Dayparting

Dayparting is a digital advertising strategy that involves scheduling campaigns to run only during specific times of the day or days of the week. Instead of showing ads continuously, marketers strategically allocate their budget to the time periods when their target audience is most active or most likely to convert.

In the context of Apple Ads and other mobile ad platforms, dayparting helps advertisers optimize spend, improve performance metrics such as conversion rate (CR), and avoid wasted impressions during low-activity hours.

Why does Dayparting matter?

Mobile users don’t behave the same way throughout the day. For example, a productivity app might see higher engagement in the mornings, while a gaming app might peak at night. Running ads continuously means you might be spending budget during hours when your audience is less engaged.

Dayparting matters because it allows you to:

• Align with user behavior: Reach potential users when they’re most likely to download or engage with your app.

• Optimize ad spend: Avoid wasting budget during low-performing hours.

• Improve KPIs: Better click-through rates (CTR), conversions, and return on ad spend (ROAS).

• Support campaign testing: Compare performance across different time blocks to refine targeting.

How does Dayparting work?

Dayparting involves setting time-based rules in your campaign manager. Instead of running ads 24/7, you select the exact time windows and days to deliver ads. For example:

• Weekdays 8 AM – 10 AM: Ads for a coffee delivery app targeting office workers.

• Weeknights 7 PM – 11 PM: Ads for a gaming app targeting casual players.

• Weekends only: Ads for a travel booking app.

On platforms like Apple Ads, dayparting is implemented through automation rules or scheduling features, allowing advertisers to pause and resume campaigns at set intervals.

Timezone note: Always align dayparting schedules with the storefront’s timezone. A campaign targeting U.S. users should follow U.S. local time zones, not the advertiser’s country of operation.

Benefits of Dayparting

1. Higher efficiency: Concentrates budget where it performs best.

2. Reduced competition: Avoids high-cost periods when many advertisers are bidding.

3. Better insights: Provides data on audience engagement patterns.

4. Cross-channel alignment: Synchronizes mobile ads with other marketing channels (social media, push notifications, etc.).

Example in practice

A food delivery app finds that most orders occur between 11 AM – 2 PM and 6 PM – 9 PM. Instead of spending ad budget at midnight, they run ads during these meal-time windows. This leads to a higher conversion rate, more downloads, and lower cost-per-acquisition (CPA).

Key takeaway

Dayparting is more than just turning ads on and off. It’s about understanding user behavior, aligning campaigns with those behaviors, and maximizing efficiency. For app marketers, especially those managing large-scale campaigns, dayparting can significantly improve both paid and organic performance by ensuring ads are shown at the right time, to the right audience.