We chose these studies because they were conducted recently and, since social media software companies performed these studies, they included a considerable amount of data. So, according to these studies, what are the best times to post on Instagram? The three studies ended up with wildly different times — one in the early morning, one midday, and one in the evening. What does that tell us? There is no one best time to post on Instagram. The ideal time to post varies depending on your industry, audience, location, and even each individual business. Sorry. We know that’s not the satisfying answer you were looking for, but it’s important to understand this fact if you truly want to get the best results from your Instagram campaigns. Below, we’ll take a closer look at how to find the best time to post for your business.

The best time to post on Instagram by industry

To get a better idea of when to post on Instagram for the best results, it’s important to break it down by factors such as industry. Here’s what SproutSocial and BrandMentions found when they did that in their studies:

How to choose the best time to post on Instagram for your business

With study results varying so much, how do you find the best time to post on Instagram for you? The best thing you can do to find your ideal posting time is to test it with your audience. Here’s how to conduct this testing:

1. Choose times to start out with

Come up with a few times you think might be good times to post. You can start with the times found in the studies we discussed here while also considering what you know about your business and your audience. Ask yourself questions like:

• When is your audience most likely active on social media? For example, if you’re a B2B company, it might be during the workday. If you’re an online streaming service, maybe it’s in the evenings when people are relaxing at home.
• What are your goals? Are you looking for engagement, traffic to your website, or followers? Your audience might be more likely to take different actions at different times.

Don’t worry too much about choosing the perfect time in this step. We’ll figure that out as we complete the testing.

2. Schedule your posts

Schedule your posts out at various times and keep track of which posts perform best. You can use Instagram’s built-in analytics or a third-party tool to gather this data. When you discover a time that performs better than others fairly consistently, start scheduling most of your posts for around that time.

3. Get more granular with your testing

You can start out with a best overall time and then get more detailed through further testing. For example, you can track posts to determine the best times for:

• Day of the week
• Post type
• Audience sector
• Campaign goal

4. Re-test regularly

Your ideal posting time may eventually change as Instagram updates its algorithms and your audience and business evolve. It’s important to re-test your ideal posting time regularly — perhaps several times a year — to ensure you’re always posting at the best time for your business.