When’s the Best Time to Post on Instagram in 2024? Here’s the Hard Truth

When is the best time to post on Instagram? It’s a popular question and for good reason. Everyone wants to make the most of their social media presence.

There are lots of studies and articles online exploring when to post on Instagram for the best results. To help you make sense of this information, we scoured the web for the most recent and reputable studies on the topic. We then gathered the results here and broke down the takeaways.

We found that the best times to post on Instagram are midday between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, evenings from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m., 6 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday.

However, those times vary drastically, and the best time to post on Instagram will vary industry to industry and even business to business. To help you determine when you should post, we’ll give you tips to maximize your Instagram campaign’s results and find the best time to post on Instagram for your business.

When is the best time to post on Instagram?

The best times to post on Instagram are:

• Midday from about 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday
• Around 6 a.m., especially on Saturday and Sunday
• Evenings from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m.
• From 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday

To see these times broken down by day, check out this table:

As you can see, there are wildly different times considered “good” times to post on Instagram — one in the early morning, one midday, and some in the evening.

What does that tell us?

There is no one best time to post on Instagram. The ideal time to post varies depending on your industry, audience, location, and even each individual business.

Sorry. We know that’s not the satisfying answer you were looking for, but it’s important to understand this fact if you truly want to get the best results from your Instagram campaigns.

Below, we’ll take a closer look at how to find the best time to post for your business.

The best time to post on Instagram by industry

To get a better idea of when to post on Instagram for the best results, it’s important to break it down by factors such as industry. Here are the best times to post on Instagram by industry:

How to choose the best time to post on Instagram for your business

With findings varying so much, how do you find the best time to post on Instagram for you?

The best thing you can do to find your ideal posting time is to test it with your audience. Here’s how to conduct this testing:

1. Choose times to start out with

Come up with a few times you think might be good times to post. You can start with the times found in the studies we discussed here while also considering what you know about your business and your audience.

Ask yourself questions like:

• When is your audience most likely active on social media? For example, if you’re a B2B company, it might be during the workday. If you’re an online streaming service, maybe it’s in the evenings when people are relaxing at home.
• What are your goals? Are you looking for engagement, traffic to your website, or followers? Your audience might be more likely to take different actions at different times.

Don’t worry too much about choosing the perfect time in this step. We’ll figure that out as we complete the testing.

2. Schedule your posts

Schedule your posts out at various times and keep track of which posts perform best. You can use Instagram’s built-in analytics or a third-party tool to gather this data.

When you discover a time that performs better than others fairly consistently, start scheduling most of your posts for around that time with your preferred marketing tool for Instagram.

3. Get more granular with your testing

You can start out with a best overall time and then get more detailed through further testing. For example, you can track posts to determine the best times for:

• Day of the week
• Post type
• Audience sector
• Campaign goal

4. Re-test regularly

Your ideal posting time may eventually change as Instagram updates its algorithms and your audience and business evolve. It’s important to re-test your ideal posting time regularly — perhaps several times a year — to ensure you’re always posting at the best time for your business.

74% of people use social media when making a purchasing decision.

Make their decision easy with a stellar social media presence. See how your brand can level up by requesting a no-obligation proposal today.

Submit

One of our experts will be in touch within 24 hours!

Get a custom Instagram strategy for your business

At WebFX, we understand that every business is unique. That’s why we get to know our clients and create custom strategies for every single one of them.

Want to get a custom social media strategy from our award-winning digital marketing team? Call us at 888-601-5359 or request a free quote today.