Complete Guide to SEM Marketing Ad Scheduling to Improve SEM Marketing Campaign Outcome and Drive More Visitor Engagement
Complete Guide to SEM Marketing Ad Scheduling to Improve SEM Marketing Campaign Outcome and Drive More Visitor Engagement
The 2023 Complete Beginner's Guide for Businesses and Content Creators
Table of Contents
Unlike the 9 AM-6 PM business hours of a physical store, your online business hours of operation are around the clock. The prime time to do business can be any time of the day or night, depending on your target market’s browsing habits and trends that can be identified through analytics data.
Why is the Timing of SEM Marketing Campaign Important
Every dollar counts when you spend money on a search engine marketing campaign. So it is vital to determine the precise time frames where browsing traffic and visitor engagement activities peak. You can then focus advertising effort 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 Bing Ads have SEM campaign ad scheduling functions that target and customize campaign ad delivery at the time and date of your choice. So you can spend that marketing dollar when it counts.
SEM Ad scheduling can help you better budget 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 Marketing Ad Scheduling
Depending on the business segment, peak hours can vary. Typically, most conversions happen when customers are on their devices browsing. You can identify these prime periods by looking into Google Analytics and Bing Ads reports. Based on data, you can determine when to increase or decrease bids or pause the ad. You have the power to tailor business hours around your customers’ shopping hours when you set up ad scheduling correctly.
Identify Peak Hours for SEM Marketing Ad Scheduling
To determine your website’s prime time for conversion, look for answers to the following questions within Google Analytics data. Once you have identified a pattern for the best conversion time frame, you can 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 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 Marketing Ad Scheduling Results
To maximize SEM ad scheduling results, optimize your website performance to ensure the paid search campaigns can reach their full impact and receive the best campaign outcome.
Top 3 Website Optimization Metrics to Improve SEM Marketing 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 search marketing strategies and always keep an eye on their ad campaigns.
Metric #2. Improve Website Loading Speed
Check your website’s loading speed to make sure user experience is not impacted by a sluggish landing page. Google PageSpeed Insight is a free speed check tool that provides both mobile and desktop webpage speed analysis. In addition, it provides remediation recommendations on webpage elements to fix or consider fixing that improve website loading speed immediately.
Metric #3. Ensure Landing Page Content Matches SEM Ad Messaging
Be sure your ad campaign messaging stays consistent with its landing page content to help visitors to have the best user experience on your website. A properly optimized landing page consistent with ad messaging can improve content credibility, increase conversion rate, and potentially close 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 Bing Ads
Watch Bing’s explanation on how to set up ad scheduling in Bing Ads.
How to Set Up Ad Scheduling in 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
Note that you have the option to adjust bids for an ad campaign by percentage in both Google Ads and Bing Ads. If you do not want an ad to run at a specific time, select the option to decrease the bid by 100 percent.
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 the results 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 periodically to meet the shifting demand.
SEM Marketing Ad Scheduling Time Conversion Report
There is a quick and easy report you can 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, you can 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 help you gain additional insights into improving SEM ad campaign results.
Google Ads Time Conversion Pre-defined Report Options
- Basic
- Time
- Conversion
- Geographic
SEM Marketing Ad Scheduling Dayparting Report
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, you can 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, hit the download button to generate a .csv file for easy offline viewing and record tracking.
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