Best Times to Post on Facebook in 2023

What is the best time to post on Facebook in 2023? Simply put—when your audience will see it.

Finding the best time to post on the platform can increase your engagement, your reach, and even your sales.

In this article, I’ll break down how to find the times that work best for both your brand and your audience.

What You’ll Learn:

• What is the Best Time to Post on Facebook?
• Step 1: Identify Your Target Audience
• Step 2: Time Zones and Posting Times
• Step 3: Look at The Stats 
• Step 4: Use Tools and Analytics 
• Step 5: Schedule Your Posts in Advance 
• Step 6: Consider Running Ads on Facebook
• FAQs

It’s no secret that Facebook hasn’t exactly made it easy to reach your audience.

But it still remains one of the most powerful social media channels for marketing.

Why?

First of all, Facebook is still incredibly popular. The site has over 2.93 billion monthly users. That’s 36.7% of the entire world population!

The majority of users, 67% or a total of 1.98 BILLION, are active on the platform daily. In fact, American adults spend an average of 30.1 minutes there per day.

And they’re not just there for social reasons, either.

Hootsuite found that 54.9% of all users follow brands or perform research on a product using Facebook and a report from Meta found that consumers are much more likely to purchase something from a business that they can message on the platform – 53% more likely in fact.

This is all great news for brands. Fans are there, they’re engaging, and they’re open to finding businesses.

But like most things in life, timing is everything, and in order to reach your audience at just the right time, you’ll need to uncover when they’re using Facebook.

What is the Best Time to Post on Facebook?

This is a tricky question to answer because honestly, it depends.

It depends on when your target audience is online. You want to post content that you know they’re going to see and the best way to do that is to post it during times when they’re online.

If you want to target moms of newborns, posting in the middle of the night might be a strategic move, since they might be up, scrolling Facebook as they feed their tiny babies. But if you wanted to target retirees, the middle of the night is probably not the best time to post, assuming they’re sleeping.

To help you determine when to post, consider your audience and your industry. According to Sprout Social, the overall best time to post on Facebook is Wednesdays at 11 am and 1 pm. Other good times to post include:

• 9:00 am Monday through Friday
• 11:00 am Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday
• 3:00 pm Monday and Tuesday
• 4:00 pm Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
• 6:00 pm Friday

If your goals are to boost engagement, stick to weekday posting, as Sunday is notorious for being the worst day for engagement. The most consistent engagement occurs during the weekday between the hours of 9 am and 3 pm to capture people scrolling at work.

Another study done by CoSchedule took different industry patterns into account.

The difference between each of the industries has a lot to do with how people in these target markets are using social media. For example, it’s not uncommon for healthcare professionals to be up at all hours of the day, which explains why they would be scrolling Facebook at 6 am. Whereas, those in higher education usually don’t start their day as early so posting close to 8 am works better for them.

There were a few commonalities between CoSchedule’s research and Sprout Social’s, however. Both found that posting during the day, Monday through Friday, is going to get you better results than posting on the weekend.

Determining the best time to post on Facebook is pretty similar to determining the best types of content to post: listen to your audience and follow their lead.

Step 1: Know Your Target Audience

Before you even think about planning a posting schedule, you have to know who you’re trying to reach.

So, begin with the basics and define your target audience.

• What are their demographics? Age? Gender?
• What do they do for a living?
• Where do they live?
• What’s their highest level of education?

By answering those questions and creating a full buyer persona, you should be able to better understand your Facebook audience, and even when they may be most likely to use the platform.

For example, if your target market is college students, you already know they operate on a very different schedule than middle-aged businessmen. For stay-at-home moms, posting later in the evening might be best. This is after the kids have gone to bed, the work is all done for the day, and the moms have some free time to hang out on social media. On the other hand, if your target audience is business executives, you may want to post early in the morning or during lunch. These two times are less likely to have any meetings scheduled.

Once you’ve decided on your target audience, it’s time to make them a reality. For example, if you’re selling mommy and me dance lessons in a suburban area, your target persona might look like this: 

• Demographics: Women, or woman-identifying, between the ages of 25-35
• First-time moms with toddlers
• Stay-at-home moms, work-from-home moms, or part-time working moms
• In local, suburban areas
• College-educated or higher

Step 2: Pay Attention to Time Zones

It’s not as simple as knowing the time of day when most users are likely to see your posts ─ you also need to factor in their location. Users in different areas are in different time zones, after all.

To make things simple, we rely on a few industry standards.

You’ll want to schedule your posts based on where the majority of your audience is, and if you cater to a global audience, Google Analytics can help you with that.

As far as time zones go, more than 50% of the U.S. population is in the Eastern Time Zone, and the Eastern and Central Time Zones combined comprise almost 80% of the population. Plus, these time zones are only an hour apart, so you’re likely to hit a large portion of the US audience if you’re scheduling based on Eastern or Central time.

