United States Drug Enforcement Administration

Case Study

How Magnitude of Change and the U.S. DEA partnered to bring in thousands of qualified new applicants to further the DEA’s mission

Our Impact

U.S. DEA

Client Background

The mission of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is to enforce the controlled substances laws and regulations of the United States and bring to the criminal and civil justice system of the United States, or any other competent jurisdiction, those organizations and principal members of organizations, involved in the growing, manufacture, or distribution of controlled substances appearing in or destined for illicit traffic in the United States.

The DEA also acts to recommend and support non-enforcement programs aimed at reducing the availability of illicit controlled substances on the domestic and international markets.

Client Challenge

The DEA faced an urgent need to attract a diverse range of candidates to fill critical agent positions. The focus was on engaging financial planners, pilots, accountants, and individuals with military backgrounds, the DEA sought to leverage a new approach to digital communications to find qualified applicants.

The Plan

Campaign Overview

Channel Explanations

LinkedIn Ads allow advertisers to get in front of the world’s largest, most engaged professional audience of influencers and decision-makers with efficiency and control through Sponsored Content, Sponsored Messaging, Lead Gen Forms, Text/Dynamic Ads, Display Ads, and more.
Social Display distributes social media posts outside the walled gardens of their platforms, often using existing media buying infrastructure. Typical click and engagement performance is 3x greater than traditional display.
Performance Display mitigates wasted ad spend common with traditional advertising tactics due to human lag-time and error. It utilizes millions of datapoints in real time to reach someone at the right time and place across devices such as a desktop, phone, or tablet.
Paid Search is a tactic used to increase online presence, awareness, and website traffic through SEM and SEO strategies across search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. This strategy positions advertisers in front of an engaged audience during a critical micro-moment of intent. Magnitude of Change is recognized as a Google Partner for maximizing success for our clients, driving client growth, and demonstrating Google Ad skills and expertise through certifications.
Paid Social campaigns are activated on industry-leading platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, and Twitter. Magnitude of Change offered forecasting, planning, campaign setup, optimizations, and streamlined reporting.

Objective

Fill agent positions

Goal

Attract 5,400 qualified applicants

KPI

Conversions (number of qualified applications)

GEO

Atlanta DMA, Detroit DMA, Philadelphia DMA, Phoenix DMA, San Diego DMA, Washington D.C. DMA, New England including (statewide): Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont

Demographic

Age/Gender: Adults 18-45; Male 21-37
Education: Bachelor’s degree
Interest/Behavioral: Military or law enforcement background, Pilot/Maritime, Accounting/Auditing, Military/Technical, Mechanical, Information systems, Telecommunications, Engineering, Foreign language fluency; Bi-lingual; Multi-lingual

Channels

Social Display

Performance Display

Paid Search

Paid Social

Solution

With in a deep understanding of the nuances of recruitment for federal agencies, Magnitude of Change utilized their expertise to create an omni-channel media plan including LinkedIn, Social Media, Search, Social Display, and Performance Display to get in front of qualified applicants to apply for critical agent positions for the DEA.

The campaign utilized ORION, Magnitude of Change’s proprietary programmatic platform crafted for government and adjacent agencies, with the unique capability to create real behavioral change in audiences.

Insights

Magnitude of Change discovered some fascinating insights about who was more likely to engage with the campaign:

Those who were interested in pre-owned cars and Jaguar cars were far more likely to engage with the campaign.
The people from the military audience more likely to engage with the campaign had an interest in race in America.
Active military members had an interest in Jeep Gladiators.
Those who were interested in engineering business and engaged with the campaign also had a strong interest in small business and green initiatives.
Those who were interested in IT and engaged with the campaign also had a strong interest in business administration and family internet.
Those who were interested in foreign language fluency and engaged with the campaign also had an interest in race in America and jazz music.

Results

Through a comprehensive omni-channel strategy, Magnitude of Change empowered the DEA to connect with untapped talent pools and exceed ambitious recruitment targets. Intelligently engaging candidates at multiple touch points throughout their online journey, the team delivered over 7,000 qualified applications, showcasing Magnitude of Change’s rich understanding of the recruitment landscape and the power of the ORION Platform.

Results