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Did you know the story of The Tortoise and the Hare is actually an amazing marketing analogy? Most businesses want to be the Hare—speedy and instantaneous. But in the marketing world, where the race is a conversion cycle, the Tortoise wins every time. Why? Because the tortoise is patient, steady, and smart.
We’re sharing our best tips for understanding the conversion cycle, what a typical conversion looks like, and how you can feel more confident in your marketing efforts, from first impressions to final clicks.
What Is A Conversion?
Simply put, a “conversion” happens when someone completes a desired goal or Key Performance Indicator (KPI), like buying your product directly online or filling out a contact form. A conversion indicates that someone has shown interest in your business, by doing one of the following:
- filling out a form
- making a call to your business
- purchasing your product
- signing up for an email newsletter
Why Conversions are a “Long Game”
In the race, the Tortoise was “slow and steady” the entire time, while the Hare sped ahead and got distracted by things along the way. When you’re waiting on a potential customer to convert, the worst thing you can do is race ahead or push them to the finish line. Use the tortoise’s example and recognize that true conversion takes time.
We see it often—a client wants to grow fast. They revamp their marketing strategy, add in programmatic with Genius Monkey (smart move), and ask us why they don’t see rapid growth the next day.
Most everybody doing some form of digital marketing is doing a paid search campaign—that’s intent-based, said Travis Champ, Genius Monkey COO. “They’re already doing the search, so they know what they’re after. Those PPC search ads convert faster. However, they do not drive awareness that brings in new customers who don’t already know your brand.” Champ said.
He added, “What we’re doing in programmatic marketing does just that. It is a targeted brand awareness play—Once we identify new potential consumers, we have to stay in front of them until the consumer eventually knows that they want to search for your product.” One of the biggest challenges the Genius Monkey team faces with the conversion cycle is educating clients and helping them understand that they won’t see an instant reward because creating brand awareness does not happen fast. The conversion cycle is a “long game.”
Genius Monkey knows how to play the game best. In fact, we were among the first in the programmatic space, serving clients since 2009 and before. We’ve perfected the steady, consistent marketing that your business needs.
How Long Do I Have To Wait to See Results?
We asked Genius Monkey COO Travis Champ to tell us more about the customer conversion cycle. He said, “Our data shows we drive instant conversions, but to maximize it, it does indeed take time.” Champ explained that his team reviews multiple conversion timeline reports for averages and cross-referencing. What we’ve come to find is that most conversions occur within a 30-90 day range.
With those details, Genius Monkey reporting can give both short- and long-range results. For example, we can actually say, ‘We see x% of conversions occur within 1-5 days and take 6-10 ad impressions/views, while most conversions, y%, take over 30-90 days and over 50 ad impressions/views.’”
While some conversions can happen in a few days, it’s not the industry normal. With more than a decade of experience, helping clients from more than 40 industries in the programmatic ad space, we’ve seen a LOT of conversion cycles.
This range can vary, but that 30-90 day period is important to understand. When a client asks why they aren’t seeing an influx of leads after one, two, or even three weeks, we try to explain how a slow-and-steady approach really works in the end.
A Real-Life Example with Genius Monkey and Liberty Buick
Our friends at Liberty Buick wanted to see immediate results from the start. We took the time to walk them through the conversion cycle. Our client said that once he understood the conversion cycle and why it takes a few months to really see results, it helped him evolve how he looked at all his marketing pieces and overall strategy.
Jordan Barrett, Digital Marketing Director at Liberty Buick and Liberty GMC, said that he used to see the same technology over and over again, with other vendors trying to sell him marked-up advertising. With Genius Monkey, he said it’s like “we’re sitting on the same side of the table.”
“Instead of worrying about having to butt heads with the vendor,” Barrett said, “You have someone sitting next to you, coaching you through what’s going on with the spend, why it’s the most effective use, and how you’re getting the best ROI.”
Our Liberty Buick case study proves that when working with Genius Monkey, you’ll see results. The main thing to understand is that those results won’t appear overnight.
Big-Ticket Items
Typically, the larger the product or purchase, the longer it takes someone to convert. When it comes to purchasing a home, car, or larger item, customers want to take the time to research their purchase. A customer acts differently when deciding on high-ticket items. Because of this, their specific conversion cycle can become lengthy or complicated.
According to a report by Implisit analyzing hundreds of companies, the average conversion cycle was 84 days long. This may surprise some people, especially those expecting speedier results. Many people don’t buy a car without first researching, visiting dealerships, searching the web, and more.
When you’re dealing with a big-ticket item like cars, furniture, boats, and homes, multiple buyers can be involved in that one purchase. These multiple buyers can “potentially lengthen the sales cycle.”
Consumers also want to be in control of their purchases, with 67% of customers preferring self-service over speaking to a brand representative. Web forms and AI gives potential customers a fast and easy way to access information without someone breathing over their shoulder, pressuring them into buying something. Keep this in mind as you design your landing pages, social media, and other online forms.
How to Win the Race
By understanding the full conversion cycle and being patient like the tortoise, you can sit back comfortably and see results, in due time. Genius Monkey has been in the programmatic space for more than a decade, so we know what it takes to see real results. See more of what we offer by learning more about us.
