Best Time to Publish a YouTube Video

You may have noticed that a lot of YouTube channels post videos not sporadically but somewhat regularly and deliberately — in terms of time. No, it does not happen randomly. There are indeed better and worse timings of uploading videos on YouTube, affecting the views count. And if you are a YouTube blogger or an affiliate driving traffic from YouTube, this is definitely worth learning. That’s why today, we’ll take a look at how to determine the best time to post on YouTube. We’ll examine research and suggest an algorithm for finding the right period specifically for your channel.

Best time to upload a YouTube video in a nutshell

Although there are different important details, which we’ll cover as well, we can still give a general recommendation about the best timings.

To start with, let’s understand how time affects reach. YouTube’s algorithms are built on a recommendation system that offers viewers what they are likely to be interested in. So every time you release a video, the algorithms search for people who are similar to your subscribers and suggest them videos in recommendations or search results.

Your subscribers are people with certain lifestyles: students who may not sleep until midnight, or office workers who watch YouTube on their way to work, during lunchtime, and late at night. Accordingly, they will watch videos during specific times of the day.

YouTube gives a lot of reach if it finds the video interesting. And the interest of viewers is determined in part by views and reactions. So if a video gets more views, likes, and comments than usual in the first 10-15 minutes after publication, the algorithms start actively promoting it — and the reach continues to grow.

If you publish a video before the peak of activity, it will get a lot of views, and then an additional reach as well.

So the best time to post on YouTube is 1-2 hours before the peak of audience activity. Such a time interval is needed for the video hosting to index the video and understand which audience to offer it to.

Numerous studies suggest different suitable time intervals. According to Frederator Networks, it is best to publish videos:

• from Monday to Wednesday from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm;
• on Thursday and Friday from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm;
• on Saturday and Sunday — from 9:00 am to 11:00 am.

Boosted claims that on average, videos can be published at 5:00 pm any day. At the same time, the peak also falls on Sunday at 11:00 am. Edgy advises uploading videos on weekdays from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm and on weekends from 10:00 am to 11:00 am. And the calculations by HowSociable suggest that, in general, Thursday or Friday is the best day to publish content on social media.

Most studies agree: on weekdays, it is better to publish videos after lunch, and on weekends — in the morning. These are average data for everyone.

Factors that influence the timing of publication

There are only three factors that determine the most effective time to publish a video on YouTube:

• Overall viewer activity. It is important for those who have just started publishing videos and have not yet gained their first thousand subscribers. In this case, you can rely on average data. Upload videos before the overall peak of activity.
• Your subscribers’ activity. This is important if you already have an audience, and you can analyze their behavior. Then rely on their behavior: get maximum reach from subscribers. YouTube algorithms will promote videos further.
• Bidding. How much is paid for 1000 views on YouTube also depends on the time. And if your goal is monetization, it’s better to publish videos when advertisers give the highest bids. Usually, this time interval coincides with the average peak of activity.

How to precisely determine the best time to upload on Youtube channel

Studies show that if the peak falls on Wednesday evening, it doesn’t mean that it will be the same for your channel. Your audience may be watching videos early in the morning while commuting to work by taxi or bus. Therefore, it’s better to find the right time to upload videos specifically for your channel. It only takes two steps.

Find the peak of activity

You can view the audience characteristics on YouTube’s Creator Studio. Log in and go to the ‘Analytics’ → ‘Audience’ tab. The path is exactly the same in the mobile app studio.

Scroll down the tab to the activity information section: it’s the “When your viewers watch videos on YouTube” section. The hours of the highest activity are highlighted in the brightest color.

The report includes data not only about subscribers but also about those who watch your videos without subscribing. However, it reflects not the views of your videos specifically but the time when viewers use YouTube.

In general, it’s possible and necessary to rely on this data. If you release a new video when viewers are on the video hosting, the chance of getting additional views is much higher. In our example, people watch videos mostly on weekdays from 5 PM to 8 PM and slightly at 12 PM on Sunday. Therefore, you should publish videos so that they are already out by this time.

Find the best time based on countries

You can also rely on additional indicators, such as income received from residents of different countries. It may be the case that users from the US watch you early in the morning and are marked on the chart in a light color, so you might think that this audience is not really relevant. But it may also be that particularly this audience brings more money than the main audience.

To find out best time to upload a video on YouTube based on your TA’s country of residence, pay attention to the ‘Top Countries’ report. It’s located on the same tab. It shows the countries where most of your viewers are from.

Inside, you can see which countries’ residents have brought you the most revenue from monetization, donations within YouTube, and so on. To do this, select an additional indicator in the report.

