How To Recession-Proof Your Marketing (Part 3): Double Down on Digital + Paid Media with Precision
Paid media isn’t a lifeline, it’s an amplifier. Get it wrong and you burn cash. Get it right, and you compound revenue.
If you’ve followed Parts 1 and 2 of this series, you know the playbook so far:
Part 1: Build the foundation so you’re not throwing money at panic marketing.
Part 2: Tighten your messaging and offers so customers see you as essential, not optional.
Now it’s time for the third lever: paid media.
The stakes? Enormous. Global ad spend hit $889 billion in 2024 and is projected to surpass $900 billion in 2025 yet nearly half of campaigns underperform because budgets are misallocated or poorly tracked (Source: Statista). In a recession, that’s not a margin of error. That’s the difference between staying solvent or shuttering.
The truth is this: ads don’t fix bad strategy. They amplify whatever’s there. If you’re dialed in, they scale you faster. If you’re sloppy, they waste your money.
Here’s how to run paid media with precision.
RECESSIONS DEMAND SMARTER SPEND
When cash is tight, you can’t afford “spray-and-pray” ads. Google Search ads average ~3.17% CTR, compared to just 0.46% for Display (Source: StoreGrowers). That’s a 7x difference in efficiency.
Restaurants running broad display campaigns? Wasted spend. Med spas trying to “be everywhere?” Burn rate. Service providers advertising outside their market radius? Negative ROI.
The fix: cut anything not tied to a clear intent or outcome.
GOOGLE + META: THE INTEGRATED FUNNEL
Think of Google and Meta not as separate channels but as a dual-engine system.
Google captures intent. A search for “best happy hour in Las Vegas” or “24/7 plumber Henderson” is a buying signal. Search ads win the high-conversion moments.
Meta creates demand. A well-timed Reel showcasing a restaurant’s weekday prix fixe menu or a med spa’s seasonal “maintenance bundle” gets people thinking about a purchase they weren’t planning yet.
Together, they compound. DemandSage reports that retargeted audiences convert up to 4x better than cold traffic (Source: DemandSage). Meta primes. Google closes.
GEOTARGETING: OWN YOUR 5-15 MILE RADIUS
Scaling doesn’t start with national campaigns. It starts with your neighborhood.
Eight in ten US consumers search for a local business weekly, and 42% of those clicks go directly to the Map Pack (Source: BrightLocal).
Restaurants should be running geo-fenced campaigns that push weekday reservations.
Med spas should target affluent zip codes with seasonal treatments.
Service businesses should dominate “near me” searches for emergency and recurring work.
If you don’t own your 15-mile radius, don’t waste a penny trying to scale nationally.
RETARGETING: THE HIGHEST-ROI CAMPAIGNS
Cold audiences are expensive. Warm audiences are gold.
CropInk reports that retargeting campaigns reduce CPA by ~50% and retargeted users are 3x more likely to engage than new prospects (Source: CropInk).
Restaurants: retarget people who viewed your menu but didn’t book.
Med spas: nudge clients due for a quarterly treatment.
Service providers: follow up with leads who requested quotes but never scheduled.
If you’re not retargeting, you’re overpaying for growth.
EVERGREEN BEATS ONE-OFF PROMOS
Flash sales spike revenue, but the effect dies fast. Evergreen campaigns provide consistency.
TheeDigital found that businesses leaning on always-on campaigns with automation and optimization see steadier CPLs and more predictable conversions than those running burst campaigns (Source: TheeDigital).
Evergreen campaigns give you a baseline. One-off promos should be layered on top, not used as a crutch.
MEASURE WHAT MATTERS: CPL, ROAS, LTV
Vanity metrics don’t pay the bills. Executives care about three numbers:
CPL (cost per lead): Are we efficient?
ROAS (return on ad spend): Are ads profitable?
LTV (lifetime value): Is this a customer worth scaling?
SQ Magazine reports that well-optimized Meta campaigns average ~5.3x ROAS with warm audiences and consistent creative refreshes (Source: SQ Magazine). That’s how you separate growth from guesswork.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Recessions don’t kill paid media. They reveal whether you’re disciplined. Broad targeting, vanity metrics, and one-off bursts will bleed you dry. Integrated funnels, local-first targeting, retargeting, evergreen plays, and ROI-driven measurement will keep you profitable and ahead of competitors who panic and pull back.
If you want ad campaigns that don’t just run but actually convert, Golden Hour Co.’s agency retainers build and manage integrated paid media systems tied directly to CPL, ROAS, and LTV, so every dollar compounds into growth.
Trending Stories
