--- title: "How Long Does Digital Marketing Take? SEO vs. Advertising" canonical: "https://www.automationlinks.com/blog/seo-vs-advertising" description: "Advertising can get results quicker. SEO takes six to 12 months. We recommend organic SEO and advertising to get your ROI back within three months." --- # How Long Does Digital Marketing Take to Work? SEO vs. Advertising Advertising can get results quicker, SEO takes six to 12 months, and most businesses should expect about three months before the first real results. Here is how the two work together, and the system that makes either one pay off. By Brad Smith · September 29, 2026 We usually recommend being patient and waiting about three months before starting to see initial results from your marketing. It all depends on your services. Usually advertising can get results quicker. SEO is going to take longer, six to 12 months. We recommend doing a combination of organic SEO and advertising to get your ROI back within those three months. ## Be Patient and Wait About Three Months Companies should have a marketing system that’s proven to work if they want to scale, actually see an ROI, and have KPIs proven month over month. Sometimes a business will have one good month and one bad month. It’s unpredictable. We’ve been able to scale companies by having a proven marketing system that generates more visitors, more leads, and more customers, repeatable month over month. That allows them to continue to put money toward sales, scaling, hiring, and increasing their valuation because they have proven month-over-month marketing metrics that work every month. The marketing system is effective because it will show you all the winners and all the losers. You can continue optimizing your campaigns to scale, show the winners, and continue to shut off the losers that aren’t bringing you an ROI. ## Advertising Can Get Results Quicker The best ad service that you can do for your ad spend is to first research and find out where your ideal customer is searching for and needing your service. We recommend looking at where your competitors are advertising and where you think your customers are. We usually find the best results starting with [Google Ads](https://www.automationlinks.com/google-ads) because that’s high search intent. We know somebody’s on Google either looking for a location, looking for a service, or looking for a product. From there, it can direct them to your site. That’s usually the best place to start. You can also use Google Keyword Planner to find out what those searches are that your ideal customers are searching. If you don’t have an established brand, it’s usually harder to start with social media ads because no one is following you and no one trusts you yet. Another one would be [ChatGPT ads](https://www.automationlinks.com/chatgpt-ads). When somebody has a question, you could show up as that answer for that question. The third one would be [YouTube ads](https://www.automationlinks.com/youtube-ads). When somebody’s looking for a specific how-to, what-is, or a question that’s going to help them, you can educate them and build that relationship from there. ![Two tracks running side by side: paid ads ramping up quickly and organic search ramping up slowly, both converging on the same growth curve](https://www.automationlinks.com/assets/blog/seo-vs-advertising-timeline.jpg) Ads ramp up in weeks and SEO ramps up over months, but they end in the same place. ## SEO Is Going to Take Longer SEO is going to take longer, six to 12 months. You need to make sure that you can [run your SEO to get more organic traffic](https://www.automationlinks.com/blog/how-to-distribute-your-content-across-15-websites-for-seo-and-chatgpt-rankings). What’s that keyword that somebody is Googling to find you? What’s that question somebody’s asking ChatGPT to find you? What’s that thing you’re talking about on social media that you want somebody to go sign up for? The title needs to match the keyword you’re running ads on. It needs to match the pain point you’re going to solve. The goal is to make it all about your customers, their pain points, and showing them that you’re the one that’s going to solve the gaps in their needs. If no one ever knows about you or hears about you, how are they going to pay you? You need to be consistent. The goal is to build something that people see over and over. [Get social media posts out there consistently](https://www.automationlinks.com/blog/do-social-signals-help-seo-and-chatgpt-rankings-in-2026) because that’s what’s going to truly build brand trust. ![Ads and analytics feeding a lead funnel, which feeds a rising revenue chart](https://www.automationlinks.com/assets/blog/seo-vs-advertising-ads.jpg) Paid traffic can fill the funnel while the organic side is still being built. ## Do a Combination of Organic SEO and Advertising We recommend doing a combination of organic SEO and advertising to get your ROI back within those three months. [Advertising](https://www.automationlinks.com/advertising) can bring in new visitors. SEO can get more organic traffic. If you’re just doing one marketing service, that’s great for a certain point. You need to have [multiple streams of marketing](https://www.automationlinks.com/blog/simple-marketing-explained) to be able to work together. Most customers will not sign up the first day they hear about you or find you. When they are ready, they will probably stumble upon your competitors or not remember you or your brand name. You need to make sure that you have the proper systems in place to follow up with emails and retargeting ads. When they are ready to purchase or become a customer, they reach out to you because you’re the one that’s staying top of mind. ![Organic search results on one side and Google Ads on the other, both pointing at the same landing page, which produces a list of leads](https://www.automationlinks.com/assets/blog/seo-vs-advertising-landing-page.jpg) Both channels should land on the same page and feed the same list. ## Start With a Landing Page We recommend starting with a [landing page](https://www.automationlinks.com/ai-website-design). This is going to be something that looks and feels like a website but will get you more visitors turning into leads. A [landing page is going to be a little bit different than your website](https://www.automationlinks.com/blog/marketing-strategy-ads-landing-pages-crm-follow-up). You can keep your website exactly how it is. You want to create a landing page that looks just like