The exact same message can produce double the result if it's sent at a different hour. Timing isn't a detail — it's one of the cheapest optimisations available, because it costs you nothing extra.
Start from your business, not a generic article
There's no single "best time" that works for everyone. What sets the timing is your customer:
- Restaurants and delivery: shortly before meal times — around 11am and 5–6pm.
- E-commerce: evenings after work, and weekends.
- B2B services: mid working day, ideally Tuesday and Wednesday.
- Clinics and appointments: early morning, with a reminder 24 hours ahead.
Times to avoid
- After 9–10pm: a marketing message at that hour turns into a complaint or a report.
- The first hour of the workday: people open their inbox and mass-delete anything promotional.
- Prayer times and iftar during Ramadan: respecting local context changes the impression you leave.
The day of the week matters too
The hour isn't everything — the day has an independent effect, especially across Egypt and the Gulf where weekends differ:
- Sunday and Monday: start of the working week — best for B2B and serious messages.
- Tuesday and Wednesday: usually the highest response overall; people have settled into the week.
- Thursday evening: excellent for leisure offers and restaurants — people are planning their weekend.
- Friday: avoid entirely before afternoon. After sunset it works well for retail.
- Saturday: end of the weekend in Egypt, start of the week in the Gulf — if you message both, split the campaigns.
Seasons rewrite the rules
Everything above shifts during certain periods:
- Ramadan: the rhythm inverts. The best windows are after iftar (8–11pm) and before suhoor. Avoid the hour before the call to prayer completely.
- Eid: the first two days respond poorly to marketing, and very strongly to greetings and to seasonal offers sent the week before.
- Start of the month: just after payday — the highest purchase readiness in Egypt.
- Back to school: mornings get crowded for parents; shift to evenings.
The send-time optimiser
Instead of guessing, Mersal (on plans that include campaign intelligence) analyses your audience's actual behaviour — when they open, when they reply — and proposes the best window. The difference is that it's describing your audience, not a global average.
Scheduling
Quick-preset scheduling lets you prepare a campaign when you have time and have it go out when your audience is around. There's no reason to stay up to press send.
Mind the daily send window too: on a large campaign with a low rate limit, sending can run past midnight. Set a daily window (say 10am–8pm) so the remainder waits for tomorrow instead of arriving at 2am.
The most important timing: immediate
One class of message has an optimal time of "right now" — event-driven notifications. An order confirmation an hour later is worthless. That's the job of automation and notifications, not scheduled campaigns.
Test it yourself
Send the same campaign to two equal groups at two different times, and compare response, not delivery. Repeat it three times before trusting a result — once could be chance.
Common mistakes
- Copying a "best time" from a foreign article — American timing has nothing to do with your audience.
- Launching a large campaign with no daily window, so messages arrive overnight.
- Ignoring time zones when sending across more than one country.
- Changing timing and content together — you'll never know which caused the result.
- Applying marketing-campaign timing to operational notifications.
Frequently asked questions
How much does timing really matter? On WhatsApp the reply-rate gap between a good and a bad hour can be double.
Should I send on public holidays? For leisure marketing yes, for B2B no.
What if my audience spans countries? Split them into groups by country and send each in its own local window.
