The only thing worse than the endless “Is this still available?” messages that come with posting something on Facebook Marketplace is posting an item and receiving no views or messages for days or weeks.
So, if you want to get your item viewed and sold as quickly as possible, is there a best day or time to list your item? Well, let’s go over a few things:
(Be sure to read the end of this post for a little strategy I use to maximize potentials views of what I list.)
1. The two factors that ultimately impact the number of views and messages you receive are; The item you are selling, and your listing price. If you are selling something that might be more to a niche’ audience, you are going to have a hard time getting a ton of views. At the same time if you price the item ridiculously high, people aren’t going to bother even clicking on the post. As a general rule of thumb, I typically list everyday items for about half of what they would retail for, even if the item is brand new. People search on Facebook Marketplace to get a bargain, not to pay full price.
2. Ultimately, date and time of posting only matter when it comes to your local groups where people might see the post on their feed. Within the marketplace section of the app, people typically see items that are related to what they have search for.
3. There are a ton of studies that have been done on when is the best time to post on Facebook in general. These studies all use different metrics and, SURPRISE! Many of them disagree with each other.
Here is a blog post that says Thursday-Saturday is the best time to post in general.
And here is an info graphic that says the complete opposite:
The one thing these blogs and studies all agree on is that the best times to post are late morning (between 10:00am-12:00pm). So, we can take that into consideration. However, when it comes to Facebook Marketplace, I’ve found out a few things on my own (I have zero empirical data to back this up, It’s just what I have experienced).
4. Posting an item on Tuesdays and Wednesday morning (typically between 9:00AM-12:00PM) have seemed to have the best response for me. People aren’t always available to pick up at these times, but they do view my items or reach out more on these days. This doesn’t always mean that people will see the item I posted on their feed at that time, but as the day goes on it seems to still be in view for them.
5. I receive a ton of messages and views overnight, but I NEVER post at night. I’m not sure if it is because people are bored at night, are more impulsive, or just feel like shopping, but it seems like every morning I wake up to a few “Is this still available?” messages. However, if I post an item in the evening, it almost never gets seen. This could be because it gets drowned out on feeds by non marketplace posts.
6. I don’t get a great response when I post an item on the weekend. I still end up posting quite a bit on the weekend, because that is when I have the most time, but rarely do a get a good response unless it is a great item.
7. If you aren’t shipping the item, rather than clicking the “relist” button after a week, delete and re-post. Renewing the item doesn’t cause it to get re-posted on people’s feeds from local yard sale groups. The only way to get it to show up again on people’s feeds is either to have someone comment on the post, (like a friend or family member) or deleting and re-listing manually.
8. Sometimes I will have a friend or family member go through some of my posts and message me about my items. I’m not sure if this is actually true, but it seems like the minute I get one message about an item, I start to get many more. I can’t promise that it will cause more people to see it, but it has seemed to help me in the past.
9. Some people “offer” shipping even if they won’t actually ship the item because it makes it available to more people outside of their search radius. You can do this if you want, but ultimately it won’t help you sell the item. If you are selling children’s clothes in New Jersey for porch pickup, people aren’t going to drive from Missouri for them, no matter how good the deal is.
Now, before I share a little “hack” I use to get the item viewed by as many people as possible, I just want to re-iterate that ultimately it will all come down to pricing and what you are selling. If you are selling something that people want, they will find it at any time!
My Little “Local Yardsale Group” Strategy
More than likely, in your area there is more than one “yard sale,” “buy, sell, trade,” etc., marketplace group. There might be one for your town, for your county, and even for the next few towns over. First things first, you should join ALL of these groups, as Facebook Marketplace makes it incredibly easy to list in all of them without any extra work.
Here is the thing though, many people belong to the multiple groups. Chances are if your neighbor Barry belongs to your town’s yard sale group, he also belongs to the county yard sale group. But what if you are posting an item on a Tuesday to all of these groups at once and Barry doesn’t go on Facebook on that Tuesday? Barry might actually have been interested in buying your gently used cast-iron frying pan, but well…he never saw the post because it was showing in all the groups he belonged to on a day he wasn’t browsing Facebook. Barry isn’t really searching for a cast-iron frying pan, so he might not find it in the Marketplace section, but he would have been happy to buy it if he would have been inspired by your incredible description.
That would be a bummer…but what if you could maximize the chances of Barry seeing it, by listing it each day of the week in a different local yard sale group? Facebook Marketplace makes this incredibly easy to do.
When you first post an item, list it to marketplace and maybe one or two local groups. The next day go to your listings and click the three dots next to your listing. Go down to “list in more places” and list in another group or two. Keep doing this each day until you’ve run out of groups.
Each day it is now popping up new in a different group to show up on the feed of people who belong to multiple groups. If they miss it on Tuesday, they still might have a chance to see it on Thursday. After all, what would be the benefit of people seeing it three times from three different groups on the same day? Try this out and let me know how it goes!
You might have a few other strategies or dates/times that seem to work best for you, and I would love to hear about them. Shoot me an email at nooverheadbook@gmail.com and let me know your experience.
If you found these tips helpful, my short 51 page book, No Overhead: A Side Hustle Guide for Turning Free Inventory into Real Money is full of tips and strategies for making money on eBay, Facebook Marketplace and other sites without having to put out any money on your own. It’s available as a paperback, Kindle Book, or on Apple Books.
Happy selling!
-Jeremy
No Overhead 