For marketing managers on Instagram, timing is everything. Posting to Instagram when your audience isn’t online is like putting on a play in the middle of the night. It doesn’t matter how good it is, no one is going to see it.

Your Instagram posts need to be seen by the widest audience possible. To do that, you need to post at the right moment.

What’s the best time to post on Instagram?

This is actually the wrong question. There is no universal best time to post on Instagram or most active hours in general. The best time to post depends on your audience, and that is data you can find out easily (see below). Ignore tips that declare a universal best time to post on Instagram. They might not even be in your time zone!

An athletic wear brand might have followers who check Instagram before their morning workouts, while a TV show’s Instagram account might be visited more in the evening, when the show is on. Your target audience will like and comment on your posts at a different time than another brand’s target audience. That’s why posting when your followers are online is so important.

When should I post on Instagram?

When it comes to picking a time to post on Instagram, it’s all about your followers and their Insta habits — when their most active hours are on Instagram, specifically. To find out when your audience is most likely to engage with your posts, follow the steps outlined below.

Step 1: Log in to your Crowdbabble account

Step 2: Select your Instagram report, or add a new one

You can find out the best times to post for any Instagram account that you add to your Crowdbabble dashboard. You might be surprised at how different they are for each of your brands.

Step 3: Visit the Engagement tab

Once you’re in a report, the best time to post is just two clicks away. You can adjust the time period on the left. We suggest choosing time periods roughly by season, so you can find the best time to post for your audience in fall, winter, spring, summer. Your audience’s habits will likely shift along those lines, with seasonal events like the start of school. Or, you can look at the best time to post based on data from an entire year.

Step 4: Select Time-Parting

This tab tells you how to strike when the iron is hot: when your audience is online and ready to comment. Time-Parting tracks comments from followers and any other users on Instagram, so you can catch your whole audience — even those who haven’t followed you yet.

Crowdbabble’s Time-Parting Analysis tells you the best time to post on Instagram for your audience. Crowdbabble tracks the times that Instagram users engage with your content. Peak Comments by Followers is the time of day you should post to Instagram. Peak Post Activity is the time of day that you post to Instagram the most. Ideally, these two metrics should match closely.

For GQ, the best time to post is between 5 PM and 6 PM, when their followers engage with their content the most. GQ should shift its posting strategy from early mornings to after work. Clearly, the window after work yields the highest engagement.  That’s when GQ’s audience checks their Instagram feeds.

What day should I post on Instagram?

If you’ve been a Crowdbabble customer for more than 30 days, you get access to a slew of additional features. To figure out the best time and day to post on instagram, use the time-parting heat map.

To access the ideal time and day to post on Instagram, visit your Instagram report and select the peelback. That’s the thing in the top right corner.

From there, visit Engagement and Time-Parting in the new report layout.

The heat map shows the best time and day to post on Instagram on one graph. The most brighter the colour, the more engagement occurred at that time.

Are your audience members night owls or early risers? What days are they online?

GQ’s audience on Instagram stays up late. As you can see in the heatmap, engagement rises for GQ on Instagram as the day goes on. GQ’s audience checks Instagram in the evening, and they’re hungry for GQ content on Thursday nights in particular.

Strike When the Iron is Hot

Now you know when your audience checks Instagram, and when they’re most likely to engage with your content.

Crowdbabble’s time-parting analysis is decision-making data. Have we given our users too much power? Maybe.