The best time to advertise an ecommerce store is different for each product it sells. Every product has its own demand windows, the stretches of time when buyers gain a reason to want it, and those windows rarely line up across a catalog. Time your ads product by product rather than store-wide, and spend the most on whatever is in a window now.
Most online stores run ads at one level across the whole store, then push harder around the big shopping dates everyone already plans around. Both treat the catalog as one thing. Buyers do not.
When is the best time to advertise an online store?
The best time to advertise an online store is whenever one of its products enters a demand window. A demand window is a period with a start and a stop when demand for a specific product is rising, because events have been building that give buyers a reason to act.
A store that sells home and car gear shows why. Its doorbells sell when home sales climb and new owners move in. Its dash cams sell when used car sales rise. Those two build-ups run on their own schedules, so the best week for doorbell ads is often a poor week for dash cam ads.
The store-level question, "when should I advertise?", breaks into one question per product: when do people start looking for this item?
Why does each product in a catalog need its own timing?
Each product in a catalog needs its own timing because each one is bought for a different reason, and each reason builds up at a different time. Grouping products by category hides that.
Two products in the same category can have different triggers. Meal prep containers and a stand mixer both sit in the kitchen section. Containers sell when restaurant prices rise month after month and more people cook at home on a budget. A stand mixer may sell with a different build-up, such as home sales climbing as new owners fit out a kitchen. Treat them as separate products with separate windows.
| Product | What is building | Why buyers act then |
|---|---|---|
| Video doorbells and smart locks | Home sales climbing for a third month | New owners replace them in the first weeks after moving in |
| Dash cams and seat covers | Used car sales rising for several months | New owners add them in the first weeks with the car |
| Meal prep containers and cast iron pans | Restaurant prices rising month after month | More people cook at home and buy gear to do it |
| E-bikes and bike locks | Gas prices creeping up for several weeks in a row | Commuters compare the cost of a bike with the cost of filling up |
| Controllers, headsets and extra storage | Preorders building ahead of a game console's release | Buyers want accessories ready on the day the console arrives |
| Moving boxes and packing supplies | Rents rising for consecutive months | More households move and need to pack |
Which approach to ecommerce ad timing works best?
Timing ads to each product's demand windows works best, with steady brand search and retargeting across the whole store. The common alternatives look at the store as a whole or at last month's results.
| Approach | What it answers | What it misses |
|---|---|---|
| Even spend across the whole store | How to keep every product visible | Which products buyers want this week |
| Pushing hard around big shopping dates | When shoppers expect discounts | Windows for each product on their own dates, and crowded auctions on the big ones |
| Scaling last month's best sellers | Which products sold well recently | Products whose windows are about to open, and best sellers whose windows just closed |
| Product-by-product demand windows | When each product's buyers gain a reason to act, and who they are | Weak product pages and slow checkout |
How do you find the demand windows for each product in your store?
You find the demand windows for each product by naming what happens in a buyer's life right before they need it, then watching whether that event is becoming more common. Work through the catalog in this order:
- Group products by trigger, not by category. Doorbells, locks and blinds share a trigger (moving into a new home), so they share windows.
- Name the build-up behind each trigger, such as home sales for new owners or used car sales for dash cams.
- Check whether each build-up is rising, flat or falling, and for how many weeks.
- Rank the windows that are open or coming up, so the strongest get the most spend.
- Confirm with your own accounts: rising searches for the product, more first-time visitors to its page and more add-to-carts at the same spend.
Verdius does this work for you for each product you add. It names the events behind each window and ranks the open and upcoming windows against each other.
The signals in your own accounts arrive after buyers start looking. For the full list and how to read them, see how to tell if demand is rising.
How do product margins change which window to spend in?
Product margins change which window to spend in because each product needs a different return on ad spend to break even. Break-even ROAS is 1 divided by gross margin. Say doorbells earn a 40% gross margin, so they break even at a ROAS of 2.5, while e-bike locks earn 25% and need 4. When two windows open at once, the lower break-even gives your spend more room. The math is in break-even ROAS.
How does a small online store act on a demand window?
A small online store acts on a demand window by putting most of what it spends on ads behind the one product whose window is opening, for the length of that window. You do not need a set monthly amount for this. You only need to choose where the next dollar goes.
If you boost one product at a time, hold the boost until its window opens instead of running it the week you happen to have time. Set up the audience and the ad in advance so it can go live on the first day. Verdius sends an alert when the window opens, so you know which day that is.
If your store sells one product, you still have windows. They come from the different triggers that bring people to that product. A store that sells only meal prep containers might see one window from restaurant prices rising and another from gym memberships climbing for several months as people start eating to a plan. Each window has its own audience.
How does a large online store act on a demand window?
A large online store acts on a demand window by moving spend between product lines as their windows open and close. The total can stay the same while the mix changes week by week.
Put products in a window into their own campaign or campaign group, so you can raise spend on them without lifting the rest of the store. When the window closes, lower that campaign and move the spend to the next product line whose window is opening.
With many products, several windows overlap at once. Rank them against each other and fund the strongest first, weighing each product's margin and how much stock you have.
Verdius ranks the windows across your whole catalog against each other and alerts you when each one closes, so you know when to move spend to the next product line. See promotion use cases for examples.
What should you do before a product's window opens?
Before a product's window opens, check stock, fix the product page and prepare ads about the reason people are buying. Paying for clicks on an out-of-stock product wastes the window.
Make sure the product page loads fast and answers the questions new buyers ask. Write ads about the buyer's situation, such as a new home or a new car, rather than the product alone. If you plan a discount, time it to the same window; when to run a sale covers how long it should last.
Should I advertise my whole catalog at once or only the products that are in a demand window right now?
Advertise the whole catalog at a low, steady level through brand search and retargeting, and put extra spend only on products in a window right now. Past visitors and people searching your store's name buy across the catalog. New buyers arrive product by product.
How do I decide between two products whose windows open in the same week?
Choose the product with the stronger build-up, the lower break-even ROAS and enough stock to last the window. If you can fund both, give each its own campaign so you can see which window performs better using your own numbers.
What should you do after a product's window closes?
After a product's window closes, lower spend on that product and keep a small retargeting campaign for people who visited without buying. Fewer new buyers have a reason to look, so each extra dollar reaches fewer of them.
Compare the product's cost per sale inside the window with the weeks around it. That gives you a measured read on the window for that product, which helps you rank the next one.
How does Verdius help an online store time its ads?
Verdius is software that predicts when demand for a product will rise and who to target then. For an online store, it answers the question each product raises: when do people start looking for this item, and who are they?
For each product you add, Verdius gives you:
- Optimal windows to run ads, each with a start and a stop, ranked against the windows for your other products.
- The events behind each window, such as home sales climbing for a third month for doorbells.
- The audience to reach (age, income, location and interests) in the terms ad platforms already use.
- Alerts when a window opens and when it closes.
It reads data from Google Ads, Meta, TikTok and your other ad accounts, plus Google Analytics and Search Console, and never launches, edits or pauses your ads. Higher plans cover more products and see further ahead; see pricing.
So when is the best time to advertise an ecommerce store?
The best time to advertise an ecommerce store is product by product, during each product's own demand window. Keep brand search and retargeting steady across the store. Move the rest of your spend to whatever buyers are starting to look for this week.