When it comes to social media platforms, Facebook is as crowded as they come. The social network currently has a staggering 3 billion active users — so almost a third of the world population has a Facebook account they use regularly.
Crowded as it may be, it’s still a powerful social media marketing platform for businesses and creators — if you have the right social media strategy in place.
Part of that content strategy involves figuring out the best time to post on Facebook for maximum engagement.
When it comes to the Facebook algorithm, engagement — reactions, comments, shares, and the like — is a strong signal that your content is valuable and that more people will enjoy having it in their Facebook news feeds.
The higher your engagement, the higher your reach tends to be — and the greater your chance of achieving your social media goals, whether that means driving traffic to your website, making a sale, or simply gaining a new follower.
So, how do you pinpoint the best time to post on Facebook for your audience, especially if you’re just starting out?
Well, you’ve come to the right place.
The Buffer brainiacs (read: our brilliant data scientist, Julian Winternheimer) have poured over the performance of more than 1 million Facebook posts sent via Buffer by businesses, creators, and influencers in the past year to pinpoint the best time to post on Facebook, the best day to post on Facebook, plus the best-performing content on Facebook.
In short, expect plenty of helpful recommendations backed by our own data to help you optimize your posting schedule to give your social media content the best chance of success.
Ready to jump in?
Is there a best time to post on Facebook?
Let’s start with a caveat: There’s no magic, universal best time to post on Facebook, during which your content is guaranteed to go viral (if only it were that easy).
The best time to post on Facebook — or any social media platform — always depends on your audience — I’ll dig into how you can figure that out below.
That said, our data analysis has picked up some definitive links between posting times and high engagement rates, which could be a great starting point if you’re new to Facebook.
My advice is to use these times as a springboard for experimentation. Luckily, you have plenty of high-engagement times on Facebook to choose from as part of your digital marketing strategy.
The best times to post on Facebook
According to Buffer data, the best time to post on Facebook is 5 a.m. on Monday. Our analysis showed that the early bird really does catch the worm engagement, with posts shared in the early morning getting the highest media engagement of the entire week.
Morning posting times tend to perform the best — we pinpointed other hotspot times on Tuesday at 5 a.m. and Thursday at 7 a.m., which rank in second and third place in our best time to post list respectively.
🌅 Overall posting in the early morning, between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. on weekdays get solid engagement, as you’ll see from the heatmap graph below.
The darkest slots represent the time slots with the highest engagement rates and, we extrapolate, the best time to post on Facebook. The light to white blocks are the time slots with the lowest engagement — times that are perhaps left out of your posting schedule.
Posting times tend to stay strong through the mid-morning until around midday (with a slight peak around lunch breaks) when they start to drop down towards the evening
It’s helpful to consider these posting times in the context of general audience behavior as part of your overall posting strategy — which is why I always tend to turn to demographics.
The largest demographic of Facebook users is aged 25-34 (closely followed by ages 35-44). This suggests that users are more likely to check their Facebook News Feeds before they start their workday, as soon as they wake up in the morning, making it the best time to post.
A fascinating report by the Pew Research Center found that an overwhelming majority (93%) say keeping up with friends and family is a reason why they use Facebook. By comparison, the primary use case for other social media platforms like Instagram (86%) and TikTok (95%) is entertainment.
With this in mind, it makes sense that the first social media platform users check in the morning is Facebook, where they’ll likely find the latest updates from loved ones — a higher priority than a mindless scroll through, say, some Instagram Reels.
Note that this doesn’t necessarily mean 5 a.m. is when people are seeing your Facebook posts. It’s likely the content needs time to percolate on the news feed, and your fans and followers will find it there when they log on to the platform at a more reasonable hour.
Weekend behavior is similar, though don’t expect maximum engagement on Saturday and Sunday. Post performance is significantly lower when the workweek is over (more on this below).
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To make this data easier to understand, our data scientist Bufferoo has done some mathematical magic to make the recommended time zones universally applicable. In other words, no need to convert. Whether you’re in EST (Eastern Standard Time), PST (Pacific Standard Time), or IST (Indian Standard Time), the times apply to you.
The best time to post on Facebook at a glance
- Monday: 5 a.m. 🥇
- Tuesday: 5 a.m. 🥈
- Wednesday: 5 a.m.
- Thursday: 7 a.m. 🥉
- Friday: 9 a.m.
- Saturday: 7 a.m.
- Sunday: 7 a.m.
The best time to post on Facebook on Monday
The best time to post on Facebook on Monday is 5 a.m. followed by 6 a.m., and then 9 a.m. Monday morning saw the maximum engagement in our study, making it the best time to post on Facebook for the entire week.
The best time to post on Facebook on Tuesday
The best time to post on Facebook on Tuesday is also 5 a.m., followed by more optimal posting times at 6 a.m., then 9 a.m. — an exact blueprint of Monday.
The best time to post on Facebook on Wednesday
The best time to post on Facebook on Wednesday, according to our data, is also 5 a.m., followed by 7 a.m., then 10 a.m.
The best time to post on Facebook on Thursday
The best time to post on Facebook on Thursday is a little later than the rest of the week at 7 a.m., with other peak posting times at 9 a.m., and 5 a.m.
The best time to post on Facebook on Friday
The best time to post on Facebook on Friday is also a little later, at 9 a.m., followed by 7 a.m., then 6 a.m.
The best time to post on Facebook on Saturday
The best time to post on Facebook on Saturday is 7 a.m., with other peak times at 9 a.m., then 6 a.m. However, these posting times are not as great as the high spots on weekdays, above, and engagement pales in comparison.
