Tutorial · Ad scheduling and bid adjustments: when they still count under Smart Bidding

Ad scheduling and bid adjustments are tools from the manual era that are still in the interface. Under Smart Bidding, most of them do nothing — and knowing that saves you "optimising" for no reason. This tutorial sets them up where they count and explains where they do not.

What still counts under Smart Bidding

Under Smart Bidding, the useful control is binary: show or do not show (scheduling, −100%, exclusions). Percentages are for manual bidding.

Part A · Ad scheduling

Step 1 · Decide with data

Campaigns → segment by day and hour (or the predefined "Hour of day" report) over 30-90 days: clicks, cost, conversions per slot. Look for slots with sustained spend and zero conversions across several weeks (not a single day), and slots where nobody can answer (calls, chats).

Step 2 · Set it up

Campaign → Ad schedule → +: day(s) of the week and time block (up to 6 blocks per day). Anything not in the calendar does not show. Time zone: the account's.

Step 3 · Exceptions

Bank holidays and events: you change the calendar on those days (there are no native "exceptions"): note it in your log. Alternative: leave it always on and schedule the call asset to your opening hours (the calls tutorial) if calls are the only problem.

Part B · Bid adjustments (manual bidding or ECPC)

Campaign/ad group → Devices / Locations / Audiences / Ad schedule → the Bid adjustment column → +/− %. Decide with the same report: if the CPA on mobile is consistently double the one on desktop, −30% on mobile (manual). Under Smart Bidding, that same finding is better resolved by improving the mobile landing page, not with an adjustment.

−100%: the one universal exception. Device (e.g. TV on Display), location (exclude), audience (exclude). It works with every strategy.

Three template setups

Local business with opening hours (clinic, garage)

• Schedule: Mon-Fri 08:00-21:00, Sat 09:00-14:00 (with a margin around the real opening hours: people search before they ring).
• Call asset: scheduled to the exact hours you answer the phone.
• Smart Bidding: no percentage adjustments; −100% on TV (if you run Display).

24-hour ecommerce

• No schedule (people buy at any hour).
• Smart Bidding with no adjustments; if a device converts badly over a sustained period, fix the landing page; −100% only where it makes no sense (TV does not apply on Shopping).
• Scheduling only for promotions with a start/end time (alternative: a countdown and sale_price with dates).

B2B

• Mon-Fri working hours if weekend conversions are nil over several months (check first: plenty of B2B buyers research on a Sunday).
• Smart Bidding with long windows; no adjustments.
• Audiences on observation as a signal (not as adjustments).

Common mistakes

• Percentage adjustments "optimised" on Smart Bidding campaigns: zero effect, false sense of progress.
• A schedule pinned too tightly to office hours: you lose the searches that come before the call.
• Forgetting that scheduling runs on the account's time zone in multi-country accounts.
• Adjustments inherited from the manual era after moving to Smart Bidding (they do no harm, but they confuse).
• −100% on mobile "because it converts worse": that kills most of your traffic.

💡 Ninja trick: back in module 7 of the Basic level we said that "optimising by hour" under Smart Bidding is diagnosis, not action. The only action left is the schedule — and its best use is not saving night-time clicks (the algorithm already bids lower then) but avoiding calls nobody answers. For that, a scheduled call asset is usually enough without touching the campaign.

What to remember

• Under Smart Bidding only the binary controls count: scheduling, −100%, exclusions. Percentages are for manual bidding.
• Decide the schedule with 30-90 days by hour and day, with a margin around the real opening hours.
• Three types: local with opening hours, 24-hour ecommerce, B2B working hours.
• Review and delete inherited adjustments.