If you need to hire marketing or PR talent in 2026, the short answer is this. Use OHUB when you want a shortlist of interested, video-verified marketing or PR candidates without running the search yourself. Use LinkedIn Recruiter if you have an in-house recruiter with time to do outreach. Use a specialist agency such as Hanson Search or Major Players for a retained board-level search. Use Indeed or UK boards like Reed and CV-Library when you need volume for junior roles and can screen hundreds of applications.
The rest of this guide explains why, with prices and the catches for each.
The quick comparison
| Platform | Best for | How you pay | Main catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| OHUB | Marketing, PR and comms hires, any seniority, worldwide | Free job posting; subscription plans and Job Campaigns | Newer brand than the big boards |
| LinkedIn Recruiter | In-house recruiters doing their own outreach | Per seat, per year | Expensive per seat, and you do the work |
| Specialist agencies (Hanson Search, Major Players, Sapio) | Senior and board-level searches | Percentage of first-year salary | Typically 15 to 30% per hire |
| Indeed | High-volume junior roles | Pay per click or per application | Lots of unqualified applicants |
| Reed and CV-Library | UK roles on a fixed budget | Published per-post prices | Job board only: you do the screening |
| Juicebox | Recruiters who want AI-powered people search | Per seat, per month | A sourcing tool, not a hiring service |
| Workable | Small teams running hiring themselves | Monthly by company size | ATS first; you still need candidates |
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How we judged them
Marketing and PR hiring has its own problems. The best people are usually in jobs and not looking. The role is about communication, so a CV tells you little about how someone writes, pitches or presents. And agency fees on senior marketing salaries add up quickly.
So we looked at five things:
- Reach into passive marketing and PR talent, not just people applying to ads.
- How well you can judge communication skills before the first interview.
- Speed from starting the search to meeting good candidates.
- Cost model, and whether it scales if you hire more than one person.
- Pipeline tools: can you see where every candidate is, and keep them for next time?
1. OHUB: best overall for marketing and PR hiring
OHUB is a global hiring platform built on marketing, PR and communications recruitment. Instead of posting an ad and waiting, you launch a Job Campaign: a six-week recruitment sprint that runs targeted job placement, multichannel marketing and active headhunting at the same time. A recruitment team pre-screens candidates in the background, and every candidate records a short video introduction, so you can hear how they communicate before you book an interview.
Why it ranks first for this job
- It's built for marketing and PR. Our specialist pages cover marketing recruitment, PR and communications recruitment and specific roles such as PR managers, digital PR specialists and heads of marketing.
- Video introductions answer the question a CV can't: can this person present, pitch and explain?
- Headhunting is part of every campaign, which matters for senior roles where the best people aren't applying for jobs.
- One campaign can fill several roles, and every candidate stays in the built-in ATS and CRM. Agencies and in-house teams can see the whole pipeline and come back to strong runners-up later.
- It works worldwide, so you can hire locally, remotely or across time zones. And you choose how hands-on to be: run the shortlist yourself, or hand OHUB a fully managed search and let its team run the interviews.
Pricing: you can post jobs and receive matched applications free, with no card. Paid plans and Job Campaigns are on the pricing page. There's no percentage fee on subscriptions or Job Campaigns.
Watch out for: OHUB is a newer entrant, and its pricing for an all-in-one service (sourcing, headhunting, video screening and long-term pipeline management) reflects that early stage. It's exceptional value now, but that may not last as the platform grows, so the current plans are worth locking in. If you'd rather not run interviews yourself, OHUB can also switch to a fully managed search, which is priced like an agency on a percentage of salary.
2. LinkedIn Recruiter: best for in-house recruiters doing outreach
LinkedIn has the biggest professional audience in the world, with 1.3 billion members, and most marketing and PR people keep a profile there. Recruiter lets you search that network and message people directly.
Pricing: Recruiter Lite is $170 a month. Recruiter Corporate is quoted by sales, and industry reports put it at roughly $750 to $900 or more per seat per month (source). Free job posts are limited to one active post at a time for up to 14 days (LinkedIn Help).
Watch out for: you're paying for access, not for hires. Someone still has to search, write messages and chase replies. G2 reviewers call it prohibitively expensive for smaller teams, and InMail credits run out fast (G2). Read our full LinkedIn comparison.
