If you’re doing Instagram marketing, you probably asked yourself “What is the best time to post on Instagram”? And the truth is, that there’s no exact answer.
It always depends on the Instagram account that is asking this question and the audience that is following them.
For example, if your dream customers are entrepreneurs, they create their own schedule, and they usually have time to check Instagram throughout the day. That is why it would be wise to avoid all of the competitors and post sometimes throughout the day like at 10:00 AM while everybody else will be posting at 15:00 PM.
The problem is, that in the end, this isn’t the best time to post on Instagram.
You see, people have different behavior.
If you have two same businesses in the same niches, with the same dream customer, you’ll see that the first business will have a different best time to post on Instagram than the second one. So, you may still be wondering…
What is the best time to post on Instagram?
That’s exactly what I’m going to show you how to figure out in today’s article as there is no general answer. So, are you ready to begin? If so, let’s dive in…
The Answer Isn’t In Instagram Insights
If you’ve already looked for what is the best time to post on Instagram, you’ve probably heard that all you have to do is to look in your insights and you have it. And that’s wrong.
If you’re like EVERYBODY I talked to in my long career, your best time is going to be 3 PM. And that’s why that time is also extremely competitive.
Second, the times are only shown in PST (Pacific Standart Time). So, if you are somewhere in Europe and you tried posting at 15:00 or what the insights show you when you saw it on the clock, you already messed it up.
What the insights show you has nothing to do with what the best time to post on Instagram is.
In fact, almost every time, your posts are going to perform the best when you post at a different time than what Instagram insights show you.
So, if you still ask yourself what is the best time to post on Instagram, here’s how to figure it out…
What Is The Best Time To Post On Instagram?
Instead of giving you a final answer, which doesn’t exist anyway, I will share a secret process with you that is going to let you discover what is the best time to post on Instagram.
Here’s a short infographic that summarizes the entire process (you can download it below):
But now, let me break it down for you so that you can effectively find out what is the best time to post on Instagram…
Pick 5 Different Times
This is the first part of the process. Just go to the insights or you can use your head and pick 5 times that you think are going to be working the best.
Yes, if you have no idea, you can go totally random, in the end, it’s not going to make a big difference anyway.
One of these times is going to become the time when you are going to share your posts on Instagram.
Prepare 5 Sets Of 4 Posts
This is another part that you must not skip. When you have the times you’ll test, you’re going to need some content that you will use to test them.
But the most important thing is that the posts mustn’t be way too different. The more similar they are going to be, the better. The more different they are, the less accurate the results will be, as it is going to heavily influence the reach and engagement.
So, create 20 posts that you are going to use for testing and divide them into 5 sets of 4.
Post And Measure
Now is the time to schedule the content and measure the results. After 24 hours of posting the post, you want to collect the data and write it down into some spreadsheet or even on paper (like I still love to do).
If you’re not going to do it this way, the results aren’t going to be any accurate and you won’t know what truly is the best time to post on Instagram.
Do it with all of the 20 posts and then move on to the next step of the process…
Pick A Winning Time
This is where you’re going to discover what is the best time to post on Instagram. Here you will finally know what is going to get you the most results.
The way you’re going to pick a winner is by summing up all the engagement the set has got together (i.e. all of the likes, comments, saves, and shares), and also you’ll sum up all of the reach the set has got.
Based on the reach you’re going to pick a winner. For example, if set A reached in total 20,000 people, set B 12,000 people, set C 4,000 people, set D 18,000 people, and set E 14,000 people…
…then set A is going to win.
However, if the results are really close like set A reaching 20,000 people and set B, reaching 19,500 people, you will pick based on the overall engagement.
If set B has way higher overall engagement than set A, then it is going to win. But if it will be kinda similar again, set A will remain a winner.
Simply put, the most reach wins, and if the reach is similar, then the most reach + engagement wins.
Repeat
This is the last step of the formula, and it is really simple to understand. There are not 5 hours in a day, but 24 hours in a day. So, it is smart to do the testing again. However, even if you do it just once, you should already have a fabulous time when to post unless you picked them like this – 15:00, 16:00, 17:00, 18:00, 19:00.
If you did, then this step will be necessary. If not and the times were in different parts of the day, then you should be fine.
Filip Konecny 