With TikTok boasting over 1 billion active users worldwide, every brand is in a race to shine on this creative platform. Making a mark here isn’t just about your content; it’s also about knowing when to strike the iron while it’s hot.
Indeed, creativity counts, but knowing the ideal TikTok posting time is equally crucial.
Why, you might ask? Well, it’s simple. Posting at the right times ensures that your amazing videos get the maximum exposure they deserve. However, uncovering the best TikTok posting times can feel like hunting for buried treasure.
Why Optimizing Your TikTok Posting Times Matters
Posting at the right times allows your creative videos to get seen by more people who are actively using TikTok. If you post when few people are online, your content risks getting buried and overlooked. Posting at peak times when more users are scrolling their For You feeds gives your videos a better chance of showing up on more screens and getting more engagement.
In addition, paying attention to when your target audience is most active can help you reach them when they are most receptive. For example, teens may be more likely to be on TikTok in the evenings while professionals browse during commutes. Identifying and posting at high-traffic times for your niche can translate to better video performance.
How to Use Your TikTok Analytics to Find Your Personal Best Times
It’s a stretch to assume that the average best posting times for a wide range of businesses will perfectly align with your specific TikTok strategy. However, if you’re new to the platform, starting with these averages can give you a strong head start.
Before continuing to find your personal best time to post on TikTok, you can first take a look at our research and guidance on the general best posting times. This study analyzes the average best times for posting on TikTok. You can start with these time frames to gain more engagement on TikTok.
On the flip side, if you’ve been around the TikTok block for a while, it’s time to dive into the analytics section and pinpoint the best posting times for your unique profile.
Let’s break down the step-by-step process of finding your ideal TikTok posting time, ensuring you never miss out on engagement opportunities.
Step 1: Mining Insights from Your Data
The golden key to discovering your optimal TikTok posting time lies in analyzing the performance of your previous content. Look for patterns between the posting day and time of your high-performing videos.
TikTok’s analytics “Content” tab offers a treasure trove of insights into the performance of your posts over the last 7 days. You’ll find metrics like likes, comments, shares, reach, and average watch time for each post.
You can even track the traffic sources, primary and secondary audience territories, and the number of views from around the world.
Once you’ve identified your top-performing content, scrutinize its posting times and dates to spot a pattern. For example, if your most successful videos were consistently posted on Tuesdays and Fridays within a particular time frame, you’ve just struck gold – you’ve found one of your best TikTok posting times.
Note: Keep in mind that these times are usually in UTC, so remember to convert them if needed.
Step 2: Set Up a Tracking Database
Since TikTok provides post-performance data for only the last 7 days, it’s wise to maintain a spreadsheet to track your content’s performance over time. Having a month’s worth of data will empower you to make informed decisions.
In your spreadsheet, record the following metrics:
- Posting Day and Time
- Video Title
- Video Likes
- Video Comments
- Video Shares
- Video Average Watch Time
- Video Views
- Traffic Source
- Primary and Secondary Audience Territories
After a month or quarter of meticulous tracking, revisit your data to identify the days and times that consistently yielded the best results. Make these your go-to TikTok posting times.
This exercise will also help you understand which content generates the most engagement and garners traffic from the “For You” section, providing valuable insights into your TikTok strategy.
Tools Like TimeToTok Can Simplify Finding Your Best Times
The above content describes in detail how to do some simple data analysis and inference through the TikTok App, and then obtain the most suitable posting strategy for your TikTok account. This will definitely achieve better results than an average posting schedule.
However, the problem with doing this is obvious. If you are just an individual creator rather than a professional social media operator or analyst, I believe you would not have the patience and time to complete all of the above operations. In fact, you should focus your limited time and energy on creating better content.
Having worked in the social media industry for many years, we know very well the importance of operational work for account growth, as well as the pain that individual creators feel when faced with tedious operational tasks.
To solve our own problems, we have developed a set of tools to help us automatically track and record account data, and through AI analysis, provide more accurate suggestions about optimal publishing schedules than manual methods. No need for spreadsheets or spending time recording every week. It is reliable just like our employee but works 24/7.
Now it can also be used by every creator. Visit TimeToTok for more information.
About Rachel Kyle
CMO, with years of experience in digital social media brand promotion and operation, she joined TimeToTok this year to work with the team in creating the next generation AI assistant for personal social media creators.