Digital PR Link Building Timeline – How Long Does It Take?

Link building is one of the main goals when it comes to digital PR campaigns, and sometimes it can take days, weeks, or even months before a campaign earns its first link.

For us, this presented a question: just how long does it take a digital PR campaign to build links? And how does it vary between the 1st, 10th, or 100th link (for the campaigns that build that many)?

We carried out a study, analysing 97,271 links built to digital PR campaigns launched in 2023 and 2024 to find out. These campaigns focused on topics from various industries, including travel, technology, finance, business, lifestyle, and more.

In this article, we’ll discuss the findings of our study, including how long it takes a digital PR campaign to earn its first link and how other factors influence this link building timeline.

Key findings

• The average number of days it takes a digital PR campaign to earn its first link is 38.
• Digital PR campaigns that build over 500 links take nine days to earn their first link, while campaigns that build fewer than 20 links take 53 days to get their first on average.
• For all campaigns that build more than 100 links, it takes 29 days on average to earn the first link.
• Across all of the campaigns analysed that built more than 20 links, the average time to get the first link is 35 days.
• The data suggests that better campaigns build links faster and in higher volumes in the long term as campaigns with over 500 links build each link faster than all other campaigns.

The average time for a PR campaign to earn its first link

There’s no set timeframe for when you can expect a digital PR campaign to receive its first link. This depends on a range of factors like your outreach strategy, who you’re pitching to, current trends, and even the time of year. The overall success of the campaign also has an impact; our data confirms campaigns that earn more links overall tend to build their links faster than those that earn fewer links overall.

However, based on the 157 campaigns we’ve analysed, we have been able to calculate using data available through Ahrefs the average number of days that it takes for a digital PR campaign to earn its first link.

Digital PR campaigns take an average of 38 days to build their first link

By analysing a variety of digital PR campaigns – some ours, and others not – we’ve reviewed the ‘go live’ dates against the dates of live links being found through Ahrefs. This data shows that it takes 38 days from publishing for the first link to come through for a digital PR campaign.

But how does that change for more successful campaigns when we isolate the data on those?

Well, across all campaigns analysed that built more than 20 links, the average time to reach the first link was 35 days in comparison, and for those that earned more than 100 links, the first one came after just 29 days.

Clearly, there’s a trend here.

Campaigns that build their first link within nine days are the most likely to go viral

We found there is a correlation between the overall success of a campaign and the amount of time it takes to earn its first link. 

Campaigns that built fewer than 20 links overall took an average of 53 days to earn their first link, while campaigns with over 500 links took an average of 9 days to get their first link after going live.

Here’s a graph showing just how correlated the success of a digital PR campaign is with how quickly it flies out of the gate in terms of link building timelines.

Quite quickly we can see the more successful a campaign is – typically – the faster the signs will be.

Link building timeline by number of links built

The chart below demonstrates how the overall success of a digital PR campaign correlates to how quickly it builds its links. For campaigns that earn 20 links or fewer overall, the average time it takes to build each link is longer. For more successful campaigns that build 500 links or more in total, the links come more quickly, and these campaigns typically build their first 100 links in less than 100 days. 

This data confirms what you’d expect, that campaigns with over 500 links build each one of their links in fewer days on average than all other campaigns.

Correlation does not necessarily mean causation here, and we cannot say that the overall success of a campaign is influenced by the speed at which it builds links, or vice versa. But it’s clear from the data that the two are linked.

Before we dive into the complete data, it’s worth noting that while these graphs show a link building timeline, they are not strictly linear. They simply show the average number of days it takes each type of campaign to build each number of links. There are some instances where, for example, the 19th link is built more quickly than the 16th, but this is down to the variation in the overall number of links built by each campaign.

Campaigns that build 500 links or more get their first in nine days

For the most successful digital marketing campaigns (those that build 500 links or more overall), links are typically built earlier and at a faster rate.

Based on the data from the campaigns we analysed, the average time it takes for a campaign of this success level to build its first link is nine days, significantly lower than the 38 days it takes across all campaigns.

Digital PR campaigns with more than 500 links receive their 10th link after an average of 27 days, and see their 50th link after 59 days. It takes 86 days for these campaigns to earn their 100th link, meaning they average more than one link a day for the first 100 links they build.

While it’s not surprising to see this trend, it’s interesting to see it so clearly represented.

Campaigns that build 101-500 links get their first in 38 days

For campaigns building 101-500 links in total, the first link is earned after an average of 38 days, just over three times longer than it takes for the most successful campaigns to get their first link.

The campaigns in this range receive their 10th link after an average of 85 days, and their 100th link after 187 days. This demonstrates just how the difference in campaign success can be linked to the link building timeline. 

The data shows that better campaigns typically build links faster and in higher volumes long-term, which makes total sense. 

One thing that can impact the success of a campaign is the outreach process and how quickly the story connects with journalists. Sometimes even the most successful campaigns (like our Disappointing Masterpieces one) can take a while to get going, but once you land a big placement, they take off quickly.

Campaigns that build 51-100 links get their first in 30 days

For moderately successful campaigns (building between 51 and 100 links in total), the first link is built after an average of 30 days, while the 10th link comes on day 68.

These campaigns receive their 50th link after an average of 153 days. Following the 50th link-mark, the figures in this timeline begin to fluctuate as not all campaigns in this range achieved more than 50 links. For the campaigns in this range that went on to build 100 links, the 100th link came after 155 days.

Campaigns that build 21-50 links get their first in 45 days

Digital PR campaigns that build between 21 and 50 links overall typically see their first link after 45 days and their 10th link after 123 days. Campaigns in that category that do go on to build 50 links receive the 50th link after more than 600 days.

Campaigns that build fewer than 20 links get their first in 53 days

The least successful campaigns (those that build fewer than 20 links) typically take the longest amount of time to receive their first link, at 53 days on average, and their 10th link is built after 218 days.

This demonstrates the disparity in link-building speed when it comes to super successful vs less successful campaigns.

Summary

As our study shows, digital PR campaigns take time to gain traction and earn links, with some taking more than a year to see their true results. Campaigns that are more successful overall typically earn their first link quicker, after just nine days, and build the rest of their links more quickly than less successful campaigns. 

This does not necessarily mean that the speed at which links are built leads to a more successful campaign, or vice versa, but there is certainly a correlation between the two. One explanation could be that campaigns that are more engaging to journalists and audiences build links more quickly and receive more links overall based on the strength of the story being told.

Methodology

We analysed 97,271 links built to 157 digital PR campaigns from across the industry to determine how quickly different types of campaigns build links, and how the speed of link building is connected to the overall success of a campaign. This included an analysis of links from various niches, including technology, finance, entertainment, business, travel, and marketing. 

We used Ahrefs to collect data on the total number of links built to each campaign we analysed, as well as the date that each link was built. This enabled us to calculate the average number of days it takes for a campaign to earn each link.