Seek vs Indeed for Hiring Tradies: How Each Charges

Your ad has been up for three weeks with no good replies. Do you pay for another ad, or try the other site?

That is the Seek vs Indeed question for most tradie hires.

Is Seek or Indeed better for hiring tradies in Australia?

Neither wins every time. Seek is a major Australian job board and you pay for each ad. Indeed lets you set up an account for free, with paid sponsored jobs and a paid resume search on top. For trades, your ad and your speed matter most. Try one role on each and track the results.

The best tradies often aren't on either site as applicants. They have a job. They aren't looking. So the real question is also "how do I reach the people who never apply?"

I've spent over ten years in construction recruitment and twelve on the tools before that. I've placed more than 1,000 trades, labour and management staff. In that time I've seen builders spend a lot on ads and still come up short. Usually the ad wasn't the problem.

I'm not going to quote you a price for a Seek ad. I'll explain why below.

Check how ready your hiring is

The free hiring scorecard shows which parts of your hiring need work, whichever site you use.

How much does a Seek job ad cost?

Seek sets its own prices, and they can change. Seek says basic ads are priced on the supply of and demand for candidates, the average salary and the location. So there is no one price for every job. Check Seek for today's cost for your role, and ask about pre-paid Ad Budgets.

Seek is one of the main job boards in Australia. You write an ad, pay for it, and it shows up when people search.

Here is what Seek's own terms say about price (SEEK Product Terms):

• Some ads are variably priced. Seek says Basic Ads are priced on the supply of and demand for candidates, the average salary and the location.
• Prices can change from time to time.
• Ads stay up for 30 days unless you take them down.
• Once you've committed to buy an ad, you owe the full price even if you pull it early.
• If you change the role title, category or location after posting, the price can change.

So a carpenter in one town could cost a different amount to advertise than a labourer in another.

To see the real number for your own role, get it from Seek on the day you post. I'd rather you read it from Seek than from a blog that may be out of date.

If you hire often, Seek also sells pre-paid ad packs called Ad Budgets. Seek's page says you pre-pay, get discounts on some ad types, and use the budget over 12 months (SEEK Ad Budgets). Check the details on the page.

They suit people who post many ads a year, not someone who hires once.

What Indeed is, and how employers pay

Indeed is both a job search engine and a place to post jobs. Indeed's own employer page says it also collects job listings from other sites across the internet (Indeed for employers).

Here is what that page says about cost, in plain words:

• Setting up an Indeed employer account is free.
• You can manage candidates with its built-in tools for free.
• You can sponsor a job. You set a budget, and Indeed says you only pay when candidates engage with your post.
• Indeed Smart Sourcing is a separate subscription. It lets you see candidates whose resumes fit and invite them to apply. More in Indeed resume search and LinkedIn Boolean.

Indeed also says sponsoring is the most effective method to improve visibility. That is Indeed's own claim, and Indeed sells sponsored jobs. So keep that in mind.

I haven't given you a dollar figure for sponsored jobs or Smart Sourcing. The price depends on your budget and role, and Indeed sets it. Check the price on Indeed before you commit.

Seek vs Indeed: which works better for trades?

I don't have data that shows one site is better for trades, and anyone who says so without showing you the numbers is guessing. Each site could fit a different role. Test both on your next roles, and track the ad cost, the hours you spend sorting replies and how long the role stays open.

Here are reasons each one could fit.

Reach. Both sites reach a lot of people. A bigger reach doesn't mean better tradies. It can also mean more people who are not right for the job.

Volume of replies. More replies means more sorting. If you get 80 replies and 5 are any good, you've spent hours to find them.

Time spent sorting. This is the cost that surprises builders. Sorting replies takes your evenings.

Fit with your role. A common trade in a big city may get plenty of replies on either site. A rare trade in a small town may get few on both.

Here is how they charge, side by side, going by the pages above:

	Seek	Indeed
Ad	You pay for each ad. Price varies by role and location	Free account. Sponsor a job with a budget you set
Bulk option	Pre-paid Ad Budgets	Multi-job sponsorship
Find people who haven't applied	Not covered on the pages above	Smart Sourcing, a paid subscription

What an ad really costs you

The price of the ad is only part of it. Add these:

• The ad fee. What you pay Seek or Indeed.
• Your time on replies. Reading, calling, saying no to people who don't fit.
• The cost of an empty role. Every week the role stays open, the crew works short. You do overtime. Jobs slow down. You take calls and chase suppliers.

Say you pay a fair amount for an ad. Then you spend ten hours sorting replies. Then the role stays open another three weeks. The ad was the cheap part.