Scroll down a bit, and the system will show you how much money you received from viewers broken down by location. In our case, it’s logical: most of the viewers are from the US. It does bring in more revenue, so marketing should be focused on Americans.

Remember that if your target audience is in a different time zone, be sure to upload videos according to when they’re most active. It is their local time — not yours. This will maximize engagement.

Explore your audience and watch time

One more thing that is quite basic but still. You need to know your audience to define the proper time to upload your videos on YouTube. This will help you better understand the needs of your followers and sometimes adapt your content for more views and likes.

1. Go to YouTube Analytics. Log in to your YouTube account and go to YouTube Studio.
2. Go to Audience. In the left-hand menu, click on ‘Analytics’ and then ‘Audience.’
3. Explore Demographics. This section has info about age, gender, location, and even devices of your subscribers. You can see these demographics in various timeframes (last 28 days, last 90 days, and so on).
   • Age. Analyze which age group forms your biggest subscriber base. This helps improve content topics and styles to create the content your audience really wants to see.
   • Location. If you know where your subscribers are from, then you can easily localize your content (subtitles, titles). Or try to collaborate with YouTubers in those regions.
   • Device. See if your viewers primarily watch on desktops, mobiles, or tablets. This can affect the type of content you create. For example, mobile-friendly thumbnails, and shorter videos for on-the-go viewers.

Also, check the watch time of your videos:

1. Go to Watch Time. In the YouTube Analytics left-hand menu, under “Analytics,” click on “Watch Time.”
2. Analyze audience retention. This section shows how long people typically watch your videos. Look for drop-off points where viewers lose interest. Based on that, try to determine ideal video lengths and think about sections that you can improve.
3. Watch time by demographics. Combine watch time data with demographics to see which subscriber groups engage most with your content. Try to refine your content strategy for a specific part of your audience.

Examples of videos uploaded at the right time

In essence, every video that’s trending is uploaded at the right time. Trending videos are those that YouTube algorithms consider the most interesting. Sometimes there are videos on topics that are not clear to most viewers.

YouTube Shorts are getting more and more popular. Check out our article about Youtube Shorts monetization!

Personal experience

There are videos whose reach is influenced by both the time and the chosen topic. For example, there’s a person in our team who has a channel dedicated to videogames. And this person shares their experience:

‘On my channel, I talk about mobile online games and film videos with gameplay. When I decided to publish a video message to the developers, I uploaded it before the peak of activity. As a result, it received twice as many views as other videos on average.’

Other ways to boost your videos

Time is not the only factor that affects reach. You can promote your videos in different ways as well.

• Fill in the tags correctly. This is important for SEO. Thanks to tags, the algorithms understand what the video is about and recommend it to the relevant audience.
• Choose interesting topics. Generally, the topic is the most important factor that affects the reach. The more interesting your video is to a wide audience, the more views it will collect. But we also see almost every day that there are some… not really meaningful videos in the Recommendations section on YouTube, like silly and funny videos that were uploaded years ago. For some reason, YouTube decided to recommend it now.
• Monitor the quality of your content. Few people will watch a video where nothing is clear, and the sound quality is bad. Especially now, when there is an abundance of content. Keep the bar high and constantly control the quality of your videos.
• Social media promotion. Share your video across your social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) to reach a wider audience. Show snippets of your video or use eye-catching visuals to raise interest.
• Collaborations. Partner with YouTubers in your niche for content collaborations. This can open your channel to a new audience and attract more views and subscribers.

Track audience reactions to your videos in the ‘YouTube Creator Studio’ to understand which videos they like and continue in the same spirit.

If you need views only to join the video hosting partner program or for affiliate marketing, you can opt for an easier solution — buying monetized channels. You buy a ready-made channel and work with it, instead of spending time developing it from scratch.

Conclusion

There are different nuances regarding the best time to upload a video on YouTube. However, with lots of caveats, a thing to start from is quite simple: subtract 1-2 hours from the peak of activity — and you get the best time for uploading. But to find this peak of activity, you need to at least use Google Analytics and YouTube Creator Studio.

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Kristine Perrett

Kristine Perrett is an SMM specialist with over 5 years of experience. Currently working as a curator at an online SMM school, Kristine combines her rich educational background, including certifications from leading programs like the Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate by Meta and the Social Media Certification by HubSpot, with practical expertise to craft insightful articles and co-authored pieces that resonate with digital marketing professionals and enthusiasts alike. Her works represent deep understanding of social media's power in shaping brands and engaging audiences.

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