I get this question a lot. Is there a best time of the year to launch a Kickstarter campaign? Is there a best day or time of the day to launch a Kickstarter? In this article, I’m going to address some of these questions.
First, let’s take a look at some crowdsourced answers from Quora (you can now specific an ending time for your campaign):
I think this post raises some good tips regarding planing. Thinking about how your project might land in tax season (when individuals might be getting rebates), Christmas (typically low engagement for most websites), and summer break are worthwhile on the “best time to launch” checklist. I also think that the time of the year you decide to launch can influence your PR strategy.
For example, in this post, I talked about how when conducting PR, you need to think about how your story fits into the overall media conversation. Can you capitalize on the types of news stories that are becoming popular around a particular holiday?
Finally, this Quora post brings up a good point about timezones. If you are launching a product that might appeal to backers interested in the California lifestyle as opposed to backers on the east coast (where you are located), it makes sense to have your deadlines, PR outreach, and social media postings coincide with their timezone instead of yours.
However, I also think the guys at BoardGameGeek brought up some good tips. You can click the images below to enlarge them.
Just as important as when to start is when you’d like the project to end. In the quote above, Hanson makes a good point that you should keep in mind the time (and timezone) when your project will be ending, as it’s been documented by several different creators that projects sometimes see a last minute surge in the final days/hours.
In the screenshot above (click it to enlarge) Schiavo argues that Kickstarter tends to see more traffic on weekdays, leading to less pledges on the weekend, and that another reason to be aware of the time of the year you plan to launch is that you could be liable for taxes in that year if you have unspent funds from the project. We went further into this in our “Kickstarter & Indiegogo Tax Implications” article.
What do other sources have to say?
In the article, “Timing and Length,” Stonemaier games, who have run several successful Kickstarters offer a bit of good advice: “If you put yourself in the shoes of a backer, try to figure out when they are most likely to discover your project or be there at the end. Make it about them and you’ll do just fine.” I’ve distilled a few more tips from the article below.
– Optimize your launch time for the “recently launched” section on Kickstarter. This likely meanings morning in the appropriate timezone.
– Plan to launch on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.
– Consider when most employees are paid (1st and 15th).
– Those last 48 hours will play an important part for some projects, so don’t have the project end on an awkward day or time.
TheComicStarter also had some sound advice on the best time to launch, drawing from their experience having launched three successful projects. “People are busy so the week between Christmas and New Years is dead. The rest of the yearseems pretty much the same in terms of activity online. This is anecdotal and comes from running about 8 websites for the last five years off and on. As far as Kickstarter activity goes, pledges seem to get back to normal a week or two after New Years.”
The article went on to say how since so many projects are launched from July to October, that the author recommends not launching during this time to avoid the competition. TheComicStarter also included a dataset: “I checked on the first or second of each month and just made a note in a spreadsheet. Below is a graph that came from all that number crunching. Since the graph covers 15 months you can clearly see the pattern begin to repeat.” You can click the graphic to be taken to the specific article on their website.
The article above got me thinking that there must be some more data on the number of Kickstarter projects that are launched over a course of a year and how it changes from month to month. I couldn’t find all that much information online related to the topic. Since Kickstarter was growing so much in the past few years, it’s also hard to spot trends from their own data.
Then, I came across this hidden gem. Although the article is focused on “zombie-themed” projects, it has some incredible data on the number of projects that are launched at different times of the month. I highly recommend checking it out.
Due to the Kickstarter approval process, some of these projects may have actually clicked “launch” two weeks after they actually submitted to Kickstarter.
If you want to try to launch when other projects are not, the above data may be helpful for you. Ultimately, I don’t think it’s an exact since in terms of time of day and day of the month, but I do think it’s important to keep your backers in mind. When will they be online and available to pledge?
A final dataset that I’d recommend reading through out was put together by ICO Partners and breaks down the funds pledged to projects in the gaming category by month for 2013. “Looking at 2012 and 2013 month-by-month is interesting: you see that the end of 2012 and the end 2013 had almost the exact same volume of money being pledged. The difference between the two years mostly happens in the first half. It is not a big stretch to imagine that a plateau has been reached and that variances are created by the “hits” (post $500k projects).”
Further Considerations
I’m sorry to say that I don’t think there is one definitive answer as to the best time to launch, but simply variables to keep in mind for your category, audience, and seasonal factors. However, I do think there are optimal times for social media marketing and PR, which could help inform your launch strategy.
If you’re looking for a comprehensive overview of the times to post on social media (and when your project might be shared), “A Scientific Guide to Posting Tweets, Facebook Posts, Emails, and Blog Posts at the Best Time” is a worthwhile read. Alternatively, you can check out the Infographic below.
If you’d like a quick fact sheet regarding optimal email times, I’ve included a quote below from another Buffer article,
“10pm–6am: This is the dead zone, when hardly any emails get opened.
6am–10am: Consumer-based marketing emails are best sent early in the morning.
10am-noon: Most people are working, and probably won’t open your email.
Noon–2pm: News and magazine updates are popular during lunch breaks.
2–3pm: After lunch lots of people buckle down and ignore their inbox.
3–5pm: Property and financial-related offers are best sent in the early afternoon.
5–7pm: Holiday promotions & B2B promotions get opened mostly in the early evening.
7–10pm: Consumer promotions are popular again after dinner.”
Conclusion
Finally, the only way we will help more creators discover the best time for launch for their category is if you help out! I started a thread on the forum asking this question. I’d appreciate it if you could leave your thoughts on the thread or as a comment on this article.
