Are You Even Dayparting In Adwords, Bro?
If you have been running the Adwords account for your company and have yet to utilize the power of Dayparting, or ad scheduling, it is time to boost that ROAS.
Immediately head over to the Dimensions tab and get familiar with the options available. For the sake of this article, we are going to focus mainly on the Time subcategory underneath the View tab in the Adwords dashboard.
After finding this newly-discovered report of eye-opening significance, you will be presented with the daily breakdown of your campaigns. Who knew that the CTR on Sunday was actually 65 percent higher than Wednesday in the month of November? Now you do!
Adjusting the Adwords campaigns for clients ahead of the festive break. People’s habits change and so should your advertising #ToddsTips
— Todd ? (@SocialMediaTodd) December 24, 2014
Put on your analyst cap and get conceptual clarity on what these numbers really mean. After coming to a few conclusions for your Adwords campaigns based off of statistical significance, it’s time to dig even deeper. The next step in thoroughly analyzing your dayparting strategy is to change your view to Hour of Day.
This view will show you the hours during the day that are performing the best, and worst, for Adwords. Keep in mind to adjust your strategy based on time differences. This is a perfect opportunity to cross reference what you are seeing in your web analytics to see where your Adwords campaigns are performing.
If the Adwords account settings are set for EST, yet Google Analytics is showing a large portion of traffic coming from California, it may be time to adjust. Taking into account the time difference between the East and West timezones will significantly impact your Adwords dayparting strategy. It is highly recommended to consistently compare your web analytics findings with the Adwords reports to get a comprehensive look on user behavior.
After sufficiently analyzing what time of day is working best for your Adwords campaigns, it is time to use your findings and refine your ad schedule. Before your account manager starts to trim the fat, it is highly recommended to make certain that your Adwords conclusions are based off of statistical significance. Paid Search Strategist Mark Irvine has been quoted as saying the following.
“Occasionally I hear a client or account manager insist that some odd day of the week or hours of the day kill it for their account. Unless they have some explanation for why this might be I typically find their data doesn’t support their belief.”
After gaining confidence in your findings, it is time to put them to work. Head over to the Ad Schedule button and set your bid adjustments hour by hour.
This is far from a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. Make sure to keep a close eye on the impact of any changes to the Adwords campaign schedule. Testing on a small number of campaigns is recommended, then scaling up after you are confident in the eventual improvements.
[Image Credit Shutterstock.com]
