3 best posting times to go viral on YouTube: new research
Despite all the lies gurus tell you about how easy it is to go viral and get rich on YouTube, there’s no real shortcut.
You need great ideas and you need to present them in a compelling way.
But is there a way to bend the odds of success in your favor by posting your videos at the best possible times?
Maybe even down to the best hour of the week?
I’ve done a lot of research on this and I’ve come up with what I believe is the ultimate list of the absolute best times to post on YouTube.
Best times to post on YouTube: Source 1
If you ask AI or search engines to show you “best times to post on YouTube”, the information is likely to come from 1 of 2 articles.
The current top Google hit on the subject comes from the social media management tool/site SocialPilot.
In an article posted last month, it claims to have looked at 50,000 YouTube channels to determine the overall best time to post for views and engagement.
SocialPilot warns against posting at any time from Monday to Wednesday, for example, when video performance is known to be weak.
However, if you must do it, SocialPilot suggests you aim for between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.
That time of day goes for the stronger weekdays (Thursday and Friday) as well.
As for the weekends, Saturday is better than Sunday, but either way, shoot for between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m.
Here’s a little graph that accompanies the article:
Best times to post on YouTube: Source 2
The second article — which I prefer because it really drills down to the very best times to post — comes from another social media management tool/site called Buffer.com.
Buffer analyzed more than 1 million (!) videos to make its determinations.
I’d urge you to check out the article for yourself if you want to do a deep dive, but it included this handy-dandy heat map showing what Buffer determined was the best time to post — down to the best hours.
So there you have it: according to Buffer, if you only have one video to post per week, you should put it up on Friday afternoon between 3–4 p.m.
The time slot of 4–5 p.m. on Friday is also super strong, as is Thursday night between 6–7 p.m.
Now I’ve tried posting at the optimal times suggested by Buffer and SocialPilot, but earlier in my YouTube journey I picked a time that I thought would be strong based on my own viewing habits.
And when I looked back at my top 10 most-viewed videos, it turned out my instincts were spot on.
So what was the exact day and hour I chose?
Best times to post on YouTube: Source 3
Here’s a list of my top 10 YouTube videos, with view count and post time:
Video 1: 15,901 views (8:17 a.m. Saturday)
Video 2: 10,898 views (3:27 p.m. Wednesday)
Video 3: 9,795 views (4:17 a.m. Saturday)
Video 4: 9,397 views (9:39 a.m. Saturday)
Video 5: 8,887 views (12:43 a.m. Wednesday)
Video 6: 7,796 views (5:09 a.m. Monday)
Video 7: 7,751 views (5:17 a.m. Saturday)
Video 8: 5,702 views (2:07 p.m. Friday)
Video 9: 5,346 views (5:07 a.m. Monday)
Video 10: 4,423 views (3:16 a.m. Saturday)
Do you see a pattern here?
Of my Top 10 videos, 50% of them were posted early Saturday mornings.
Why did I even try posting at that time if all outside evidence pointed to Friday afternoon?
Well, YouTube provides its own suite of tools to help you build a channel, one of which shows when most of your past viewers are online.
Here’s what mine looks like:
At the time I posted those winners, most of the dark purple bars were on Saturdays.
This will change over time and will vary based on where you live and where your audience is based, but effectively my goal was to post just as my audience was starting to log on for the day so I could maximize those first 5–6 hours.
I also just used a bit of common sense.
Whether it was learning how to trade stocks during the COVID-era market pump or trying to figure out how to get my YT channel off the ground, I did most of my video research on Saturday mornings before my family really got going for the day.
So I simply posted at the time I would be most likely to watch what I was producing.
The best time to post on YouTube: Final answer
Again, your mileage will vary based on your audience and topic, but if I had to put together an ultimate list of the 3 best times to post based on my own research, they would be:
Early Saturday morning
Friday afternoon
Thursday night
As always when starting in the content game, it’s best to try a bunch of different things, consider your own numbers, and figure out what works best for you and your audience.
Hey, have you done any experimenting with this?
What did you learn?
Let me know in the comments!
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