Employer branding budget 2026 season is here.
And let’s be honest: when the CFO asks, “Do we really need an employer branding budget again next year?” many HR and marketing leads freeze.
Employer branding is still one of the first budget lines to get cut.
Why? Because it’s misunderstood.
Too often, it’s treated as a campaign, a project, or a concept, instead of what it truly is: a strategic, ongoing communication process that builds an emotional connection between people and your company, yielding long-term ROI.
And here’s the kicker:
Every employer has an employer image.
However, not every employer has a distinct employer brand.
An image is what people think of you. A brand only exists when your brand makes people feel something desirable about themselves. That’s where the magnetism happens, and they are pulled towards you.
An image is what people think of you. A brand only exists when your brand makes people feel something desirable about themselves. That’s where the magnetism happens, and they are pulled towards you.
Building that emotional connection requires consistent year-to-year budgeting with a solid strategic intent and measurable goals and objectives.
So let’s talk about what your employer branding budget 2026 should look like and how much companies around the world are actually investing.
The Global Trend: Employer Branding Budgets Are Growing
The good news? You’re not alone in asking to increase your employer branding budget 2026.
Based on available data from 2024 and 2025, most organisations are maintaining or growing their employer branding budget.
Consider your competition. What if they are growing their employer branding budget 2026, and you aren’t? What impact will that have on your business success in 2026?
According to a US-based Conference Board report, among employers who already invested in employer branding in 2024, 49% planned to maintain the same investment in 2025. Twenty-three per cent planned to increase their employer branding budget, while only 15% planned to decrease it.
They also note 78% of surveyed organisations (in the US) invest in employer branding, with typical annual spend < $500k for smaller firms and > $1m for 100k+ employee enterprises. These figures are massive compared to employer branding budgets on the European continent.
I believe the size of the typical US budget reflects the size of the country and its focus on recruitment advertising campaigns. We (The Nordics) are recognised as being ahead of the US and Canada in strategic employer branding. These budget differences could demonstrate how much more cost-efficient it is to invest in ongoing communication and content-based employer branding to build demand, rather than costly advertisement-driven marketing, when you already need to hire.
Built In’s 2025 Talent Trend Report shows expansion, not contraction
Built In’s 2025 Talent Trend Report finds:
- 51% of talent leaders have started or have actively expanded investment in employer brand programs in 2025
- 38.9% have maintained 2024 levels
That’s the cleanest “investment is growing” stat I’ve found this year.
Furthermore:
- Employer brand remains a top TA priority. HR.com’s Future of Talent Acquisition 2025 places employer branding (55%) right behind building a strong pipeline as a key goal. This information should be useful for you for the potential “why now” conversations with CFOs and boards.
- LinkedIn’s 2025 Future of Recruiting summary highlights “strengthening employer brand” as a focus for talent leaders.
What Does Employer Branding Cost? What Numbers Should We Put In Our Employer Branding Budget 2026?
These are practical anchors I found online that you can reference when working with your employer branding budget 2026.
Strategy And Creative – EU & US benchmarks
Brand Affairs (Switzerland):
- Employer brand strategy: CHF 5k–50k
- Visual identity (EB design guidelines): CHF 5k–30k
- Career site: CHF 5k–50k+
- Ongoing social/content: CHF 3k–10k/month
Handy for Central Europe budgeting discussions
Employer Branding Agency Emine’s (Finland):
- Magnetic Employer Branding Method™ based employer branding strategy, including visual references matching the desired employer brand perceptions: on average 10-25k €
- Story-driven content and communication planning (includes content ideation workshops and content ideas backlog with a bespoke publication plan): on average 5- 8k- €
- Career site copytext planning and production: from 5k- €
- Content packages (such as Hero Career Stories, bespoke Photography Bank, matching the employer branding strategy, video content from B-rolls to Reels, social media post captions, etc.): from 5k- €
- Content Retainer (min. 6 months) for story-driven employer branding (various supporting elements can be included, from coaching to data-analysis and content creation & publication to narrative leadership communication: on average, 3-6k€/mo
Stories Incorporated (US): Stories Incorporated is a US-based company that specialises in storytelling for businesses. Founded in 2013, their mission is to help organisations communicate their message and connect with their audience through the power of storytelling.
The team at Stories Incorporated consists of writers, marketers, and strategists who work together to craft compelling narratives that resonate with audiences. They believe that every brand has a story to tell and that businesses need an authentic, meaningful narrative that captures their customers’ attention.
