How do I set up an ad schedule in Google Ads?

A campaign starts with no schedule, which Google calls All day: its ads can show at any hour of every day. An ad schedule does two things. It limits the campaign to the days and hours you list, and it can raise or lower the campaign’s bids in each of them. Google’s own examples are showing only on certain days, or only during business hours, when someone is there to handle customers’ inquiries.

Three things about it catch people out. It runs in your account’s time zone, which is fixed when the account is created and can’t be changed, so a schedule for customers in another time zone has to be shifted by hand. A campaign can hold up to 6 ad schedules a day, each a span of hours. And every campaign type takes one except App campaigns, Performance Max included.

A schedule decides when the budget is spent, not how much. Google paces a campaign with an ad schedule toward 30.4 times its average daily budget over a month, however many days the schedule leaves it on, and never more than twice the daily budget on any one day. So turning off a day or two a week doesn’t by itself lower what the campaign can spend in a month: the budget goes to the days left. Lower the budget too if spending less is the aim.

Read when the campaign converts before you decide when it should show:

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Campaigns.
2. 02Set the date range to the last 30 days, or longer for a campaign with few conversions.
3. 03Select the segment icon above the table, then Time, then Hour of day. Each campaign splits into a row for every hour it spent in, in the account’s time zone.
4. 04Add Conversions and Cost / conv. to the columns, or Conv. value / cost if your account runs on conversion value.
5. 05Do the same with Day of the week.

Hours are noisy one at a time, so add them up in blocks of a few hours before comparing. And know what the Conversions column counts: Google reports a conversion at the time of the click that led to it, not the time it happened. A click at 11 p.m. that buys the next morning counts at 11 p.m., which is what you want, since the click’s cost is reported at 11 p.m. too.

The Ad schedule page, at Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Ad schedule, charts when a campaign’s ads showed, by clicks, impressions, clickthrough rate, average cost per click or cost, on its Day and Hour, Day and Hour tabs.

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Ad schedule.
2. 02Select the pencil icon, then the campaign.
3. 03Choose the days and the times the campaign may show. To leave out a block of hours, list the hours either side of it.
4. 04Select Save.

A schedule entry can’t cross midnight. Google’s example: to run from 11 p.m. Monday to 7 a.m. Tuesday, schedule Monday from 23:00 to 0:00 and Tuesday from 0:00 to 7:00.

Check the whole week before you save. Once a campaign has a schedule, its ads show only in the times listed: a campaign given a schedule for Saturday alone runs on Saturdays alone.

An ad schedule bid adjustment raises or lowers a campaign’s bids by a percentage in one span of its schedule, from −90% to +900%. It’s set on the campaign, and only on a campaign that has a schedule, so to lower bids on Saturdays while running all week, the schedule has to list all seven days first.

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Ad schedule.
2. 02Hover over the value in the Bid adj. column and select the pencil icon.
3. 03Choose Increase or Decrease, enter the percentage, and select Save.

Which bid strategies apply one is the part to check first. Manual bidding and Maximize clicks do. Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions, Maximize conversion value and Target impression share don’t: Google says Smart Bidding already sets bids by time of day, and doesn’t use a manual adjustment. It does keep to the schedule, though, so under Smart Bidding a schedule still decides when the ads can show. Performance Max, App, Smart and Demand Gen campaigns take no schedule bid adjustment.

Adjustments multiply. Google’s example is a $1 bid with +20% for California and −50% for Saturday: a search in California on a Saturday is bid at $0.60, and a search elsewhere on a Saturday at $0.50.

Where a block of hours spends and never converts, leave it out of the schedule. Be sure it’s real first: a block that spent what one or two conversions cost and bought none is often chance. One that spent what several cost, over a month or more, is a pattern. This works under any bid strategy, Smart Bidding included, since every strategy keeps to the schedule.

Where hours or days convert, but far worse or far better than the rest of the week, adjust the bids there rather than switch them off, if the campaign bids manually or to Maximize clicks. Lower them where each conversion costs well over the rest of the week’s price, and raise them where it costs well under. Under Smart Bidding, leave it to the bidding: Google already bids by the hour, so a schedule there is for the hours you never want.

A count of conversions can make an hour look worse than it is. A conversion worth more at some hours than others, like a large order late in the evening, doesn’t show in the count, so read the value where your account records one.

Every day Goldbeater reads each enabled campaign’s last 30 days by day of the week and hour, in the account’s time zone. It adds the hours up in eight fixed blocks of three, the same eight for every campaign, so no window is chosen after looking, and raises:

• Hours that spend and never convert: a block in which a campaign spent at least $20 and converted nothing, where buying none is unlikely at the campaign’s own conversion rate once every block tested in the account is allowed for. Adjacent blocks join into one span. It works under any bid strategy, and the finding names the hours to leave out of the campaign’s schedule.
• Hours or days converting far below the rest of the week: in a campaign bidding manually or to Maximize clicks, a block that converts, or a day of the week, that bought under half the conversions its spend would at the rate of the rest of the week, on at least $20, and too far under to be chance; where your conversion value is real, its return under half too. It says where a −50% schedule bid adjustment goes, and what those conversions cost above the rest of the week’s price.
• Hours or days converting far above it: over twice, by the same test, with a +20% adjustment there.

The finding is the sample table above, as the check reads it. A schedule runs on one time zone, so a campaign reaching several reads its hours in yours; the location targeting guide says how to see where its clicks came from, and the audit checklist has every schedule line with where to find it in Google Ads.

What time zone does an ad schedule use?

Your Google Ads account’s time zone. It’s set when the account is created and can’t be changed, so a schedule for customers in another time zone has to be shifted to match yours.

Does an ad schedule work with Smart Bidding?

Yes. Smart Bidding keeps to the days and times in the schedule. It ignores a schedule bid adjustment, since it sets its bids by time of day itself.

Can Performance Max use an ad schedule?

Yes. Every campaign type but App campaigns can have one. Performance Max takes no schedule bid adjustment: it bids with Smart Bidding, which sets bids by time of day itself.

Will an ad schedule lower my spend?

Not necessarily. Google paces a campaign with a schedule toward 30.4 times its average daily budget a month, however many days it runs, and may spend up to twice the daily budget on a day, so the days a schedule turns off pass their budget to the days left. Lower the budget as well if you mean to spend less.

How many ad schedules can a campaign have?

Up to 6 a day. An entry can’t cross midnight, so a span from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. is two entries, one on each day.