You've been sourcing a DevOps engineer since Monday. Three LinkedIn profiles, two hours. Meanwhile, Scout surfaced 5 profiles from your internal pool, already qualified, available. 1 placement out of 2 is already in your database. Here are the 10 techniques worth knowing to source effectively, from free to paid, and which one you should never skip. For a broader look at the topic, see also our article What Is Sourcing in Recruitment.
Article updated on July 10, 2026.
Key takeaways
- Free techniques exist and work: employee referrals, Google boolean search operators, internal sourcing cost nothing or close to it.
- The internal pool remains the most underused source: every previously qualified candidate is a free sourcing lead, provided you can actually find them again.
- Paid tools (job boards, automated outreach) have a real cost, ranging from €20 to several hundred euros a month, to weigh against the time actually saved.
- Combining several channels remains the best strategy: no single technique is enough in a tight market.
1. Automate your prospecting using tools
Automated prospecting is entirely feasible if you choose the right tools! With solutions such as Waalaxy or Lemlist, it is possible to automate and target your outreach on LinkedIn or via email.
The advantage of automation is that you can contact numerous candidates while addressing them in a personalized way to avoid the "recruiting robot" effect. It's important to note that for successful personalization, maintaining an up-to-date database is crucial. This helps prevent errors and improves response rates, as the ultimate goal of these solutions is to increase productivity in the recruitment process.
Thus, automated prospecting tools allow you to expand your pool of candidates, reactivate your talent pool and distribute your offers to have more opportunities to recruit the best talent.
Estimated cost: subscription ranging from €0 to €70/month (varies depending on the tools and level of features desired).
2. Leverage and cultivate your LinkedIn network
With over 830 million members in 2022, LinkedIn is the most widely used professional social network in the world (source: LinkedIn Corporate Communications). Candidates, companies, and freelancers use it to gain visibility and build their reputation.
As a recruiter, you can use LinkedIn to develop your employer brand, attract top talent, and of course, communicate directly via messaging to present your open positions.
This network boasts an estimated 36,000 listed skills. This is why the platform has become an inexhaustible source of candidates. And to get the most out of this network, the first step is to leverage your existing network and work on expanding it daily .
Conduct keyword searches, interact with current events and join groups of recruiters or industry professionals that interest you to find your future talent.
Direct outreach remains a safe bet on this type of channel: according to an Apec study on 2026 recruitment practices (French labor market data), 63% of companies use it to recruit executives, a figure slightly down (-3 points) in a less tense market.
Estimated cost: Unlike the paid solutions offered by the platform such as LinkedIn Premium or LinkedIn Recruiter, working and leveraging your network without advanced features is completely free.
3. Create a content strategy on LinkedIn
In the context of recruitment, a web content creation strategy aims to generate leads, increase brand awareness, visibility, or promote a job offer.
On LinkedIn specifically, the goal is to attract profiles open to new opportunities. You can address topics through posts, articles, images, or videos. This content must capture attention while providing real added value. Then, the more interaction you generate, the more visibility the algorithm grants.
As a recruiter, you can share company events, provide brand updates, promote your values, or simply offer valuable advice. Always keep your target audience in mind.
Finally, for a sustainable content strategy, select topics in advance and organize your publications in a calendar to have a view over several weeks.
Estimated cost: free.
4. Post your job offers on job boards
Whether general or specialist, job boards or job posting websites remain one of the most effective sourcing techniques. To attract candidates, the first step is to write a clear, structured, and as transparent a job posting as possible.
Making contact through a job board maximizes the chances of initiating a conversation with a candidate. Indeed, creating a candidate profile on these sites clearly demonstrates their desire to land a new job.
In addition, these sites all benefit from an advanced search engine in order to view at a glance the profiles in the CV database that could match your needs and expectations.
Examples of job boards include Indeed, Leboncoin, Monster, Cadremploi and Apec for executives.
To publish across several job boards at once instead of duplicating the listing site by site, a tool like Career automates that distribution.
Estimated cost: some sites are free, for others expect to pay between €400 and €800 to publish a job offer.
5. Implement co-optation
Employee referral is a technique that involves using a network of colleagues (the referrers) to recruit candidates internally (the referred candidates). It is also known as sponsorship or participatory recruitment.
If you wish to implement an employee referral program within your company and a position becomes available, inform your employees to determine if any of their contacts might have the required skills. Employee referrals are based primarily on competence, not solely on personal connections.
