Knowing what timeframe is the best one to deliver your Fiverr gigs can help to boost your sales. Over the past 10 years of experimenting and watching what other sellers are doing, I’ve figured out the best gig delivery timeframes – and the answer isn’t what you think. This has only been one factor in my success, but it does help me to take advantage of the way buyers search Fiverr and enhance my visibility.
In this post, I’ll show you how to set your delivery timeframes so that they’re more visible for your ideal clients, showing your gig to them as they search through Fiverr. This is a way to increase your chances of making more sales. Of course, you will also need to make sure you have a good offer, too!
Are you ready to start making your Fiverr gigs more successful? Then let’s jump right in!
Fiverr Search Results Are Personalized
A word of warning before you start figuring out your gig delivery timeframes using this strategy!
Many new sellers talk about “gig rankings” on Fiverr, but the truth is Fiverr doesn’t really have any. In fact, it offers personalized search results based on past Fiverr browsing history, purchases, and other (unknown) factors.
When you look up a gig – yours or someone else’s – it’s important to remember that what you’re seeing was personalized for you.
This doesn’t mean that there’s no way to get fresh search results.
If you want to get a clean set of search results uninfluenced by past actions on Fiverr, you should use incognito mode on your browser to go through the listings. This will give you a better sense of what’s going on. Incognito will show you the baseline results, while your logged-in results will reflect your overall activity using your buyer account on the online marketplace.
Ultimately, Fiverr doesn’t have “rankings” or SERPs (Search Engine Ranking Positions) like Google, so remember when you look at your results, they have been personalized to your past searches as well as to any additional filters you add. That seller who is always first may only have the top spot on your Fiverr listings pages because you can’t stop looking at them!
I would recommend using both when looking at gig delivery timeframes so you get a more rounded picture of Fiverr results.
Understanding Gig Delivery Timeframes
It may seem obvious, but knowing how long it will take to deliver a gig is key to winning customers and meeting their needs. On Fiverr, where there are many sellers and buyers want things fast, being on time is essential for a good reputation. I choose delivery times carefully to ensure I can do a great job and handle any surprises.
After all, if you can’t deliver according to your gig delivery timeframes, you shouldn’t be advertising that you can!
Fiverr wants trustworthy sellers, because that’s what keeps buyers coming back. If you want to build a trustworthy brand on Fiverr, having a competitive and realistic timeline is important. Buyers want to trust that their project is in good hands, and they prefer sellers who can give them that confidence.
By delivering my services quickly, I make my clients happy and help my business grow. Every time I deliver as promised, it helps my business do well in the future.
One thing you should never do is set ultra-fast timeframes just to stay competitive if you cannot meet them. Delivering great work and customer support will always be more important than using timeframes to increase visibility.
Why?
The Fiverr algorithm doesn’t like it when sellers overpromise and underdeliver. Nor do buyers, who will leave bad reviews, whether publicly or privately. Don’t be “that guy”. Know your limits!
Analyze Other Sellers’ Gig Delivery Timeframes
Let’s start with a quick question:
Are your gig delivery timeframes too ambitious?
What I mean by this is if you are offering a service similar to hundreds, even thousands, of other sellers but your gig delivery timeframes are longer, you may miss out on business.
But if you can’t deliver high quality work within your stated gig delivery timeframes, you will miss out on future business thanks to poor reviews and disappointed buyers.
It’s a delicate balancing act.
Fiverr doesn’t care about how fast you deliver. It cares about happy buyers coming back to spend more. If you can do it fast, great!
If you can’t… well, someone else can, and your visibility is now toast.
“Slow” gigs shouldn’t be removed (all gigs support a seller’s money maker gig), but you should consider looking at other types of gigs where you can offer competitive gig delivery timeframes without losing your service quality and delivery edge.
Believe it or not, there are buyers out there who would rather wait longer for a job well done!
One thing I like to do at least every six months is study what my competitors are doing. Among other things, I check out their gig delivery timeframes and reviews. What’s working for them? What isn’t?