your website, but it’s going to do multiple things. It’s going to tell your ideal customer they’re in the right place. It’s going to get them to give you their name and email. It’s going to trigger a pixel to get all of this other stuff to actually start working for you. The title needs to match the keyword you’re running ads on. It needs to match the pain point you’re going to solve. From there, a short description lets them know they’re in the right place. Immediately, give them an option to give you their name and email, but in exchange, you need to give them something back. If you can solve their pain point immediately, or at least show them what they’re doing right or wrong and identify what that gap is, that’s when you’re going to turn somebody that’s never heard of you into a fan, a lead, and potentially a client. ## Follow Up With Every Lead You’ve spent money on ads and you drove people to your website. Usually, they’re not ready to take an action and hire you. Your ideal customers are going to leave, and most likely they aren’t going to remember you. They’re not going to remember your brand name, your name, or your website URL. They might do another search and find your competitor when they are ready to hire someone. We recommend sending [automated emails](https://www.automationlinks.com/email-marketing) so you stay at the top of the internet. That person remembers when they are ready, whether it’s tomorrow, an hour from now, a week from now, or a month from now, that you are the first brand that they found and you’ve been the one providing value in their email. When they are ready to buy, all they have to do is click the email and come back to your site. The goal of [automated emails is to stay top of mind](https://www.automationlinks.com/blog/3-simple-emails-to-get-more-sales), build relationships, and educate. A lot of times businesses try to use automated emails to sell, sell, sell. That’s where your emails are going to end up in the spam, the promo folders, not getting opened, and not getting clicked. If no one sees your emails, they’re not going to remember you, so they’ll hire your competitors when they’re ready. ## Use Retargeting Ads to Remind Them to Come Back A pixel is something that triggers when somebody lands on your website or your landing page. What it’s going to do is trigger these [retargeting ads](https://www.automationlinks.com/blog/marketing-strategy-ads-landing-pages-crm-follow-up). If anyone hits your website or landing page, hit that pixel. The next time they log in, they see you. You want that to be your brand. You don’t need millions of people to know about you. You need about a thousand. If you get about a thousand people to your website and landing page and you follow up with them, they’re going to think you’re a celebrity. You need to make sure people remember you. Use your same profile picture across all social media channels. Use your same logo, use your same branding, use your same words, your own frameworks, and use the same thing over and over so they don’t think it’s a different brand. They need to recognize you. They need to remember you. Make sure they don’t forget. ## Know Exactly How Much You Spent and How Much You Return Tracking is important. If you’re truly trying to scale your business, you need to know the numbers. You need to know exactly how much you spent and how much you return. You also need to know what ad channels, efforts, and social media are bringing in the highest leads and converting those leads into customers. If you’re just running ads and doing marketing blindly, you don’t know what to put more money toward and what to remove money from. Making sure that you have [tracking](https://www.automationlinks.com/blog/wilmington-advertising-agency) is going to help you make wiser decisions. Continue to find what works, make more versions of that, find what’s not working, and turn off those versions as well. Once you have tracking in place, those metrics can go back to the ad channels for better reporting. The ad channels can continue optimizing your campaigns and showing them to the right people instead of the wrong people. ## Build the Whole Marketing System For a [full-service marketing agency](https://www.automationlinks.com/blog/wilmington-advertising-agency), you want to look and see if they offer everything from start to finish, so you don’t have to hire other agencies. You want to make sure that they can help manage your [website and landing pages](https://www.automationlinks.com/ai-website-design). You need to make sure that they can help run your SEO to get more organic traffic. You need to make sure that they’re going to help with your ads to bring in new visitors and retargeting ads on all platforms. Last but not least is the [CRM](https://www.automationlinks.com/crm-and-pipelines) and emails to make sure that you’re tracking and following up with every lead appropriately. [Build the whole system](https://www.automationlinks.com/blog/marketing-strategy-ads-landing-pages-crm-follow-up). Don’t rely on the one thing. Once the [system](https://www.automationlinks.com/marketing-system) is in place, you own it, you take it, and you scale it. Everything needs to be branded. Everything needs to be automated. Everything needs to be synced. Everything needs to be tracked. Set it up once and you can roll. ![The full system in six steps: Google Ads, a landing page, the CRM, email follow-up, retargeting on Meta and Instagram, and reporting](https://www.automationlinks.com/assets/blog/seo-vs-advertising-system.jpg) The whole system, built once: ads, landing page, CRM, email, retargeting, reporting. If you want help putting the pieces together, you can [schedule a call](https://www.automationlinks.com/schedule). ## Frequently asked questions ### How long before starting to see initial results from your marketing? We usually recommend being patient and waiting about three months before starting to see initial results from your marketing. It all depends on your services. ### Can advertising get results quicker? Usually advertising can get results quicker. We usually find the best results starting with Google Ads because that’s high search intent. ### How long is SEO going to take? SEO is going to take longer, six to 12 months. You need to make sure that you can run your SEO to get more organic traffic. ### How do you get your ROI back within three months? We recommend doing a combination of organic SEO and advertising to get your ROI back within those three months.