The best time to post on Facebook on Sunday
The best time to post on Facebook on Sunday is also 7 a.m., with other solid posting times at 9 a.m. and 6 a.m. Facebook posts shared on Sunday, however, tend to get the lowest engagement of the week, so you might want to shift your social media posts to another day for maximum engagement.
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The best day to post on Facebook
The best day of the week to post on Facebook is Wednesday — posts shared on the platform mid-week tend to see the highest engagement overall.
That said, there is not all that much in it when it comes to posting on Facebook on weekdays, as you can see from the graph above — all of them yield great engagement.
Thursday and Tuesday come in second and third place, respectively, but just a smidge above Monday and Friday.
There is a more noticeable dip, however, in content posted on the weekend. The worst day of the week to post on Facebook is Sunday. Facebook posts shared on Sunday tend to get 15% less engagement than posts shared on Wednesday. Saturday is also not the best day to post on Facebook, when posts shared see 10.4% less engagement.
The best type of content to post on Facebook
Interestingly, the best type of content to post for engagement on Facebook is not videos but photos. Our analysis found that posts with images or photos tended to get the most engagement on Facebook, with text-based posts coming in second place.
Posts with photos tend to get 34.7% more engagement than text-based posts and 43.8% more engagement than video posts.
As you can see, video posts came in third place. Surprising as it may be, it lines up with what we found in another recent analysis on Instagram, in which we discovered that it was photo carousels, not Instagram Reels, that got the most engagement on Facebook.
Reels, however, tended to get the most reach, and I theorized why this may be the case in the article. (We’re running a comparison on Facebook and will report back here with the data soon!)
The worst-performing content on Facebook’s News Feed is link-only posts (not surprising, given that Facebook wants to keep its users in the app).
The best time for you to post on Facebook
While the Facebook post times above are a great jumping-off point, they may not necessarily reflect the habits of your target audience — which is where figuring out your unique best time to post on Facebook comes in.
Pinpointing times that your audience is more likely to be active and engaging is an important part of social media management. To find yours, it’s worth digging into Meta Business Suite.
How to find your best time to post on Facebook with Meta Business Suite
Meta Business Suite, the Facebook and Instagram analytics tool, comes with a bit of a learning curve (we’ve got a full guide to Meta Business Suite if you’ve never used it before).
Facebook does have Facebook Insights, a pared-down tool within Facebook to check out a handful of page performance metrics, which might be enough for the casual creator.
Still, if you’re managing a Facebook Page and don’t plan to use a social media analytics tool like Buffer to help, it’s well worth getting to grips with the more in-depth Meta Business Suite.
It also offers some, well, valuable insights that even Facebook Insights doesn’t have — like showing when your followers on most active on the platform. These numbers can be a helpful clue in narrowing down your personal best time to post on Facebook.
Here’s how to find that data:
There are several ways to access Meta Business Suite. My preferred route is via Facebook itself. (Make sure you’re logged in via your Facebook Page, not your personal profile.)
- Click on Meta Business Suite on the menu on the left.
- Click on Insights on the menu on the left.
- Click on Audience on the left,
- Choose Trends above the graph.
- Scroll down to Most active times. Here, you’ll find when your current followers use Facebook. You can use the button on the right to switch between different days of the week.
Note that this doesn’t necessarily indicate the best time to post on Facebook to reach your audience, just when they’re most likely to be online.
If you’re going this route, I suggest experimenting with some of the peak times and days to note which slots get the maximum engagement, helping you pinpoint your best time to post on Facebook.
Your checklist for high-performing Facebook posts
Figuring out the best time to post on Facebook can be helpful, but it’s not the ultimate secret to Facebook success (again, if only it were that simple!).
As we unpack in our guide to the Facebook algorithm, there are plenty of other things you can do to give your content the best possible chance of reaching more people. Here’s a high-level overview:
- Share content that prompts conversations: Producing high-quality content should always be your priority on social media. Tap into your Facebook Insights or analytics in Buffer to stay on top of the content that resonates the most with your audience. Remember: Facebook likes authentic accounts that contribute to their community and create meaningful interactions.
- Cultivate authentic relationships with your fans: Reacting and replying to comments and always responding timeously to DMs is only half the battle — be sure to be thoughtful and authentic in your replies to really connect with your audience.
- Experiment with different content types: While video may perform best generally, your target audience might respond better to something else. Text, photos, GIFS, Reels — be sure to try them all more than once.
- Tap into user-generated (UGC) content and mentions: When people tag you in posts, take notice. This is a perfect opportunity to share their content as user-generated content — with their permission, of course.
- Aim to be on users’ ‘Favorite’ lists: Facebook users can take more control of their feeds with the Favorite list feature. Encourage your fans to add you to that list so they never miss your content.
- Don’t resort to clickbait or engagement bait: Clickbait is exaggerated, over-sensationalized content that doesn’t deliver on its promise. Engagement bait uses captions or photos that contain phrases like, “Like this if you like dogs better, share this if you like cats better.” Facebook regularly updates its algorithm to downrank content like this, making it a terrible way to attempt to get maximum engagement.
- Verify all the news you share: Another thing the Facebook algorithm doesn’t like: fake news. Facebook is vigilant in identifying misinformation and takes strict action against violators, potentially leading to removal from the platform.
- Stick to Facebook’s Community Standards: Facebook takes its Community Standards seriously. The algorithm is pretty good at weeding out posts that violate these rules, but even if a post manages to skirt under the radar, Facebook users can report it and have it taken down anyway. Getting strikes against your account like this could impact future content performance.
When in doubt, always remember: Facebook’s algorithm values what users value.
“Facebook’s goal is to make sure that you see posts from the people, interests, and ideas that you find valuable,” the company says. “Whether that content comes from people you’re already connected to or from those you may not yet know.”
