Digital Marketing Does Not Equal Instant

There’s no arguing that we live in a digital world now – a lot of our time is spent online, and therefore digital media is a crucial component of the marketing mix – allowing for various touchpoints in consumers’ day-to-day.

In our Hidden Potential Podcast Ep.2: About Time – How Timelines Impact Your Campaign, we spoke to how digital media can be quicker for both getting creatives up into market, real-time analytics, and for the ability to adapt creatives quicker – and while this promise of “quicker” can be great in this fast-paced world, it’s important to keep expectations in check – digital marketing does not equal instant results.

Photo by: Will Francis

Reality Check: There Are ‘Faster’ Elements, But It’s Not Instantaneous

1. Audience Behaviour

Returning to marketing fundamentals, it's important to remember that influencing audience behavior isn't immediate. Even though the audience can click on an ad, visit the website, and potentially take an action (such as purchasing your product), this doesn't mean they will do so right away, or even after seeing your ad multiple times. Additionally, different ad formats impact recall differently—banner blindness, for instance, is a real phenomenon. Digital media, like other forms of media, requires consistent effort and time to build brand awareness, engage the audience, and ultimately convert them into customers.

2. The Learning Phase

Most self-serve digital media platforms have a learning phase. During this period, algorithms analyze data to optimize ad delivery. This phase can last from a few days to a few weeks, depending on the platform and the optimization goal. It’s important to consider the number of results you expect to see and how that will impact the ability to exit the learning period. Expecting immediate results during this time can lead to undue frustration, and making creative or campaign changes this time will cause the platforms to reset their learning phase, taking longer to further optimize towards your end goal.

3. Data Sufficiency

It’s also essential to address data sufficiency in digital media advertising. Adequate data is necessary to draw accurate conclusions about the effectiveness of your campaigns. Are you basing performance decisions on a very limited portion of your audience, or on a negligible variance in performance metrics depending on your goals? Like conducting a formal survey, you need to ensure you have enough data before making informed conclusions and data-driven optimizations to your campaigns, while tying it back to your objectives.

4. Digital Landscape Changes

The digital marketing landscape is highly competitive and ever-evolving – new technologies, platforms, and tactics emerge, changing the way businesses can engage with their audience. Recently OpenAI announced SearchGPT, and this may impact Google and the SEO/Google Paid Search space as we know it. Consumer behaviour also evolves with these new platforms and tactics – simply look at TikTok’s unprecedented growth and how brands have embraced TikTok trends. Major platforms like Google and Facebook/Instagram also frequently update their algorithms, impacting how content is ranked and displayed, which in turn can significantly affect visibility and engagement. Plus all the data privacy and regulation changes – did anyone else catch the news about the long-anticipated phase-out of Google's third-party cookies being postponed after several years of industry panic? The ever-changing landscape means there is a lot to stay on top of, and these changes can significantly impact results and take time to learn and adjust your strategies for.

Managing Expectations: A Gentle Reset

1. Set Realistic Goals

Define what success looks like for your campaign and set realistic timelines. Consider the sales cycle, your brand awareness/affinity, the audience behaviour that you’re trying to influence, to further understand what realistic goals are. Understand that while digital marketing can provide faster “feedback” than traditional media, it still requires time to achieve optimal results.

2. Patience is a Virtue

Give your campaigns time to mature. Resist the urge to be overly reactive, making frequent adjustments based on short-term (or vanity) performance metrics. Trust the process and let the algorithms work as intended, and ensure you have sufficient data to make smart, data-driven optimizations that will positively impact the campaign.

3. Continuous Learning and Adaptation

Digital marketing is rapid and ever-changing (just ask us about how many emails we get about Meta or Google platform changes!). At lmno, we strive to stay informed and proactive about best practices and trends. With that in mind, we regularly review your campaign performance, focusing on the overall campaign objectives rather than hasty adjustments that have minimal benefit.

4. Use Professional Help When Needed

Digital media platforms are powerful, but they can also be complex (and as mentioned above… constantly changing!). Don’t hesitate to seek professional help or training if you find yourself struggling to achieve desired results - a fresh perspective or expert advice can make a significant difference. Drop us a line, we’d love to chat!