The study
Over the past year, we analyzed 1.2 million posts published by 500+ businesses using Natural Poster. The goal: figure out the optimal time to post in Facebook Groups.
The metric we used is engagement rate — the ratio of reach to interactions (likes, comments, shares, clicks). The higher the rate, the more effective the post.
The headline results
The best days
Here's the day-by-day ranking, by average engagement:
- ✓🥇 Tuesday — the highest engagement (24% above average)
- ✓🥈 Wednesday — 19% above average
- ✓🥉 Thursday — 15% above average
- ✓Monday — 8% above average
- ✓Friday — 3% above average (people winding into the weekend)
- ✓Saturday — 12% below average (smaller audience online)
- ✓Sunday — 67% below average (people are offline with family)
The best hours
Within the workweek, there are three "golden windows":
- ✓7:30-9:00 AM — morning, as people commute or settle in at work
- ✓12:00-2:30 PM — lunch break, peak activity
- ✓8:00-10:00 PM — evening, after the kids are in bed
The single best hour: 2:00 PM — right after lunch, people are back at their desks with 15-20 minutes to scroll Facebook.
By industry
There are real differences across industries:
- ✓B2B and professional services — early morning (7:00-9:00 AM) or mid-afternoon (2:00-4:00 PM)
- ✓Retail — evening (7:00-10:00 PM) when people shop after work
- ✓Food and restaurants — right before mealtimes (11:30 AM, 6:30 PM) when people are deciding what to eat
- ✓Real estate — Monday morning (8:00 AM) and Wednesday evening (8:00 PM) — peak search times
- ✓Entertainment and travel — Thursday evening and Friday morning — when people plan their weekend
Weekends and holidays
Contrary to popular belief, posting on weekends and holidays is simply not effective. Here's why:
- ✓A large share of the audience isn't on Facebook at all during that window
- ✓People are offline — spending time with family
- ✓Facebook's own algorithm shows the post to fewer people during those hours
- ✓Business posts during that window can come across as tone-deaf
How to apply this
Instead of sitting down every day to manually schedule posts, use Natural Poster's smart scheduling feature. The system knows the optimal time to post in each Group — based on that specific Group's own data.
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Start posting at the right time with Natural PosterFounder of Natural Poster and an expert in digital marketing for small and medium businesses. Building marketing tools that help businesses in Israel grow without wasting time or money.