One of the unique aspects of Stories Incorporated is its approach to gathering stories from employees within an organisation. They conduct in-depth interviews with employees at all levels, from entry-level staff to executives, to gather personal experiences and insights into the company’s culture and values
- Culture content (3 videos, 1 interview day): from $24k
- Brand refresh (6 videos + photos + 5 blogs): from $57k
- EVP activation (12 videos, two interview days): from $95k
- Content retainer: from $100k/year
Examples of Always-On Tools (global pricing)
- Sprout Social (social media management & reporting): $199/$299/$399 per seat/month
- Buffer (social media workspace): $5-10/mo
- Canva (design & brand kit): Pro ~ $12.99/month per user; Teams ~ $100/user/year (3-user minimum)—useful as a baseline for in-house creative enablement
- Trello Board (collaboration tool): Free option goes quite far (this is our favourite!)
- Monday.com (collaboration tool): Starting from 9$/seat/mo for teams
Basic creator kit (video/audio)
- Shure MV7+ podcast mic (USB/XLR): RRP €369 (EU official listing)
- RØDE Wireless GO II dual-channel mic: commonly listed around $230–$350 depending on retailer/config.
Regional Expectations To Help You With Employer Branding Budget 2026
I used AI to come up with these suggestions:
US & Canada: Transparent US pricing, like Stories Inc., provides a clear anchor for content packages ($24k–$100k+). Many mid-market/enterprise EB teams also maintain seats in Sprout or similar tools ($199–$399 per seat/month) and lightweight design stacks (Canva, approximately $120 per user/year).
APAC: Tooling (Sprout/Canva) is globally priced, and production costs vary widely by market. Stick to scope-based proposals plus local vendor quotes rather than citing global “averages”.
Central Europe (including DACH/CH): Agencies are increasingly publishing range cards; Brand Affairs’ CHF figures align with what we observe in EU strategy/identity/career-site scopes, as well as monthly activation retainers.
Nordics & Wider Europe: Production day rates and tool costs are broadly comparable to those in Central Europe. What’s different in the Nordics is how many organisations insource lightweight content creation while investing proportionally more in always-on distribution and analytics rather than one-off campaigns.
That mix can make budgeting tricky: too much “DIY” often leads to content without consistency, while over-investing in external campaigns risks short-lived impact.
This is precisely where a partner like us at Emine adds value. We help local to global employers strike the right balance, building a story-driven employer branding process that combines smart use of internal resources with external expertise for strategy, storytelling, and sustained execution.
The result? Budgets that are efficient, realistic, and tied to measurable outcomes instead of scattered spending that never add up to a brand.
Final Thoughts: From Employer Branding Budget 2026 Lines to Business Impact
Budgeting for employer branding in 2026 is not about filling in a line on a spreadsheet.
It’s about deciding whether your company will continue to be defined by a surface-level employer image, or whether you will build a genuine employer brand; one that creates emotional connection, magnetises the right people, and keeps them inspired to stay.
The data is clear: in 2025, most organisations will have been holding or expanding their investment in employer branding.
The smart ones are moving beyond campaigns and one-off projects to building story-driven processes that scale and deliver measurable ROI year after year. And not just for talent attraction and retention, but also on customer satisfaction and customer life time value.
Here in the Nordics — and across Europe — we’ve seen how hard it can be to strike the right balance between insourcing and outsourcing, between tools and talent, between creativity and consistency. That’s where a trusted partner makes all the difference.
At Employer Branding Agency Emine, our role isn’t to replace what you’re doing. It’s to help you connect the dots:
- Building or updating your Employer Brand Strategy.
- Turning it into an actionable narrative plan supporting both narrative leadership and employee engagement internally, and becoming a magnetic employer for those talents your business will need for success in the years to come.
- Supporting your team and leaders with the content, tools, data analysis and training that make the strategy come alive.
Think of us (at Emine) as your Nordic guide to story-driven employer branding: grounded in strategy, fluent in creativity, and focused on making your 2026 budget deliver business impact.
Because when you fund the story, you don’t just spend a budget line, you invest in the future of your people and your business.
Contact us to book a non-binding meeting to discuss how we can help you and your business shine.
Listen to our podcast episode on the employer branding budget 2026, available on August 27 here.
Or, watch it here:
