The Best Time to Post on TikTok, According to Data

Does it matter what time you post on TikTok? The numbers show when you upload makes a difference. When you post on TikTok isn’t as important as when you post on Instagram or other social media platforms, but finding the best time to post on TikTok can still be an advantage that helps boost your engagement rates.

So what time should I post on TikTok, then?

If we gave you a simple answer, we’d be giving you the wrong information. The right time to post depends on several different factors, and what day you post makes a difference too. When to post on TikTok for maximum views isn’t the same for everyone, but we made it as simple and easy as possible to figure out.

In this article, we compiled tons of information to help you determine what the best time to post on TikTok is on average, and how to figure out the best time to post for your account specifically. You’ll also learn three important tips about your posting schedule to ensure your content gets as much engagement as possible.

The Best Times to Post on TikTok According to Peak Posting Times

Not a lot of unique or fresh data exists on hours of peak engagement on TikTok compared to platforms like Instagram or Facebook, and the majority of sources trying to find the best time to post on TikTok cite the same study done in 2021. We compiled data from three separate sources and combined it with our own professional experience to get a better look at what the best time to post truly is.

There’s more than one best time to post on TikTok. In Pacific Standard Time (PST), the best times to post on TikTok are 4 am – 6 am and 9 am-2 pm on weekdays. On average, your TikToks are most likely to perform best when posted early in the morning (6 am – 9 am) or midday (11 am – 2 pm) of whichever timezone you’re in.

According to Later, 1 pm PST tends to be the best time to post during any weekday, but other sources found that TikTok videos posted early in the morning performed especially well, with some sweet time spots occurring midday or late at night.

After compiling all the data, we concluded that morning and midday are both peak times likely because people often log onto a social media platform when they wake up and at lunch.

Posting early morning or midday is a safe rule of thumb unless your audience lives in a completely different timezone than you or if they’re in a demographic with unique activity rates. Not sure if that’s you? No worries, we’ll get into that later on.

The Best Days to Post on TikTok, Statistically

While the best times to post on TikTok globally are during the week, certain days result in better engagement than others. The latest data shows that Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays are the best days to post for overall views and likes, while Mondays have the lowest viewership.

Here’s what all that information looks like put together in one posting schedule (for any time zone):

Are Averages the Best Times for You to Post?

These averages make for a great starting point if you have a new account or less than 100 followers. Otherwise, it’s important to tailor your posting schedule to what best fits your target audience, especially if you’re using TikTok to make money or promote something.

Where your audience lives, their age and their interests can make your optimal posting times on TikTok completely different from the average. Once you have over 100 followers, TikTok gives you some helpful analytics data to make a posting schedule better suited to your account specifically.

When to Post on TikTok According to Your Target Audience?

Mornings and middays are generally the best time to post, but what if you have a global audience? Sometimes, you can have several peak hours and days because your viewers are in different time zones. Once we factor these time zones in, making morning posts might not be a good rule of thumb for you like it is for others.

Your TikTok Videos May Have a Global Audience

Not targeting the right audiences is one of the biggest marketing mistakes you can make on TikTok, and this is true for regular users just as much as influencers or businesses. In other words, if you want to find the best time to post for your account, we need to find out more about your followers and make a content strategy unique to your account.

What is a Target Audience, and How Do I Know What My Target Audiences Are?

A target audience is the group of people you are trying to reach with your account or content, and there may be more than one. For example, if your TikTok channel covers a variety of interests or genres, you probably have a few target audiences in multiple time zones. You can also organize target audiences by region, age, or gender, so if you have a large following in both the US and the UK, you can consider them two separate target groups.

You can figure out your target audiences by looking at who is already watching your videos and following you. TikTok has useful analytics tools to help you determine this information, so take a look at your account’s “Interactions” tab to see where your viewers are coming from.

If your audience is spread out, prioritize the 2-3 regions where you get the most engagement to find the best time to post.

Using TikTok Analytics to Find the Best Time to Post on TikTok

Where is your audience located? Depending on how many followers you have, the answer is in the analytics on your profile page. The data TikTok’s analytics section provides on your previous uploads and followers activity can help you determine TikTok posting times that get maximum engagement.

For regular accounts:

• Go to your Profile and tap the Settings menu on the upper right corner of your screen
• Select “Creator Tools,” and in that menu, press the “Analytics” tab
• The Analytics tab has a few key insights that are useful to determine when you should be posting videos. The two most important for figuring out the best time to post videos are “Content” and “Followers.”

In the “Content” section, it will show your trending videos. Select a specific video and jot down the date and time you posted it along with its number of views, likes, comments, and shares.

Once you have this info for multiple videos, you’ll start to get a good idea of what times and days are working best for your account to determine the best time to post. You can also scroll down to “Video views by region” to understand what types of videos you upload are best for specific audiences.

In the “Followers” section, scroll down to “Top territories.” This section shows the top five regions where most of your audience resides.

Knowing your audience’s location can ensure you know the best time to post according to their time zones. Note: Access to this analytics information depends on how many followers you have (you need at least 100).

Take some time to record and organize this information in a table or spreadsheet. As you continue to post new videos, you’ll get a clearer and clearer idea of the best time to post to maximize your views.

