeed charges your card at regular intervals or when your account balance reaches a threshold, and issues a VAT invoice you can download from the billing section.

Payment card inserted into terminal

Promotional and new-account credits

Indeed periodically offers promotional credits to new employer accounts. A £100 credit promotion has been reported in the UK market, applied automatically to your first sponsored spend. These credits reduce your out-of-pocket cost for an initial campaign but do not roll over indefinitely. Check the terms attached to any credit offer before relying on it for budget planning.

Credit note: promotional credits typically apply to sponsored spend only, not to any premium add-ons or CV database access. Confirm the scope of any credit in your account dashboard before launching.

VAT considerations for UK employers

Indeed’s invoices to UK-registered businesses include VAT at the standard rate. If your business is VAT-registered, you can reclaim this as input tax through your VAT return, which effectively reduces the net cost of your campaign. Confirm the treatment with your accountant, particularly if your business has partial exemption arrangements.

Billing checklist before you launch:

  • Valid payment card added to the employer dashboard.
  • Billing address matches your registered business address for VAT purposes.
  • Credit balance (if any) confirmed and terms reviewed.
  • Invoice download location noted for your accounts team.
  • VAT reclaim eligibility confirmed with your finance team.

When does it make sense to sponsor a post?

Sponsoring is not always the right call. Free posts work for non-urgent roles in candidate-rich markets. Sponsoring earns its cost in four situations:

  • Urgent hires — a security contract starting in two weeks cannot wait for organic traction.
  • High-competition roles — SIA-licensed door supervisors in London face heavy advertiser competition; free posts rarely surface.
  • Multi-location recruiting — when you need ten officers across five sites, sponsored posts let you run parallel campaigns with controlled daily spend per location.
  • Specialist or cleared roles — SC-cleared or CCTV-trained candidates are scarce; sponsored placement reaches passive candidates who are not actively searching.

Metrics that tell you whether it is working

  1. Cost per application — divide total spend by applications received. If this exceeds your internal benchmark, pause and revise the job copy.
  2. Cost per hire — total campaign spend divided by hires made. For most security roles, a cost-per-hire under £500 is considered efficient.
  3. Applicant-to-hire ratio — a ratio above 20:1 suggests the job copy or screening questions are attracting the wrong candidates.
  4. Time-to-fill — if a sponsored campaign runs 14 days without a shortlist, the problem is usually job copy or salary, not budget.

Pro Tip: *Run two versions of the same job post simultaneously with different titles or salary presentations, each with a modest daily budget. After five days, pause the weaker performer and redirect its budget to the stronger one.

Step-by-step: post a job on Indeed UK and set your budget

Follow these steps to go from blank screen to live sponsored post:

  1. Go to Indeed and log into or create your employer account.
  2. Click “Post a job” and complete the job title, location, job type, salary, and description fields.
  3. Choose whether to host the post for free or sponsor it. If sponsoring, set your daily budget (minimum £25/day in the UK).
  4. Select your billing model: pay-per-click or, where available, Pay-Per-Started-Application.
  5. Validate your payment method if not already on file.
  6. Review the post preview, then publish.
  7. Monitor performance daily in the employer dashboard: track impressions, clicks, and applications.
  8. Pause the campaign when you have a sufficient shortlist, or adjust the daily budget if performance is below expectations.

Before you publish, confirm:

  • Job title is specific and searchable (e.g., “SIA Door Supervisor, Birmingham” not “Security Staff Needed”).
  • Salary or salary range is visible — optimising your job listing with a salary display consistently improves click-through rates.
  • Location is accurate and set to the correct postcode area.
  • Screening questions are concise — long application forms reduce completion rates and inflate cost per application.

Pro Tip: If you encounter billing errors or a campaign that will not go live, Indeed’s employer support hub is the fastest route to resolution. Keep your invoice reference number to hand when contacting support.

