YouTube’s ability to connect you with a large pool of audience and potential customers is a plus, but the ability to utilise analytics and even get more views than usual on your marketing campaigns is an even bigger plus. Who settles for less when you can get more? Definitely not you.
After a thorough personal research, I have curated this guide to help you and other creators in need of more visibility to determine the sweet spot and timing in the publication schedule to post on YouTube. Are you with me?
Key Points
- Posting videos on YouTube at the right times can significantly boost viewership and engagement, as it aligns with when your audience is most active.
- The best days to post on YouTube are Thursday through Sunday, with peak engagement typically occurring in the late afternoon to evening.
- YouTube Shorts have different optimal posting times, with peak hours being 12 pm to 3 pm and 7 pm to 10 pm, especially on Mondays and Tuesdays.
- Tailor your posting schedule based on your audience’s geographic location, time zone, and the type of content you create.
- Utilize SEO strategies, engaging thumbnails, and consistent posting to improve your channel’s visibility and attract a larger audience.
Does Posting Time Matter on YouTube?
The short answer is a solid yes! Aside from YouTube, there are many other social media platforms that work with effective timing. Don’t get me wrong, I am fully aware that on a normal day, your channel lands a good number of views, but then there are also some prime days that can drive much more traffic than usual, and that’s what we are after. Posting time on YouTube matters if you wish to experience more of a snowball effect of viewership. In summary, you are trying to track and post content when more people are available to watch them.
Let’s go over it some more. Say you manage to post your videos following the correct precise timing, a few seconds after it up, a few dozen extra people watch your video and some of them give it a like. Now that early engagement was possible because you were on the right track, YouTube notices the traffic on it and even helps you push it further.
In the same way, SEO and the quality of your content help boost your channel, that’s the same way having a perfect time improves its success. You get it?
Best Time to Post on YouTube
It’s best to post your YouTube content in the afternoon, preferably between 2pm to 4pm. After a thorough survey by the company, I examined social media engagement by platform, the majority of respondents said they saw their best results on YouTube from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
It’s advisable to bank on these listed timing but then you will also need to run some tests, contrast and compare till you discover the perfect timing that is suitable for your business and audience. Let’s see how these times apply on a daily basis:
Monday
We all know how Mondays can be. This day is usually termed a busy day because people return to their normal work routines either within the house or in a corporate setting. Due to this reason, Mondays are not favourable but if you still want to put out that content, then you should do so between 2pm and 4pm. The reason for the desired timing is that your target audience is possibly done with work and trying to round off for the day. Some might also be in car traffic. They will want to have a glance or two.
Tuesday
Tuesday is termed as the worst day to post on YouTube and this is because it’s trying to finish the work Monday started. According to the survey, only 10% of respondents indicated Tuesday as the day with the highest engagement. If you wish to post regardless, it should also be in the same range as Monday.
Wednesday
Wednesday isn’t the best day, yet, but it’s not as bad as these two days we just looked at. Mind you, people will still be busy and fully invested in work, school and meeting targets generally. If you wish to post on this day, it makes sense to post late afternoon to early evening to capture people’s attention as they’re winding down and resting for the evening. You get it?
Thursday
Thursday is the day creators witness a high rise in traffic whenever they dish out content. People are exhausted from work by this day and they are just looking for ways to ease off either at work or on their way back from home. They are prone to distracting themselves with videos just to ease off. If you want to post on this day, then you should between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. It’s either later in the afternoon or early in the evening. You choose.
Friday
You know the vibes with this day right? TGIF! After Thursday, Friday is also another great day to post on your YouTube. As I emphasised earlier, it is the end of the week and what people are mostly concerned with is how to unwind, sit back, relax and catch up with their favourite YouTube creators. You should dish out hot and engaging content on this day. The best posting time for Fridays is between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. to give the algorithm time to circulate your video during peak viewing hours.
Saturday
Saturday is even when your audience has more time on their hands to spare for their phone and YouTube. YouTube is relatively unique among social media platforms because posting on the weekend is often your best rather than worst. On this day, you can target your audience better by posting between 3pm and 6pm.
Sunday
Weekends are mostly filled with peeps scrolling widely on their phones while viewing endless videos online. Sunday is another best day to post and get them to see your content. You can post your videos between 9am to 4pm.
Best Time to Post on YouTube Shorts
Normal YouTube videos and YouTube shorts are not the same. They often get intertwined, but they are different and also require different posting times. For YouTube shorts, the best time to post is during peak hours from 12 pm to 3 pm and from 7 pm to 10 pm, preferably on Mondays and Tuesdays. Here is a detailed timing:
- Monday: 7 am, 12 pm, and 8 pm to 9 pm
- Tuesday: 7 am, 11 am to 12 pm, 5 pm to 7 pm, and 9 pm to 10 pm
- Wednesday: 12 pm and 3 pm to 6 pm
- Thursday: 7 pm to 11 pm
- Friday: 7 am to 9 am, 11 am to 1 pm, 4 pm to 6 pm, and 9 pm to 11 pm
- Saturday: 9 am to 10 am, 3 pm to 6 pm, and 10 pm to 12 am
- Sunday: 10 am to 11 am, 3 pm to 5 pm, and 9 pm
While it is good to follow a general guideline, also remember it is not a perfect science. Always test and keep testing till you find the timing that clicks more. There is a fair chance that these fixed times may work wonders for your brand on YouTube.
