Informative

The Best Times to Run Social Media Ads

Social media is no longer used limited to helping people reconnect with their friends and family or to increase their social circle. Since the inception of these platforms to now, a lot has changed. It's currently being used by brands and businesses to create a brand image, find leads, create a strong customer base, and carry out promotions. Social media platforms have become an increasingly popular medium of advertising, both subtle and overt. In this blog, we'll be going over the best times for advertisers to run their social media ads per platform!

Amanda Jerelyn

Guest Writer

Nov 12, 2019

Best Time To Post

While advertisements can be run on social media at any time, there are some days and timings when there is greater reach and engagement. We might not see a pattern in our social media usage, but advertisers certainly do. At certain times, potential leads are more likely to convert. 

Benefit From Seasonal and Holiday Advantages

Consumers’ are more prepared to make a purchase during the holiday season in comparison to other days. Christmas and Black Friday are two holidays when advertising pays off the most. Sales do not just go up because of the fantastic offers and discounts that brands provide during special holidays. 

Take the example of Christmas. People exchange gifts at Christmas, which means they are prepared to shop. If people who are ready to make a purchase come across an ad, there are high-level chances that they will make a purchase. Also, there will be less chances of cart abandonment because people already set money aside for buying gifts.

Also, the start of a new season is a good time for retail clothing brands and fashion houses to sell their latest collection because people want to wear what is in fashion. People’s requirements change according to season. Sunscreen, bikini, and cool-aid sales go up in the summers.

The benefit of advertising on social media to avail seasonal advantages is that people can click on these ads to directly be transferred to the product page from where they can make a purchase. People now are not as sceptical about online shopping as they used to be. 

Research Your Analytics

Seasonal or holiday advertising is not enough. Customers need to come across your brand frequently for higher brand recognition and greater conversions. Over advertising is also wrong since it irritates leads. So when is the right time to advertise? 

The best way to find out when a business should post an ad is to check the analytics. Dig up all old social media analytics to see which ads had the best responses and find a pattern.

While addressing a seminar about ‘Social Media and Digital Marketing’ at the University of London, Matthew Payton, the Head of Digital Marketing from assignment service said, “Time and content are two factors that determine the response an ad will get. Therefore, brands should narrow down on which days and during which timings did they get the best response.”

Post For Higher Content Engagement

If you are a first time advertiser with no analytics to help determine what time is better for you to post ads on social media, find out when engagement is the highest. Research has been conducted to determine what the best time is to post content.

Best Times to Post per Platform

Sprout Social did one such research. The company collected and evaluated data from over 2,500 users posting on four social media platforms. The findings are below:

Facebook

Facebook has over 2 billion active social media users, which makes it a great platform to advertise. The best time to post on Facebook for the most engagement is on Wednesdays between 11 am to 1 pm. Wednesday is generally the best day to get user engagement on a post. There was a consistent level of engagement during weekdays between 9 am to 3 pm. The worst day for posting anything on Facebook is Sunday. While the lowest engagement is observed during early mornings before 7 am, and in the evenings after 5 pm.

The best time to post on Facebook for consumer goods is 1 pm on Wednesday, and 11 am on Fridays. Other times when engagement is high is on Wednesdays between 1 to 3 pm, Thursdays at 5 pm, and Fridays from 10 am to 11 am. The most consistent engagement is observed on weekdays between 10 am to 5 pm, while the lowest engagement is on Sundays full day, and every day between 10 pm to 4 am.

Twitter

500 million tweets are posted per day, which decreases the probability of your post being seen since new tweets keep coming, pushing yours further and further down in the feed. Thus, knowing when the most fruitful time is to post is to get more engagements is essential. 

The best time to post on Twitter is 9 am on Wednesdays and Fridays. Overall, the best days to post on this platform are Tuesdays and Wednesdays, while the most consistent engagement is seen from 8 am to 4 pm from Mondays all the way to Fridays. Every day between 10 pm to 4 am is the time when the user engagement is at its lowest, while Saturdays are the worst days to post when it comes to engagements.  

The best time to post on Twitter for consumer goods’ brand to receive higher engagements is 11 am on Sundays. Other good days include 1 pm on Wednesdays and 3 pm on Saturdays. For consistent engagement, brands can post between 12 pm to 3 pm on weekdays and 9 am to 3 pm on Sundays. Consumer brands observe the worst response, and engagement is everyday between 10 pm to 6 am, and the whole day on Fridays. 

Instagram

Instagram has one billion active users and an average 1.60% engagement rate per post, with the best time to post being 11 am on Wednesdays, and 10 am to 11 am on Fridays. Wednesdays are over great days to post on Instagram, while the most consistent engagement is seen between 10 am to 3 pm from Tuesdays to Thursdays. If you want good engagement on an Instagram post, then avoid Sundays. Also, the lowest engagement is seen every day from 11 pm to 3 am. 

For consumer goods brands and retailers, the best time to post on Instagram is 3 pm on Wednesdays. The most consistency in engagements is recorded between 11 am to 5 pm, from Mondays to Fridays. Around 10 am on Saturdays is also a high engagement time for Instagram posts. However, the lowest engagement on Instagram posts by retail and consumer goods business is all day Sunday, and 11 am to 3 pm every day. 

LinkedIn

LinkedIn caters to a niche audience. This professional network acts as an excellent place to garner conversions for B2B marketing firms. The best time to post on LinkedIn on Wednesday from 9 am to 10 am and 12 pm. The best day to post on LinkedIn is Wednesday. Consistent engagement is observed between 8 am to 2 pm from Tuesday to Friday. The worst time to post on LinkedIn is from 9 pm to 3 am every day and the whole Sundays. 

Types of Social Media Adverts

Another essential thing that advertisers need to consider to help them in finding out the best time to post is the type of ad. There are two types of advertisements that can be posted on social media – organic and paid.

Organic content is the type that is published as a post on the page, free of charge. This type of content depends on retweets and likes from the page’s followers, to spread the word. On the other hand, paid ads can reach a wider audience. Paid ads require a set budget and an engaging campaign. 

Social media platforms offer advertisers the option to set their target audience for a better response. The ad will pop in the newsfeed of anyone who fits the profile. Advertisers will have to answer questions like the location, gender, age group, and nationality of the people they are advertising too, to set the target audience. Advertisers prefer to have a social media strategy that includes both organic and paid marketing and advertising. 

To Conclude

With organic marketing, it is crucial to post the ad at a time when it will get the most reach and maximum engagement. Paid, on the other hand, not only automatically targets a broader audience, but the ad can also be prescheduled for publishing at the best time.