Step 3: Look at What the Stats Say

Companies have been researching the best times to post on Facebook for years, which gives marketers a lot of valuable information.

However, when it comes to Facebook, the findings vary.

According to Hubspot, posting at 9 am any weekday or between 1 pm and 3 pm Thursday through Sunday are the best times to post.

Hootsuite, another popular digital marketing company, suggests any time between noon and 3 pm on any weekday will get you the results you’re looking for.

So basically what the data also says is: it depends. It depends on what industry you’re in and what your audience is doing.

Even though it varies a bit, there are a few key takeaways from overall Facebook engagement rates that we can apply to all industries and audiences.

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Given the available information, we can make a few assumptions. Mainly, afternoons are ideal, and Tuesdays don’t produce the same results that other days do.

Save your best content for later in the week, and expect to see lower engagement rates mid-week, especially on early morning or later-in-the-day posts.

Overall, here are the best times to post each day:

• Best Time to Post on Facebook on Mondays: 9:00 am, 11:00 am, 3:00 pm
• Best Time to Post on Facebook on Tuesdays: 9:00 am, 11:00 am, 3:00 pm
• Best Time to Post on Facebook on Wednesdays: 9:00 am, 10:00 am, 1:00 pm, 4:00 pm
• Best Time to Post on Facebook on Thursdays: 9:00 am, 11:00 am, 4:00 pm
• Best Time to Post on Facebook on Fridays: 11:00 am, 4:00 pm, 6:00 pm
• Best Time to Post on Facebook on Saturdays: between 10 am and 2 pm
• Best Time to Post on Facebook on Sundays: between 9 am and 2 pm, although Sunday is the least active day for Facebook users

Ultimately, these results should serve as general guidelines and a starting off point for businesses new to Facebook. But to get the most accurate read you’ll need to conduct a little research of your own.

As far as frequency goes, you don’t have to worry about sending out constant updates with Facebook. Posting too frequently can be annoying for some users, and your posts may get labeled as spam.

Experiment with the times above, and try to find your times that are ‘off-peak,’ especially when compared to your direct competitors. Over time, you’ll be able to see which times are producing the best results.

Step 4: Use Tools and Analytics

As always, analytics are your friend when it comes to account optimization.

Once you’ve begun posting consistently, you’ll be able to draw from your own analytics to determine when your audience is most active and engaged.

The best place to start is Facebook Insights.

To find your page Insights, go to your profile and click ‘Insights’ at the top of your Page.

To track when your fans are online, you’ll select ‘Posts’ from the left-hand column. You’ll automatically be given a detailed chart that shows the days and times your fans are most active on Facebook.

The averages will be displayed by default, and hovering your cursor over a specific time will show how activity compares to the average.

From this data, you’ll be able to determine the best time slots to target the biggest number of fans.

In your Insights, you’ll also be able to see the timing of your most successful posts. You’ll start in the same place (the Posts section of Page Insights) and select ‘All Posts Published’ under the chart.

The ‘Published’ column will tell you the exact date and time each post was published. Using this data, you can sort through and start to identify common themes or trends regarding publishing times and higher engagement rates.

Keep in mind, other tools like Fanpage Karma and Later are also great tools to help keep tabs on the best time for you to post on Facebook, and it’s often a good idea to compare findings from multiple sources.

Once you begin to get a clearer picture of when your fans are online and how it correlates with your post engagement, you can start to test theories to see which works best for your brand.

The most effective way to start is by using an automation tool.

Step 5: Schedule Your Posts Using Social Media Automation

While it’s possible to manually post all updates, we know that scheduling and timing are crucial to generating higher engagement levels.

There are plenty of automation tools to choose from, but we use Sprout Social.

Once you’ve created an account and connected your social media accounts, you’ll create different categories for your posts (educational, blog posts, tips, questions, videos) and enter your content.

There, you’ll be able to use the scheduling settings to choose the exact day and time you would like your post to run.

Sprout Social, and other scheduling tools, help your social content stay consistent by allowing you to batch your content and post on a schedule. It takes the stress off of trying to come up with content all of the time but also keeps up with your schedule so that it appears, from the outside looking in, that you are coming up with new things to share on a regular basis.

Step 6: Consider Running Ads

As more and more brands jump into the world of Facebook and the algorithm consistently changes, it is getting harder for businesses to find success purely using organic posts.

Now, for businesses to see a larger level of success, running ads on Facebook has become a popular way to expand their reach and increase their exposure.

According to Instigo, the best times to run ads are Wednesday through Friday between 8 and 9 am. The best day to run Facebook ads tends to be Wednesday and the worst days are Saturday and Sunday. This seems to be because people spend more time scrolling through Facebook during the week and less time when they’re at home or enjoying their weekends.

If you’re considering running ads, you have to take exposure into consideration when deciding when to post but you’ll also have to consider how much you want to spend on your Facebook ads.

