As of January 2024, Instagram had crossed the milestone of 2 billion monthly active users in a span of 11.2 years. This platform is extremely popular, especially among users in the 24 to 35 age group. No wonder brands and social influencers are leveraging this platform to grow their audiences and businesses. Social media managers, however, are grappling with a common issue.
Using the right hashtags, the perfect picture, ideal tags, marking the location, and complimentary captions are a must when you are posting on Instagram for maximum traction. However, what we often miss, even as social media managers, is the BEST time to post on Instagram. Yes, it is important to understand the time when our audience is the most active, because what are we posting for otherwise?
In this blog, we are going to take you through a step-by-step process on how to find the BEST time to post on Instagram for the best results.
After reading this blog, you will learn about:
- Ways to find the ‘ideal’ time to post on your account
- What factors collectively help you to determine the ‘ideal’ time to post
- Tips & tricks for testing new posting times and self-analyzing results
There is no one-size-fits-all optimal time or day of the week to post on Instagram. All those studies that you are calling ‘research’ while scrolling Google are not helpful, and those millions of followers that those studies have observed are not YOUR followers.
So, let us get more accurate. We have all heard that the ideal time to post on Instagram is between 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM, or 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM, and finally, 10:00 PM onwards. Also, ensure that you are NOT posting on Monday and Sunday mornings, Friday evenings, and definitely Saturday. However, go all out on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and so on and so forth…
But are these popular insights really working for you? Let’s find out.
Factors to determine the best time to post on Instagram
The optimal time to post on Instagram is when YOUR audience is the MOST active. Additionally, it may also be a time slot when a handful of your followers are online if what you are posting is relevant to them and their routine.
So, here’s a round-up of major factors that determine the best time to post on Instagram.
- Audience active time: Every set of audience is different, and based on their work schedule and routine, the time they are online will widely differ. You can find when your audience are online by delving into Instagram Insights.
- Your Industry: Based on the industry you are creating content in, the ideal time to post can widely vary. For example, health care professionals might be browsing their socials late at night. Whereas a finance professional can be online during their lunch break. Understanding your audience’s schedule can also help determine the optimum time.
- Time zone: Where are your audience predominantly based? Align your posting schedule to their time zone for best performance.
- Instagram algorithm: Algorithm changes also play a prominent role. Some of the algorithm rewards right now are how much early interaction you can get on your posts. The more engagement you get, the more the algorithm will push it to other people. It also considers whether your content is in alignment with the current Instagram trends.
Steps to find the best time to post on Instagram
Finding the best, rather than the ‘right’ time to post on Instagram for your brand does not have to be complicated at all! All you will need to do is consider the following two things:
- Find out when your greatest number of followers are active on the ‘gram
- When your brand’s content is the most relevant for them
Just the above two data points will give you an idea of your optimal posting times, which you can then test and refine with time.
Step 1: Take a peek inside your Instagram Insights 🧐
Instagram comes with robust in-built data analytics, which gives you insights into all the information you need. All you have to do is click the Insights button on your Instagram Business Profile and see when your greatest number of followers are active.
Once you have clicked on Insights, you can then click to view data broken down by:
- Content: You can view engagement for every piece of content – from posts to stories, thus giving you an insight into what is popular and what has lower engagement
- Activity: You can view detailed insights on specific activities—from comments, shares, views, and likes—on your account. Thus, you can understand the popular modes of engagement.
- And, Audience: select this button to see data on your followers, including when they access Instagram, what location they belong to, their age range, and gender. You can swipe between hours and days to view their most active times and understand their profiles more accurately.
Be mindful that the data shown here only accounts for the last seven days of activity. This, however, gives you limited data. Yet, it’s a good starting point. Be alert and watch out for the impact of special occasions and seasonal behavior before you base your decision on the data showcased from such a short period of time.
Step 2: Think about what type of content to post, then hypothesize! 🤔
Know for a fact that the best time to post for two varying content pieces cannot be the same – they are bound to differ. At this step, come up with a hypothesis – let’s be honest, you know your target audience the best.
Step into their shoes and understand what time of the day they are dealing with, or what they are thinking, and how you, as a brand, can solve it on Instagram. It is always best to think from the receiver when you are hypothesizing.
Examples:
Content about a scrumptious Pizza may be posted at a different time than that of an exciting meal giveaway.
A homemaker may check content at a different time than an executive.
Step 3: Create a posting schedule
Now, you are fairly aware of when your followers are online and have an idea of what content you think may interest them at those particular timespans. All you have to do is put it into action with a simple schedule, stating what type of content will be when and at what time for a set period, such as three weeks. This can be a pilot project to get started with this new strategy.
