A property finance broker said this to me on a call, and I think it's one of the most honest objections to advertising there is:
"If I knew that every time I spend 5,000 pounds, I'm going to get 10,000 pounds back... But how do I know it's going to work?"
Then:
"These deals take a while to complete. They don't complete in a month... probably two to three months and the bigger deals can easily take nine months. So then really, I'd have to do this for probably 12 months to really assess how well it's working."
Twelve months of spending before you know if it's working.
Nobody wants to sign up for that. I wouldn't either.
But that's not actually how you judge it. Here's how.
Your sales cycle is longer than you think
6sense, a B2B research company, surveyed nearly 4,000 business buyers for its 2025 Buyer Experience Study. The average buying process took 10.1 months. In North America, 11.1.
So if you sell anything to businesses and you're judging your ads by signed contracts in month two, you're judging them on almost nothing.
That leads to one of two bad outcomes.
Two ways firms get this wrong
They quit too early. Two months in, no new contracts, so ads "don't work for our industry." An executive coach I talked to described exactly how that feels:
"You can have a really good funnel and then find out that the market... just doesn't respond in any shape or form. And... you get in your head and you say, well, actually funnels doesn't work for my industry."
(A funnel is just the whole path someone takes from seeing your ad to booking a call with you.)
Or they keep paying on faith. Month after month, hoping it turns into revenue eventually. An advisor told me their last two lead-gen firms did bring in new clients, and still left them "cashflow negative." In their words: "I wouldn't be cashflow positive until like month 18."
Both mistakes come from the same place. Watching only the last number, the signed contract, because nobody gave you anything earlier to watch.
Watch the numbers that come before the money
Every signed contract was a call first. Every call was a booking first. Every booking started with somebody responding to an ad.
You can see each of those within weeks. And each one tells you whether the next one is likely.
Here's what to look at, and when.
Week one or two: does the right person respond at all? Before real money goes in, we run a handful of short ads, each describing your buyer's problem a different way, on a small budget. If the right kind of person stops and clicks on any of them, the market recognizes the problem. If nobody does, you've learned that for a few hundred dollars, and you know to change the message, not to give up on advertising.
Month one: are qualified people booking calls? A qualified call is someone who answered a few questions before booking and fits what you're looking for. Company size, budget, the problem they have. You agree on that definition before anything runs. In month one you're not asking "did we sign anyone?" You're asking "are the right people raising their hand, and what does each one cost us?"
Month one and two: do they show up, and are they real? A booked call that never happens is worth nothing. Neither is a call with someone who can't afford you. The advisor above was paying for both. Watch how many booked calls actually happen, and whether you'd want each one as a client.
Months two to four: are calls turning into next steps? Proposals. Second meetings. Pilots. A training consultant told me their buyers almost never commit to a full year up front. They buy a single pilot day, and if it goes well, they book more. If your buyers work like that, the first pilot is your earliest real sale. It shows up a lot sooner than the full contract.
Months three to twelve: signed revenue. This is the number everyone watches first. It's actually the last one you'll see.
Work out what a qualified call is worth today
Here's the math that makes the waiting easier.
Say your average client is worth $40,000. And out of every five qualified calls, you sign one.
Then every qualified call is worth about $8,000 to you, on average. The money won't show up for months. But the value exists the day the call happens.
So if a qualified call costs you $500 in ads and fees, you're not "spending $500 and hoping." You're buying something worth about $8,000 at a $500 price, and waiting for it to mature.
Your numbers will be different. But once you know your average deal and your close rate, you can judge your ads in month one by the cost of a qualified call. You don't have to wait a year.
When I asked that property finance broker whether seeing a month of real calls would help, the answer came straight back:
"Yeah, of course it would."
You don't need twelve months to know if the right people are showing up. You need a couple.
Make the risk match the timeline
The other half of this is how you pay for it.
If an agency charges you a monthly retainer, they get paid every month whether you sign anyone or not. On a long sales cycle, that means you carry all the risk for months.
We do it differently. I run an agency that runs ads on Facebook, Instagram and Google for B2B firms and books calls with buyers on their calendars. Here's how it works with a long sales cycle:
- The test comes first and costs little. You find out whether your buyers respond before any real budget goes in.
- You pay us per qualified call, using the definition we agree on together. That's the earliest number that actually predicts revenue, so it's the one we get paid on. Not clicks. Not no-shows.
- Your first qualified calls are included in the setup. If we don't deliver them, you get the setup fee back.
- Everything runs from an ad account in your company's name, paid on your own card. On a long cycle, the record of everyone who responded is valuable. It stays with you.
The contract might take six months. You'll know whether the ads are working long before that.
Bring two numbers
If your deals take months to close and you've never been sure how you'd judge ads, book a strategy call with me.
Bring two numbers: what an average client is worth to you, and roughly how many good first calls it takes you to sign one. I'll show you what a qualified call is worth to your business, what one would likely cost, and whether the math works. If it doesn't, I'll tell you.