Best Time To Post On Instagram

What is the Best Time to Post on Instagram?

The best time to post on Instagram is typically mid-morning to early afternoon, as most research shows this is when you’re likely to reach the largest audience.

Ideal posting times are when people start their day, around lunchtime, or in the evening.

However, the best schedule can vary depending on your audience's age, profession, and location. Generally, posting at night is less effective for maximizing reach.

How Can You Determine the Best Time to Post on Instagram?

To determine the best time to post on Instagram, start by considering your target audience’s time zone and daily habits.

People often check Instagram at specific times: shortly after waking up (around 7–8 a.m.), during lunch breaks (11 a.m.–1 p.m.), or in the evening before bed.

These windows are ideal for capturing attention.

Keep in mind that audience preferences vary based on factors like age, profession, and location.

For example, remote workers may have more flexible schedules, altering peak activity times.

Use Instagram’s built-in analytics to refine your posting schedule.

The "Insights" feature shows when your followers are most active, enabling you to tailor your strategy for maximum engagement.

By aligning your posts with your audience's activity patterns, you can optimize your reach and visibility.

Let’s look at how you can do this:

1. Understanding your following using Instagram data

Go to your profile and select the Insights action button to examine your account insights.

Furthermore, you can choose Insights by tapping Menu in the top right corner.

Hit the Metrics in the Overview dashboard section or a specific piece of shared content for a more in-depth evaluation.

Remember that you’ll only be able to access insights for content you’ve published since switching to a creator or business account.

You can examine insights for your chosen preset or custom timeframe within the last 90 days by tapping the drop-down menu at the top of the screen.

You can view your audience’s age, gender, and locality if you create an Instagram business account.

These Instagram insights also show you when your followers are online, which will help you organize your posts for the appropriate time zone.

You can use this information to pinpoint the exact moments when your audience is most engaged to offer compelling content online.

2. Test out posting at various times

The optimal Instagram posting time is typically determined by trial and error.

It’s crucial to keep trying different times until you find one that yields consistent results because what performs one week may not always work the next time.

Find out which posts perform the best by using Instagram’s analytics tool or conducting the investigation manually using a spreadsheet.

If you posted on Monday at 4 p.m. the first week, the second week’s posting time should be 5 p.m.

Experiment again once you’ve identified the times that produce the highest Instagram engagement to confirm your theory and ensure that the initial findings weren’t a coincidence.

3. Schedule posts for peak hours

Your followers won’t always have access to you at the same time.

The times you can publish may be restricted, though, if the performance of your post hinges on your ability to engage with commenters.

Consider using scheduling tools to set your posts to publish at those times if they don’t depend on your presence.

Choose if you want to boost engagement rates or brand awareness before anything else.

Depending on your goals, you could decide to schedule your Instagram posts using a different approach.

The more often you publish, the easier it will be to determine whether the times you’ve selected are ideal or whether there is room for improvement.

Tracking, monitoring, and adjusting your Instagram posts as necessary all year long is essential for achieving the highest levels of engagement.

4. Think about the posts you make

Your Instagram posts’ quality will undoubtedly have a wider impact than just the passing of time; poor posts will almost certainly perform poorly, while excellent posts will perform superbly at all times.

Engagement levels will fluctuate throughout the day, depending on what you post.

For instance, your content may perform best in the evening or late afternoon if it incorporates or supports something people often do at night.

Consider the specifics of what you’re marketing, the purpose of your Instagram post, and when this content could be most helpful to your followers when deciding when to share it.

When is the best time to post on Instagram generally?

Most likely, you’re expecting we can tell you with certainty when to post on Instagram.

Sadly, there are simply too many variables in reality for it to be that easy.

The “optimal” time to publish on Instagram was selected by most of the studies we examined.

However, keep in mind that these rely on time zones and that not all blogs use the same time zone when making their recommendations.

The majority of these studies used CT (Central Time US) as their time zone.

Even though you’ll probably post more than once a week, several studies indicate that the best time to post on Instagram is when:

The ideal moment to post to Instagram is:

Wednesdays at 11 a.m.

Thursdays from 2 till 3 p.m.

Friday at 10:00 a.m.

Even while posting in the mornings versus the evening may not significantly impact interaction levels, you still want your message to be seen by the correct audience at the right time.

This is why it’s crucial to take your posts’ content into account as well.

Given the discrepancies across the studies, it is preferable to consider a wider range of hours rather than just one ideal time to post on Instagram because, if you want to succeed, you will post more frequently than once per week.

When should different niche industrial post on Instagram?

The ideal Instagram posting timings for various sectors are shown in this study by Sprout Social.

Remember that the results include the publishing schedules of over 20,000 businesses and that the mentioned industries have a wide range of specialties and divisions.

If you need help figuring out where to start and want to do some research, you can use these posting times as a decent starting point, but remember that they should just be used as a preliminary step.

• Entertainment: Friday (9 a.m.)
• eCommerce: Wednesday (3 p.m.) and Friday (11 a.m.–12 p.m.)
• Food: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (12 p.m.)
• Education: Friday (10 a.m.)
• IT & Tech: Wednesday (6 a.m. and 9 a.m.)
• Travel: Friday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (11 a.m.–1 p.m. and 9 a.m.–10 a.m.)
• Non-profit: Wednesday (2 p.m.)
• Professional services: Every day (9 a.m.–10 p.m.)
• Medical: Tuesday (8 a.m.)

Wrapping Up

You must be diligent in your posting if you want to capitalize completely on this understanding of your target audience.

Certainly, if you post a few hours sooner than usual occasionally, you might not see a startling increase.

However, over time, using the data regularly will result in progress.

Once they get used to noticing your brand on their feed, your audience will adore and engage with your content.

Using Instagram regularly enables you to build a reputation and stronger relationships with your followers.