What is the best time of day to post on Facebook?

If you are publishing content on any social media platform, then you are well aware of the challenge of audience engagement. The ever-growing complexity of Facebook’s algorithm makes keeping your strategy optimized more challenging each day.

Every little advantage you can gain for your business will be key to its online success. Finding the ideal time to post to Facebook can greatly help your business stand out from the crowd and reach more of your target audience.

But how do you know when the right time to post on social media is? Although it sounds simple, it’s a tough question and the answer may well be different for every business. Knowing when is best to engage your audience means knowing your audience very well and understanding their behaviors.

Thankfully, our experts at Optily are eager to help.

This guide will focus on how you can find the best time to post for your business to increase your reach and engagement.

The Best Time to Post on Facebook

Last year, Facebook adapted its “News Feed” algorithm to prioritize “meaningful interactions” from your family and friends ahead of content from businesses. This means that it is more challenging than ever to get organic content in front of the customers you want without having to pay to promote your post.

Earlier this year, Sprout Social released this graphic visually outlining the engagement levels throughout each day of the week. It shows us some interesting features of audience engagement on Facebook:

• Best day: Wednesday

• Best times: Between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.

• Worst day: Sunday

However, according to HubSpot, the day with the best click-through rate from Facebook is Sunday. They found no significant difference between the weekdays but noticed a slight decline in clicks on Fridays and Saturdays. This information seems contradictory to the previous survey.

A Hootsuite survey from 2018/19 showed us that peak times varied from 11 am to 4 pm to 9 pm.

So, as you can see, the research is a little inconclusive and there is no exact day and time that will work best for every single business.

To find out the ideal time for your business to post on social media, you must thoroughly research your audience. Here are some handy and effective tools to gather that data and fine-tune your marketing strategy.

Strategies to Find the Best Time to Post for Your Business

#1. Data-Driven Strategy

Facebook has some incredible marketing tools for you to avail of as a business. Facebook Analytics allows you to look at your previous post and audience insights.

Not only will this data help you better understand your audience’s behaviors, but it will also help you to pinpoint the times they are most active on Facebook. You may notice some extra information that can also be useful, such as new demographics and location.

And of course, due to some Facebook magic, the platform also provides you with a detailed analysis of “when your fans are online,” showing the peak activity for all potential customers.

#2 Competitor Analysis Strategy

In all industries, you will absolutely find other competitors in your field posting online content. Like you, they might have thought of the same question. “What is the best time of day to post on my business’s social media?”

By following and analyzing your competitors’ Facebook business pages, you can track how they’re timing their posts. By comparing your competitors’ posting schedules to your audience insights from Strategy 1, you can form your own schedule by being well-informed on when to post.

#3 Research Driven Strategy

A/B testing is a marketing strategy whereby you post two similar ads and examine which ad delivers better results. By making slight changes to the ads, you can compare and contrast them to see what your audience engages with most and boost your campaign.

You can also use this technique to find out what times are optimal for your business’s social media posts. By posting the same type of content at different times, you’ll be able to analyze how the content performs based on the time of day. It will also allow you to determine for yourself if the Facebook Analytics data is correct.

Perhaps Facebook told you that the peak online time for your audience is 10 am, however, you notice that they are more likely to engage and interact with your content if you post when they are on their lunch break.

#4 Less Scientific Strategy

Sometimes you can look at as much data as you like, but the results won’t become clear. That’s due to the complexity of human beings and our ever-changing behaviors.

Some content just works best “in the moment,” whatever time of day that may be. For example, if your industry is suddenly receiving significant news coverage, your content is more likely to engage with the public, as it is relevant and timely. Or if you’ve just launched a new TV ad, then posting similar content online may catch a customer’s attention easier and perform better.

Why is there no universal best time to post on Facebook?

This is due to the fact that content crush is well and truly upon us. There is more content shared via Facebook than ever before and more than any one person could ever consume. Facebook needs to filter content to the individual, to keep them engaged and on their platform. Their algorithm determines exactly what is shown to us every time we open the Facebook app.

All in all, that means that each of our individual experiences on Facebook is slightly different, which makes it impossible to pick a perfect time to engage everybody.

Conclusion

If you create quality content and are able to “hack the Facebook algorithm” with the strategies outlined in this article, then your business will see a greater return on ad spend.

Facebook, however, isn’t the only website you need to consider in your content publishing approach, but it’s a good place to start, learn and optimize.

Why not let our unique blend of an experienced team and innovative machine at Optily create the perfect marketing strategy for you to work across all major social media platforms. At the home of Universal Marketing Strategies, we know how to create and execute the perfect cross-platform strategy for all businesses. Start your journey of cross-channel optimization here.