How Amazon Dayparting Boosts Ad Conversions?
As an Amazon seller, maximizing your ad budget is one of your top priorities.
You spend hours researching high-performing keywords and fine-tuning your ad campaigns to boost performance.
Yet, despite all the effort, conversions still don’t meet your expectations.
Sounds familiar?
You’re not alone. Many sellers face the same frustration—spending money on ads that don’t deliver strong results.
But here’s the good news: there’s a strategy that allows you to display your ads at the exact times shoppers are most likely to buy.
It’s called dayparting on Amazon. With this feature, you can adjust your ad spending at different times of the day to match peak shopping hours, boosting your conversions and improving your return on ad spend (RoAS).
The Power of Timing: A Seller’s Story
Take Sarah, for instance—an Amazon seller who struggled to make her ads work. She tried everything but couldn’t crack the code for better results. Out of options, she decided to test dayparting.
By focusing her ad bids during hours when customers were most active, Sarah saw her conversion rate soar and her ad spending drop significantly.
Her story isn’t unique. Many sellers have experienced similar success using dayparting to make their ad budgets more efficient and profitable.
If you’re tired of low conversion rates and wasted ad dollars, dayparting could be the solution you’ve been looking for.
This guide will explain what dayparting is, its benefits, and how to implement it effectively.
What Is Amazon Dayparting and Why Does It Matter?
Amazon Dayparting, also known as ad scheduling, allows you to control when your ads run throughout the day.
It’s an advanced advertising technique that helps distribute your daily budget strategically to maximize returns while minimizing waste.
For instance, if your sales peak in the evening, you can allocate a higher budget for that time slot and lower it during less active hours.
This way, your ads reach customers who are more likely to buy.
Dayparting also works well for adjusting campaigns around seasonal trends or special occasions. If you sell holiday products, increasing your ad budget during festive periods can capture higher buyer intent and boost sales.
In short, dayparting automates your ad timing and ensures you’re reaching the right audience at the right time for the best results.
Top Benefits of Using Dayparting on Amazon
1. Show Ads During High-Converting Hours
One of the biggest advantages of dayparting is the ability to display your ads during the most profitable hours.
Studies show that conversion rates are usually higher between 6 PM and 12 AM, as shoppers are free and actively browsing.
With dayparting, you can allocate more of your budget to these hours to maximize your chances of getting sales.
2. Avoid Low-Conversion “Window Shopping” Hours
Most brands notice fewer sales between 12 AM and 5 AM—times when customers are just browsing rather than buying.
Reducing your bids during these off-peak hours prevents unnecessary ad spending.
However, timing can vary depending on your audience. For instance, parents might shop after 10–11 PM once their kids are asleep.
So, if you sell baby products, boosting your ad spend after 11 PM might work better for you.
3. Maximize Sales During Major Shopping Events
Events like Prime Day, Black Friday, and the Q4 holiday season drive massive traffic and competition on Amazon.
During these times, cost-per-click (CPC) can rise 2–3x. Using dayparting, you can automatically increase your bids and stay competitive without manually monitoring campaigns.
For example, you can set a rule to increase your budget by 20% for high-performing campaigns during late October through mid-December to take advantage of the holiday surge.
4. Stretch a Limited Budget Further
If you’re working with a tight ad budget, dayparting helps you spend wisely.
Lower your bids during low-converting hours and raise them when your target customers are most active.
This ensures every dollar you spend contributes to sales growth and higher RoAS.
5. Reach Your Ideal Audience More Effectively
Dayparting allows you to focus your ads on the hours your target audience is most active.
For example, if you sell printer ink, your main buyers—office workers and business owners—are likely browsing between 10 AM and 4 PM on weekdays.
You can raise your bids during those hours and cut them during off-days to get better returns.
6. Boost Seasonal Product Sales
If you sell products that have seasonal demand—like umbrellas—dayparting helps you capitalize on high-traffic periods.
You can increase your ad budget during the monsoon or winter months and scale it down during low-demand seasons, ensuring your campaigns remain efficient.
When Should You Create a Dayparting Strategy?
Before you jump in, take time to analyze your business data.
1. Define Your Campaign Goals
What’s the purpose of your campaign?
If your goal is to reduce wasted spending, lower your budget during low-converting hours.
But if you’re launching a new product, you’ll want more visibility, so cutting ads at any time could limit your reach.
2. Understand the Buying Cycle
If your product requires extensive research before purchase (e.g., high-ticket items), dayparting might not be the best fit.
You’ll need continuous visibility across all hours to build customer trust.
But for impulse-buy products with a short decision cycle, dayparting can help you capture quick conversions.
3. Consider Your Customer’s Location
Time zones matter.
If your customers are based in the UK but your business operates in the US, you should schedule your ads according to UK peak hours—not US ones—to ensure optimal reach.
4. Identify Your High-Activity Hours
Analyze your Sales and Traffic Reports in Seller Central.
Go to:
Reports → Business Reports → Sales and Traffic.
Download six months of data and use a pivot table to find which days and times have the most sales.
For instance, you might notice higher conversions between 2–9 AM and 3–10 PM.
This data helps you fine-tune your dayparting settings.
How to Set Dayparting Rules in Amazon Campaign Manager
- Log in to Seller Central and go to Campaign Manager → Budget.
- Select the campaign you want to adjust.
- Click on the Budget tab, then Add Budget Rule.
- Name your rule, choose Schedule, and set your start and end dates.
(Example: December 24 to January 2 for the holiday season.) - Choose Daily for all days or Weekly for specific days.
- Adjust your bid percentage and click Add Budget Rule to save.
Keep in mind that Amazon currently doesn’t allow hourly scheduling or account-level rules.
Best Practices for Successful Dayparting
1. Avoid High-CPC Time Slots
Bidding competition spikes in the morning when most sellers are active.
Try focusing your campaigns on afternoon or evening hours to reduce CPCs and improve ROAS.
2. Use Amazon Retail Analytics for Insights
If you’re a registered vendor, use Amazon Retail Analytics (ARA) to access hourly sales data.
Review performance for your top products to identify your best-performing hours.
3. Combine Dayparting With Lightning Deals
When running Lightning Deals, boost your ad budget during the deal period.
This combination can increase your visibility and sales momentum.
4. Continuously Test and Optimize
Every brand has unique customer behavior.
Run A/B tests by setting different high-bid windows for identical campaigns.
For instance,
- Campaign A: high budget from 10 AM–12 PM
- Campaign B: high budget from 6 PM–9 PM
Compare results after a week or two to determine which time frame yields better ACoS and profitability.
Key Limitations to Consider
1. Lack of Hourly Data
Amazon doesn’t offer detailed hourly metrics, making precise dayparting tricky.
You can manually track sales trends for a week or two to spot peak hours.
2. Attribution Delay
Since Amazon attributes conversions up to 14 days after an ad click, the reported sales data might not reflect real-time trends.
Always analyze data across at least a month for accuracy.
3. Missed Customer Touchpoints
Dayparting may reduce visibility across the customer journey.
If you cut ads too aggressively, you might miss out on valuable touchpoints that help nurture long-term sales.
4. Not Ideal for Every Product
If your product has consistent demand throughout the day, or if your audience shops at varying hours, dayparting might not offer much benefit.
Final Thoughts
At its core, dayparting is a smart optimization strategy that helps Amazon sellers reduce wasted ad spending and increase returns.
It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution, but when implemented with proper testing and analysis, it can significantly improve your ad efficiency.
Remember—monitor your results, A/B test regularly, and adjust your timing strategy to make your campaigns more profitable over time.
