Ink Digital

Ink Digital

Ink Digital is one of the fastest-growing digital marketing agencies in London. Award-winning and built around performance and transparency, they deliver bespoke SEO, PPC, digital PR, and web design campaigns that drive measurable ROI for brands across travel, hospitality, eCommerce and B2B.

Founder Michael Ryan has scaled Ink Digital from a single specialist into a 20-strong team, a HubSpot partner, and a UK Search Award name, all while moving into a new growth phase that includes senior leadership hires across SEO, PPC and client services.

That kind of growth comes with a problem most agencies know well. The faster you scale, the harder it is to protect the standard that got you there. Every new senior hire either raises the bar or lowers it. There is no neutral.

So when Ink Digital needed to add senior leadership without compromising on quality, they did what high-growth agencies do. They brought in a specialist partner to hold the line with them. They came to Search for Hire.

The brief

Ink Digital approached Search for Hire with two simultaneous requirements: a Client Services Director and a Head of PPC.

These were not entry-level fills. Both roles sat at the senior end of the agency structure, requiring candidates with the commercial credibility to lead client relationships or paid media strategy at the highest level. The dual requirement, combined with the office location and a hybrid working expectation, made this a more complex brief than a single, fully remote hire would have presented.

This was not the first time the two businesses had worked together. Search for Hire had already placed an SEO specialist into Ink Digital. With these two senior hires, that brought the total to three roles filled across the relationship, spanning SEO, PPC and client services, a sign of the trust built hire after hire.

Search for Hire placed both roles. Both candidates remain in post.

“We’ve had a brilliant experience working with Search for Hire.

They’ve supported us with recruitment across SEO, PPC and Client Services, and have taken the time to really understand Ink Digital, our team structure, the type of people we need, and the standards we’re trying to build.

One of the biggest areas of value has been their help with creating proper scorecards for each role. This has made our hiring process much more structured, consistent and focused on finding the right people for the business, not just filling seats.

They’ve been proactive, easy to work with and have challenged us in the right way throughout the process. Recruitment can be a real drain on time, especially in a growing agency, but Search for Hire have helped us make better decisions and feel more confident in the people we’re bringing into the team.

Would definitely recommend them to any agency or business looking for a recruitment partner who actually understands the importance of hiring properly.”

— Michael Ryan, Director & Founder of Ink Digital

The challenge

Ink Digital’s brief presented a layered set of challenges that narrowed the available candidate pool from the outset:

The office location reduced the number of eligible candidates compared to a fully remote role.

A hybrid working requirement added another filter, removing candidates who would only consider full remote.

The seniority of both roles demanded proven commercial and operational experience.

The client team were heavily occupied with active client work, making interview scheduling logistically complex.

Both roles needed to progress simultaneously, requiring coordination across two separate hiring tracks.

“The office location made the candidate pool more narrow when compared to a fully remote role.

Plus with the requirement for hybrid working alongside the seniority of both roles made it challenging. The client team were also very busy on client work which made scheduling interviews challenging, but the team divided and conquered their end to move candidates along in the process.”

— Search for Hire Recruitment Team

The process

Search For Hire ran a disciplined, location-aware vetting process across both roles in parallel. The approach prioritised precision over volume, ensuring only candidates with a genuine match on location, working style, seniority, and culture reached interview stage.

Candidate Criteria

• Comfortable with the office location and hybrid working model, confirmed at the point of first contact
• Discounted immediately if any preference or inclination toward fully remote working was identified
• Screened against the job description for technical and commercial capability
• Assessed for cultural fit using pre-prepared questions designed to surface key elements specific to each role
• Demonstrated seniority commensurate with Client Services Director or Head of PPC expectations

Evaluation Process

• Upfront location and hybrid working qualification to remove misaligned candidates before any time was spent in the process
• Structured screening calls using pre-prepared questions tied directly to the role requirements
• Culture and commercial alignment assessed ahead of client interview stage
• Coordinated scheduling across two simultaneous hiring tracks, working around the client team’s active client commitments

“A refreshingly honest and supportive experience!

I had a fantastic experience working with Faith to secure my new role. From the very beginning, she was incredibly professional and never pushy, she reached out to ensure the position was a genuine fit for me before moving forward. The entire process was seamless, from the initial compatibility call to the final interviews. Faith was always available to answer my questions and provided fair, balanced, and understanding support while I was navigating the offer. I would be more than happy to recommend her to anyone looking for their next career move!”

— Client Service Director, Ink Digital (Placed Candidate)

The outcome

Search for Hire delivered a strong shortlist across both the Client Services Director and Head of PPC roles within around 6 weeks. The quality of candidates presented across both tracks made the final decision genuinely competitive for the client, a positive outcome that reflects the rigour of the qualification process.

Both placements were made. Both candidates have been in role for a number of months with no early attrition, a direct result of the upfront investment in location and culture fit screening.

Why this matters

Hiring two senior agency roles simultaneously is operationally demanding. Add a location constraint and a hybrid working requirement and the margin for error in candidate qualification becomes extremely small. The wrong approach, sending volume without precision, wastes client time and damages trust.

Search for Hire’s process removed the noise at the earliest stage. By qualifying on location and working preference before anything else, the shortlists presented to Ink Digital contained only candidates who were genuinely viable, and genuinely competitive.

That precision is what made a difficult hire achievable. And it is what keeps placed candidates in post, hire after hire, as an agency grows.