Didion Recruitment Ad Budget — $700/month Allocation Strategy

Overview

During a working session with Diana Henry (Didion), it was identified that the active ad spend was running at approximately $545/month — well below the approved and intended budget of $700/month. The shortfall was traced to incorrect backend budget caps, not a deliberate reduction. With open recruitment positions actively needing support, correcting the caps and reallocating toward highest-performing channels became an immediate priority.

See also: ^[1] | ^[2] | ^[3]

The Problem

Diana confirmed the budget has always been $700/month and was never intentionally reduced. The backend caps simply were not set to allow full spend.

"The caps need to be adjusted on the back end so that we can actually get up to that $700." — Diana Henry

Reallocation Strategy

With the corrected $700/month budget, the recommended reallocation prioritizes channels that have demonstrated strong performance:

• Google SEM — was budget-constrained; increase allocation meaningfully. SEM has shown strong results for recruitment-intent queries.
• Meta TOFU — performing well; increase share of Meta budget toward top-of-funnel awareness.
• Google Display (TOFU + Retargeting) — consolidate and split remaining display budget (~$60) evenly between TOFU and retargeting rather than the prior uneven split.
• Meta Retargeting — maintain at current level; lower priority for incremental spend.

The exact final numbers were to be confirmed with the PPC specialist before sending the breakdown to Diana.

Recruitment Context

The urgency behind correcting the budget was tied directly to active hiring. Didion was in a heavy recruitment period at the time of this call. Several higher-priority roles had recently been filled, but additional open positions remained. Diana noted she needed to re-check internally on which roles still needed ad support before any LinkedIn recruitment campaign expansion was considered.

"We have a lot of open positions, so let's get our budget allocation correct to the $700, based on recommended maximum performance." — Diana Henry

Action Items

• [ ] Melissa — Correct backend budget caps in Google Ads and Meta to enable full $700/month spend
• [ ] Melissa — Confirm final allocation breakdown with PPC specialist and send to Diana
• [ ] Diana — Check with internal team on remaining open roles that may need additional recruitment ad support

Related Notes

• The optimization score for Google Ads improved from 70 → 93 over the prior month after display ad and headline updates
• LinkedIn recruitment campaign expansion was discussed but deprioritized; several target roles were filled before launch
• Phase 2 content plan (LinkedIn + email) was placed on hold given existing runway through May–June — see ^[4]