Realistic Goal Setting: How Long It Should Take to Start Seeing Digital Marketing Results
Like anyone, when you first venture into digital marketing and online business in general, there is always that built-in rush to see results. But then, the truth is that it takes time to get any solid results – whether it’s traffic to your online store or revenue from sales of your products and services.
Any online business has to first go through a phase where prospective customers discover it though before it can start making money. And this takes some time and effort.
You could build a sleek new website in a matter of days or implement some great search engine optimization (SEO) strategies on your site to increase your digital footprint, but then, it will often take a minimum of three months to begin seeing the results of that good work.
Results are cumulative and slow
On the whole, most information resources agree that it takes between four to six months on average to start seeing the results for your SEO efforts.
These results often trickle in slowly. So, there is likely to be more traction at around 12-months’ time compared to the results for the fourth or sixth month of implementing the SEO strategy. Doing direct mail marketing is also a good idea.
The exception to the rule
Pay per Click (PPC) advertising is often seen as one way to accelerate the realization of digital marketing results. The practice involves running paid campaigns that are promoted by the service provider such as Facebook (Facebook ads) or Google (AdWords). In this marketing practice, you only pay the platform when the ad is clicked.
From the way PPC campaigns work, they can generate instant visibility for your business and drive instant traffic to your website. As such, they are generally considered the fastest way to instantly increase sales and boost the profitability of your business.
There is a latency phase to PPC campaigns too
Even though running a PPC campaign means you’re venturing into one of the quick ways to make money online, this money won’t start coming in immediately. Just like it takes time to launch an effective organic marketing campaign, it can take up to eight (8) months for a truly profitable paid campaign to really take off. There is a lot of careful planning and considered optimization which involves testing and retargeting to be able to see the true potential of a PPC campaign.
Fortunately, once the ads take off, they can boost your business’ brand awareness much quickly and significantly raise the desired visibility from the get-go.
Notice that…
There are multiple ways to carry out your digital marketing practice and different platforms to run a PPC ad. Both organic marketing campaigns and paid advertising have their share of advantages and limitations in relation to one another. It helps, therefore, to do your research before settling on an option. Oftentimes, it will help to consult a digital marketing professional to help you make sense of everything.
Wrap up
Running an online business can give you the freedom to work from the comfort of your home, in addition to being very profitable if done right. Notice however that how soon you see results of your work will depend on how well you do it, so it is advisable to put the right effort, invest the right resources and work with the right people wherever necessary.
