I have had clients who wanted to change their bids based on time of day and day of the week. It's called dayparting. It's not new, although the people who have asked me to do it were mostly reacting to perceived competitor behavior rather than actual ROI.

But it's a common strategy in AdWords. You may have some new advertisers who use it, or an old advertiser who just discovered it.

I have allways had a higher eCPM on weekends. I suspect this has to do with the fact that traffic is lower and the higher bid ads are more likely to show. I suspect during the week the higher bid ads ads show first and burn thier money to be replaced with the less paying ads as the day progresses.

Only a guess... no crystal ball here.

I suspect during the week the higher bid ads ads show first and burn thier money to be replaced with the less paying ads as the day progresses.

Just goes to show how much this varies...I am completely the opposite of this, my day starts off in the Far East with very low value clicks, usually 0.01~0.10, and rises throughout the day to finish in the evenings with 0.50-1.00.

My sites are global therefore it is highly likely those advertisers targetting the North American market most probably do not even advertise outside of their markets...like you, only an educated guess.

Are advertisers actually paying more for weekend slots believing (my theory) that retail economies are getting back on track and users are doing this over a weekend and not from work?

Which is your theory - that retail economies are getting back on track or that advertisers believe retail economies are getting back on track?

FarmBoy

I believe there is dayparting going on in my sectors, but its just the opposite of Husky's. My Sat/Sun EPC values are ALWAYS less than M-F. In fact, weekly EPC follows a curve that's been virtually the same for four years --thats over 200 weeks. New content, design, etc. has had no effect on changing that curve's shape, but the highs and lows are moving targets.

I've also noticed better eCPM on weekends lately. But it's impossible to say what causes this when we don't really know what day the clicks actually occurred. The weekend clicks could be catch-up click dumps from the prior week.

The weekend clicks could be catch-up click dumps from the prior week.

Not for me, the actual click volume is very similar however the EPC value is much higher and very noticeable on my best paying channels.

Which is your theory - that retail economies are getting back on track or that advertisers believe retail economies are getting back on track?

I just knew someone would pick me up on that :-)

I ought to have writen "my speculation is"...I feeel it's a mixture of the two. I have some wholesale/large retail customers who have had an absolutely torrid time and I have also seen many of Joe Public suffer.

I'll give you a very clean and clear example. A very good trade colleague of mine saw his trade fall by almost 75%...yes, 75% and the average has been 60-75% across my sector. I'm writing about a USD 300+ million business, however this past few months it's already clawed back huge chunks.

It's probably simpler if I describe it in Full Container Load (FCL) terms. Pre-cash 400 FCLs per month, post-crash 100 FCLs per month, currently 200-250 FCLs and with demand rising all the time.

Certainly there has been a huge element of de-stocking occurring worldwide however there is also a very evident consumer demand for the products picking up.

Just for how long we shall see over this Autumn/Winter! We ain't outta the crap yet but it is looking much better.

I have always had a higher eCPM on weekends.

Same here, usually about 20% higher on weekends.

Used to be Saturdays and Sundays had the highest e-CPM but it has now moved to Sunday and Monday.

But the problem is is that we have no idea how Google is reporting our income. 24 hour delay, possibly more, no one knows.

Somehow, CTR has always been insanely high (~150% of weekly average) on sundays. Still beats me.

For me eCPM goes through the roof Sunday - Tuesday.

Average Wed - Thurs

and at its lowest Friday - Sat.

Hey Huskypup - very interesting stats. In my small microniche, Im having the same numerical experience - clawing back started about three weeks ago - prior to that down 50/60%...interesting. Is it fall, or just the end of summer?:)

I think folks are more likely to pull the trigger on credit card purchases over the web from home (ie nights and weekends) than while at work (weekdays).

Perhaps this is related?

I dunno, an awful lot of browsing and buying goes on from work. I suppose it depends on who you're targeting, and how much research they have to do before they decide to buy.

If I'm looking for a quick piece of software or something small, I'll likely buy the first reasonably priced one I find from a reliable seeming vendor.

If I'm major-appliance-or-larger shopping, my research process is likely to go on over several days or even weeks.

Same pattern here for the last 2 years (my experience), weekends tend to get a better ECPM, around 20% more than rest of the days.

I agree with Edge: less global traffic increases ecpm, but of course we can't be sure from our side.