Tools and Strategies for Optimizing Ad Scheduling, Serving, and Positions

Ad Scheduling

Ad scheduling can help you better target your ads by selecting the times when you want to show ads. For example, if you offer special late night deals, you can set up a campaign to show those ads only at night. Ad scheduling also includes an advanced setting which lets you adjust pricing for your ads during certain time periods. With the advanced setting, you can set a maximum of six different time periods per day, so choose carefully.

 For example, if you find that your ads get the best results before noon, you can set your bids higher during that time frame to try and get more impressions and clicks.

Before you set up ad sheduling, understand that it does not guarantee your ads will receive impressions or clicks. The usual AdWords rules still apply, and your ads will compete for impressions with other ads as they normally do. If you schedule a campaign for very short periods of time, or only at times of great competition for the keywords or placements you have chosen, your ads may not get the chance to run very often.

Position Preference

This advanced bidding feature gives more control over the positioning of ads. Some advertisers find this helps them better promote their brands or earn a higher return on investment (ROI). In particular:

• Direct-response advertisers can target their most cost-effective ad rankings.
• Brand advertisers can make sure their ads run only in the most visible positions.

There is no "right" position for all ads. Many people want to be ranked #1, but some advertisers prefer the lower costs that come with lower positions. Others find that certain keywords get a better return on investment (ROI) when their ad runs in a specific position. We encourage you to experiment and discover which positions are best for your keywords and your ads. See more position preference tips in our Help Center.

Before enabling position preference, understand that setting a position preference can sharply reduce the number of impressions and clicks a keyword receives. We encourage advertisers to choose as broad a range of positions as they are comfortable with. When adjusting your preferences, remember that with each change, it may take a few days for the system to adjust and run your ads consistently in your new preferred positions.

Ad serving settings

In the "Advanced settings" section of your campaign's Settings tab, you can specify how you'd like the ads in your ad group to be served.

• Optimize (default): Optimized ad serving tries to show your higher performing ads more often than the other ads in your ad group. Performance is based on historic clickthrough rates (CTRs) and Quality Scores as compared to other ads within that ad group. By using this ad serving option, your ad group might receive more impressions and clicks overall, since higher-quality ads can attain better positions and attract more user attention.
• Rotate: Rotated ad serving tries to show all the ads in the ad group more evenly, regardless of which one has the best CTR. This can be a good option if you specifically want to test different ad text variations to see which message performs the best.

We recommend that you stick with the default "Optimize" ad serving setting for best results.