LinkedIn Premium is LinkedIn’s paid subscription service that provides upgraded features and benefits for recruiters looking to improve their talent search and outreach capabilities. Some of the key benefits of LinkedIn Premium for recruiters include:
Expanded search capabilities
LinkedIn Premium allows recruiters to search the full LinkedIn database of over 740 million members, compared to just the members in your network for free accounts. This significantly expands your access to potential candidates. Premium search filters allow you to target your search by criteria like years of experience, company, job title, location, skills, and more.
Unlimited InMail messages
One of the biggest advantages of Premium is the ability to send unlimited InMail messages to prospective candidates who aren’t already connected to you on LinkedIn. Free accounts are very limited in the number of InMails they can send (typically around 5-15 per month). With Premium, you have no cap on the number of InMails you can use to directly reach talent.
See full candidate profiles
LinkedIn Premium enables you to see full candidate profiles regardless of whether you’re connected, which is important for fully evaluating candidates before reaching out. Free accounts can only see limited profile previews for members outside their network.
Get contact info with InMail responses
When candidates accept your InMail messages, their contact info is now revealed directly on the message thread. This allows for seamless follow up over email or phone. For free accounts, contact info is only shared if the candidate chooses to connect with you.
Talent Insights
LinkedIn Premium provides Talent Insights to give recruiters a comprehensive overview of talent availability for specific roles, companies, locations, and other criteria. This helps optimize your search strategy and outreach.
Who’s Viewed Your Profile
The “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” feature lets you see which candidates have recently viewed your profile. This allows you to focus your outreach on prospects who already showed interest.
InMail acceptance stats
Premium provides statistics on your InMail acceptance rate versus industry benchmarks. This helps assess the effectiveness of your outreach messaging.
Saved searches
You can save customized searches in Premium to easily repeat targeted searches. Free accounts do not have this capability.
Candidate recommendations
The Premium Recommendations features suggests relevant candidates for you to consider based on your searches and profile. This surfaces prospects you may have otherwise missed.
Advanced LinkedIn Recruiter
LinkedIn Recruiter is LinkedIn’s most powerful recruiting platform, included with Premium. Key features include candidate tracking, notes, pipeline organization, talent pool management, and more.
Premium Career Pages
Premium enables advanced organization-level Career Pages for promoting your employer brand and job postings.
Unlocked Courses
Premium provides unlimited access to LinkedIn Learning courses to help improve your recruiting and talent search skills.
Team Accounts
Premium allows unlimited employees at your organization to use your company’s subscription. Free accounts are limited to a single user.
No ads
One of the nice perks of Premium is no advertisements on LinkedIn. The ad-free browsing provides a cleaner experience.
LinkedIn Premium Cost
LinkedIn Premium is available on monthly and annual payment plans. Here are the current pricing options as of 2023:
| Plan | Monthly Price | Annual Price |
|---|---|---|
| Premium Career | $29.99/month | $239.88/year (saves $59.88) |
| Premium Business | $59.99/month | $479.88/year (saves $119.88) |
| Premium Sales | $64.99/month | $519.88/year (saves $129.88) |
| Recruiter Lite | $99.95/month | $995.40/year (saves $199.40) |
| Recruiter | $249.95/month | $2,495.40/year (saves $499.40) |
As shown, the annual plans offer significant savings compared to month-to-month payments. The level of plan you choose will depend on your specific recruiting needs and budget.
Is LinkedIn Premium Worth It for Recruiters?
When weighing the value of LinkedIn Premium, recruiters should consider factors like:
- How many candidates you need to reach each month
- Difficulty finding qualified talent in your niche
- Current efficiency of your process
- Cost per hire goals
- Expected increase in hires from upgrading
For most professional recruiters actively sourcing many candidates per month, Premium provides ample return on investment. The expanded search and direct outreach alone justify the costs for larger hiring volumes. However, freelance or agency recruiters with lower volumes may be better off maximizing their free account first.
Conclusion
LinkedIn Premium offers invaluable tools and capabilities for significantly enhancing recruitment efforts. The combination of unlimited search access, InMails, Recruiter platform, and other features provide robust solutions for finding and engaging qualified candidates. While the subscription costs are not insignificant, for recruiters who actively leverage the benefits, Premium delivers outstanding ROI in reduced time-to-hire and cost-per-hire.