I also act like a buyer, using Fiverr’s search and filters to specifically look at deliveries within specific timeframes.
A lot of new sellers make the mistake of setting their gig delivery timeframes to the lowest possible. Sometimes, they limbo dance under Fiverr’s lowest delivery time of 24 hours, advertising delivery times of 12 hours and less.
You don’t need to do this, just like you don’t need to be glued to Fiverr 24/7.
If you’re just starting out and can deliver a great service and delivery within a day, stop there.
If you can do it within 3 days, stop there. The same for 7 days. Beyond that, and it doesn’t really matter because there’s no filter.
However long your gig delivery timeframes are, you’ll appear in the relevant filter to buyers who have narrowed their search to the point where you appear.
Don’t forget that search results are personalized to every user of Fiverr!
Checking what your competitors are doing and how they appear in the search results can give you a good sense of what works.
If your competitors are all in gig delivery timeframes that are the same as yours, then you’re doing great. If you’re not converting, then there’s likely another problem with your gig. Study what your competitors are doing that you aren’t!
If you’re just starting out or your gig is new, try to establish your gig delivery timeframes realistically, set up your gig, and wait. See what happens. Don’t keep changing stuff. Let it settle and be found so the algorithm can decide what to do with it with the data it collects.
Next, I’ll talk about why it’s so important to be clear about how long it will take to deliver a service. Setting these expectations is essential to keep the good results coming.
Great Expectations: Gig Delivery Timeframes Should Be Honest
You might think this is an odd tip to give, considering your gig delivery timeframes are already prominently displayed on your gig pages, but I promise it’s not!
This point – and post – is more about customer service and communication, not lightspeed deliveries.
Your gig delivery timeframes should reflect the fastest time you can do a job when you’re absolutely overloaded without compromising on quality and not using the Extra Fast gig extra.
In your FAQ, you should make it clear that you offer Extra Fast as an option (if you do) and that your availability can be faster. Request that buyers contact you for a consultation.
The consultation brings you closer to a sale, and, if you’re not overloaded with work, you can choose to offer a custom timeframe that better matches with the buyer (through Fiverr’s custom offer feature). It’s up to you whether you charge extra for this, but buyers will value your flexibility and willingness to work around their needs, rather than cling to the more rigid structure of the gig package.
Again, only offer gig delivery timeframes that you can actually meet. You want to show buyers (and Fiverr) that you are reliable and dependable, too! Here’s how I handle custom gig delivery timeframes during my consultations:
Speak Directly
- Be honest about gig delivery timeframes: Making promises you can’t keep will disappoint your clients. If you anticipate a bottleneck or other issue, let buyers know upfront. The honesty is refreshing on Fiverr – experienced buyers have been burned too many times by sellers who don’t do this.
- Inform clients quickly if things change: I let my clients know right away if there’s a delay. Many sellers are afraid to do this, fearing a bad review, but most buyers would prefer to know, as they may need to reschedule things on their end.
Be Adaptable
- Provide a range of gig delivery timeframes: I meet both urgent and less pressing delivery needs, giving clients a choice (usually, my faster timeframe costs extra).
- Take project size into account: Larger, more complex jobs naturally take more time to complete. I let clients know if their desired gig delivery timeframes are unrealistic for the work they need, suggesting different approaches
Through these methods, I’m offering more than just a service; I’m giving my clients the assurance that they’ll receive their quality work when it fits best into their schedule. I’m also showcasing my professionalism against many other sellers, putting me in a good place as the seller who gets the order – or is remembered for future needs.
Remember that Gig Delivery Timeframes Aren’t Everything
Yes, they’re important, but so is everything else on Fiverr! Being efficient with updating my gigs on Fiverr helps me sell more. I’ve found that making smart changes quickly can make my gigs more visible and bring in more orders.
It’s not enough to just update my gigs; I need to use insights to make them better. I keep an eye on the market for new trends and adjust my services to fit what people want. For example, if there’s a high demand for writing in a specific niche (such as AI across 2023), I’ll update my gig to focus on that service right away.