It's worth knowing your own numbers. Work out what hiring really costs you with the free tool, and check how ready your hiring is with the free hiring scorecard.

Then you can judge whether a more expensive ad that gets you a good person sooner is worth it.

Free report: 7 Hiring Mistakes

Many ad problems start before the ad. Get the free 7 Hiring Mistakes report.

Write one ad that works on either site

A good ad works on Seek, on Indeed or on a noticeboard. Here is what goes in it:

• The site and the work.
• The pay.
• The job length and start date.
• The tickets or licences you need.
• How to reply.

Here is a before and after. Both are examples I wrote. They are not from a client.

Before:

We are a leading construction company seeking an experienced carpenter. Great opportunity for the right candidate. Apply now.

After:

Carpenter wanted for a 5-storey fit-out, Gold Coast. Steady 4 month job, may extend. $58 to $65 an hour depending on experience. Start in 2 weeks. You need a White Card and your own tools. Ring Jo on 04XX XXX XXX. Takes two minutes.

(Pay and names are made up for the example. Use your own real figures.)

The second ad tells a tradie what they want to know in the first few seconds. The first ad tells them nothing.

Also, put the pay in. Indeed says including salary details typically leads to a significantly higher number of applications (Indeed).

If you want help spotting what goes wrong at the ad stage, my free 7 Hiring Mistakes report covers it.

The people neither site gives you: find tradies who are not applying

A job ad only reaches people who are looking. The best tradies are often not looking.

So you need to go and find them. Here are three ways.

Ask your own crew. Who would they work with again? A name from a trusted worker is gold.

Indeed resume search. Smart Sourcing lets you search resumes on Indeed and invite people who fit. It's a paid subscription, so check the cost.

LinkedIn search. Plenty of tradies and leading hands have profiles. Search by trade and area. A simple tip is to use capitals for AND, OR and NOT, put phrases in quote marks and use round brackets to group words (LinkedIn Help). You can also try typing site:linkedin.com/in plus your trade and town into Google.

When you message someone, keep it short. Say what the work is, where it is, what it pays and how long it lasts. Ask if they're open to a quick chat.

The full method, with scripts, is taught in the Construction Hiring System course. I also cover it free in how to hire tradies without a recruitment agency.

Cheaper ways to keep your own pool of people

You don't have to pay for a new ad every time you need someone. You can build a small pool of people you'd hire again.

Here is how:

• Keep a list of good people you've met, including ones you couldn't hire at the time.
• Put a simple careers page on your own website, so people can say "I'm interested" even when you have no open role.
• Keep track of tickets and licences and when they run out.

A spreadsheet works fine to start with. If you want a tool for it, HiredConstruction has one called Crew Builder. Its hiring tools include job ads and careers pages, a talent pool with ticket and licence tracking, and candidate tracking. There is a 7-day free trial and no card is needed. It's a paid tool after the trial.

You don't need it to follow anything in this post. The point is the habit: every hire should leave you with a bigger pool.

How to test it yourself

You don't need to guess which site is best for you. You can test it.

For your next two roles, do this:

1. Post one role on Seek and one on Indeed. Or post the same role on both, if you can.
2. For every applicant who is any good, write down where they came from. Add a column for "found by search" and "referral".
3. Write down how long you spent sorting replies on each site.
4. After the hire, look at the numbers. Which site gave you the best people? Which took the most time?

You may find the referral and search columns do as well as either site. That is why the people who never apply matter.

If the market is tight, read how to hire tradies during a skills shortage. Want help setting up the test? Book a free 15-minute discovery call.

General information only. Prices and terms are Seek's and Indeed's, they can change, and they are not quoted here. Check each site before you buy. HiredConstruction is not affiliated with Seek or Indeed.

Want help with your next hire?

Book a free 15-minute discovery call and we will talk through your next hire. Prefer to learn it yourself? The Construction Hiring System course teaches the full method.

FAQ

Is Indeed free for employers?

Setting up an Indeed employer account is free, and Indeed says its built-in candidate tools are free too. Sponsored jobs and Smart Sourcing are paid. Indeed says you set a budget for sponsored jobs and only pay when candidates engage. Check the price on Indeed before you rely on either.

How do I find tradies who are not applying on Seek or Indeed?

The best tradies often already have a job, so they are not searching. Use Indeed's resume search and LinkedIn search to find them. Then message them with the site, the work, the pay and the job length. Ask your own crew for names too.

What should a tradie job ad say?

Lead with the site and the work. Then give the pay, the job length and the start date. Say what tickets you need and how to reply. Keep it short and use plain words. A good tradie reads an ad for a few seconds and decides.