What Is Ad Schedule?
Also written as dayparting, ad scheduling, day parting.
Definition
An ad schedule is the Google Ads setting that picks which hours and days your ads can show. By default a campaign runs all day, every day. A store that only answers phone orders on weekdays could use it to show call ads during those hours and pause them at night.
Written by Christopher Krassnig, Founder & CEO of ZenoX Media. Written by the ZenoX team from the accounts we run. Definitions are general; the numbers in examples are maths, not client results.
Ad Schedule, Explained
Campaigns start on all day. Unless you set a schedule, ads can show at any hour on any date. Ad scheduling lets you pick the hours or days you want. People who do this often call it dayparting. You can also set bid adjustments for certain days and times, which change what you bid rather than when you show. Smart Bidding already reads time of day for each auction, so check how your strategy treats those adjustments before you count on them.
It looks like an easy win. Pull the hourly report, see a bad few hours, cut them. For most stores, that report is mostly noise. Spend and traffic are rarely even across a day, and small accounts do not have enough sales per hour to prove anything. Online stores also sell while the owner sleeps.
There are real uses. A phone line that closes at six. A flash sale that ends at midnight. A pattern that repeats for weeks with real spend behind it. Short of that, leave the schedule alone. Cutting hours can also starve bidding of data.
How We Use It at ZenoX
We rarely schedule ecom campaigns. We pull hourly numbers across the account before we change anything, and most of the time no hour stands out. On a newer store, a bad hour is usually just noise from thin data. We add a schedule only for a steady pattern.
Questions People Ask About Ad Schedule
Should I Turn Off My Ads at Night?
Most stores should not. An online store takes orders at all hours, and small accounts rarely have enough sales per hour to prove a bad night. Check several weeks of hourly numbers first. Only cut hours when the same pattern keeps coming back.
What Does Dayparting Mean in Google Ads?
Dayparting is the common name for ad scheduling. You choose the days and hours your ads can show, or change your bids for certain times. In Google Ads the setting is called ad schedule. By default a campaign runs all day.
Related terms
- Bid StrategyA bid strategy is the rule that tells Google Ads how to bid for you in each auction.
- Smart BiddingSmart Bidding is Google's automatic bidding.
- Daily BudgetA daily budget is the average amount you set per day for one Google Ads campaign.
- Location TargetingLocation targeting is the Google Ads setting that picks which places your ads can show in, such as a country, region or city.
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