If you’ve just started a Google Ads campaign to grow your business, you might be wondering about the effectiveness of your efforts. A prominent question you would ask is: ‘How long does Google Ads take to work?’
The answer is one week or seven days. During this time, Google understands your campaigns. It gives you indications about whether your campaign will be successful. The indications will translate into visible results after 15 days.
Don’t worry if you feel confused just yet. In this post, we’ll describe the various stages of a Google Ads campaign. You’ll find proven steps to get tangible results from your campaigns.
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Phases of Google Ads Campaign
Knowing the different phases of a campaign is essential to determine the effect of your ads. The process begins with Google understanding your business and offerings. It gives you data to optimize your campaigns. Here are the different phases:
1. Learning Phase
The learning phase of Google Ads is seven days (week) for Android and six weeks for iOS. In this phase, Google gathers data about your campaign. The data goes straight into its machine-learning algorithms. You gain insights into the success of your campaigns as Google not only understands your services but also compares your ads with those of your competitors.
The learning phase determines whether your ads will give you some outcomes. Google tries to find out whether people will click on your ads or not. If it finds that the click-through rate (CTR) on your ads is low compared to your competitors, the visibility of your campaigns will decrease. You will get low clicks per ad group.
If your campaigns don’t have a successful learning phase, you will need to optimize them. This includes:
- Increasing the budget
- Evaluating search queries
- Modifying low-performing assets
- Acting on Google Ads recommendations.
What to Do During the Learning Phase?
The learning phase offers a starting point for optimizing your ads. It is not wise to make any changes. Keep your campaign untouched during this period. One should observe the impressions, CTR, and conversion rate in the beginning.
If they are very low, it indicates less research before beginning the campaign. However, do not start making any changes to the campaign after researching again. It will prolong the phase. Just be ready to act on the performance you notice on your dashboard after this period.
2. Assessment Phase
It is time to start trusting the impressions, clicks, and cost-per-click (CPC) you get from your campaigns after the learning phase. This is the time when your campaign experiences momentum. Although the search engine keeps learning about your products based on how your ads are doing, the results will stabilize.
The assessment phase occurs soon if you have some previous data. It means conversion data from previous campaigns. This data enables the AI-powered Smart Bidding to optimize your ad spending. The optimization happens based on your users’ knowledge. Smart Bidding also generates effective bids.
During this time, focus all your efforts on optimizing the campaign based on data. If you notice that the conversion lag time (time between finding and buying your product) is four days, start analyzing the campaign only after four days. It will enhance the result.
What to Do During the Post-Learning or Assessment Phase?
In case of an unsuccessful learning phase, you should structure your campaign again during this Assessment period. How do you do that? Here are some ways:
- Improve the keyword quality score
- Improve the ad rank.
- Refine the targeting settings
- Test your ads.
What about a campaign with a successful learning phase? If you see high CTRs, clicks, and conversions, keep optimizing your campaigns for even better results. This means creating a strong optimization program. It should have the following:
- Using different keyword match types
- Bringing in single keyword ad groups
- Updating the ad group structure
- Setting up more types of conversion tracking
- Doing A/B testing more frequently. It increases the potential for ad copy conversion further.
Read Also:- How to Improve Conversion Rate in Google Ads?
3. Optimization Phase
The optimization phase is the final of Google Ads. It comes after one or two months of releasing a campaign. This phase is more about refining the fully matured campaign. This guarantees the best performance.
At this point, you will know whether your Google ads are working. Also, there won’t be any absence of data to make changes so you can direct the campaign toward success.
A campaign that is working well results in increased conversions and leads. The cost per conversion rate lowers. You will also notice greater ROI. However, if Google Ads are not working well, we would ask you to consult an experienced Google Ads specialist. This action is more important if you are unsure about the reasons for poor performance.
What to Do During the Optimization Phase?
Both big and minor changes to the ads can be made during the optimization phase. Use these techniques:
- Target the ads properly
- Have a negative keyword list.
- If running display or video ad campaigns, check the placement of demographics and audience.
- Check the Optimization score. Find it under the ‘Recommendations’ tab. Review the automated recommendations on ways to improve the campaign and apply those actions.
A pro tip to improve your campaigns is to act on the advertising data history. Making changes in targeting, bids, and keyword selection based on it is most beneficial.
Concluding Words
Do you now have a clearer idea of how long Google Ads take to work? It is important to stay patient during the learning phase and just monitor what happens. Make changes in the campaign only when the first phase ends. Follow the actionable steps we have mentioned for each phase. It will optimize the impact of your campaigns.
There is no fixed period for seeing the desired results from Google Ads. Depending on your business nature and products, it can be long or short. However, we have always found that implementing an optimization strategy based on extensive research about our client’s customers and competitors gives the best outcomes. Don’t hesitate to connect with our (Website Pandas) PPC specialists to create such a strategy. We’re here to make your campaign highly profitable.
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