The Waiting Game: How Long Do You Need to Test Marketing Strategies to Know If They're Working?
When in charge of marketing strategy we all know that patience is a virtue and it can take time to deliver results, but that’s often hard to defend to CEOs, CFOs and others who are just looking at the numbers right now and wanting to know where that Return on Investment is immediately. In the fast-paced world of marketing, the pressure to deliver quick results is immense. However, understanding a reasonable amount of time to test various marketing tactics before determining their success or failure is crucial to giving them enough of a chance to succeed, without wasting money and time on something that isn’t working.
Test timeframes for different types of marketing
Here are a few types of marketing tactics and how long you may want to stay the course before correcting. Of course, all of this has the massive caveat that it very much depends on the competitiveness of your industry, whether you’re B2B or B2C, what exactly defines “success” for you and can be influenced by factors outside of your control. It will also depend on if your service/product is what your target audience wants to buy. No amount of marketing can solve something that’s wrong with your business model.
Basically, every blog on the internet will say something different about this, but here’s our expert opinion:
Timeframe: 1-3 months
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
PPC campaigns, such as Google Ads, often give you data pretty quickly because of the immediate nature of ad placements. However, giving these campaigns at least one to three months is essential to gather sufficient data, adjust bids, keywords, and targeting options, and overcome any initial kinks.
Example: A company might launch a PPC campaign for a new product. Initially, the cost-per-click (CPC) might be high, and the conversion rate might be low. Over the first month, optimizing ad copy and targeting settings could reduce CPC and improve conversions. By the end of three months, a clearer picture of the campaign's ROI should emerge.
Timeframe: 3-6 months
Email Marketing
Email marketing campaigns can give early indicators of success, such as open and click-through rates, within the first few weeks. However, understanding the impact on customer behavior, such as repeat purchases or long-term engagement, require a longer testing period of three to six months.
Example: A company launches a bi-weekly newsletter. While initial open rates may provide some insights, it takes several months to observe trends, like changes in subscriber growth and long-term engagement rates.
Social Media Marketing
Social media strategies, whether organic or paid, typically require three to six months to gauge effectiveness. This period allows marketers to test various content types, posting schedules, and engagement tactics. Social media algorithms also need time to adjust to your content patterns.
Example: A brand might start posting daily on Instagram with a mix of images, videos, and stories. Initial engagement might fluctuate, but over time, the brand can identify the most effective content types and posting times, thereby optimizing their strategy.
Timeframe: 6-12 months
Content Marketing
And on the other end of the scale…content marketing. I LOVE James Clear’s concept of the plateau of latent potential from Atomic Habits and some clever fellow on LinkedIn recently used it to illustrate what happens with content marketing. If I can track down his post, I’ll give him the credit. So let’s use that:
Basically as applied to content marketing it means that you might not see the results for a while because they take time, and they are compounding. But “wait and see” is a very hard thing to say to a CEO who is champing at the bit because the blogs you’re doing haven’t immediately resulting in a bunch of new leads.
Content marketing, including blogs, whitepapers, and video content, requires a longer period to show results. It’s about building trust, authority, and a loyal audience over time. Search engine optimization (SEO) benefits from consistent content often become apparent after six months, but the full impact can take up to a year or more.
Example: A company may start a blog targeting key industry keywords. At first, the blog posts may attract minimal traffic. However, over six months, as the content ranks higher in search engines and gains more shares on social media, traffic and leads typically increase significantly.
The other quirk is that when it comes to SEO we are at the mercy of Google’s whims. This means that there can be massive algorithm changes that impact immediate visibility and the perceived success of content marketing. It takes a strong stomach and the trust of the leadership team to argue to stay the course and argue for investment in consistent high-quality content over the long-term.
Public Relations (PR)
PR efforts, such as media placements, press releases, and events, often take time to create tangible business outcomes. While media coverage might happen quickly, the resulting brand awareness and reputation changes usually take six to twelve months to fully evaluate.
Example: A company might initiate a PR campaign to improve brand perception. Initial press coverage might be immediate, but monitoring changes in brand sentiment, website traffic, and sales over the next year will provide a comprehensive assessment of the campaign's success.
A final reminder about marketing…
The key to successful marketing is not just in the choice of the tactics themselves and the strategies of how to use them, but in the patience and persistence to evaluate them properly. It can be tempting to look for quick wins, the best insights come from understanding how different strategies perform over time. Embracing this longer-term view not only leads to better decision-making but also to more sustainable and impactful marketing outcomes.
So, set your timelines, track your metrics, and remember: good things come to those who wait.
If you’d like to talk about marketing strategy with us, email hello@alkimie.co and we’d love to have a chat!