Why Is the Right Time to Post on YouTube Different?
If you have noticed, you will understand that irrespective of Youtube being one of the major social media platforms in existence, its mode of operation is quite different from others and so applies the posting time sequence. Let’s take for example these popular three social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, whenever you publish content on these platforms, it goes directly to the feed of your followers. But YouTube is a different ball game.
YouTube is wired just like Google but in a social media platform format. It takes time to index your video once it has been published. It understands and processes its context and then dishes it out to home screens or people it feels need it, regardless of whether being a subscriber or not.
Therefore, it is standard practice to publish 2-3 hours before the perceived best time to upload YouTube videos for you. Hence getting it ready for your audience to behold whenever they get hold of their phone. If your best time to post on YouTube turns out to be between 7 and 10 pm, then you need to post between 2 and 4 pm.
How to use Audience Demographics for the Best Time to Post on YouTube
Aside from keeping track of your timing and posting when it’s highly possible that your target audience is scrolling on their phone, you also need to consider other demographics before dishing out content. Be it a Youtube video or shorts. Some other factors aside from timing include;
#1. Time Zone
Time zones are quite different according to specific locations. So before you put your content out there, make sure you factor in the time zone differences. With YouTube, you have the luxury of scheduling a video and then limiting its visibility. To do this, open the app, trace the schedule tab and choose a perfect time zone so your video can go up YouTube is relatively unique among social media platforms because posting on the weekend is often your best (rather than worst)
#2. Geographic location
YouTube doesn’t mind geographical areas when dishing out content. They make it easily accessible to everyone who has a YouTube app. But then if you want to make the best out of your content, you can manoeuvre the algorithm to target people in your area, particularly if your business is limited to a certain geographical area.
Your video should have locally-based keywords or tags like your business location and you can also update your “About” section under your profile. Optimise it in a way that your content will get to people who are nearest to you first.
#3. User behaviour
YouTube has a good feature that allows a creator to increase visibility. It can be found under “other videos your audience watched“. Now exploring this feature can give you insights into content ideas your target audience is also interested in. You can use that effect to your advantage by creating videos around those ideas.
You can also try reading and tracking your analytics tool to see what content does better than the other so your focus can be on it.
#4. Engagement trends
On YouTube, different types of content tend to get more traction. “How-to’s” videos might be a tending content or trend in your industry. Now if you want to tailor your how-to video with a makeup tutorial, you must release it when that particular makeup trend is still ongoing or even still freshly in trend.
#5. Types of content
It’s highly possible that one person might watch different types of content on the same day, so in other words, what you post will help determine when you should post it. You don’t understand? I will give you an example.
Let’s say your videos are mainly channelled to accountants and they educate them on how to tackle tax codes, now your videos tend to get higher feedback during normal business hours. But then even if you manage to share health tips for novice runners, a CPA who also loves to run will likely wait until after work to watch. Lesson learnt? “post videos when they are most useful.”
Tips for Getting high-performing YouTube Videos and Shorts
Now we have fixed the timing format for your YouTube videos, let’s look at some other factors that can help give your videos the best chance of success. Here’s a quick cheat sheet to get you started:
- Optimising is the key: The power of optimising cannot be over-emphasised when it comes to your YouTube account. You need to be conscious of your profile picture, banner image and video watermark. Then make sure to include a concise channel description, and create a video spotlight or trailer for your channel.
- Understand the YouTube algorithm: This is also a good way to keep track of how YouTube works. If you can get a hang of how they work and what matters most in videos, then you will tailor yours in a way that will favour the algorithm. You can then closely watch views, watch time, engagement and more.
- YouTube SEO: SEO is virtually present in literally everything and just because YouTube is owned by Google will help you understand more about what that means. They work the same way. You will need to Conduct keyword research with search engine optimization SEO tools and make sure you use those keywords in your channel description, video title, and video description.
- Making use of thumbnails: Thumbnails have a high importance on the streets of YouTube and they can boost the success of your account without much hassle on your side. Research has shown that it can help content perform better, especially those that feature faces or emotions with colour and branding or texts.
- Utilising Series: A Series has a way of drawing in a target audience over and over, especially if it’s in a storytelling format. Once it’s interesting and can make your audience glued, they will come back for more parts.
- Post consistently: One thing with being a creator or a business or a brand or anything is the expectation of one video blowing up and attracting a number of followers and engagement. But the surest way to make your video blow up is by posting consistently till one clicks. The more we post, the more our chances increase. Social media platform algorithms reward their creators for consistency.
- Engage with your audience: Engaging with your audience is a necessity. And it’s not just about being nice, it’s also about growing a community. It will foster more follow and engagement.
Now that we’ve covered the optimal posting times for your YouTube videos and Shorts, it’s crucial to focus on content planning and strategy. One effective way to engage your audience and keep them coming back for more is by creating a series. To help you with that I’ve created a FREE template:
YouTube Series Planning Template.PDF
Conclusion
The best time to post on YouTube is in the evening throughout the week or on the weekends, but you should note that you need to find a working time that specifically works for your business and its target audience. YouTube has a wide population that scatters throughout the globe and being able to post content that attracts a large engagement is all your business needs for success to be assured. Feel free to drop any more questions or comments in the comment section.
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