Day Parting Reports-Google Analytics & Ad Scheduling in Google Adwords

How to Use Day Parting Reports in Google Analytics to Set Up Ad Scheduling in Google Adwords

Are you using Ad Scheduling in your Adwords Campaigns? 

Setting up Ad Scheduling can save you up to 75% on your Adwords costs. Here's a tutorial... 

1. Log in to Google Analytics and click Standard Reporting in the Top Nav Menu


2. Click "Advertising" in the left nav menu.


3. Click "Adwords" (this appears when you click "Advertising")


4. Click "Day Parts"


5. In the upper right of the resulting screen - set your date range to cover your website's complete history


6. Click "Day of Week" [Screenshot 1] 





Screenshot 1 - Google Analytics - Advertising > Day Parts

7. Click "0" which represents Sunday [Screenshot 2]







Screenshot 2 - Google Analytics Advertising>Day Parts>Day of Week>Day 0

Important Note: You need to know that "0" is Sunday. This is absolutely crucial to understand. If you don't take this into account, your ad scheduling could end up by being off an entire day.


8. In the resulting screen [Screenshot 3], make a note of what hours during the day you got sales or leads. Hours are listed in military time (or a 24 hour clock)






Screenshot 3 - Google Analytics - Advertising > Day Parting > Day of Week > Hour of Day

9. Click the "back" button to go back to the list of days and click "1" which is Monday


10. Again, in the resulting screen, make a note of what hours during Mondays you got sales or leads


11. Repeat this process for every day, through Day 6 - which is Saturday


12. Now Log in to Google Adwords and click the "Campaigns" tab


13. Click your first campaign and click the "Settings" tab


14. Scroll down to "Advanced Settings" and click on  "Schedule: Start date, end date, ad scheduling" [Screenshot 4]





Screenshot 4 - Google Adwords - Campaign Settings - Advanced Settings

15.  In the resulting screen, click on "Edit" [Screenshot 5]





Screenshot 5 - Google Adwords - Campaign Settings - Edit Schedule: Start date, end date, ad scheduling

16. A window will pop up that looks like this [Screenshot 6] - In the upper right select "24 hour clock" so that your hours will match up with your notes from Google Analytics. 






Screenshot 6 - Google Adwords - Ad Scheduling Pop up Window

Important Note: You need to know that the hours listed in both your Google Analytics accounts and Google Adwords are based on your account settings. Make sure they are the same, otherwise your ad scheduling could be off by several hours. In my case both my accounts are set to Pacific time, so 9AM means 9AM Pacific time.


17. Remembering that "0" is Sunday - adjust your ad scheduling to show ads only during the times your site has had conversions.


18. When finished adjusting the times, click "Save"


19. Repeat this process for each of your campaigns

Voila! You've successfully implemented Ad Scheduling in your Adwords campaigns!

Day parting can save you as much as 75% on your Google Adwords advertising expenses. It will direct money that you were once wasting on days and hours that weren't converting and allow you to put more money into the times and days of the week that are producing good results. You should see a significant improvement in conversion rates and a decrease in your bounce rates. Questions? Comments? I'd love to hear your thoughts and how you've used different methods to improve your Google Adwords campaign performance.