Estimated cost: free, but it is common for the company to pay a bonus to the referrer at the end of the referred employee's trial period (amount varies and is determined by the company).
6. Use the Google search engine
With over 90% market share, it's the most used search engine in France and worldwide. Have you considered using Google for your candidate sourcing?
Google particularly distinguishes itself with its "advanced search" function. This feature, accessible through the "settings" icon, allows users to obtain targeted and relevant results.
With this feature, you can specify keywords (and exclude them at the same time), a job title, a location, or even specify a site on which you want to obtain profiles (for example, LinkedIn).
Estimated cost: free.
7. Participate in employment-related events
In general, combining online and in-person events proves to be an excellent recruitment strategy. However, it is essential to maintain consistency between the information disseminated online and that presented during events.
Job fairs, job forums, and speed-dating events are ideal for candidate sourcing. Meeting job seekers at these events allows for targeted outreach. Indeed, some events are directly linked to a specific industry, profession (tech, manufacturing, banking), or geographic area.
Estimated cost: some trade shows are free, while others cost between €500 and €2,000 to rent a booth. The price varies depending on the event's prestige.
8. Create partnerships with schools
To target recent graduates, you can reach out to schools, universities, and training institutes . By creating partnerships (particularly for internship and apprenticeship opportunities) or joining alumni groups, you expand your pool of candidates!
You can also make yourself known at events organized by schools such as business games or any other competition to meet future graduates.
Estimated cost: free.
9. Search for candidates internally
Are you working in the HR department of a company and a new position is available? You can, of course, use your existing CV database!
To effectively organize your search and manage different profiles, we recommend using a management tool or CRM, as you would for external recruitment. Also, remember to publish your job postings on your company website.
With Scout, this search through your CV database becomes automatic semantic search rather than keyword filtering, and the Talent Refresh agent flags it when a profile already in your base changes status, without a manual search to run again.
Internal sourcing is only a complementary technique to those mentioned previously, but it has the advantage of offering opportunities to your employees and limiting the cost of integration and training.
Estimated cost: free.
10. Use an ATS to support you on a daily basis
An ATS (Applicant Tracking System) software is a recruitment management tool that aims to boost your candidate sourcing.
It allows for the centralized management of the overall recruitment process and for tracking the progress of each step for all candidates.
Traditional ATS software has a multitude of features: CV storage, multi-posting of job ads, searching for profiles in the database, etc.
An ATS is a real time saver and allows recruiters to move faster on tasks that do not require human or relational skills.
Are you looking for an ATS for your recruitment? Discover Marvin Recruiter , the first intelligent ATS that helps you generate a maximum number of recruitment processes and supports you until your deals are successful.
Its data-driven and artificial intelligence-based technology enables it to automatically feed your pipeline of relevant candidates to call: those who do this job or who are destined to progress in this job.
In brief
Sourcing effectively isn't about picking one technique, it's about knowing which one to use depending on the profile you're after and the budget available. And the cheapest technique of all is often the one used the least: looking at what you already have.
See how Scout queries your pool before sourcing elsewhere
FAQ
Can you do sourcing with no budget?
Yes. Employee referrals, Google and LinkedIn boolean search operators, and sourcing your internal pool cost nothing or close to it. These are often the most underused techniques, even though they're free.
What's the most effective sourcing technique?
It depends on the profile you're after and your budget. For passive profiles that are hard to find, direct outreach and internal sourcing generally give the best results. For larger volumes, combining job boards and automated outreach remains effective.
Should you source even if the job is already posted?
Yes. Posting a job only attracts active candidates, who make up just part of the market. Sourcing in parallel lets you reach passive candidates, who will never see your posting if they aren't actively looking.
What response rate should you expect from a sourcing message?
A generic message rarely gets more than a 5% response rate. A personalized message, one that mentions a specific detail from the candidate's profile, can reach 30-40%. Personalization makes all the difference.
Is sourcing only for large organizations?
No. Smaller organizations actually have an edge: they can offer a more direct, human approach. Employee referrals, your existing network and internal sourcing don't require a significant budget to get started.
How long does a good sourcing session take?
It varies depending on how rare the profile is, but budget several hours for a well-run multichannel search. That's exactly why querying your internal pool automatically, instead of running a manual search every time, makes the difference.
