How do I find the post types and posting days that work?

PostSnag finds the post types and posting days that actually work by breaking down everything you've captured in Analytics, specifically the Post types donut, the Engagement composition chart, and the Posts by day bar chart, then lets you confirm the pattern by sorting and filtering an individual profile's own page.

This works whether you're studying your own account, a single competitor, or a whole niche's worth of profiles, once you've captured the posts to feed it. The only requirement is having something in your library to analyze; Analytics has nothing to show until you've captured and exported at least one profile.

Before you start

• PostSnag is installed, and you're signed into both Facebook and PostSnag.

• You've captured at least one profile. A brand-new account sees "Your analytics light up after your first capture" instead of charts.

• You know what you're trying to isolate: your own account, one competitor, or a mix across a niche. This changes how you read the charts, covered below.

1. Capture the profile or profiles you want to study

Open the profile, scroll steadily while the panel captures each post, and click Export To Dashboard once you've covered as much history as you want. See How do I capture posts from a Facebook profile? Repeat for every profile you want folded into the picture; capture works one profile at a time.

[Screenshot: The PostSnag panel mid-scroll, with the Collected count climbing]

2. Post types: what format shows up most

Open Analytics from the left navigation and find the Post types donut chart. It breaks down the mix of Video, Photo, Album, Reel, Link, and Text posts you've captured, with a count and percentage for each. This answers "what does this account post most," which is a different question from "what actually works," and it's easy to mix the two up. A profile can post mostly photos out of habit while something else entirely is doing the heavy lifting on engagement. That's what the next section tests.

3. Engagement composition: how each type actually performs

Just below Post types, Engagement composition is a tabbed chart, one tab per post type you've captured, showing how likes, comments, and shares split within that specific type. This is where "we post a lot of photos" and "photos are what work" get tested against each other directly. If video posts pull noticeably more shares than photos do, or Reels pull comments that photos never do, it's visible here as a real number, not a hunch based on whichever post you happen to remember doing well.

[Screenshot: The Engagement composition chart with tabs for Video, Photo, and Text visible]

4. Posts by day: when to actually post

Posts by day is a Monday-through-Sunday bar chart based on when posts were originally published on Facebook, not the day you happened to capture them, with the busiest day highlighted. If a particular day consistently outpaces the rest for a profile or niche, that's worth matching. Treat a single standout day with caution if the sample is thin: one viral post landing on a Tuesday can make Tuesday look like a pattern when it's really one outlier.

5. Confirm the pattern at the profile level

Analytics rolls up everything in your account, which is good for spotting a broad pattern but not built for isolating one profile cleanly once you've captured several. To double-check what Analytics is telling you against one specific profile:

1. Open that profile's own page.

2. Set Sort to Most reactions, then check again with Most comments and Most shares.

3. Use the type chips, All, Video, Photo, Album, Link, Text, to isolate the format Engagement composition flagged as the strongest performer, and see whether that holds up post by post, not just in the aggregate chart.

4. Add the Date filter, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, Last 90 days, or All time, if you want to check whether the pattern is recent or has held over a longer stretch.

This profile-level check is also where you'll notice if one or two outlier posts are skewing what Engagement composition shows for the whole account. See How do I filter, search, and sort a profile's posts?

Getting a clean read on just one profile in Analytics

Because Analytics totals everything you've captured, the cleanest read on a single profile's Post types and Posts by day happens right after you capture just that profile, before you move on to the next one. If you've already captured several profiles and want to isolate one again, that profile's own page, from the steps above, is the more reliable source, since its header stats and post grid are specific to that profile alone.

Apply it, then test and re-check

Once a pattern is clear, whichever post type Engagement composition shows carrying the account, whichever day Posts by day highlights as the peak, treat it as a starting point, not a guarantee. Test it against your own next few posts. Then capture the results the same way, and check Analytics again. A pattern that holds up after a second look is worth building a habit around; one that doesn't repeat was probably a coincidence the first time.

Common questions

Does Analytics show post types for just one profile, or my whole account?
Your whole account. It rolls up everything you've captured, so the read is cleanest right after capturing one profile and before adding the next, or by cross-checking that profile's own page directly.

What's the difference between Post types and Engagement composition?
Post types shows what you've captured the most of. Engagement composition shows how each type actually performs, likes versus comments versus shares. A profile can post mostly photos while video is what actually drives engagement.

Does Posts by day use the date I captured a post, or when it was published?
The post's real publish date on Facebook, not the day PostSnag captured it.

How many posts do I need before these charts mean anything?
More than a handful. A small sample can make one lucky post look like a pattern; a few dozen posts gives a more honest read, and checking a profile's own sorted grid alongside the charts helps confirm it isn't one outlier post skewing the whole picture.

Can I see the posting pattern for a Facebook Group instead of a profile?
Yes, a similar idea. A group's own detail page has a Posting pattern tab, its own day-of-week chart for posts captured from that group. See How do I view and analyze a Group in my dashboard?