We know that in many cases, after a penalty is lifted by Google, your traffic may not improve all that much. Sometimes it might even lead to less traffic than before. But sometimes, things improve and you get a surge of traffic. Probably not at the same levels as pre-penalties days but huge increases after the penalty is lifted.
Here is a graph shared in a Cre8asite Forums thread, where an SEO worked hard to lift a penalty and after months and months, the results paid off:
What type of penalties? Gabs, the SEO in the thread, said "all of them" from link issues to other issues.
When manual actions was lifted, I didn't see much of a traffic lift in my organic Google traffic. Looking back, my Google organic traffic is up on average 20% since the penalty was lifted but I honestly think it has to do with the content improving here over time and not the manual action.
Anyway, I am sure many of you have had many experiences with this in the past.
Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.