A low CPC on a particular post day means it’s likely to be a popular day for your competitors, too. Find that balance between a popular day for your audience and a high-traffic ad day.

Depending on your budget, you’ll again want to run tests and experiments to find which days prove most valuable to your business.

Remember, There May Not be One Best Time to Post

Despite all the data in the world, it’s nearly impossible to draw definite conclusions or determine a one-size-fits-all approach.

According to the company’s most recent investment report, Facebook currently has roughly 2.89 monthly active users, which is more users than any other social media platform.

This activity is a blessing and a curse. Yes, at least part of your audience is almost sure to be there. But so are all of your competitors.

Increased competition means less exposure for your brand, and there are about 80 million brand pages on Facebook!

With such fierce competition, the most popular times to post could actually be the worst for your business, as you’re that much more likely to get lost in the shuffle.

Because of this, it’s increasingly important for you to rely on your own analytics and engagement rates to narrow down the times that work best for you.

Best Times to Post on Facebook: By Day

MONDAY	9 am, 11 am, 3 pm
TUESDAY	9 am, 11 am, 3 pm
WEDNESDAY	9 am, 10 am, 1 pm, 4 pm
THURSDAY	9 am, 11 am, 4 pm
FRIDAY	9 am, 4 pm, 6 pm
SATURDAY	between 10 am and 2 pm
SUNDAY	between 9 am and 2 pm *least active day

FAQs

1. 🤳🏽 What is the Best Time to Post on Facebook for Maximum Exposure?

Multiple studies have cited that the best day to post on Facebook for maximum exposure is either:

• Saturday and Sunday
• Thursday and Friday
• Wednesday

In general, the best time of day to post to Facebook for maximum exposure is either:

• 1 PM
• 3 PM
• 9 AM

As a rule of thumb, posts published during those times receive higher engagement and in turn, the Facebook algorithm gives them greater exposure.

2. ⏰ When is the Best Time to Post on Sunday?

As we’ve seen, the weekend is a great time to get engagement, and that’s especially true if you post on Sunday.

Your content isn’t competing with other businesses that take the weekends off.

As a rule of thumb, it’s best to post on Sunday before 8 AM and after 8 PM. There are a couple of possible explanations as to why those times work so well.

First, when you post early in the morning, you give yourself a chance to catch early risers and people who don’t like to sleep in.

When you post later at night, you can get your brand in front of people who are checking social media after dinner and before going to bed for the night.

3. 💭 What Was the Best Time to Post on Facebook in 2019?

There are numerous studies that have sought to answer this question.

According to one study from Elle & Co., the best days to post on Facebook are Saturday and Sunday. The best time is 1 PM CST.

Another study by Fast Company says that the best time to share on Facebook is between 11 AM and 4 PM CST. That research found that Wednesday is the best day to post.

Uniclix found that the best time to post on Facebook is Wednesday, with Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday also having higher engagement rates.

Unfortunately, those studies don’t always agree.

However, you can take a look at patterns within all the research and get somewhat of a consensus. That’s what Coschedule did.

The company aggregated 25 social media studies from leading sources like Hootsuite, Buffer, HubSpot, and KissMetrics to determine the best times to post on social media in exhaustive analyses.

When Coschedule aggregated the studies, the company found that the best time to post on Facebook is between Thursday and Sunday at 9 AM CST, 1 PM CST, or 4 PM CST.

4. 👍🏾 Is There a Best Time to Post on Facebook for Likes?

Possibly.

According to a detailed study from Sprout, the most consistent engagement is on weekdays from 9 AM to 3 PM CST.

Wednesday offers the best opportunity for likes, and according to the study traffic steadily increases leading up to the middle of the week, and then dwindles off again heading into the weekend.

However, just because activity peaks at certain times doesn’t mean those times are best for you to post. Always test your marketing efforts and check your analytics to see what works best for your brand.

If you’re concerned about engagement, you should focus not only on when you post but also on what you post. People simply aren’t going to react if the content isn’t relevant to them.

5. 📱 What is the most active time on Facebook?

Sprout Social has shown that Facebook’s highest levels of engagement are on Tuesdays through Thursdays, from 8 AM – 3 PM CST, with the most active day being Wednesday at 11 AM CST and again at 1 PM – 2 PM CST.

6. 🤔 Is it better to post on Facebook Thursday or Friday?

Both days have good post-potential, though it depends on your market. Thursdays tend to have consistent engagement between 8 am and 3 pm, while Friday’s user activity is best when leveraged around 11 a.m. When unsure when to post, you can always play it safe and keep your post times no earlier than 7 am and no later than 5pm.

Wrapping Up

So, when is the best time to post on Facebook? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer.

There are more popular times overall, and those are a good jumping-off point when building your own schedule.

From there, you can analyze and tweak as needed as you become more familiar with your audience and when they’re most active.

Remember, factors like time zone and target audience make a difference, and you should always rely on analytics to make the most informed decisions about your social media strategy.

Happy posting!