The starting point
Angers Loire Métropole was looking for electromechanical technicians: a technical, skilled job that companies fight over. In my history, a technician's application costs about 1.55 times an operator's (€25.53 versus €16.42 per lead counted by Meta, from 2023 to 2025, across 26 ads, 13 of which concern these two jobs): a rarer profile, so more expensive to reach.
An employer's usual reflex is to publish the offer and wait. A good electromechanical technician often already has a job: they do not spend their evenings reading job offers, and they may not know that the local authority is hiring in their trade.
What we did
- A landing page dedicated to the job, with a form and questions about the trade.
- An ad on Facebook and Instagram, declared in the “Employment” category, around Angers.
- Ad delivery from 31 March to 3 May 2026, i.e. 21 days of actual delivery.
The results
| Indicator | Result |
|---|---|
| Period | 31 March to 3 May 2026 |
| Ad spend | €296.24 |
| Views (impressions) | 70,531 |
| Price of 1,000 views | €4.20 |
| People who started to apply | 152 |
| Applications received | 47 (31% of the forms started) |
| Applications contacted by the local authority | 17 |
| Applications rejected | 19 |
| Applications pending | 11 |
Two figures deserve a closer look.
€4.20 per 1,000 views. It is the lowest price among my 17 landing page ads in 2026 (from €4.20 to €7.06, average €5.30). For the same budget, the ad was shown more often than elsewhere.
17 applications contacted out of 47. More than a third were judged interesting enough to call. That reflects the employer's behaviour: with another client, the proportion is very different.
The detail that changes the price
I have 47 applications recorded in my database. Meta, for its part, attributed only 5 to the ad. The gap has two possible explanations, and I do not know which one wins out:
- Meta's tracker does not see everyone: it depends on the visitor's consent to cookies, and in my 2026 ads it attributes fewer applications than I receive;
- some candidates found the page another way: the local authority's website, word of mouth.
What tips me towards “many come from the ad”: 46 of the 47 applications arrived while the ad was running, between 31 March and 3 May. What stops me from stating it: at the time, I did not record the source of an application.
| If you count… | Cost per application |
|---|---|
| All applications received (47) | €6.30 |
| Only those Meta attributes to the ad (5) | €59.25 |
The truth lies somewhere in between. So I publish both bounds.
Why a local authority should go and find candidates on social media
- The right profiles are not always looking. An electromechanical technician in a job does not necessarily check job offers, but they open Facebook or Instagram like everyone else.
- The budget is controlled to the euro. No lump sum to commit: a budget per day, visible spending, a price per 1,000 views that you can check. For a public buyer, it is a simple line to justify.
- The “Employment” rules are in keeping with public service. No targeting by age, gender or postcode: the offer is shown to anyone in the area who could do the job. I discuss this in this article.
- The questions save HR teams time. Candidates answer a few questions about the trade before sending their application: the team knows who to call first.
In short
- €296.24 of ad delivery from 31 March to 3 May 2026, 70,531 views at €4.20 per 1,000, the lowest price of my 2026 landing page ads.
- 47 applications received, 17 of which were contacted by the local authority.
- Cost per application: €6.30 if they all come from the ad, €59.25 if only those Meta attributes count. I publish both bounds.
