I honestly don’t know, but if you have to ask that question about anything you received then it’s probably not recruitment. Recruitment generally refers exclusively to athletics. I believe the coaches at the various schools contact the student directly, but I’m not positive.
If you’re wondering about colleges that send you letters like “you seem like a promising applicant” or “you may qualify for our honors program” or “use our special ‘applicant’s advantage application’” or something along those lines, it’s not recruitment. They’re just trying to boost their number of applicants (in order to boost their ranking). They’re usually from schools you would consider “safety.” It’s not recruitment because they can still reject you or waitlist you if there’s a good reason. I got waitlisted by one of those schools that kept sending me things like that.