What are the best days to run Facebook ads?

Tuesday through Thursday reign supreme. These mid-week days hit the sweet spot—competition's moderate, CPMs drop 10-15% versus Monday crush and weekend panic buys, conversion intent peaks. Marketers hit Mondays hard (everyone's fired up post-weekend), advertisers exhaust Friday budgets early. Wednesday-Thursday? Everyone's sleeping. That's your arbitrage.

Timing within day matters equally. Peak hours are 8-11pm EST (evening scrolls), though this varies by audience. Gen Z? 9pm-midnight. Business owners? 7-9am breakfast scroll or 12-1pm lunch doom-scroll. Test your crowd's prime time. Run analytics 2-3 weeks, identify when your CTR peaks, concentrate budget there.

Monday's actually sneaky. Conventional wisdom says avoid, but if you're targeting business owners for B2B (web dev outreach), Monday morning 8-10am when they're reviewing weekend backlog converts solid. Work emails, checking sites for issues—your ad lands. But Monday general retail? Weak. Context matters.

Weekends tank performance. Saturday and Sunday, CPMs jump 25-40% because advertisers fight for same eyeballs. People browse casually, lower purchase intent. Exceptions exist: e-commerce weekends boost (people shopping for deliveries), entertainment content thrives (concerts, restaurants for date night). Lifestyle, fashion, events? Weekend gold. B2B, professional services, SaaS? Skip weekends.

Avoid Tuesday 9-11am specifically. This is Google's major ad run time—their search ads peak, Facebook audiences distract elsewhere. Wait until afternoon 1-4pm. By evening 7-11pm, Facebook has dedicated scrollers.

Thursday through Friday evening 6-10pm pulls conversions. End-of-week mindset—"treat yourself," impulse buying peaks. Music promotions crush Thursday-Friday evening (weekend plans forming). E-commerce similar. This window's premium-priced but converts hot.

Friday 2-5pm lulls hard. Too early for evening fun vibes, too late for work productivity. Avoid blanket Friday coverage.

Seasonality dominates longer arcs. Q4 November-December (holiday shopping, Black Friday prep), ads crush. September back-to-school spike. January resolutions surge (gym, courses). Tax season March-April (finance content). These windows, spend aggressively—conversions reward.

Avoid major holidays completely. Labor Day, Thanksgiving week, Christmas week through New Year, Independence Day—CPMs soar 50-100%, conversion intent dies (people traveling, family time, distracted). Unless selling holiday-specific stuff, pause campaigns.

Political seasons matter. Election years (2024 was one, next 2028), political ad spending surges Q4, inflating costs. Primary seasons spike. Non-election, non-political years, costs stabilize.

Regional timing: if targeting different zones, schedule accordingly. Monday 8am hits East Coast early. Tuesday 11am catches West Coast. Geo-specific promotions? Match local prime time. Haul an event in Austin Thursday evening? Run ads Monday-Wednesday to build hype, Thursday noon boost attendance.

Music drop strategy: release day timing critical. Drop Tuesday noon, run ads Tuesday evening through Friday evening. Tuesday gives 5 days pre-weekend hype. Thursday release? Weekend's hit-or-miss, you've wasted velocity. Wednesday underrated—hit streaming playlists Thursday, ads amplify Wednesday.

Web agency outreach: Monday-Thursday 8am-4pm (business hours). Agencies checking email, reviewing proposals. After 5pm dead—they're out. Weekends irrelevant. Saturday Sunday? Waste.

Testing protocol: pick one day/time window, run $50/day for 7-14 days. Track CTR, CPC, conversions. Repeat different window. Spreadsheet compare. Your data beats generic advice every time. Audience behavior varies by niche, location, product.

2026 trends: AI optimization auto-adjusts timing now. Advantage+ campaigns bid heavier during hours/days your audience converts. Set it, Meta handles timing dynamically. Manual campaigns? You optimize. Auto campaigns? Machine does heavy lifting.

Frequency frequency caps prevent burnout. Show same person ad max 2-3 times weekly. Wednesday reshow Thursday. Skip Friday, hit Monday fresh. Fatigue kills CTR faster than day choice. Rotate creative constantly.

Competitive intelligence: Facebook Ad Library free tool shows competitors' ad schedule. If every dev agency competitor runs Tuesday morning, run Wednesday-Thursday. Undercut the crowd, lower bids, same eyeballs.

Budget allocation: 40% peak hours/days, 30% secondary windows, 30% testing new times. This spreads risk, maximizes proven windows, tests discovery.

Real example: local coffee shop tested ad schedule. Monday-Friday 8-10am expensive but low conversion. Tuesday-Thursday 6-10pm cheap, 5x ROAS. Shifted budget there, monthly spend same, revenue tripled. Day-of-week + time-of-day combined powerful.

Pitfall: fire-and-forget scheduling. Set it Sunday, forget it runs all week same time regardless of performance. Check daily, adjust. Meta lets pause/resume specific day-time combos. Use it.

Paid boost windows: Black Friday (November 24-29), Cyber Monday (November 27-December 1), Christmas (December 15-24), New Year (December 26-January 2), Valentine's (February 7-14). These windows, if selling relevant, go aggressive. Rest of year? Moderate spend, test relentlessly.

Verdict: Tuesday-Thursday your baseline. Find your audience's peak hour (7-11pm usually). Avoid weekends unless selling weekend-specific stuff. Test aggressively, kill what flops same day. Rotate creative constantly (same day, fresh ad tanks fast). Combine timing + creative freshness + landing page optimization, costs plummet 20-40%, conversions double. Timing alone won't save bad ads, but good ads + perfect timing = profit.