Indeed Healthy Budget Requirements 2025 Enforcement
Happy Friday Job Board Doctor friends! A last minute drop into the Job Board Doctor tip line sent me into a flurry to re-write this week’s post. Indeed is at it again with updates to enforcement of their “Healthy Budget” requirements and while I am still “triaging” the impact, I wanted to make sure to share the info with the community right away.
The tip started with the hyperbolic, if not still accurate, proclamation: “Indeed is declaring war on programmatic tech providers.”
War? At the very least, it’s a clear display of unchecked greed—the same greed that ultimately took down the “too big to fail” empires of Monster and CareerBuilder (still waiting on that cool rebrand announcement, by the way).
These moves, targeting the agencies that helped build their dominance, have a familiar ring to them.
Enter Indeed Healthy Budget Requirements
Back in 2023, Indeed rolled out what they lovingly termed “Healthy Budget” requirements for programmatic job advertising. Recruitics did a solid job summarizing the impact to their clients at the time.
So what exactly is an Indeed Healthy Budget?
It’s a minimum spend—plain and simple. Before 2023, advertisers could set their own budget caps per job or campaign, giving programmatic providers the flexibility to move jobs in and out based on performance. In other words, the model worked. If a job could be filled cost-effectively—say, for $10—it was. But then Indeed decided to implement a hard minimum: $25 per job advertised.
So a job that may have cost $10 to fill programmatically now costs $25.
What’s new, and why this newsletter?
Because the tip we got, which has since been confirmed by other sources, indicates that starting July 1, 2025, Indeed will now strictly enforce this $25 spend rule. That means eliminating—or at least seriously devaluing—programmatic optimization for agencies still choosing to play ball with the industry’s biggest gatekeeper.
Previously, Indeed allowed some flexibility. Programmatic tech could shuffle jobs within a campaign as long as the total campaign budget divided across all jobs hit the $25 average. That model is being tossed out.
Any new jobs added to a campaign after July 1 will now require additional, new budget—and that budget must be at least $25 per job. It doesn’t matter if the overall campaign already has enough spend to meet the average; each new job will have to meet the minimum on its own.
Yes, programmatic tech is hurting Indeed’s revenue. Even though it clearly benefits hiring organizations by delivering performance and efficiency, the platform is choosing to protect its margins instead. Which we all get, but isn’t that how innovation works? When innovation evolves how we do deliver our commitments – we must evolve or die. Sounds like Indeed is playing a short term game which will eventually lead to the death of a declining empire.
🚨Reality Check
This isn’t just an a policy tweak—this is a fundamental change to how agencies must approach budget allocation on Indeed. Companies, not just agencies, but the companies trusting their agencies with filling vital roles need to know what’s happening and prepare now.
Indeed is providing hiring companies with yet ANOTHER opportunity to wean themselves off Indeed. For Indeed competitors (that is you) it’s an opportunity to strengthen revenues by vying for that budget and showing you can perform.
We’ll keep an eye on it.
Have more intel on this or other industry news, the Job Board Doctor community needs to know about? Spill here – morning, noon or night the Doc is ready for the tea.
Until next time,
The Doc
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