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The Best Time to Launch a Crowdfunding Campaign

This week I want to share my findings on the best time to launch a crowdfunding campaign.

First of all, you should know that before you launch a campaign you need time to prepare, probably months, and there is nothing rushing you to launch your campaign.

You should launch a campaign only when you know you are ready (when you have enough subscribers in your mailing list, you have created the perfect pitch video, and/or sacrificed enough chickens to your deity of choice). Once you know when you’ll be ready, then choose the best date around that time.

PLEDGES BY DAY OF THE WEEK (DATA FROM KICKSTARTER)

Which is the best day to launch a crowdfunding campaign?

Weekdays are the most successful launch days, while weekends are the worst.

  • Monday: An okay day. People will be starting their weeks, dragging themselves to work so they can sleep in their desks. Press will be busy, so you won’t get good coverage.
  • Tuesday: The best day to launch a project. People will have some down time to browse the web … so it’ll be either Lubhub or Kickstarter.
  • Wednesday: A good day. This is the day where most people pledge money.
  • Thursday: An okay day.
  • Friday: A bad day. People will be busy fake-working while planning their weekends.
  • Saturday and Sunday: The worst days. People will be either partying or spending family time with their cats.

Some other info I gathered:

  • Most people launch on a Tuesday and end on a Thursday (so that they include Wednesday, which is the day with most pledges).
  • Avoid launching or ending your campaign on a holiday. People’s attention will be elsewhere.
  • Dates near the 1st and 15th of the months may be the best, since most people get paid during those days.
  • Then again, some say the first week of the month may not be the greatest since most people pay their bills during that time.

In our case, we’ve decided to launch our first campaign on the 15th, which is a Tuesday AND a payday! All the signs are aligning for the Blobbies!

PLEDGES BY HOUR OF THE DAY (DATA FROM KICKSTARTER)

Which is the best hour to Launch a crowdfunding campaign?

The best time to launch a campaign, is during the times when people are online, which usually is before starting work or during lunch time.

Statistically, 6 pm UTC (1 pm EST) is the most popular hour with pledges, so some people recommend this time to launch your campaign.

But other people recommend launching between 12 pm and 2 pm UTC (7 am and 9 am EST) for a few reasons:

  • If you have press releases setup or press coverage, they will be released early in the day so you want to have your campaign page live early.
  • People check their emails first thing in the morning, so when you send an email to your mail list, they would most likely read it if it arrives early in the day.
  • Some people recommend having a good first full day of pledges (it looks good), so starting early in the day might be beneficial.

You also have to know where your main backers live and at what time they are awake … uhmm … that might have sounded way too stalky … I just mean, that if the majority of your backers live in the UK, then launch in the UK’s morning.

You also have to keep in mind that, in platforms like Kickstarter, your campaign will end at the same hour that it starts, so it’s better if you choose a time when your backers are awake at the beginning and at the end of your campaign.

In our case, we plan to launch at 12 pm UTC which is will be 8 am EST in New York and Lima, 5 am in California, and early afternoon in Europe. We have all of our bases covered!

PERCENT OF PLEDGES DURING THE CAMPAIGN DURATION (DATA FROM KICKSTARTER)

How long should your campaign last?

If you think that having a longer campaign time frame will give you more time to collect pledges, you’d be SO wrong.

Shorter campaigns give better results than longer campaigns, usually because:

  • Backers will sense “urgency” and the need to act fast. Otherwise, they leave it for later and forget to pledge.
  • It’s easier to keep the excitement and momentum during a shorter campaign.
  • It forces you and your hard-working minions to procrastinate less.

Statistically, 35 days is the average length of successful crowdfunding campaign, with most of the funding coming in first days and the last days of the campaign. It is recommended that you run your campaign for 30 days. If you are familiar with crowdfunding and/or have a large base of followers, you can run it for less than 30 days. If you are new at crowdfunding, 35 days might be better since it’ll give you a little more time for the press and backers to discover your campaign.

So, after reviewing all this info, we plan to start the Blobbies’ Kickstarter campaign on Tuesday October 15th at 8 am EST and end it on Saturday November 16th at 8 am EST (32 days).

I would have preferred it to end it on Thursday morning and keep it at 30 days, but since Friday is a pay day I think it’ll be good to have the campaign active on Friday. Then again, people might be Tindering all Friday getting ready for some disco dancing and may not care about the Blobbies at all. We shall see …

So, until next week! Please don’t forget to join our mail list and support the Blobbies, because they love you 🙂