When is the Best Time to Upload to Youtube?

To thrive on social media, it’s important to run your social media channels tactically. In order to target as many members of your target audience as possible, it’s vital you are posting content at a time your audience is active online. The best time to post on YouTube to receive the most social media engagement depends on the type of YouTube channel and audience. 

Contrary to other social media platforms, there are a variety of best times to upload YouTube videos. This is due to the fact there is no official feed or timeline on YouTube as there are on other social networks; users have a Home page and a Subscription page. There is also an Explore page that displays trending content. 

While the best times to post YouTube videos vary, there are still viewing trends across the platform. We have pulled together the times users are most actively consuming video content on YouTube.

What is YouTube?

YouTube is an online video sharing service where users watch, like, share, comment and upload their own videos. The platform can be used on PCs, laptops, tablets and via mobile phone apps. 

YouTube is used by people of all ages, but it is particularly popular with younger generations. YouTube offers users content of all types, from educational to entertaining, in all types of industries. 

As a result of YouTube being an easy-access, free service, it paved the way for the modern day influencer and vlogger.

The best time to upload to YouTube

Countless agencies have conducted research into finding the best time to upload to YouTube, but the results have all been relatively similar and consistent. While there may have been some time variances by a couple of hours, there were always key hours everyday where users were most active on YouTube. 

The majority of YouTube users are from the US, followed by Brazil, Russia, China, India and the UK. If you want to post a video at a specific time and want it to be easily searchable, you need to post it a couple of hours early. This is because it can take YouTube a while to index your video and populate search results. 

The highest levels of viewer engagement on YouTube are on Friday to Saturday and Wednesdays. Most YouTube users become highly active from 5PM to 9PM (after working hours). This means the ideal time to post on YouTube is somewhere between 3PM and 7PM. These are typically the times that YouTube influencers and the most viewed YouTube videos on the platform have been uploaded. 

However, in addition to this, content posted to YouTube on Sunday at either 11AM or 5PM also performs exceptionally well. Users have more free time on the weekend and are increasingly choosing to spend this time consuming video content. If you’re just starting out posting to YouTube, these would be the best times to post on YouTube to get your content seen by the largest audience. 

In actuality, the best time to post on YouTube is generally two hours before your channel’s prime activity time. In order to find the time most popular with your viewers, go into your YouTube Audience section in the Analytics. You will be presented with a chart, and the most popular time is the one with the darkest purple bar. This is when the majority of your audience members are online.

It is important to remember that just because they are online at that time, it doesn’t mean they will be watching your content. However, you increase the likelihood of your content being seen when posting at a time everyone is available.

FAQ’s

What are some tips for scheduling YouTube videos?

The biggest tip for scheduling and uploading YouTube content is to post it 15 minutes past an hour. This is because most YouTube influencers post their content on the hour. If their viewers have notifications turned on, users will be receiving a large number of notifications from influencers uploading on the hour. If you join in with this, your content could be lost in notifications.

Posting 15, 20, 25 or 30 minutes after other creators means your notification will be at the top of the pile, putting you and your content first in users’ minds. 

What is the best time to upload YouTube videos?

The best time to upload to YouTube is roughly two hours before your audience becomes active online. This is because YouTube needs time to process your content and insert it into search results. It also gives your content time to build up traction before the majority of viewers come online, which can increase the chances of earning a trending video. 

If you are just starting on YouTube, users are most active on YouTube in the evenings on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. 

What is the best time to upload videos to YouTube over the weekend?

Saturdays and Sundays are both popular days for users to watch YouTube videos. 

The best time to post on Saturday and Sunday is either early in the morning (between 8AM and 11AM) or in the evening (after 5PM). 

Does it really matter at which time you upload a video to YouTube?

Yes. Posting content to YouTube at a time where most users are online increases the likelihood your video will be seen and engaged with. The more views, engagement and shares your content becomes more searchable. More searchable YouTube is more likely to be recommended by YouTube.

Our Influencer marketing agency and Social agency are located worldwide, with our agency network based in the USA, UK, UAE and China.

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