simple, smart strategy using tools, personal messages, and retargeting that worked.
A recruitment agency approached me because they wanted more clients — companies who need help finding the right people to hire.
But there was one big problem:
They didn’t have a big advertising budget.
They couldn’t afford to spend thousands on LinkedIn ads, which are usually the go-to for B2B lead generation.
So, I created a clever strategy that helped them reach the right people without wasting money.
Here’s exactly what I did — step by step:
🔍 Step 1: Finding the Right People Using Clay.com
The first step was finding the people who might actually be interested in our recruitment services — like founders, startup owners, and HR managers.
I used a tool called Clay.com.
It’s kind of like a super-powered contact book that helps you find people based on the type of company, job title, location, etc.
➡️ I searched for people who might be hiring and built a list with their names, job titles, LinkedIn profiles, email addresses, and company details.
➡️ This gave us a list of real decision-makers to reach out to — without running any ads.
💬 Step 2: Sending Personal Messages (No Ads Involved)
Instead of spending money on ads, I personally reached out to people from the list through two ways:
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✅ LinkedIn Messaging – I sent short, direct messages introducing our recruitment service in a friendly, helpful tone.
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✅ Cold Emails – I wrote clear and personalized emails, not spammy, just human.
👉 The goal wasn’t to sell hard — it was to start a conversation.
And it worked! A good number of people replied and showed interest.
🎯 Step 3: Using the Same Leads for Google & Facebook Ads
Now, here’s the smart part.
Most people think ads are only for cold traffic — strangers. But I did something different:
✅ I uploaded the same list of leads (the ones I contacted on LinkedIn and email) into Google Ads and Meta (Facebook/Instagram) Ads.
Why?
Because even if someone doesn’t reply to a message, they’ll still recognize the name when they see an ad later. That’s called retargeting.
💡 Instead of showing random ads to strangers, we were showing our ads only to people we already contacted — much cheaper and more effective!
📹 Step 4: Creating a Simple Influencer-Style Video Ad
For the ads, I didn’t use boring graphics. Instead, I made a short video — like how influencers talk to their audience.
🎥 The video showed a person talking about a common hiring problem companies face, and how our recruitment agency could solve it easily.
The tone was casual and trustworthy — just like how a friend would recommend something.
This made our message feel real and relatable.
✅ Final Results
📉 We saved a lot of money by avoiding cold ads on LinkedIn.
📬 We got replies through personal outreach.
📊 Our ads had better performance because the people already saw our name or message earlier.
🎯 We generated quality leads at a much lower cost.
💡 What This Shows:
You don’t always need a big ad budget.
If you’re smart about finding the right people, speaking to them personally, and then retargeting them in a friendly way, you can get amazing results — even with a small budget.