# How to Implement Dayparting and Bid Scheduling for Your Small Business
For many Brisbane business owners, running ads 24/7 is a surefire way to drain a marketing budget on clicks that don't convert. Dayparting—also known as ad scheduling—allows you to control exactly when your ads appear and how much you are willing to pay during specific times, ensuring your budget is spent when your customers are most likely to take action.
Whether you’re a local plumber who only wants leads during business hours or a restaurant looking to boost dinner bookings, mastering ad schedules is one of the most effective ways to optimise your ROI.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, ensure you have the following:- An active Google Ads account with at least one Search or Display campaign.
- Historical data (ideally 30+ days) to identify your best-performing times.
- Access to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to cross-reference conversion times.
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Step 1: Analyse Your Historical Performance
Before changing your schedule, you need to know when your customers are actually converting. Open your Google Ads account and navigate to Insights and reports > When and where ads showed > Day & hour.- Screenshot description: You should see a table listing days of the week and hours of the day, with columns for clicks, cost, and conversions.
- What to look for: Look for patterns. Do you get high traffic on Tuesday mornings but zero conversions? Or perhaps Sunday evenings have a high conversion rate but low visibility? Note these down.
Step 2: Access the Ad Schedule Menu
Select the specific campaign you wish to edit from the left-hand sidebar. Once the campaign is selected, click on Settings and then find the Ad schedule tab in the sub-menu.- Note: If you don't see "Ad schedule" immediately, click "More settings" to expand the list.
Step 3: Review the Current Schedule
By default, most campaigns are set to "All day." You will see a blue bar representing a 24-hour block for each day of the week. This means your ads are eligible to show whenever a relevant search occurs.Step 4: Edit the Ad Schedule
Click the pencil icon (Edit) to modify the schedule. You can now choose specific days and time ranges.- Example for a Brisbane Service Business: If you only answer the phones from 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM, Monday to Friday, you might set your schedule to those specific hours to avoid paying for leads you can't service immediately.
- Action: Select "Add" to create multiple time blocks (e.g., Monday 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM and Monday 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM).
Step 5: Account for the Australian Time Zone
This is a critical step for Australian businesses. Ensure your Google Ads account time zone matches your actual location (usually AEST or AEDT). If your account is set to US Pacific Time but you are targeting customers in Queensland, your ads will show in the middle of the night!Warning: You cannot change an account's time zone once it is created. If it's wrong, you will have to calculate the offset manually when setting your schedule.
Step 6: Save Your New Schedule
Once you have entered your desired time slots, click Save. Your ads will now only be eligible to show during these windows. Any time not covered by a blue bar in the chart will result in your ads being paused.Step 7: Implement Bid Adjustments
Now that you’ve set when ads show, let’s talk about how much you pay. In the same Ad Schedule screen, you will see a column for "Bid adj.".If you know that Monday mornings are your "Golden Hours" for high-value leads, you can increase your bid by 20%. Conversely, if Friday afternoons are quiet, you can decrease your bid by 30%.
Step 8: Apply Bid Adjustments to Specific Blocks
Click the dash (-) in the Bid Adjustment column for a specific time block.- Select Increase or Decrease from the dropdown.
- Enter the percentage (e.g., 15%).
- Click Save.
Step 9: Monitor and Refine
Dayparting is not a "set and forget" strategy. Check your performance every two weeks. As seasonal trends change (e.g., more people searching for outdoor services during the Brisbane summer), your peak hours may shift.---
Pro Tips for Success
- Don't be too restrictive: While it's tempting to turn ads off at night, remember that many people research at night and buy the next morning. If your goal is awareness, keep a broader schedule.
- Use 15% Increments: When starting with bid adjustments, small changes are safer. Start with 10-15% and see how it impacts your Impression Share.
- Consider the "After Hours" Lead: If you have an automated lead magnet or a booking form on your website, you might not need to turn ads off after hours—just lower the bids.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Ignoring Mobile Behaviour: People search differently on mobile. Often, mobile users search later in the evening. Don't cut off your evening schedule without checking your "Device" reports first.
- Setting and Forgetting: A schedule that worked in April might not work in December. Always review your data monthly.
- Overlapping Schedules: Ensure your time blocks don't overlap, as this can cause confusion in report data.
Troubleshooting
My ads aren't showing at all now! Check your time zone settings first. If you set your ads to run from 9 AM to 5 PM but your account is set to a different time zone, your ads might be running while your customers are asleep. Also, ensure your daily budget isn't so low that it's being exhausted in the first hour of your schedule. I'm seeing a drop in conversions. You may have cut out the "Research Phase." Many customers search during their lunch break or evening but don't convert until they are back at their desk. Try widening your schedule but lowering bids during those "research" hours instead of turning them off entirely. The 'Bid Adjustment' option is greyed out. If you are using an Automated Bidding strategy (like Maximize Conversions or Target CPA), Google manages the bids for you. You can still set the schedule (the hours), but you cannot manually adjust the bids for specific times because the AI handles that automatically based on the likelihood of conversion.---
Next Steps
Now that you've optimised your timing, it's time to look at where your ads are appearing. Check out our guide on Location Targeting for Brisbane Businesses to ensure you aren't wasting money on clicks from outside your service area.If you'd like a professional audit of your Google Ads account to see where else you might be wasting budget, the team at Local Marketing Group is here to help. Contact us today for a chat about your digital marketing strategy.