Creating a TikTok strategy for a brand takes legwork. Aside from figuring out the best type of content to post, you’ll also need to find the best time to post on TikTok to maximize engagement.
There is, luckily, science and data to what can seem like viral chaos.
According to a study by Influencer Marketing Hub, the best time to post on TikTok overall is on Tuesday at 9 a.m., Thursday at 12 a.m., and Friday at 5 a.m.
Below, learn the best times to post for each day of the week. We’ll also walk through how to analyze your own TikTok data to discover the optimal posting schedule for your target audience, incorporating effective social media marketing strategies.
Best times to post on TikTok in 2023 (in EST)
- Monday: 6 a.m., 10 a.m., 10 p.m.
- Tuesday: 2 a.m., 4 a.m., 9 a.m.
- Wednesday: 7 a.m., 8 a.m., 11 p.m.
- Thursday: 9 a.m., 12 p.m., 7 p.m.
- Friday: 5 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m.
- Saturday: 11 a.m., 7 p.m., 8 p.m.
- Sunday: 7 a.m., 8 a.m., 4 p.m.
To determine the best times to post listed above, Influencer Marketing Hub analyzed more than 100,000 TikTok posts and looked for engagement trends. Below, take a look at the best times to post on TikTok, broken out by day.
Best time to post on TikTok on Monday
The best time to post on TikTok on Monday is at 6 a.m., 10 a.m., or 10 p.m. This suggests people are checking before school or work, before lunch, and right before bed.
Best time to post on TikTok on Tuesday
The best time to post on TikTok on Tuesday is at 2 a.m., 4 a.m. and 9 p.m. This suggests people are checking their phones in the early morning, when they wake up in the middle of the night, and right before bed.
Best time to post on TikTok on Wednesday
The best time to post on TikTok on Wednesday is at 7 a.m., 8 a.m. or 11 p.m. This shows a clear pattern of checking before work or school and then right before bed.
Best time to post on TikTok on Thursday
The best times to post on TikTok on Thursday are 9 a.m., 12 p.m. and 7 p.m. Thursdays are the best days to post right around the lunch hour. If you have a restaurant business, for example, Thursdays could be a great day to post dinner specials at noon to let your customers plan ahead.
Best time to post on TikTok on Friday
The best times to post on TikTok on Friday are 5 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Share content early for the before work and school crowd, then after lunch and mid-afternoon. More engagement in the early evening suggests viewership reduces at night when people are out on the town.
Best time to post on TikTok on Saturday
The best time to post on TikTok on Saturday is at 11 a.m., 7 p.m., or 8 p.m. There are fewer early risers on Saturday as people recover from the night before or choose to sleep in after a busy week. Posting on TikTok in the late morning and later in the evening seems to draw the most eyeballs.
Best time to post on TikTok on Sunday
The best time to post on TikTok on Sunday is at 7 a.m., 8 a.m., or 4 p.m. Schedule video content to go out early on Sundays to capture people who wake up early for a morning workout, jump on social media before grabbing breakfast with friends, or scroll while still in bed.
Use this data as a jumping off point
This data is interesting and not a bad place to start when crafting your TikTok strategy. However, it won’t be long before you can get personalized analytics, and that’s when you’ll find out the best time to post on TikTok for your target audience.
The huge caveat here is that, to make these numbers useful for you, you need to consider your own time zone and the location of your viewers. If you have a global audience, you’ll want to pay special attention to posting when folks are online across multiple time zones.
How to find the best time to post on TikTok for your business
There’s a reason that TikTok posting times matter. Like on other social media platforms, you’ll get the most engagement with your TikTok posts if you share content when your target audience is online.
There’s a method right in the TikTok app for finding when your audience is the most active, and we’ll walk you through the steps to get there.
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1. Make a TikTok business account
First, you must ensure you have a Pro or Business account on the app. It’s free and simple to switch. Go to Settings and Privacy, then Manage Account, and tap Switch to Business Account. This will give you access to analytics, as well as other features.
2. Open your TikTok analytics dashboard
Next, you’ll want to take a look at your TikTok analytics. You can get there by clicking the menu at the top right of your profile screen, clicking Creator Tools, then Analytics.
That opens TikTok’s analytics dashboard, offering insight into your account and followers.
3. Find your follower activity
If you’re looking for the best time to post on TikTok, you’ll want to find the Followers tab at the top. From there, scroll down, and you’ll see a pane called “Follower activity.”
This is what it looks like on mobile.
This TikTok analytics pane will show when your personal followers are most active.
As you can see above, the data shows that the activity of the followers of this account ramp up through the day and peak at 10 p.m. UTC. TikTok always displays these times in UTC, so you’ll need to convert to your local time zone. For this account, for example, 10 p.m. UTC converts to 5 p.m. ET. From that, we can determine that this account should aim to post around that time for the best chance at maximum engagement.
You can also find this information on a desktop by logging into your account and selecting “View analytics” under your profile. This gives a more detailed view, like below. You can also download your data from the desktop dashboard.
This is invaluable information because it shows not just when TikTok users are generally active but also when your own followers are active. This can help you figure out the best posting schedule for your brand.
This matters because your followers and your customers may have different peak activity times than others. If your target audience and customer base is parents, for example, their activity might peak in the evening when they have more free time. If your target is students, their activity might peak after school hours.
?Learn more: How To Market Your Business on TikTok
This is the method Shopify’s TikTok team uses to determine the best time to post. Our community of entrepreneurs is most active in the late afternoon, but, again, this might be different for you.
The dashboard will also show where your followers are located. If, for example, you’re based in the US but notice you have a lot of followers in the UK, you may want to split your posts to target different time zones.
4. Crosscheck your activity on individual TikTok posts
Seeing when your followers are most active gives you a good idea of when they will likely engage with your content through likes, comments, and watch time. Navigate to the Content tab in your analytics dashboard to drill down further.
From here, you can see data on individual posts from the past seven days, including total play time, average watch time, how many people were reached, and whether they found the video via your profile or the For You page.
This also includes the exact time and date you posted your video. By combining your follower analytics with this data, you can determine if your strategy for posting TikTok videos is working. You may even find that certain content does best at a particular time of day compared to others. Again, it’s all highly individual, so digging into your personal dashboard is key to finding the best TikTok posting times for your business.
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Your first priority is to start posting content
As you can see, the analytics dashboard is much more personal and specific than the Influencer Marketing Hub study and can offer great guidance for your Tik Tok recharge strategy.
The downside here is that this information doesn’t get detailed until you’ve reached 100 followers, and, of course, you have to have posted content to get any analytics. You’ll start with some insight, but building your audience is key for the best analytics, especially as the TikTok algorithm will likely change over time.
If you’re just starting a TikTok account for your business, the most important thing is to start posting.
TikTok recommends that businesses post one to four times daily and focus on authentic, engaging content. You can check out our guide on TikTok marketing for tips on how to create the best content for TikTok.
The more you post, the more data, feedback, and followers you’ll gain, and the more you’ll be able to pinpoint the best time to post on TikTok for your business.