Why Securityjobsboard can be a cost-effective niche alternative

General platforms like Indeed cast a wide net, which is useful for volume but costly when you need candidates with specific security credentials. A niche board concentrates the audience: every candidate on Securityjobsboard is there specifically for security work, which means fewer irrelevant clicks and a lower cost-per-hire for roles requiring SIA licences, security clearances, or sector experience.

Securityjobsboard offers:

  • Sector-specific CV database — browse candidates who have already uploaded security-relevant CVs and set job alerts for roles like yours.
  • GDPR-compliant posting workflow — built to UK data-protection standards, reducing compliance risk for employers.
  • BSIA affiliation — the platform’s association with the British Security Industry Association adds credibility for both employers and candidates.
  • Flexible pricing — employers can compare flexible pricing models across board options rather than committing to a fixed daily minimum.
  • Mobile-responsive listings — candidates apply from mobile, and the platform is built for it.

For regional security hiring, the Northern Ireland Security Jobs page demonstrates how targeted regional placement works in practice. A post there reaches candidates already searching for security work in that specific area, rather than competing against every employer in a general Indeed search.

Scenarios where a niche board typically beats broad-market sponsored spend:

  • Filling multiple SIA-licensed roles across a single region.
  • Recruiting for a contract where cultural fit and sector knowledge matter as much as licence status.
  • Employers with limited budgets who cannot sustain a £25/day minimum across several simultaneous posts.

A recruiter’s perspective on setting campaign budgets

The most common mistake I see is treating Indeed’s daily budget as a set-and-forget decision. Recruiters set £50/day, leave it running for three weeks, and then wonder why cost-per-hire is high. The budget itself is rarely the problem; the job copy and screening questions usually are.

Hands using calculator to budget campaign

My default approach: start at the minimum (£25/day), run for five days, and look at two numbers only — applications received and the percentage of those who meet the basic licence requirement. If the ratio is poor, fix the job copy before increasing spend. If the ratio is good but volume is low, then raise the daily budget. Scaling a campaign that is already working costs far less than scaling one that is not.

For security roles specifically, a well-structured posting workflow before you hit publish saves more money than any budget optimisation after the fact.

Securityjobsboard: targeted security hiring without the broad-market budget

Securityjobsboard

If you are hiring for security roles and watching every pound of your recruitment budget, spending £25–£200/day on a general platform to compete against every employer in the UK is a hard case to make. Securityjobsboard puts your vacancy in front of candidates who are specifically looking for security work, not scrolling past it on their way to a retail job.

The platform is free for candidates, GDPR-compliant, BSIA-affiliated, and built for the UK security sector. Employers get access to a CV database of sector-specific candidates, job alert matching, and flexible pricing that does not lock you into a daily minimum per post. For regional hiring, the Northern Ireland Security Jobs page is live and actively used by candidates in that market.

Post your next security vacancy at Securityjobsboard and see how many relevant CVs are already waiting.

Sources

Before launching any sponsored campaign, verify current rates and terms directly from the primary sources:

FAQ

Is it free to post a job on Indeed in the UK?

Yes. Indeed allows free hosted job posts up to three times per calendar month, with each post typically remaining live for 30 days. Free posts appear in general search results but receive less visibility than sponsored listings.

How much does Indeed charge to post a sponsored job?

From July 2025, Indeed enforces a £25/day minimum per sponsored job in the UK. Total cost depends on your daily budget and campaign length; a 14-day campaign at £25/day costs £350 before VAT.

What is Pay-Per-Started-Application on Indeed?

PPSA charges you when a candidate begins filling in your application form rather than simply clicking the listing. It tends to deliver higher-intent applicants than standard pay-per-click billing.

How long can you post a job for free on Indeed?

Free hosted posts typically remain live for up to 30 days. After that period, the listing may expire or lose visibility unless you renew or sponsor it.

Is Indeed free to use for employers overall?

Posting is free within the monthly allowance, but accessing sponsored placement, CV database features, or premium tools carries costs. The sponsored minimum of £25/day per job applies to any paid campaign in the UK.