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The optimization and proper management of a Google AdWords account – now Google Ads – requires regular work on several levels such as keywords, organization, ads… But there is a variable that is regularly neglected and sometimes simply unknown by AdWords account managers: the hours and days of the week.
The AdWords ad scheduling calendar represents the summary calendar of your ad distribution based on the days of the week and the hours. I will therefore show you why and especially how you can use these 2 variables to optimize your AdWords campaigns.
The contextualization of ads represents a determining element that directly impacts the performance of your campaigns. It is also the main pillar of universal campaigns that seek to provide advertisers with better manageability in managing their campaigns so that the ads are as contextualized as possible.
As an illustration, it should be noted that an internet user browsing the Internet on their phone or computer at 8:00 AM will surely not be in the same mindset as an individual on their computer at 4:00 PM…
It is therefore interesting to take into account temporal variables in your AdWords strategy to limit unnecessary expenses and improve the profitability of your campaigns. Generally speaking, many AdWords campaigns are set to block ad display on weekends and at night. But I propose a more advanced and more relevant approach to follow to set your bid adjustments based on time.
First, you will need to analyze the performance of your campaigns based on the hours and days of the week by creating a report that takes these variables into account. To do this, go to the “settings” tab then “ad scheduling”.
From there, you will be able to obtain visibility on the performance of your AdWords campaigns broken down by days of the week and/or hours. You will also find your different bid adjustment rules if you have already set them up.
I advise you to first study the days of the week. For this, you can go to the variable tab but you can also obtain the information in this ad scheduling tab by clicking on calendar information:
Select a relatively significant period, between 30 and 90 days, to obtain sufficiently representative visibility. You will be able to detect the most performing days and conversely those where the performance is far from satisfactory. From there, you will be able to adjust the bids according to the rules you want, for example:
If you want a campaign not to be active on a day of the week and/or at certain hours, you can modify this directly by clicking on modify ad scheduling. You will get the following visibility:
Have you adjusted your bids based on the days of the week? You will already notice some improvement in your campaign performance, but ideally, proceed similarly for the hours of the day. For this, follow the same reasoning as for the days. You will need to click on:
You thus obtain visibility based on hours and days. Analyze the data to try to detect if there are time slots during which your campaign performance is not good, and adjust your bids based on your analysis.
That’s it, you just have to monitor the evolution of your campaign performance and make a comparative report after a significant period between 1 week and 1 month. You can regularly check the evolution of performance based on hours and days and then readjust the bids.
Of course, many people find that the temporal data available in Google Ads is rich. However, some advertisers still make analysis errors that can compromise their performance and expectations. In such situations, the intervention of a Google Ads Expert is inevitable if you want to avoid the most common pitfalls and ensure at least a reliable interpretation of the behavioral trends of your target audience.
These professionals have the level and experience necessary to understand what are the normal seasonal variations of optimization opportunities. Concretely, this prevents you from making adjustments that are too premature based on insufficient or poor-quality data. One of the most common mistakes we can notice is drawing hasty conclusions from too limited data over periods that do not really represent reality.
On their side, a specialist will know how to identify atypical periods such as:
Make no mistake, each of these periods can greatly distort the analysis of temporal performance.