When's the best time to run ads on Facebook to get people to see your awesome product or cause? That's the million-dollar question every marketer wants to know! Some say weekends, some say weeknights - everyone has an opinion. But the truth is, there's no one "magic hour" that works every time. This guide will walk you through the best strategies for scheduling Facebook ads, helping you maximize engagement and drive success. Let’s dive in!
The Best Time To Run Facebook Ads
The optimal time to run Facebook ads depends on your campaign goal and target audience. By analyzing performance data, you can identify peak days and times when users are most receptive.
- Early Mornings Drive Check-ins: Facebook usage spikes upon waking as users catch up on notifications and messages. Running ads between 6-9 AM capitalizes on this morning routine, driving strong click and engagement rates during these high-intent hours according to FB data.
- Weekday Afternoons See Sales Surges: External data on peak ecommerce conversion times corroborates Facebook insights showing higher midday engagement. Multiple studies highlight weekdays between 11 AM-1 PM as outsized sales drivers, especially critical for direct-response and mobile campaigns.
- Sundays and Mondays Boost Branding: Though counterintuitive, Facebook’s own metrics have recorded higher post and Page interactions on Sundays & Mondays for multiple clients. Scheduling awareness-focused branding content to run on weekends and campaign starts on Mondays may optimize results.
- Drill-Down By Audience and Objective: Not all audiences navigate Facebook alike. Analyze the native analytics within Ads Manager to identify conversion trends across days, device types, and demographic segments specific to your business vertical and campaign goals. Use these insights alongside industry benchmarks to determine ideal ad running times. Testing into unorthodox hours can uncover surprising pockets of high conversion.
Best Times to Run Facebook Ads: By Industry
Every industry has unique audience behavior patterns that dictate when Facebook ads will perform best. Aligning your ad delivery schedules with audience mindset and habits drives maximum engagement and conversions. Here are the proven timings to target by sector:
Ecommerce Brands: Weekends and Weeknights
Aim ecommerce ad schedules towards the moments when people have time to casually browse and shop online. Saturdays and Sundays tend to provide prime receptivity for product discovery. Weeknights from 7PM to 11PM are also fruitful as people relax from their day. With leisure to focus, weekend and evening attention converts.
B2B Services: Weekdays Mid-Morning and Afternoon
Professionals access Facebook sporadically amidst their workdays. Coffee and lunch breaks create scattered windows of availability. Maintain presence before attention fades by scheduling B2B ads weekdays 10AM to 1PM or later afternoons like 3PM to 5PM. Weekends lack the same commercial mindset. Target the workweek peaks of executive social browsing.
Health/Wellness Sites: Early Mornings And Post-Workout
Health-focused audiences engage differently across their daily routines. The moments after waking when exercise is top of mind offer high potential from 6AM to 8AM as do evenings after workouts around 6PM. Scheduling ads to inspire commitment to fitness goals taps into receptivity. Allow relevance to motivation to drive success.
Entertainment Companies: Primetime Evenings
Entertainment marketers should zero in around peak leisure hours after dinner from 8PM to midnight as consumers unwind. These nightly blocks capitalize on hunger for shows, movies, games and more as people decide on activity options. By mirroring entertainment habits rather than interrupting them, the odds of engagement multiply.
Restaurants/Food Services: Mealtimes
For restaurant marketers especially, highly specific daypart targeting aligned to mealtimes produces tremendous dividends. Reach lunchgoers from 11AM to 1PM daily, dinner audiences from 5PM to 8PM, and late night diners on weekends from 10PM to midnight. Ad presence within transaction windows pays off through impulsive orders placed.
The audiences, mindsets and purchasing motivations vary greatly depending on industry verticals. Carefully map Facebook ad frequency to the moments when your sector sees consumer availability and intent peak to drive optimal awareness and sales. Meet them where they are, not just where you are. Context-aligned timing outplays generic best guesses.
The Best Time to Run Facebook Ads by Region
With a platform as vast as Facebook, marketers must consider regional nuances in usage patterns to pinpoint when users are most receptive. From cultural variances to mobile habits, optimal timing differs greatly based on geography. Here's how to synchronize with audiences across key global zones.
North America: Early Evenings and Weekends
Americans access Facebook steadily through weekday evenings upon returning home after 5 p.m. Usage then peaks later from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. when winding down. Weekend browsing also spikes especially Saturday afternoons and evenings as people have more leisure time. Align North American schedules with evenings and weekends for visibility.
Europe: Mid-Day Breaks and Post-Work Evenings
Structured European work routines lead to increased midday Facebook activity as employees take lengthy lunch breaks between 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Strict evening meals around 8 p.m. also drive pre-dinner browsing. And Sunday remains a highly popular day in Europe for increased social media engagement. Target schedules around European work/life patterns.
Asia Pacific: Bookends of the Day
Asia Pacific usage concentrates from early mornings starting at 7 a.m. through multi-stage commutes as well as evenings 8 p.m. and beyond. Schedules should focus on these bookends of the day as habits drive visits pre-work and continuing late-night onwards. Concentrate spend when audiences are already active rather than trying to generate new behavior.
Incorporate localization and cultural insights rather than relying solely on broader global best practices for Facebook ad timing. Audiences engage differently across regions based on lifestyles and preferred platforms. Lead timing strategies with real user patterns within targeted countries for genuine resonance.
Align both budget allocation and messaging to each region’s defining moments of highest attention and engagement potential for your brand.
Still struggling to see results from your Facebook ads? Check out our guide on Facebook Ads Not Driving Any Sales for expert tips on optimizing your campaigns and maximizing your ROI.
Frequently Asked Question About time are people active on Facebook
To wrap up our deep dive on strategically timing your Facebook ads, let’s review answers to some of the critical questions businesses often ask:
When are users most active on Facebook?
Engagement peaks on weekdays during standard daytime working hours from 9AM to 5PM local time when people tend to browse during breaks. Usage also spikes evenings from 7PM to 11PM once people are home.
What's the best day of the week to run Facebook ads?
Wednesday and Thursday generally see higher clickthrough rates. However, analyzing your historical performance data by day to determine your own best days based on conversions is recommended over broader averages.
What are the best times a day to run Facebook ads?
Mornings 8AM-11AM tend to perform well as people check Facebook first thing from home or work. Lunch hours 11AM-1PM and mid-afternoons 2PM-5PM also see more conversions as people take Facebook breaks.
Should I run Facebook ads on weekends?
Yes, especially for B2C products and services. While weekdays are popular, Saturdays and Sundays often have more leisure time for browsing. Try testing weekends against weekdays to see if there’s any difference with your vertical.
How often should I change my Facebook ad schedules?
Analyze performance weekly and consider optimizations every 2-3 months. Run new A/B timing tests every 6 months. Adapt faster if you experience sudden performance shifts tied to timing.
Mohamed Fouad is a full-stack web developer and an entrepreneur who's really into advertising. He is the CEO of Rent Ads Agency, a company that helps businesses reach more customers through advertising. He graduated from Stanford University in 2018 and has over 4 years of experience in the tech industry.
