Every successful pay-per-click (PPC) campaign relies on exposure to in-market buyers. As the current climate continues to shift buyer behavior, old-school PPC optimization tactics like avoiding weekend traffic prove to limit landing page exposure, lower campaign conversion rates and diminish overall campaign performance.

Dayparting is the dated PPC management practice of manually turning campaign bids on or off during certain times under the notion that doing so will limit campaign spend and reach a specific target audience. Read on for the truth behind three dayparting myths and more PPC optimization facts.

Myth No. 1: Dayparting saves on PPC ad spend

Adherents say dayparting can minimize campaign spend during low-traffic hours, presumably when buyers aren’t searching PPC platforms for software; however, limiting bids to specific windows of time or days actually has the opposite effect and results in lost opportunities for your company. Normally, buyers search for software over the weekend because that’s when they have more time to research and focus on the task at hand.

Over the last few months, we’ve seen an increase in buyer traffic across our sites — Capterra, Software Advice and GetApp — over the weekend and (pre-pandemic) out-of-office hours. That increase in site and landing page traffic lends itself to the increasingly blurred line between workday and free time. Software suppliers that opt out of PPC bidding during those presumably “low-traffic” hours miss out on campaign exposure. Work to set PPC campaign bids correctly to avoid loss of critical weekend traffic, qualified leads, and, ultimately, sales.
 

Myth No. 2: Dayparting is the best PPC strategy to reach target audiences

Dayparting doesn’t just result in the loss of valuable leads, it causes missed connections with global buyers. Keep in mind that your business hours are not the same as those across all markets. Opting out of campaign traffic during your timezone's non-business hours limits landing page visibility to buyers searching for software from other regions, and around the world.

Limiting PPC bids may prove especially detrimental to businesses looking to expand their global footprint. With 80% of online software searches coming from outside of the U.S., dayparting limits software providers’ campaign reach to the majority of buyers searching for software from outside of the U.S. and Canada.
 

Myth No. 3: Without dayparting, your campaign would need a 24/7 sales team

Don’t limit the lead collection and sales opportunities your campaign can provide because you don’t employ an around-the-clock sales force. Thanks to automation, you can set automatic campaign triggers to effectively nurture buyers at any time, day or night, without immediate sales team involvement.

Put yourself in the buyers’ shoes, most people who search for software over the weekend don’t want, or expect, to be contacted immediately after completing a form or demo request. Automated follow-ups ensure that no matter when a buyer requests information, you can connect with them effectively, to start a demo offer, or schedule a one-on-one call that fits within your sales team’s working hours.

On the surface, dayparting might seem like a strong campaign optimization strategy, but in reality, it’s shortsighted and hinders the reach of a PPC campaign. Gain as much as possible from your campaign, be thoughtful when considering appropriate ad spend amounts for your budget. The key to PPC campaign success is to correctly set campaign bids to maintain ROI, avoid lost opportunities and achieve ultimate optimization.

Get more tips on how to run a successful PPC campaign.

Casey Briglia
Casey Briglia is a Marketing Specialist on the Gartner Digital Markets marketing team. She specializes in B2B content creation and strategy to help software businesses reach their marketing goals. When not at work, Casey can be found walking her yellow lab, listening to podcasts, and baking chocolate chip cookies. Connect with Casey on LinkedIn and Twitter.