As of 2023, YouTube has about 2.7 billion active users, and over 122 million people visit YouTube daily using either its app or website. This offers businesses and creators an immense user base to target when posting content on the platform. However, targeting your audiences involves a lot more than simply posting videos on the platform; it also involves posting these videos at the right time.
Despite the stiff competition on the platform, there is a wealth of actionable data available that can help you decide when you should be posting content on YouTube to reach the highest audiences.
While there is a “best time to post” for each day, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to it. For the most success, you will have to dive deeper into the numbers to understand what the best time is for your niche and audiences.
In this guide, we dissect the numbers to give you a clear picture of the best times to post on YouTube in Pacific Standard Time (PST).
Key Factors Affecting the Best Times to Post on YouTube
There are several factors you must keep in mind when trying to figure out the best time to post content on YouTube for the most reach and engagement; each of these is explained below.
1. Your Audience’s Time Zone
The first factor is the time zone in which the largest proportion of your target audience resides. If, for example, your content is targeted at a local audience, you can post it at the best time within said time zone.
However, if you’re based in Asia and your target audience is primarily based out of New York, you’ll have to post with the Eastern Time Zone in mind.
2. The Type of Content You’re Posting
The kind of content you post has a crucial impact on when you post it. For instance, if you primarily create content that offers marketing insights and tips and tricks, you’ll most likely get a higher number of views during your target audience’s work hours.
On the contrary, if your content revolves around sports like badminton or athletics, you’ll have higher success posting such content before your target audience goes to work or after their work hours. The key here is to understand what time of day the content you post will have the most utility.
3. Your Audience’s Age and Occupation
Last but not least, your audience’s age and occupation will play a crucial role in deciding when to post content on YouTube. If your target audience is younger, you could consider posting in the evenings, when they’re most likely to be active.
On the other hand, if your content is aimed at stay-at-home parents, you could post your videos earlier in the day.
The next section discusses the best time to post on YouTube and what the research on this subject says.
When Should You Post on YouTube?
If you try searching for the best time to post on YouTube in PST, or any other time zone, for that matter, you’ll get plenty of resources giving you a host of different responses. However, this is where it helps to rely on research from a reliable source.
According to HubSpot’s Social Media Marketing report, the best days to post content on this video-based platform are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. This is where YouTube differs from its competitors: short-form video content platforms like TikTok and Instagram, where users tend to be active throughout the week.
According to this report, 54% of the platform’s users make use of the content posted on it to help them make a purchasing decision. Further, with content on YouTube generally being longer, most users prefer consuming such intent-driven content over the weekends, when they tend to have more time on their hands.
What Are the Best Times to Post on YouTube in PST?
Once you start diving into the intricacies of this report, you’ll see that there are specific times when videos posted to YouTube seem to perform best. Here is a simple list of the best times for the three days mentioned above (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.)
- Friday: 6 pm, 7 pm, 8 pm, and 9 pm
- Saturday: 3 pm, 4 pm, 5 pm, and 6 pm
- Sunday: 12 pm, 1 pm, 2 pm, and 3 pm
According to the report, these are the ideal times to post as they fall just before the peak viewing times on YouTube. Therefore, posting your videos just before people are most likely to watch content on YouTube gives you the best chance of reaching the highest number of users.
This is where it helps to keep in mind that there are two main ways in which YouTube’s algorithm shows users the content they see on their feed. The first neutral network behind YouTube’s algorithm recommends videos to users, particularly for the “Next Up’ section. The other network, in contrast, evaluates the various videos on the platform to form its recommendation list.
The engineers behind YouTube’s algorithm point to two key aims of its design. The first is to help users find the videos they want to watch (intent-based), while the other is to maximize engagement by ensuring users stay on the platform for as long as possible.
How Can You Find the Best Time to Post on YouTube?
While HubSpot’s research gives us a basic template on the best days and times to post content on its platform, these factors will vary depending on your own content and the audience it’s targeted to.
As a result, it always helps to analyze the performance of your channel across different days and times to determine which combination works best for your niche. There are a few steps to doing this, which we’ve briefly mentioned below:
Step 1 – Access your channel’s audience reports by logging into your Google account and navigating to ‘YouTube Studio.’
Step 2 – Analyze the data presented to you in the graphs. If you don’t see this information, chances are you haven’t had sufficient views on your content over the past 28 days or that your channel is new.
However, if you do have access to these graphs, you can get a granular overview of when your audience spends the most time watching your content, giving you an idea of how to tailor your schedule.
The Benefits of Posting When Users Are Most Active
There are several benefits to posting content when your target audience is most active on YouTube. Some of these include:
- Your videos gain better visibility as the algorithm recommends them to your intended audience.
- An active audience is more likely to engage with your videos via likes, comments, and shares, signaling to the algorithm that it offers great value and meets their search intent.
- Your audience feels more connected to you as they observe your dedication to posting videos when they’re most active and looking for them.
- You benefit from improved recall as your audience gets accustomed to consuming your content whenever they’re active on YouTube, thereby enabling better retention.
In Conclusion
Posting your videos at the right time on YouTube is just as important as any other form of optimization. It goes a long way in improving your content’s visibility and ensuring better engagement.
In this guide, we’ve taken you through the best days and times to post on YouTube. However, the key here is to remember that each channel is different, and various factors influence its performance on the platform.
As a result, it’s essential to keep these in mind when scheduling and posting content on YouTube. Additionally, it’s also essential that you look into aspects such as a timely schedule, catchy thumbnails, and captions for your videos.
While you could do this manually, Predis.ai offers you a range of tools you can use to streamline your content production process.
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