Unlike the 9 AM-6 PM business hours of a physical store, the hours of operation for a website are around the clock. The prime time to do business can be any time of the day or night, depending on the target market’s browsing habits and trends identified through the analytics data.
Why is the Timing of SEM Marketing Campaign Important
Every dollar counts when spending your marketing budget on a SEM marketing campaign. Determining the precise time frames when online traffic and visitor engagement activities peak is vital. Focus advertising efforts on these critical intervals to maximize conversion. The idea is to show ads when the majority of your potential customers are online and ready to shop.
Benefits of SEM Marketing Ad Scheduling
Both Google Ads and Microsoft Ads have the SEM campaign ad scheduling function. Ad scheduling targets and customizes campaign ad delivery at the time and date of your choice, so you can spend the marketing dollar when it counts. SEM Ad scheduling better budgets ad campaigns by intuitively controlling spending, lowering bids during off-peak hours, and raising them again at peak hours.
How to Determine the Best Timing for SEM Ad Scheduling
Depending on the business segment, peak hours vary. Typically, most conversions happen when customers are on their devices browsing. Identify these prime periods by looking into Google Analytics and Microsoft Ads reports. Based on the data, determine when to increase or decrease bids or pause the ad. You have the power to tailor business hours around customer activity peak hours when ad scheduling is set up correctly.
Identify Peak Hours for SEM Marketing Ad Scheduling
To determine a website’s prime time for conversion, look within Google Analytics data. Once a pattern for the best conversion time frame is identified, strategically plan ad bidding to increase exposure when visitor activities peak.
Top 4 Metrics to Identify Peak Visitor Activities in Ad Scheduling
- Which days of the week do sales peak?
- What times of the day do you receive the heaviest online traffic?
- What time periods in a day do sales fade off?
- Is there a trend or pattern in the days and times that show peak visitor activities?
How to Optimize Your Website to Improve SEM Ad Scheduling Results
To maximize SEM ad scheduling results, optimize the website performance to ensure paid search campaigns reach their full impact and receive the best campaign outcome.
Top 3 Website Optimization Metrics to Improve SEM Ad Scheduling Results
Metric #1. Check Sales Price Competitiveness
Most customers today are price sensitive and always looking for a better deal, but it does not mean you have to go into a price war to stay competitive. Instead, be strategic with pricing. Use advanced tools like Semrush to uncover competitors’ paid SEM marketing strategies and monitor their ad campaigns.
Metric #2. Improve Website Loading Speed
Check your website’s loading speed to ensure user experience is not impacted by a sluggish landing page. Google PageSpeed Insight is a free speed check tool that analyzes mobile and desktop webpage speed. In addition, it provides remediation recommendations on webpage elements to consider fixing and improving website loading speed immediately.
Metric #3. Ensure Landing Page Content Matches SEM Ad Messaging
Ensuring the ad campaign messaging stays consistent with its landing page content helps visitors to have the best website user experience. A properly optimized landing page consistent with ad messaging improves content credibility, increases conversion rate, and closes more sales.
How to Set Up SEM Ad Scheduling in Google Ads
Watch Google’s explanation on how to set up ad scheduling in Google Ads.
How to Set Up Ad Scheduling in Google Ads in 5 Steps
- Select a campaign.
- Click on the “Settings” tab.
- Click on “Ad Scheduling.”
- Click on “+ Ad Schedule.”
- Assign the days and hours you want the ad campaign to show up.
How to Set Up Ad Scheduling in Microsoft Bing Ads
Watch Microsoft’s explanation on how to set up ad scheduling in Microsoft Ads.
How to Set Up Ad Scheduling in Microsoft Bing Ads in 5 Steps
- Select a campaign.
- Click on “Change Settings.”
- Click on “Targeting Options.”
- Click on “Advanced Targeting Options.”
- Click the “+Add Another Link” to add targeted days and times.
Option to Adjust SEM Ad Scheduling Bids by Percentage
There is an option to adjust bids for an ad campaign by percentage in both Google Ads and Microsoft Ads. To prevent an ad from running at a specific time, select the option to decrease the bid by 100 percent during the time slot.
Analytics Reporting for SEM Ad Scheduling
After setting the ad scheduling on autopilot for some time, it is a good practice to go back and review periodically. Analyze your website’s historical ad performance to determine the most accurate time frame to maximize conversion. While historical data provides valuable insight into visitor trends, keeping track of the current market’s changing demand is equally important. Analytics data should be re-evaluated regularly to meet the shifting demand.
SEM Marketing Ad Scheduling Time Conversion Report
There is a quick and easy report to generate in Google Ads to keep track of the highest converting periods.
How to Access Google Ads Time Conversion Report
- Select “Reports” in the navigation
- Click on “Pre-defined Reports”
- Go to “Time”
- Click on “Hour of Day”
How to Customize Google Ads Time Conversion Report
In Google Ads, choose the appropriate Pre-defined Reports that display different levels of information about the ad campaigns. Play around with the following Pre-defined Report option to gain additional insights on improving SEM ad campaign results.
Google Ads Time Conversion Pre-defined Report Options
- Basic
- Time
- Conversion
- Geographic
SEM Marketing Ad Scheduling Dayparting Report
The dayparting report is a one-glance report that tracks a small set of key pages, which drives the entire website’s traffic.
How to Access Dayparting Report in Google Ads
- Select an ad campaign.
- Click on the “Settings” tab.
- Select “Ad schedule.”
Customize Dayparting Report Metrics in Google Ads
Based on the ads scheduled, customize additional dayparting metrics to measure clicks, impressions, cost, and conversion. Filters can be applied to the report to reveal more detailed data. After building the dayparting report with all the necessary metrics, download a .csv file for easy offline viewing and record tracking.