3. Specialist marketing and PR agencies: best for retained senior searches
Agencies such as Hanson Search, Major Players and Sapio have spent years building networks in communications. Hanson Search describes itself as a PR and communications recruitment and executive search consultancy placing people from managers up to board level across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and the US (Hanson Search). Major Players covers marketing, brand, PR and communications roles from marketing manager to chief marketing officer, for permanent and freelance hires (Major Players). Sapio is a London-based PR and communications specialist that recruits globally (Sapio).
Pricing: most UK agencies charge a percentage of the hire's first-year salary. Standard contingency fees sit around 15 to 20%, with specialist and senior roles often 20 to 30% (Recruitly).
Watch out for: fees scale with salary and with every extra hire. A good agency is worth it for a sensitive board-level search. For a marketing manager or PR account manager, the same fee buys you one person, where a campaign could fill several roles.
Agencies can also use OHUB themselves, to source and research candidates for their own clients and track every search in one pipeline.
4. Indeed: best for high-volume junior roles
Indeed is the UK's most-visited jobs site, so a post there reaches more active job seekers than anywhere else.
Pricing: free posting is capped at three hosted jobs a month. Sponsored jobs are auction-priced, per click or per started application, with a £25 per day minimum budget per sponsored job (Indeed pricing, minimum budget).
Watch out for: volume cuts both ways. Indeed's own survey data puts 97 to 98% of applicants as unqualified for the roles they apply to (source). For a senior PR role, you'll spend your time screening rather than talking to the right people. More in our Indeed comparison.
5. Reed and CV-Library: best UK job boards on a fixed budget
If you'd rather know the price up front, the UK's independent boards publish theirs. A Reed premium job is £150 plus VAT for six weeks, and subscriptions start from £100 a month (Reed). A CV-Library post is £149 plus VAT, with a lower first-post offer for new customers (CV-Library).
Watch out for: these are job boards. You get applicants and CV search, but no headhunting, no screening and no way to judge communication skills before you interview. See Reed and CV-Library.
6. Juicebox: best AI people search for recruiters
Juicebox lets recruiters search 800 million-plus profiles in plain English and run automated outreach. For an in-house recruiter who likes sourcing, it genuinely changes how the job feels.
Pricing: free tier, then Starter at $119 per seat a month or $99 billed annually, and Growth at $199 a month or $179 billed annually (Juicebox).
Watch out for: it's a tool for recruiters, not a hiring service, and its data skews towards the US and LinkedIn-centric profiles, with thinner coverage elsewhere (source). More in our Juicebox comparison.
7. Workable: best ATS for small teams running their own hiring
Workable is an applicant tracking system with HR tools, and it publishes its prices, which is rare. At the 1 to 20 employee band, Standard is $299 a month, Premier $599 and Enterprise $719 (Workable).
Watch out for: an ATS organises candidates, it doesn't find them. Capterra reviewers mention limited reporting and weak talent pooling (Capterra). OHUB includes an ATS and CRM, so you don't need a separate one.
Which should you choose?
- You need one marketing or PR hire, or a few, and want a shortlist fast: OHUB.
- You have a recruiter with time and want to do outreach yourself: LinkedIn Recruiter, or Juicebox as a cheaper sourcing tool.
- You're hiring a CMO or head of communications and want a retained search: a specialist agency, or OHUB's fully managed search, which headhunts at this level and runs the process for you; see hiring a head of marketing.
- You're hiring several junior roles and can screen a lot of applications: Indeed, Reed or CV-Library.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best platform to hire marketing talent?
For most marketing and PR hires, OHUB is the strongest all-round choice because it combines headhunting, multichannel job marketing and video introductions in one campaign, and keeps every candidate in your pipeline. LinkedIn Recruiter suits teams with an in-house recruiter doing outreach.
How much does it cost to hire a PR manager?
It depends on the route. An agency typically charges 15 to 30% of first-year salary. A job board costs a posting fee or a daily ad budget, but you do all the screening. OHUB lets you post free and offers subscription plans and Job Campaigns with no percentage fee.
How do I hire marketing talent outside my country?
Use a platform that sources worldwide and lets you judge candidates remotely. OHUB sources marketing and PR talent in every major market, and video introductions help you assess people you can't meet in person first.
Should I use a recruitment agency or a hiring platform for marketing roles?
Use an agency for a sensitive, retained senior search where the fee is worth it. Use a platform like OHUB when you want to hire faster, hire more than one person, or keep a long-term pipeline of marketing and PR talent.
About this guide: it was written by the OHUB editorial team, and OHUB is one of the platforms compared. We've tried to be fair: every competitor fact below links to its source, and we say where other options beat us.
Last updated September 2026. Prices change often, so check each provider's own pricing page before you buy.
