When And How To Use Ad Scheduling

Ad Scheduling in Google Ads allows advertisers to specify the times of the day and days of the week that they would like their ads to be shown to potential users.

This is especially useful for businesses that experience fluctuations in consumer demand at different times of the day or through the week. By scheduling ads to only run during the times that consumers are most likely to be engaged, businesses can maximise the impact of their advertising while minimising wasted cost.

There are 3 scenarios where a business can effectively use ad scheduling:

Businesses that operate online can use data from their website and Google Ads traffic to determine the best times to run their ads. If there is statistically relevant data that proves specific hours and days are not profitable, it is worth minimising the wasted spend. For example, if a business notices that their website receives the most traffic during the workday, they might want to schedule their ads to run during those hours when people are most likely to be at their devices and in the mood to make a purchase or convert.

Depending on what a business offers, it might be best to run ads on specific days and hours. For example, a brick-and-mortar shop that aims to receive phone calls and foot traffic might see that it has the highest activity in the evenings and on weekends, and that there is minimal activity during the morning hours. In this case, scheduling ads to run during the evenings and weekends would be most effective, as these are times when people are most likely to make a purchase.

If a business knows that their ideal customers are more likely to visit the website and complete a conversion during working hours, it makes sense to run ads only during these times. Even in this scenario, it is recommended to have data to back this up as assumptions like this can easily cost your business customers rather than save you money.

In the absence of a good reason or data to support the use of an ad schedule, it is recommended to avoid it. Ad scheduling has the potential to restrict the reach of your ads and increase the cost of conversions. This is especially true for businesses operating in a niche market, as they may need to increase their bids or add more keywords just to reach their target daily ad spend, resulting in higher costs per conversion.

First, create a new ad campaign or modify an existing one, and then navigate under the "Settings" option where you will need to select the "Ad scheduling" option. In the “Ad Schedule” sub-section you can choose the days of the week and times of day that you want your ads to run.

Once you've set up your ad scheduling, Google Ads will automatically show your ads only during the hours and days that you've specified. It is important to remember that Google Ads schedules default to the time zone your account is set to. Finally, the ad scheduling in Google Ads can be set up only on a campaign level and you can change it at any time, depending on how your target audience's behaviour patterns change over time.

You might notice that you are given the option to adjust the bids for each day and time you selected in your ad schedule. This is only useful if you are still using manual bidding strategies in your campaigns. Bid adjustment is a way to tell Google to increase the budget for specific hours/days and decrease it for others. While using smart bidding strategies, any bid adjustments in ad scheduling will be ignored as these strategies automatically set bids based on the provided conversion goal.

Ad scheduling is a powerful tool that allows businesses to target their advertising spend more effectively. By running ads only during the hours and days when they are most likely to be effective, businesses can maximise the impact of their advertising spend while minimising waste.

Whether you're a brick-and-mortar store or an online business, ad scheduling based on valid data is a feature that you should consider using carefully to get the most out of your Google Ads campaigns.