If you want to be successful on social media, you have to run your accounts/channels tactically. You wish to make sure that as a lot of your target audience as possible manage to see your posts/images/videos. We have previously looked at the most effective times to post on Facebook and Instagram. In this post, we will look at the perfect time to post YouTube videos.
Not like some of the other social platforms, there is no perfect time to post YouTube videos. This possibly reflects the lack of a feed on YouTube, in comparison with most other social networks. However, we have scoured the online literature and collated the time’s range of people who believe make the most sense if you want high YouTube video engagement.
Frederator Networks’ Survey
Source: tubefilter.com
According to Matt Gielen of Frederator Networks, one of the most common questions he receives is, “When is the perfect time to publish on YouTube?” Frederator Networks compiled data across their network of over 1,300 channels and 120,000,000 monthly views.
They do recognize that their demographic skews more males compared to YouTube at large, although their average viewer age range of 13 to 34-year-olds is typical of YouTube’s audience as a whole. They also observe that their sample is 40% U.S.-based, which is double YouTube as a whole.
Allowing for the above elements, Frederator Networks discovered the perfect times to post on YouTube to be:
- Mondays 2-4 pm
- Tuesdays 2-4 pm
- Wednesdays 2-4 pm
- Thursdays noon -3pm
- Fridays noon -3pm
- Saturdays 9 am-11 am
- Sundays 9 am-11 am
The most effective days to post, according to Frederator Networks, are Thursday and Friday.
These times line up with what various organizations have discovered are a couple of hours before peak viewing times on YouTube. Most people watch YouTube at the same time as when they watch television, and by uploading your videos a little ahead of peak viewing times, you will be well placed for people to view your videos.
Boosted Conclusions
Boosted recognizes that the majority of YouTube users are in the US. However, Brazil, Russia, China, India, and the UK are important markets as well. Like Frederator Networks, Boosted recognizes that if you want a video posted at a specific time and want it easily searchable, you have to post a couple of hours early. It takes you a little while for YouTube to index your video and populate search results.
They have found that the best level of engagement on YouTube happens on Friday through Saturday and Wednesday.
On most days, the perfect time to post is at 5 pm, although you are still likely to succeed with any video posted before 9 pm.
Surprisingly, Boosted explored that the ultimate perfect times to publish are both on Sunday, either at 11 am or 5 pm.
If you target Americans, then another possible option is to publish on a weekday morning (at about 8 am EST). This allows you to reach both east coasters traveling to work and west coasters on their lunch break.
Edgy Views
Edgy has similar views to Frederator Networks. They suggest people upload their videos to YouTube during weekdays between 2 and 4 pm CST or EST (the most densely populated, internet-active time zones).
Again, they stress the importance of giving time for Google and YouTube to index your videos. “Posting your video a couple of hours earlier will let your video be indexed. That way, they’ll show up in search results.”
They observe, however, that people act in a different way at weekends. People are way more likely to be active on YouTube during the afternoon during the weekends (at the times they would typically be working on weekdays). Therefore, you should do any weekend video posting a couple of hours earlier to account for this completely different behavior pattern. Edgy recommends that your weekend posting would be best scheduled for 10 – 11 am EST or CST (depending on where your target audience is based).
HowSociable’s Calculations
HowSociable makes it clear that “Social Media is all about timing. Publishing a video at a poor time can be a real waste and provide a little reward. However, sharing at the right time could be far different and yield massive rewards.”
They observe that for most people, the most effective time to post YouTube videos is late afternoon when most users are online. They agree with Frederator Networks for the most effective times, assuming you’re following Eastern Standard Time.
However, they notice that posting content becomes most effective as the weekend approaches, as customers become more active online, and more likely to watch videos. In their view, a Thursday or Friday is likely the perfect day to upload a video.
Conversely, the early weekdays, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays are generally the worst day to publish content for most people.
Advertising rates change on different days too. There appears to be evidence that the cost per mille (CPM) is lowest from Wednesday to Saturday. The most effective days are usually Sunday to Monday. However, holidays can have an effect on this. The days just before Christmas are some of the costliest periods, as are those just after New Year. Prices are lowest in May and June, and again from September to November.