Which Paid LinkedIn Account Options Are Right For You?

LinkedIn is the only site of it’s kind. That said, whether you like it or not, LinkedIn is a must-have for your internal recruiting/talent team, and you need to ensure you’re getting the most out of your account.

I have outlined the paid LinkedIn account options your talent team should consider below. Discuss these together as a team to determine which option makes the most sense for you.

For starters, LinkedIn has two categories of upgrades that they offer:

1. An upgrade to your personal account
2. The full-blown “LinkedIn Recruiter” package (the OpenView talent team uses this)

Upgrades to your personal account geared towards anyone:

These paid LinkedIn account options involve plans for the general public that provide some premium benefits. All options allow you to see full profiles of anyone in your network and see who has viewed your profile.

Business: This is the lowest level upgrade and would probably not make sense for your talent team. It costs $24.95/month (or $19.95/month if you sign up for a year) and includes:

• 3 Inmails (email through LinkedIn)
• 300 profile views per search (as opposed to 100)
• 4 premium filters to help with your search

Business Plus: This is the plan that we used before getting LinkedIn Recruiter. It costs $49.95/month ($39.95/month if you sign up for a year). It includes:

• 10 Inmails
• 500 profile views per search
• 4 premium filters to help with your search

Executive: This is the most expensive of this category — it costs $99.95/month ($74.95/month if you sign up for a year). This one includes:

• 25 Inmails/month
• 700 profile views per search
• 4 Premium Filters to help with your search

Upgrades to your personal account geared towards recruiters:

These paid LInkedIn account options include plans specifically designed to fit the needs of a recruiter. They are more expensive than the options outlined above, but they also provide organizational benefits that help with sourcing for searches. All of these plans include full profiles of anyone in your network, a full list of who has viewed your profile, and priority customer service.

Talent Basic: This plan is the least expensive and costs $49.95/month or $39.95 if you sign up for a year. It includes:

• 10 Inmails/month
• 4 premium filters to help with your search
• 500 profile views per search
• 25 folders to manage candidates
• 7 saved searches with new candidate alerts weekly

Talent Finder: The middle tier option is the one “recommended” by LinkedIn. This plan costs $99.95/month ($74.95/month if you sign up for a year) and includes:

• 25 Inmails/month
• 8 premium filters to help with your search
• 700 profile views per search
• 50 folders to manage candidates
• 10 saved searches with new candidate alerts daily

Talent Pro: The most expensive plan costs $499.95/month ($399.95/month if you sign up for a year). This plan includes:

• 50 Inmails/month
• 8 premium filters to help with your search
• 1,000 profile views per search
• 75 folders to manage candidates
• 15 saved searches with new candidate alerts daily

Last but certainly not least, there are LinkedIn Recruiter options. These plans do not work off of your personal account but provide you with a different dashboard all together. This option also has an ATS-like feature called “Talent Pipeline”.

There are two options to chose from, “Recruiter Small Business” and “Recruiter Corporate”. Both options include the following features:

• Enable you to see the full profiles of 3^rd degree connections.
• Provide you with premium search with advanced filters and search alerts.
• Allow you to view “similar profiles”
• 50 Inmails/month
• Pipeline management

Recruiter Small Business: As this plan includes only one account for the entire company, it would be good for either a one person talent team or a consultant, but not for a full talent factory. This option costs $499.95 monthly ($399.95/month for an annual membership). This option limits the amount of profiles views for people outside your network and does not allow for collaboration between team members.

Recruiter Corporate: This is the option that the Talent Team at Openview Labs uses. It’s the best option for a Talent Factory or any recruiting teams out there that want to collaborate on searches. The cost is $849.95 monthly ($679.95/month if you get an annual subscription). This option allows you to view unlimited profiles outside of your network. Additionally, you have the option to share all of your folders and notes with team members. This is great for teams to avoid doubling efforts for one search.

Job Postings

LinkedIn is also a great place to post openings as it’s becoming the place to go when looking for a job. Additionally, your postings could even attract passive candidates thanks to LinkedIn’s “Jobs you may be interested in” posted right on the home page. Job posting options include:

Personal account:

• $295.00 for one 30-day posting
• $1150.00 for a five-pack of 30-day postings
• $1750.00 for a 10-pack of 30 day postings (this option makes the most sense as along as you will be able to use them)

Recruiter Account (Slots that are good for one year and can be switched out as often as you please):

• $8,020 each for 1-2 slots
• $7,400 each for 3-10 slots
• $1,080 each for 11-20 slots
• $972 each for 21-50 slots
• $875 each for 51-100 slots