Why there is no single best time
You will find confident claims about the one best day and hour. Treat them with care: they describe someone else's audience, not yours. A webinar for finance teams, one for parents running a side business and one for a global user community will each have a different sweet spot. The honest answer is it depends, and the useful answer is how to work it out for your own people.
Reason from your audience's day
Picture a typical attendee and walk through their day. When are they commuting, in back-to-back meetings, picking up children, eating lunch, or finally sitting down with some quiet? The best slot is the one where they can give you full attention without stealing it from something else.
- Business audiences: avoid the first hour of the working day and the last hour before the weekend. Mid-morning or early afternoon on a weekday is a sensible starting point.
- Customers in their working day: fit around their usual meeting rhythm, and keep the session short.
- Coaches, creators and community audiences: many join outside work hours, so an early evening slot or a weekend morning may suit better.
- Internal company audiences: book where the calendar is calmest, and send the invitation far enough ahead to secure the slot.
Time zones
If your audience spans regions, choose the zone where most attendees live and make sure the time is reasonable for the next-largest group. A slot that is late morning for one group and early evening for another often works. When no single time is fair, run the session twice rather than asking half your audience to join at an unreasonable hour. Always state the time zone in the invitation, and give guests an add-to-calendar button so their calendar converts it for them; the branded waiting room includes one, along with a countdown that shows the time left wherever the guest is.
Days and seasons
Within the week, the middle days tend to be calmer for working audiences than the edges, but test it. Across the year, think about public holidays, school holidays, financial year-ends, industry conferences and busy seasons in your audience's work. A great time on an ordinary week can be a poor time on the week before a holiday.
Test it with your own events
The most reliable answer comes from your own audience. Try two or three different slots across your next sessions, keeping the topic and promotion similar, and note who registers, who turns up and who stays. You can also simply ask: put a short question on your registration form or in your community about which times suit people. A handful of honest answers from real attendees beats a general rule.
Make the time you choose work
Whatever slot you pick, help people turn up. Send the invitation early, include the time zone and an add-to-calendar link, and send a reminder shortly before. Start on time, so people learn that your sessions begin when you said; with a branded room, guests wait in your lobby and you press Start the room to bring everyone in at once. And finish when you promised, which makes the next booking easier for everyone.