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Frequency and custom schedule. What's the difference?
Frequency and custom schedule. What's the difference?

Learn about setting the frequency and custom schedule in the automation rules

Alsu avatar
Written by Alsu
Updated over 2 months ago

The Schedule section of the rule defines how often or when exactly a rule checks the ads/ad sets/campaigns matched in the Scope of the rule. Let's dive into both options under a rule schedule - frequency and custom schedule!

Frequency

The first option is pretty straightforward: if you want the rule to run continuously every X minutes or hours, set the frequency depending on how often you would like the rule to check the conditions - the options vary from 15 minutes to 72 hours. Once you set the rule live it starts running right away with the frequency you set.


Please note that some tasks like Notify, Duplicate or Increase Budget also have frequency options within the task settings, which are different from the schedule of the rule:

The action frequency sets a max cap for the number of times the task can affect the same item, so it does not affect the frequency for the rule checks. Please read this article to learn more about the difference between the frequency of checks and the action frequency of the task.


Custom schedule

If you would like your rule to run checks on specific days and times, you can pick the time slot you need in the schedule settings section:

Please note that you can unfold 15-minute timeslots for each hour if your timing needs to be more specific, and click the Week column next to the timeslot of your choice if you want to select all the days of the week. For example, the rule below is set to run checks at 01:15 AM every day of the week:


The rule will run checks according to the timezone selected under the Time Zone section.

Keep in mind that the system picks your ad account timezone by default, so if you want the rule to run checks based on a different timezone, you will need to re-select it manually. Since selecting a non-ad account timezone can affect the rule performance, please make sure you read this article to prevent undesired results.

Please note that you can select either Frequency or Custom schedule - they do not work together. So if you choose the frequency from the list, your rule will run every X minutes, whereas if you choose the custom schedule, the rule will check according to the specified timeslots.

Run within a date range

There is one more option that works with both Frequency and Custom schedules -

Run within a date range. In order to unfold it, please click Show more options in the schedule section:


Let's look at examples of how this option can be used:


Example 1: Frequency + A date range. This option can be used if you need the rule to run with a certain frequency during specified dates. For example, the rule below will check the items every 60 minutes from February 1st till February 28th:

Example 2: Custom schedule + A date range. In this case, the rule will run checks at the selected time within a specified period. For example, the rule below will check the items every day of the week at 6 PM from February 1st till February 28th:

If you face any difficulties setting up your schedule, feel free to contact our team in Intercom chat or at support@bir.ch. We'd be happy to help ;)

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