Let’s say you run an Instagram account for a bakery. Think about different types of content that might resonate with your followers at different times of day. The idea is simple—consider what time your followers want to hear from you.
From your bakery account, your followers might be looking for tips and tricks to bake that cake to perfection. Tools for beginners that are a must, and so on.
Remember, you don’t have to publish a certain number of times in a day. Once you find your optimal time periods, you may be able to publish less but with greater impact. And, you can also read the following to optimize your content –Engagement is KEY! Here are a few ways to manage social media and generate higher engagement.
Step 4: Analyze and read your findings to figure out the best times for your content
By the time you have executed this strategy for a week and collated the results, you will have a fair idea of which content is resonating with your followers at what times. Also, what type of content is producing higher engagement? This will help you ease out your work, and you can accordingly tweak your schedule as per requirement.
By leveraging insights on the previous content posted, you can benefit in two ways:
- One, look for content that resonates with your followers and performs the best.
- Two, rethink the content that did not work at all.
Step 5: Schedule the content at the best time
This is the easiest part, which is scheduling the content at the best time. There are many tools out there to automate this process, but the one we are going to talk about here is Predis AI.
Predis AI is an all-in-one social media post generation and automation platform that helps you handle the entire process from creation to scheduling. This is why Predis AI works best because you do not have to get multiple tools for social media creation.
Stand Out on Instagram with AI Content 🌟
Alternative methods for discovering the best time to post
Here are some other creative approaches on how to find out the BEST time to post on Instagram:
1. Considering your competitors’ posting times
Social media management is incomplete if you’re not keeping a close eye on your competitors’ accounts. Many brands and influencers use post-scheduling tools and post on hour marks. It won’t take long to skim through their accounts and find patterns regarding their posting times on different dates.
For instance, a survey indicated that the largest spikes in the completion rate of a series of Instagram stories fell outside of normal U.S. working hours. These include 4 AM to 6 AM, 8 AM to 10 AM, 12 PM to 2 PM, and 8 PM to 10 PM.
After you do this, you can easily one-up them by posting (or scheduling your posts for) a few minutes earlier than they do! If your competitors are killing their social media, they’ve definitely figured out what posting times work for them. Assuming you have an identical target audience, you can use their findings to your advantage.
If you’re competitive and outward-looking, this is absolutely the best time to post on Instagram for your handle.
2. General presumptions about your audience
This one is pretty obvious, but that doesn’t diminish its utmost importance. Relying on the presumptions of your target audience can give you a general idea of the ideal time to post on your Instagram handle.
For example, if you are targeting the general Indian population, you absolutely must not post after 10 PM IST. Even if they are active on Instagram at this time, they will probably be passively scrolling or giggling at memes. Similarly, 8 AM-10 AM may not be ideal either, as people get ready for work or classes.
Consider the unique aspects such as geography, age groups, and work profiles of your audience to also develop some insight into the best times to post.
In short, sticking to the basics will at least ensure your engagement rate doesn’t take huge hits!
3. Customizing your post timings depending on the content
Taking this approach will require some more planning and creativity, but it could also have a far greater impact sometimes. Posting in context can be a brilliant way to display your proactivity and make your account content more desirable. Let’s take the example of coffee.
A coffee retailer could post about a great cup of coffee to start the day at 6–7 AM. This is an appropriate time to post, but an unconventional one if you’re looking to increase engagement.
Even so, posting super-early can make early risers relate to the post more and even engage with fellow early risers in the comments, increasing your engagement rate and reach!
Calm, the mental health and meditation app, often posts about sleep routines and sleep quality close to most people’s bedtime, and these posts generate wonderful engagement. Oh, and they have over 2 million followers.
The best time to post on Instagram, by day:
| Day | Best time to post |
| Monday | 3 PM and 9 PM |
| Tuesday | 5 AM to 8 AM, 3 PM to 7 PM |
| Wednesday | 5 PM |
| Thursday | 4 PM to 5 PM |
| Friday | 4 PM |
| Saturday | 11 AM and 5 PM |
| Sunday | 12 PM to 3 PM |
SproutSocial carried out a comprehensive study about the optimal posting time on Instagram in terms of user activity. This survey leverages user data from various industries and locations. These were what the findings indicated (based on your audience’s geography, so independent of any particular time zone).
1. The best time to post is on Monday
The optimal time to post on Mondays is between 3 PM – 9 PM. This is when the general user base is the most active.
