Case #048: Running five campaigns like one portfolio

Case #048: Running five campaigns like one portfolio

I used to fund whichever campaign I felt good about that morning. Mood-based budgeting. It's why I'd starve a quiet winner and overfeed a loud loser. Now I run my campaigns like a fund manager runs a book. Here's the weekly allocation playbook.

Five live campaigns, $1,500/week to distribute:

— Rank by ROI per dollar, not total profit: a campaign returning 70% on small spend beats one returning 30% on large spend. I sort the whole book by efficiency every Monday.

— Tier the money: top two campaigns get 60% of budget, middle two get 30%, the experiment gets 10%. Winners get fed, losers get a leash.

— Cap any single campaign at 40%: concentration risk is real — a sudden cap or ban on your one giant can erase the week.

— Reserve a fixed 10% for new tests, always: the pipeline of future winners dies if every dollar chases today's best. Non-negotiable line item.

— Rebalance weekly, act daily: I set the allocation Monday but only move money on the kill-criteria triggers during the week — no mid-week mood swings.

First full week on the system: the book returned $1,500 in, $2,280 back, 52% blended ROI — and crucially, the 10% experiment line surfaced next month's 68% winner that mood-budgeting would have strangled.

The lesson: a single campaign is a bet, but five campaigns are a portfolio — allocate by efficiency and protect the experiment line, or you'll keep feeding your loudest loser.