Depending on the vertical that your business occupies, you may see significant changes in customer behavior during certain days of the week. For example, your customers may sign up to watch more streaming movies on Fridays and Saturdays, do more shopping for hardware supplies on Saturdays, and shop for cars and insurance policies on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
If the changes your business experiences are predictable, a Search Ads 360 bid strategy can improve efficiency by having good bids in place before the day starts. Search Ads 360 bid strategies run statistical analysis on the past 180 days of conversion data to detect any recurring patterns during each day. If Search Ads 360 detects a pattern, the bid strategy proactively adjusts bids.
Search Ads 360 performs this analysis on bid strategies with a CPA, ERS, or ROAS target, as well as bid strategies with an Advanced target. The analysis occurs automatically for all supported types of bid strategies (you don't need to explicitly enable the analysis).
Generally, a bid strategy needs about 6 weeks of active (non-paused) performance history before Search Ads 360 can start detecting day-of-week patterns. Note that this does not mean the bid strategy has to run for 6 weeks, it just needs 6 weeks of conversion history. Bid strategies with low traffic, as well as bid strategies with fewer per-day repeated variations, will likely need more than 6 weeks to reliably detect patterns.
Once Search Ads 360 detects a pattern, bid strategies automatically adjust bids to optimize performance.
Frequently asked questions
How do weekday pattern adjustments work?
Search Ads 360 uses statistical analysis of the conversion data from the past 180 days to determine whether to adjust bids for a day of the week.
Why analyze patterns when Search Ads 360 has real-time conversion data?
Real-time data is great for allowing bid strategies to react to changes. However, reactions can be delayed while Search Ads 360 collects sufficient evidence to make a change. In addition, weekday patterns are often more difficult to identify in real time unless Search Ads 360 has a lot of conversion data. Since Search Ads 360 knows when a change is coming and has observed the conversion differences before, Search Ads 360 can be both proactive and reactive. Search Ads 360 analyzes many prior days of the week to get an estimate of how the day will perform, then combines that estimate with observed real time stats to optimize the days' bid adjustments more efficiently.
Why don’t I see these changes in Google Ads ad schedules?
For Google Ads accounts, Search Ads 360 applies the adjustment directly to the bids rather than using Google Ads ad schedules. If you have an ad schedule in place to account for weekday patterns, we recommend disabling it and letting the Search Ads 360 bid strategy manage the bids.
Which types of Search Ads 360 bid strategies support weekday pattern adjustments?
Search Ads 360 performs day-of-week pattern analysis on Search Ads 360 bid strategies with a CPA, ERS, or ROAS target, as well as bid strategies with an Advanced target. The analysis occurs automatically for all supported types of bid strategies (you don't need to explicitly enable the analysis). In addition, once Search Ads 360 detects a pattern, bid strategies automatically adjust bids to optimize the performance for the day.
How much history is needed to detect weekday patterns?
Generally, a Search Ads 360 bid strategy needs about 6 weeks of active (non-paused) performance history before Search Ads 360 can start detecting weekday patterns. Note that this does not mean the bid strategy has to run for 6 weeks, it just needs about 6 weeks of conversion history. Bid strategies with low traffic, as well as bid strategies with fewer per day variations, will likely need more than 6 weeks to reliably detect a pattern.
What about seasonality and holidays?
Our analysis shows that patterns can emerge for any day of the week. We will continue to evaluate opportunities for supporting additional seasonal and holiday patterns in the future.