For Business Accounts:

TikTok Business Accounts or a Tiktok Pro Account can get more details on specific uploads and their follower demographics. For example, a Business Account or Pro Account can go to the “Content” section and get detailed information on all of their posts rather than just their trending posts.

Using a Business or Pro Account makes it easier to determine what the best time to post is (or more likely a few sweet time spots) and what days work best for your upload schedule.

Though having a Business or TikTok Pro Account makes this data analysis easier, it’s still a lot of information to process, especially if you’re a busy professional. Consulting a TikTok advertising agency can ensure you still get this valuable information and optimized results without putting in the time and energy. An agency also can help you improve even more aspects of your account besides finding the best time to post your TikTok videos like increasing your average watch time or video performance.

How Often You Post on TikTok Matters, Too

Just like most other social media platforms, how often you post on TikTok is also important if you want to boost engagement. For example, a person who makes TikTok posts consistently throughout the week might have their videos picked up by the TikTok algorithm into more ForYouPages than someone who posts less than once a week, even if the person posting once a week has more followers.

Frequency matters because of how TikTok’s algorithm distributes content, and it plays an even bigger role in content performance than finding the best time to post.

How Often Should You Post on TikTok?

Posting a TikTok video every day is a good idea for brands and aspiring creators trying to become TikTok famous. If that’s too much for you, post on TikTok a minimum of three times per week to get the upload the consistency TikTok’s algorithm likes. Try to space out your posts evenly throughout the week to maximize this algorithm benefit.

Uploading videos throughout the week also ensures that you can target multiple time zones if you have more than one TikTok audience. For example, you can upload one of your videos at the best time for a specific region and target a different audience next time.

Can You Post Too Much on TikTok?

Though multiple posts a week and consistently uploading is a good strategy to get more views on TikTok, there is such a thing as posting too much. If you’re uploading videos ten times per day nearly every day, you’re going to start overwhelming your followers, and they’ll be less likely to see everything you upload. The decrease in views per upload tells the algorithm to stop putting your videos in the ForYouPage as often and damages your ability to get more engagement and followers in the long run.

Tips for Posting Consistently

The only people who get away with posting more than three times a day already have millions of followers on their TikTok account, so unless that’s you, keep these tips in mind:

• Try to space out your posts evenly throughout the week and avoid bombarding people’s feeds with videos all at once.
• Keep it to 1-3 uploads a day and post them at least two hours apart from each other.
• If your content needs to be broken into more than one video, consider waiting a day or two until uploading the second part. You can always add the second video in a pinned comment on your first to make sure people see it, and the suspense you create can actually boost engagement and even get you more followers.

Making an Upload Schedule for Your Posts

Free Ways to Make a TikTok Post Schedule

Now that you know when to post on TikTok, it’s time to make a publishing schedule for your posts. Decide which days you want to post and what times you’ll be uploading each video to stay organized and ensure that all of your uploads are spaced out evenly.

You can schedule videos by drawing a table, making a spreadsheet, or using free scheduling tools like Later. Scheduling tools for social media can make the process faster and easier, especially if you post often.

Affordable Marketing Tools for Creators and Businesses

Besides the above example, there are also paid scheduling apps that include additional analytics information and tools to optimize when you post on Tiktok videos.

If you have a smaller account and audience, it might not be worth spending money on professional platforms and TikTok analytics from your profile will be enough. However, if you have over 100,000 followers, are an influencer, or use a TikTok Business Account, affordable marketing tools for small budgets like this can help you get even better results.

When to Post on TikTok in 2022: Important Tips

1) Check Your Analytics Regularly

It’s important to keep in mind that when your followers are watching has likely changed and will continue to change throughout the year – especially once you start getting more followers. Knowing this, don’t research your target audiences once and call it a day. Check your TikTok analytics at least once a month (ideally once a week) to see what’s changed and adjust when you post accordingly to keep your TikTok engagement rates steady. Make sure to keep track of any changes so you can gather insights on your audiences over time.

2) Stay Ahead of Updates or Algorithm Changes

TikTok’s algorithm also changes any time the company decides to update it and understanding the platform’s algorithm is important when figuring out what and when to post. Though we can’t know all of the specifics, TikTok often gives insights into how the algorithm works or when it makes changes to the algorithm. Be sure to read up on these updates to check and see if your posting strategy or TikTok content needs to change.

3) High-Performing Content Will Always Win

What you post on TikTok is more important than when you post, and that’s never going to change! Make sure your videos are creative and you’re making engaging content – something that your audiences will want to watch. If you’ve optimized your posting times and factored in time difference but still aren’t getting the results you want, dive deeper into your TikTok analytics. Fine-tune your content strategy with some inspiration from quality content made by other creators for ideas on high-performing content, and make sure you’re using relevant hashtags to increase discoverability.

Conclusion

The best times to post on TikTok depends largely on your target audiences and when they’re most likely to be using the app. Additionally, making sure you’re not posting too little or too much throughout the week will help give your videos a boost in the algorithm.

TikTok is best used as a tool to engage with your audience and share quality content that’s relevant,  interesting, and engaging. Posting at the right time is one part of this, but making sure your videos delight your audience is essential to making your videos discoverable and getting more traction. Keep track of your TikTok analytics, posting time, and post performance to see what’s working best for you!