Dayparting
Also known as: Ad scheduling
In short
The practice of restricting ad delivery or adjusting eligible bids for selected hours and days.
Dayparting divides an advertising schedule into selected days or hours. An advertiser might run a campaign only when a service is available, or review whether different times justify different bidding decisions.
How an ad schedule works
In Google Ads, an ad schedule specifies when ads are eligible to appear. Times outside the schedule are excluded. Eligibility is not a promise of impressions: searches, targeting, budget, and auction conditions still affect delivery.
Google schedules use the account’s time zone. A business targeting another time zone must translate its intended hours accordingly. A period crossing midnight also spans two calendar days and needs the corresponding daily schedule entries.
Scheduled bid adjustments and delivery restrictions are different controls. Check the campaign’s bidding strategy before assuming a manual adjustment will apply.
Illustrative example
A retailer offers same-day collection only while its pickup desk is staffed. It schedules a campaign promoting that service during the relevant opening hours. Its separate online delivery campaign remains available outside those hours.
The schedule in this example follows service availability, not an assumption that shoppers never buy at night. When optimizing from performance data, consider delayed conversions and limited hourly samples before excluding a time period that appears weak.