When is the best time for a small business to post on social media or run ads?
There is no single best time. Generic charts usually pool many other accounts, and a local service business's customers keep their own hours. Post when your own followers are active, which each platform's insights for your account can show, and run ads when someone can answer the phone. Google Ads campaigns are set to show ads all day by default, and a schedule can limit them to set days and hours. For most service businesses, the season matters more than the hour.
Why the charts mislead
A best-time chart is usually an average across many accounts in many fields. A plumber's customers search when something breaks, a landscaper's when the weather turns, and a tutor's when report cards arrive. An average of everyone often describes no one in particular, so treat any chart as a starting guess.
Find your own audience's hours
Many platforms show business accounts when their own followers are online, in the insights or analytics section of the app. Post at a few different times for a month and compare what happened. Your own lead records are better still: if inquiries arrive by the hour and day, you can see when customers actually reach out, which is the time that counts.
Ad scheduling, in plain words
Google Ads Help says campaigns are set to show ads "All day" by default, meaning ads are eligible to appear throughout each day, and that an ad schedule lets you choose the hours or days your ads show and raise or lower bids for particular times. It notes that ads will not show at a scheduled time if no one is searching then. It also says that with ad schedules, campaigns pace toward a monthly spend of 30.4 times the average daily budget regardless of how many days the campaign is active in a month. As general advice, do not assume that showing ads on fewer days means spending less.
Google's own example is a business that checked its day-and-hour results on the Ad schedule page before narrowing its schedule. Look at your own results the same way before you cut hours.
When to pause
Google's page mentions showing ads only during business hours, when you are available to handle customer inquiries, as one reason to set a schedule. As general advice, a click that turns into an unanswered call is usually money spent on a lead you lose, so if no one can answer at night or on weekends, either schedule ads around that or make sure missed calls are worked first thing; the related answer on handling leads after hours covers the routine.
Season before hour
For most service businesses, when in the year you push matters far more than the time of day. The related answer on marketing for seasonal businesses covers starting before the busy season. And when you compare times, judge them by inquiries, not likes; the related answer on vanity metrics explains why.
Sources
Related answers
- How should a seasonal business plan its marketing?
- How should a small business handle inquiries that arrive after hours?
- What are vanity metrics, and which numbers should a small business care about?
Lead generation and lead tracking
A lead that waits a day goes cold, and a lead with no source teaches you nothing. Ascent Vision fixes both.