As the saying goes, timing is everything, and this is especially true when it comes to posting on Facebook.
Facebook is the largest social media platform on the planet, boasting three billion monthly active users. For many businesses, it is a vital channel for engaging with customers and driving sales. An estimated 69 million US shoppers are expected to make a purchase through the social network in 2025, according to Statista.
Facebook is a valuable marketing tool that can help you and your company advertise sales and events, promote new products, and share general interest and entertainment posts that relate to your brand and target audience. The more engagement your posts get, the bigger your reach, leading to increased brand visibility that can boost your bottom line.
The best time to post for maximum engagement is not as simple as a one-size-fits-all solution, however. Read on to learn how to optimize your Facebook posting strategy for your business.
What is the best time to post on Facebook?
There’s no magic time that guarantees maximum engagement on Facebook, but research suggests there are several high-performing windows throughout the week. Based on data spanning millions of posts, the optimal times to post on Facebook (in all respective time zones) are:
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Monday: 9 a.m. to noon
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Tuesday: 9 a.m. to noon
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Wednesday: 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.
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Thursday: 9 a.m. to noon
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Friday: 9 a.m. to noon
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Saturday: 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.
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Sunday: 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.
These peak times are based on findings from Sprout Social, Buffer, Hootsuite, CoSchedule, Social Pilot, and WordStream. While findings vary, the above times appeared most frequently, meaning they were cited by at least two of the six platforms referenced.
Does timing on Facebook matter?
The short answer is yes. The best time to post on Facebook is when your target audience is active online. Facebook offers several tools and resources to help identify these time frames, maximizing the number of people who see your content and your chances at success.
Tips for maximizing your engagement:
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Posts shared in the early morning to mid-morning hours on weekdays (Monday through Friday) typically perform best.
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While mornings typically yield the highest engagement in the form of likes, comments, and number of shares, lunchtime and early evening time slots tend to also perform well, as Facebook users often scroll for a brain break.
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Wednesday consistently ranks as the best weekday to post.
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Late-night posts tend to get buried and lost; the Facebook algorithm prioritizes fresh content, so posts shared at midnight might not get recirculated in the morning.
The best time to post on Facebook for your audience
It’s important to note that what makes sense for the general public might not translate to your target audience. Best practice is to look closely at the engagement data related to the market you’re trying to reach.
For example, let’s say you run a baby goods store. After analyzing your Facebook engagement data, you see your target audience is most active in the early morning hours and late in the evening, when parents are easing into their day and winding down, respectively. As a result, you may opt to post during these times to optimize engagement with your posts.
Optimal timing also depends on whether you’re a business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) company. For B2B brands, posting during the day between the hours of 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., when your audience needs a brain break, tends to be most effective. Meanwhile, consumers tend to use social media before and after work, and during lunch breaks.
How to find the best time to post on Facebook
- Log in to the Meta Business Suite
- Use the Insights tab to learn more about your audience
- Set a posting schedule
- Experiment with different posts and timings
- See how you compare to your competitors
1. Log in to the Meta Business Suite
The Meta Business Suite lets you manage your business activity on the platform and provides tools to help you connect with your audience. Once you’re logged into your company’s page, you can navigate to the Business Suite to see insights on your audience, as well as performance data on both your organic and paid posts.
2. Use the Insights tab to learn more about your audience
The Meta Business Suite’s Insights tab gives you access to metrics, trends, and visual reports to help you better understand your audience and how to reach them. The Facebook Insights tab includes a Post Analytics tool that shows performance data on individual posts—details like how many people saw a post or liked, commented, or shared it—which can help inform your social strategy.
Post Analytics also provides detailed audience demographic information, including age, gender, geographic location, time zone, and when they are online—all of which can help you pinpoint the optimal time to post.
3. Set a posting schedule
Once you have a good sense of your audience, you can set a posting schedule and pre-schedule content within the Meta Business Suite. You can also save creative assets for later use and specify privacy settings for individual pieces of content.
4. Experiment with different posts and timings
After taking a deep dive into your audience and post performance, start experimenting with different types of content and posting times to see what resonates best. For example, you might discover through trial and error that behind-the-scenes posts about your manufacturing processes do best on weekday afternoons. Or you might find that user-generated content (UGC) about styling outfits with your clothing line does best when you repost it at night, when your audience typically plans out their outfits for the following day.
The Insights tab makes it easy to track what’s working, allowing you to build on your strengths to boost Facebook engagement and drive conversions.
5. See how you compare to your competitors
The Meta Business Suite also shows you how your posts are performing compared to key competitors in your industry and specific business category. This competitive data can help you identify gaps and areas for improvement while carving out your own edge within the industry.
Best time to post on Facebook FAQ
What is the best time of day to post on Facebook?
There is no one-size-fits-all approach, but consolidated research across millions of posts shows that posts shared weekday mornings at 9 a.m. in all respective time zones tend to yield the highest engagement. However, your social media strategy will vary depending on your company’s audience and goals. Understanding your market and pinpointing when they’re most active on Facebook by using tools like Meta Business Suite’s Insights tool can help determine the best timing for your specific needs.
Does time of day matter when posting?
Yes. You want to share content when your target audience is most likely to see it. For example, posting late in the evening or on weekends tends to lead to the lowest audience engagement, as this content may get buried in favor of fresher posts during more active times, like weekday mornings.
What content performs best on Facebook?
Some of the best-performing content on Facebook includes lifestyle-focused user-generated content, giveaways and contests, and videos. Videos are particularly engaging and tend to rank highly in the Facebook algorithm, according to Sprout Social.