2. The best time to post is on Tuesday
On Tuesdays, you should post between 5 AM to 8 AM and 3 PM to 7 PM for maximum engagement and reach.
3. The best time to post is on Wednesday
On Wednesdays, post between 5 PM, as this is when the maximum activity occurs.
4. The best time to post is on Thursday
Same as on Wednesday, post between 4 PM to 5 PM, with this being the peak engagement time.
5. The best time to post is on Friday
On Friday, posting at 4 PM will likely bring you maximum engagement.
Posts pushed out on Saturdays and Sundays generated the least engagement. The patterns of activity for these days were very unclear, so if you have to convey important news or updates about your brand, this might not be the best time to post on Instagram.
The best time to post on Instagram by Industry
Here is a brief look at the best times to post on Instagram by Industry:
| Industry | Best time to post |
| Construction, mining, and manufacturing | 1) 3 pm to 6 pm on Tuesdays 2) 2 pm to 5 pm on Wednesdays 3) 4 pm to 6 pm on Thursdays |
| Dining, hospitality, and tourism | 11 am to 3 pm on Wednesdays |
| Consumer goods and retail | 7 am to 11 am on Mondays 5 pm to 7 pm on Tuesdays 9 am on Thursdays 6 am to 10 am / 5 pm to 9 pm on Fridays |
| Finance industry | 11 am to 2 pm on Wednesdays 11 am to 4 pm on Fridays |
| Government | 12 PM to 3 PM on Thursdays |
| Healthcare, pharma, and biotech | 1 pm to 3 pm on Mondays 9 am to 12 pm on Thursdays 8 am to 11 am on Saturdays |
| Marketing agencies | 9 am to 11 am on Mondays 8 am to 10 am on Fridays |
The best time to post on Instagram by content
Here is a brief overview of when to post each content type on Instagram:
| Content type | Best time to post |
| Reels | 9 AM to 11 AM 1 PM to 3 PM 7 PM to 9 PM |
| Stories | 8 AM to 10 AM 12 PM to 2 PM 8 PM to 11 PM |
| Carousel | 11 AM to 1 PM 5 PM to 7 PM |
Optimal posting times on other platforms:
- The best time to post on Facebook: Thankfully, Facebook Insights has a very nifty graphic that shows your audience’s activity at different times of the day and for each day of the week! This, along with careful observation of your competitors’ accounts, should give you a very specific indication of the best time to post on Facebook.
- The best time to post on TikTok: Unlike Instagram, there are no insights on TikTok related to your followers’ activity. However, there was an extremely comprehensive study conducted by Influencer Marketing Hub to reveal the overall global most effective posting times on TikTok. If you want to learn more about how to increase TikTok followers, check out this blog!
- The best time to post on LinkedIn: When posting on LinkedIn, think about the circumstances under which people use it. While Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram are predominantly used on the phone, LinkedIn is mostly used on a computer or laptop in the workplace. Thus, align your posting time with the periods of the day when your target audience would be in the workplace and would not be taking a break.
Benefits of Posting at the right time on Instagram
Here are some of the benefits that you can reap by posting at the right time on Instagram:
- More reach and visibility because when you post at the ideal time, it is right on top when your audience logs in.
- And when more people view your content, the probability of interacting with it also increases. This way, you get higher engagement on your posts.
- You get better conversions because you are catching your audience at a time when they are inclined to shop.
- The algorithm will boost your content more as it gets good initial engagement.
Final Thoughts
While the above steps provide a good strategy for finding the best time to post on Instagram, it is also a very tedious process, even with social media scheduling tools. Overall, you should avoid weekends to post on Instagram. You should target Monday through Thursday in the morning from 10 AM onwards until 2–3 PM. The worst day is Sunday, so avoid it at all costs.
Also, if you use Predis.ai, you will find a goldmine of content that resonates with your audience, along with a plethora of hashtags that can support your content. It also helps you understand the best time you should post that particular content for maximum traction. If you’re a social media manager, this is an extremely handy tool!
Sign up for Predis.AI today! Manage your social media pages effectively and grow your engagement every day.
FAQ:
You can find active times and engagement patterns on Instagram Insights. From this data, you can figure out when is the best posting time according to your audience.
No, there is no one-size-fits-all. But you can use general guidelines as a path to figure out the best posting time that will fit your audience.
Yes, posting time can affect engagement because Instagram determines how much to push your content based on the initial engagement you get. Therefore, it is essential to publish at a time where most of your audience are online.
