So, this happened to me over the weekend. We opened a bottle of red that we had high hopes for. Big name. Good vintage. Great reviews. But right out of the bottle? Flat. Harsh. Tannic in all the wrong ways. Honestly, a letdown.
But an hour later? After it had time to breathe, open up, and evolve… it was stunning. Balanced. Complex. Worth the wait. The kind of wine that makes you pause mid-sentence and just feel the glass.
And it hit me: this is exactly how many of our marketing campaigns behave. We launch with big expectations, pour it all out at once, and when the early results don’t sing, we panic. We start tweaking headlines, slashing budgets, and questioning the whole strategy.
But what if the problem isn’t the campaign… but our impatience?
In growth marketing, just like in wine, time, patience, and the right environment can turn something disappointing into something extraordinary. Campaigns, like Cabernets, go through phases. Raw at first, misunderstood midway, and (if nurtured well) magic in the end.
Let’s decant this idea a little. Because your next high-performing campaign might not need a new funnel or fresh creative, it might just need to breathe.
1. Let It Breathe: Campaigns Have a Learning Phase
You don’t chug a bold Cabernet Sauvignon right after popping the cork. At least, not if you want to enjoy it.
Just like wine needs oxygen to open up, your digital campaigns need time to exit their learning phase. And this isn’t just a poetic analogy — Meta and Google literally call it that.
When you launch a new campaign, the algorithm is like a blindfolded sommelier. It’s sniffing around, trying to figure out: Who’s clicking? Who’s converting? What creative actually works?
The platform needs space to gather data, test hypotheses, and refine delivery. Kill it too early, and you’re judging the wine by the first whiff of the cork.
Lesson: “You can’t judge a campaign (or a Cabernet Sauvignon) by the first sip. Give it oxygen. Let it gather data.”
Rushing to optimise too soon is like swirling a Merlot once and declaring it lifeless. Patience isn’t a virtue here, it’s a strategy.
2. Some Wines (and Campaigns) Just Take Time
Some things, like Barolos, Bordeaux blends, and customer acquisition on a new channel, need time to shine.
Sure, your TikTok ad might blow up in a day. But that LinkedIn lead gen campaign for your B2B SaaS product? That’s not a sprint, that’s a marathon in slow motion.
Different campaigns operate on different time horizons. Why? Because of:
- Different user intent: Not every click is conversion-ready.
- Different buying cycles: A $5 impulse buy behaves very differently from a $15K software subscription.
- Different value: High LTV users are worth waiting for.
Yet too often, marketers give up after three days and declare the campaign a flop. (Imagine dumping out a 2010 Margaux because it didn’t sing at first sip. Blasphemy.)
Lesson: “Just because it doesn’t convert in 3 days doesn’t mean it’s not working. Judge your work by its lifetime contribution, not its launch day.”
The trick is knowing which wines (and which campaigns) are worth the wait.
3. Time + Environment = Enhanced Performance
Wine doesn’t age well just because of time, it needs the right environment: temperature, humidity, and a wine fridge (or a dark calm cellar).
Campaigns are no different. If you don’t have the right setup of audience signals, attribution, and conversion events, you could be ageing vinegar, not value.
Let’s talk about the numbers — the nerdy stuff that saves budgets and reputations. To decide if a campaign is truly working, you need statistical significance. That means:
- You’re not reacting to noise.
- You’ve hit the sample size to validate your KPI.
- You’re making calls with confidence, not vibes.
The ideal sample size is driven by:
- Confidence level (typically 95%)
- Margin of error
- Baseline conversion rate
So, before you switch off a campaign based on 7 conversions and a hunch? Don’t. Let the data cook. Aim for at least 100 conversions per variant for directional reads, and one clear KPI to rule them all. Everything else? Supporting actors.
Lesson (Use this mini-framework):
- Reach statistical significance
- Validate the trend over time
- Test incremental lifts
Because a great campaign isn’t built in a day, and neither is a Pinot Grand Cru.
Final Thoughts: Sip Slowly, Scale Wisely
That wine wasn’t bad. It was just misunderstood.
Same with some of our campaigns.
In our rush to optimise, scale, and show ROI by yesterday, we sometimes forget that growth (like fermentation) takes time. It’s not about sitting still; it’s about letting the right things evolve under the right conditions.
Good campaigns, like good wines, reward patience.
The great ones? They get better with time, attention, and just the right environment.
So the next time your dashboard screams “underperforming,” take a pause. Ask yourself:
- Has it had time to breathe?
- Is it being judged too soon?
- Are we measuring the right things, or just reacting to noise?
Because maybe, just maybe, that underwhelming campaign is your next best-seller in disguise.
🍷 Call to Action
What campaigns have you written off too early? What if you just needed to let them breathe?
Let’s start decanting, not discarding.