Overview

On November 30, 2022 Helium 10 released a special “Buzz” podcast episode that broke down the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping surge. The discussion focused on how Amazon sellers can harness dayparting—adjusting PPC bids and budgets by hour—to protect ad spend while capitalizing on the holiday traffic spike. Understanding these tactics is essential for any seller aiming to stay competitive during the year’s busiest weekend.

Key Points

• Ad spend balloons — Many advertisers reported doubling their daily budgets during the Black Friday‑Cyber Monday window to remain visible amid fierce competition.
• Dayparting becomes critical — Splitting campaigns into hourly segments lets sellers funnel more budget into peak periods such as 8 p.m.–11 p.m. EST, when conversion rates typically climb.
• Bid lifts boost placement — Raising bids by roughly 15‑20 % during high‑traffic windows helped maintain top‑of‑search positions, while lowering bids in slower hours conserved cash.
• Keyword type matters — Broad‑match terms generated the most impressions, but exact‑match keywords delivered the highest return on ad spend (ROAS) throughout the holiday rush.
• Automation cuts workload — Helium 10’s PPC Scheduler enables sellers to pre‑set bid and budget changes, removing the need for manual updates across dozens of campaigns.
• Post‑event review is essential — Analyzing performance after Cyber Monday reveals which dayparting windows produced the best cost‑per‑click (CPC) and which require tweaking for the next season.

How Amazon PPC Dayparting Works

1. Spot peak traffic windows — Pull the Amazon Search Term Report and identify hours with sharp impression spikes; for example, a kitchen‑gadgets seller saw a 45 % jump between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Black Friday.
2. Build time‑segmented ad groups — Divide a single campaign into separate ad groups, each tied to a specific time slot; the same seller created three groups: 6 a.m.–12 p.m., 12 p.m.–6 p.m., and 6 p.m.–12 a.m.
3. — Increase bids for high‑traffic periods (e.g., 20 % higher from 6 p.m.–12 a.m.) and lower them during lull periods (e.g., 10 % lower from 6 a.m.–12 p.m.) to balance visibility and cost.