Key Takeaways:
- How quickly do we start to show? (Visibility)
- How fast will we start to see website traffic? (Engagement)
- When will we start to see sales?
- How quickly will we be getting a return from Google Ads?
Google Ads is often seen as the ‘quick win’ in digital marketing.
That’s partially for good reason as it’s the fastest activity to get results. As soon as you start spending, you start getting traffic.
Search advertising if deployed correctly has the intent signal that the user is actively looking for what you offer, so it can very often lead to quick leads and sales through successful Google Ads.
Specific timelines will vary depending on your budget, along with the competitiveness of the auctions that you are advertising in and if your website proposition is tested or not.
If you have a website that already generates leads and sales, it’s likely that you could expect results within 2-4 weeks of launching a well-structured ad campaign.
Getting the campaigns into profit is something that takes longer, this would typically be between 30-90 days, depending on the sector and other surrounding factors.
We have some clients who we’ve taken from zero ads activity into profitable return in two weeks, with others it’s taken 90 days, sometimes slightly longer.
The main difference between Google Ads and other forms of marketing though is that it’s measurable all of the way through the progress milestones. This means that even if you aren’t seeing results in terms of leads and sales, it’s clear to see where you are up to and why by using tools like Google Analytics.
We share a timeline like this with all of our clients which shows them where they are in relation to seeing fast results from Google Ads.
Let’s explore the various stages of how Google Ads work so you know how fast they could work for you.
How quickly do we start to show? (Visibility)
Once your Google Ads campaign has been created, the ads will go for an automated check and approval before they are able to show.
Most ads are reviewed within one working day, as soon as this has been completed and the ad approved, you will start showing on a search results page.
If you are in a restricted sector, if you have a trademark that isn’t yours in your ad copy or if there are issues with your landing page, the review process may take longer and require changes before ads can show.
In short, results can come as fast as you are able to set up the account, campaigns and conversion tracking.
Compared with SEO, where it can take months to start ranking in a position where you will be visible on a valuable search term, Google Ads can start adding value much sooner.
How fast will we start to see website traffic? (Engagement)
Once your ads are approved, they are able to show. You would expect to see clicks within a couple of days of ad approval.
A limiting factor here can be the amount of search volume that there is for the keywords that you are targeting. You can only show via Google Ads when a search occurs so if you are in a niche sector, this could take longer.
Another common challenge can be the average click cost vs your daily budget.
Competitive sectors such as insurance can see high CPCs of £30+. If your daily budget isn’t set in-line with this, you may find that whilst you could show, you’re not able to due to budget constraints.
Other ad rank factors such as quality score, can limit your ability to show even when ads are approved, so should be reviewed if you aren’t seeing clicks over a 7-10 days period.
When will we start to see sales?
An important one!
Sales and revenue typically tends to occur around 7-14 days from ads launching and ads being approved.
This can take longer due to a number of factors such as:
- If the website conversion rate is low or isn’t established - Sales or leads come as a bi-product of clicks / by the website conversion rate. You can reverse engineer this to calculate if you should have had a conversion yet based on the clicks you have received. If you aren’t seeing conversions after a 7-14 days period and the volume is in-line with where one should have occurred, it’s time to start troubleshooting!
- If click volume is low - similarly to the point mentioned above, you need enough clicks to have driven a sale or lead. If clicks have occurred but too few to drive a lead or sale, you may want to consider expanding your targeting. Also review your budget here in-line with the average click cost to make sure you aren’t restricting the campaign being able to show but not having enough budget allocation.
- Check that the targeting is relevant - A simple but important one, check the search terms that your ads are showing against. If the relevance is low, you may be getting clicks but not those with enough intent to have led to a lead or sale. Add negative keywords to your campaigns to focus budget on more high value terms
- Check for user experience issues - Similar to point one here, if there are intrusive pop-ups, a mobile page layout issue, or other elements blocking the user from enquiring or buying then conversion rate is being blocked even though your traffic is qualified and capable of converting. Having high priced or slow shipping rates along with lack of payment methods often cause this problem in ecommerce.
How quickly will we be getting a return from Google Ads?
This is the most important question and the one that should be at the base of ‘How Fast Do Google Ads Work’.
We often see campaigns achieve target return at around 90 days from first launch.
Of course there are outliers which get there faster and some which take a fair bit longer, there’s a lot of nuanced business context which can influence the specific length of time.
You should across 90 days though have gone through:
Relevant traffic > engaging ad copy > seeing leads or sales > starting to optimise the acquisition cost down and/or the sales/lead volume up.
It’s not a race and it can take months depending on the context and resources that you have available.
There’s unlikely to be a faster way to achieve results in digital marketing though. Outbound sales potentially would but it’s very unlikely through other digital marketing channels such as SEO or organic social which take a long time and continued investment to establish.
Summary
Whilst Google Ads can achieve fast results, it’s not a ‘silver bullet’.
Meaning it can’t fix or compensate for issues with website proposition, pricing, and other market factors.
What it can assure you is to put your business front and centre to those who are actively searching for what you offer in just a few days through advertising campaigns.
I would always start here myself and saturate investment before looking at other types of marketing activity as if those who are actively looking for what you sell aren’t buying then others aren’t likely to.
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