How Long Does It Take To See Digital Marketing Results?
Like all great things, results take time. You wouldn’t expect to be an expert chef after 1 week in culinary school, just as you cant expect an abundance of digital marketing results in just a week’s time. Anyone can manipulate links, automate content, or use other sketchy marketing tactics to get temporary results. But this isn’t what you want. You want real clicks, real conversions, and real business authority. So, here’s what you need to know about generating real, quality, and enduring results.
Digital marketing isn't a one-time thing. It requires long-term planning and thinking.
You must stay with a well-planned and executed digital marketing strategy for about 4-6 months before you start to see meaningful results. Results can take even longer and even never arrive if you aren’t fixing all aspects of your site (from backlinks to content to user experience), posting frequently, or providing high-quality content, ads, etc.
It will likely take 4-12 months to begin seeing the results of your digital marketing efforts.
You must stay with a well-planned and executed digital marketing strategy for about 4-6 months before you start to see meaningful results. Results can take even longer and even never arrive if you aren’t fixing all aspects of your site (from backlinks to content to user experience), posting frequently, or providing high-quality content, ads, etc.
Several factors play a role in the speed of your results.
Your starting point, industry, budget, the agency or employee you use, and your focus areas can all have a big impact on the speed of your results. Working with a lean agency is a good way to utilize multiple digital marketing experts, decrease results time, and maximize your budget.
Where You Start
Google regularly indexes and scores your website. Depending on your current relationship with Google it can take a good bit of time to build or rebuild a trusting and credible relationship with Google’s search engines.
Industry And Budget
If your competitors have a strong online presence, it will be harder for you to outrank them when you are first starting. Perfection isn’t mandatory you just need to be better than your industry competitors. That being said, if your business offers an inferior product or service, your digital marketing efforts will most likely be unsuccessful. However, if you have a good product or service, digital marketing can help you find and convert new audiences.
As far as budget goes, the more you spend the more you see in return. With a more expansive budget, you can acquire higher quality leads, faster results, and a more sustainable experience. As you grow you should add to your marketing budget to support this growth. For instance, Rolex spent $56 million in 2021, whereas Casio spent only $3.64 million. We suggest spending at least 10% of your annual revenue on marketing.
Focus Areas
Digital marketing is a long-term commitment, regardless of your focus areas. One type of service is just not enough. While you may see faster results with Google PPC campaigns than with SEO, you lose all of that traffic once you stop running PPC ads. Therefore, you want to ensure your focus on both SEO and PPC campaigns. To cut it short, successful digital marketing requires an extensive approach.
Search Engine Optimization
Out of every inbound marketing effort, SEO is the most long-term strategy and the tactic that will require the most patience. SEO requires continuous work to ensure your website is as good and relevant as it can possibly be and superior to your competitors.
Google regularly assesses any changes to your website. However, in the first few months, it may seem like your time invested with SEO isn’t causing noticeable improvements to your search engine rankings, keep in mind if you are correctly executing your strategy those changes are all building towards good things in the long run.
PPC Advertisments
Out of every inbound marketing effort, SEO is the most long-term strategy and the tactic that will require the most patience. SEO requires continuous work to ensure your website is as good and relevant as it can possibly be and superior to your competitors.
Google regularly assesses any changes to your website. However, in the first few months, it may seem like your time invested with SEO isn’t causing noticeable improvements to your search engine rankings, keep in mind if you are correctly executing your strategy those changes are all building towards good things in the long run.
Successful digital marketing is a continuous journey, not a quick sprint.
When your marketing goals are reached, you can’t let up or resort back to your old ways. Maintaining a meaningful online presence requires a commitment to the consistent implementation of your digital marketing strategy. An effective strategy consists of setting meaningful measurable goals, once met, new goals are set. It is a recurring process and an investment for the longevity of your company’s digital presence.
At this point, you are probably a little overwhelmed. The best thing to do from here is to just start. Begin by devising a marketing strategy that best fits your business. Don’t focus on just one marketing effort, we encourage you to diversify your marketing assets, practice trial, and error, and constantly optimize your efforts. Most of all we encourage you to begin practicing SEO, as it is hands down the best way to grow your business in the long run.