This doesn’t always work. While AI stole plenty of headlines around the world, AI writing services (typically editing AI content) haven’t taken off on Fiverr. I suspect because AI-enamoured buyers still haven’t realized that AI writing needs a lot of editing to be really good yet, or they are happy to sacrifice the time to do it themselves.
Will that change? We’ll see. In the meantime, I have a competitive offering ready for them. Because this is an editing gig for articles, I also offer a 3-day gig delivery timeframes. It’s a little slower than the competition, but I have the experience and reviews (and work) to afford it. Many other sellers like me have chosen the same approach, differentiating ourselves from the 1-day gig delivery timeframes of new sellers hungry for their first order.
I also watch my gig’s performance closely. If I see that not many people who view my gig are buying it, I know it’s time to make some changes. I might try a new title, tweak the description, or use different tags to see if that helps. Just remember that you don’t want to do this too often. The Fiverr algorithm is fickle, and the less you disturb it with new data, the more stable your Fiverr career will be.
I mentioned this above, but it’s worth repeating again. Six months is a good timeframe for checking everything and updating poorly performing gigs, including checking gig delivery timeframes.
I always keep track of any changes I make so I can tell what’s working. My aim is to keep my gigs up to date and interesting, which helps me stay busy with work and keeps my customers happy.
Monitor Fiverr’s Analytics Often
Whether you’re in the Seller Plus program or not, Fiverr’s Analytics are a useful tool. But did you know there is also useful data buried on your Gigs page (top menu > My Business > Gigs)?
I regularly check the performance data of my services to see what’s working and what’s not. By paying attention to these numbers, I can adjust my sales tactics based on solid information. For example, I might change my gig delivery timeframes to be longer and change nothing else. After 3 months of watching a plummet and slow decline, I know that I made the wrong call and should change it back.
I act slowly, since I have repeat customers, but if you’re new, you may want to act faster!
Here are the main numbers I look at:
- Impressions: How many times you appeared in a search result or listing.
- Clicks: This shows how many people clicked on your gig when it was displayed
- Orders: This shows how many people ordered
- Conversion rate: This shows how many clicks turned into orders
All of these numbers are important.
Impressions tells me how much Fiverr shows my gigs to buyers. If they don’t click, then my gig image, price, or time is likely an issue. If they are clicking but I’m getting few or no orders, then my gig description might need tweaking, or perhaps my offer just isn’t hitting the spot.
Optimized gigs will always have a better conversion rate than unoptimized gigs. Your gig delivery timeframes can help you to get impressions, but it won’t solve other issues your gig has.
Success on Fiverr requires flexibility and competitiveness. What works today may not work tomorrow. All sellers have access to this data, so it is useful to check once a week. If you see a pattern of decline, you’ll know something’s wrong and you need to fix it.
Wrap Up: Gig Delivery Timeframes Are Part of the Fiverr Success Puzzle
Your gig delivery timeframes should never be about undercutting your competition at the cost of delivering a high quality service. It should be a part of a careful strategy where every element of your gig is made with care, optimized for your service and competitive with your closest rivals.
Forget about the hundreds of thousands of sellers in your category. Likely only a handful are your real competitors, and you need to have something that gives you an edge over them. If it’s your gig delivery timeframes, great! If it’s not, then consider making a new gig.
In this article, the focus has remained on making high quality service your biggest asset together with careful market research and optimization. Unless you’re targeting the very cheapest end of the market (quit those $5 gigs now!) most buyers care more about the quality of your service and professionalism more than whether your gig delivery timeframes are 12 hours faster than everyone else.
Gig delivery timeframes are important, because they can help you be seen. That is it. Take the time to stay competitive and make sure the quality of your offer is in line with or better than your competitors, and you’ll find that this aspect of your gig is something that you can check every six months for minor adjustment.
If you follow my general advice, you’ll already be checking your competitors, analytics and metrics often, so you’ll know exactly what to do when the time comes to make any adjustments.
