What is the best time to post YouTube Shorts?
In general, for short-form content, the best time to post YouTube Shorts is during the evenings or on weekends as that is when most people get on the regular YouTube app.
That is one pro tip!
Think about how many people scroll through short-form videos, including TikTok videos, Instagram Reels and Instagram Stories, on their mobile devices in bed before going to sleep.
It makes sense as to why a lot of people are on YouTube at night and on the weekends!
But that’s the average time for the 2.6 billion users on YouTube.
If you want to succeed as a small business on the platform, you’ll need to get more specific than that.
Follow our complete guide on the best time to post YouTube Shorts for your specific audience!
You’ll need to answer the question, what is the best time to post YouTube Shorts for your specific audience!
To do that, you’ll need to become comfortable with YouTube Studio, YouTube Analytics and the Shorts algorithm.
Takeaways
- It’s important to pay attention to your Shorts videos’ analytics so you can make informed decisions based on your specific data and target audience.
- If you don’t have enough viewers to fuel your analytics yet, test and see what time works best for you.
- If after some time you’ve been publishing your new product or service at the best time to post but still not seeing any go viral, then start looking at some other factors.
How to film YouTube Shorts
1. Sign in to your YouTube mobile app (if you do not have the YouTube app, you can access it in the App Store)
2. Once you’re on your home page, tap the create button
3. In order to make your Short a longer video than 15 seconds, you will need to tap the 15 above the red record button
4. To start recording, you will press the red record button and once the video ends you will release the button – you also have speed controls and a countdown timer (editing features) that you’ll see to the right
5. Once you are finished recording on your Shorts camera, you will post.
6. Now, if the video you want to publish is in your camera roll, you will find it to the left of the red record button
YouTube Shorts is a fairly new feature which came out a couple of years ago, in 2020. Unlike TikTok, Shorts offers you a Shorts fund meaning you are able to monetize YouTube Shorts.
If you want more tips on how to monetize your YouTube videos, here’s our post about that.
Understanding YouTube Analytics
YouTube Studio is where mobile creators upload their videos, view analytics for each video and their channel overall, and more.
You can also use the search bar at the top to search videos across your channel. Here’s a sneak peek:
It’s important to pay attention to your videos’ analytics so you can make informed decisions based on your specific data and audience.
If you go to your YouTube homepage, then YouTube Studio and click Analytics, then tap over to the audience Shorts tab, and scroll down, you’ll see this chart titled “When your viewers are on YouTube.”
Looking at this will tell many creators when the majority of their specific viewers get on YouTube, which helps them figure out when to upload Shorts.
If you ever wondered why we post at 10 AM on weekdays- now you know.
It’s important to take this data into account because if we just went by the national average and posted on nights and weekends…
…we would be missing the window of time that our audience gets online!
So refer to this chart if you want to know the best time to make Shorts and post them for your specific customer base.
Some of you may not have developed a large YouTube subscriber base yet. If that’s the case, then you may not have enough data in this chart to go off of yet.
Now if you want to learn more tips for your YouTube marketing, here’s our full tutorial on how to upload videos on YouTube and how to create YouTube playlists.
And if you want to reach more viewers on YouTube and make money, check out our expert short video management services today to learn more about how we can help!
So, what is the best time to post YouTube Shorts if you don’t have enough viewers to fuel your analytics yet?
YouTube’s answer is to test and see what time works well for you. I would start with the average times mentioned previously: on nights and weekends.
If you’re not getting the views you want from that, try posting at earlier times and on weekdays.
A few other best practices to increase your engagement would be to add captions, add text, add filters, and add music to your videos.
Your Short’s videos can be up to 60 seconds long, so make the best out of those 60 seconds!
The goal here is to publish engaging content so you can start acquiring views, subscribers, and data.
The more you have of those 3 things, the more you’ll be able to dial into the best time for your specific niche.
If you want to learn how to get more views on your YouTube videos, you can check out that blog there.
That will help you build the data you need to get started.
What To Do If Posting At The Best Time Isn’t Enough
If after some time, you’ve been publishing at the best time to post YouTube Shorts but you’re still not seeing any go viral, it’s probably time to look at some other factors.
It could be that your audience doesn’t care about or relate to the topics you’re posting.
If your original content strategy isn’t resonating with your customers, you need to reevaluate your content topic map. This will improve your YouTube experience moving forward when creating content.
If you feel this is the case, start a live stream and ask your audience what topics they’d like you to post about.
Or, bad news, maybe you’re not getting views because when you create Shorts, the hook isn’t attention-grabbing enough.
Or maybe it’s the audios you’re using! Maybe they’re not trending well. Try using different audio clips!
For example, as many of you may know the “Charlie bit my finger” audio, this video was viewed over 900 million times.
Since the engagement was so strong, this would have been a great audio for company’s to take advantage of.
Start looking at other things that could be preventing your views from skyrocketing when using Shorts then discover a new way to start increasing your engagement.
Thumbnails play a large role is your Shorts engagement. Try using a custom thumbnail to help increase your views!
Once you get those issues ironed out, identifying the best time to post YouTube Shorts to your Shorts feed will allow creators like you to receive the extra boost they need to go viral.
You have around 24 hours to receive the most watch time, so make sure that you follow this ultimate guide!
