How to Market to Younger and Older Customers on Facebook

By Rieva Lesonsky

How does age affect what users do on Facebook? A new study by SocialCode, reported in MediaPost, shows that while younger users may be more likely to “like” your brand, it’s the older users who actually take action and click through to your website.

The study, which looked at companies in a wide range of industries, found that consumers age 50 and up were nearly 30 percent more likely to click through and 9 percent less likely to “Like,” compared with users ages 18 to 29.

Older women, in particular, are leery of giving out “Likes.”  SocialCode CEO Laura O’Shaughnessy told MediaPost that while women are active on Facebook and do a lot of voting and completing surveys, they are less likely to “Like.”

But they are likely to click through. In fact, for women 50-plus, the click-through rate is 31.2 percent higher than for 18-29 year old women. Among men, the click-through rate is just 16.2 percent higher for older men compared to younger ones.

What does this mean for your business? If you’re trying to appeal to an older or female market, your Facebook ads should emphasize clicking through. If you’re trying to attract younger audiences, focus on “Like” buttons in your ads.

Although the study focused on clicks within Facebook ads, it has implications for Facebook in general as well. It may be harder to get women to “Like” your business than it is to get men. Perhaps it’s a matter of earning women’s trust before they will, in essence, recommend you to others. Or perhaps it’s just a matter of offering something they think is worth “Liking” you for. Other studies have shown that discounts, deals and coupons are key motivators in women “Liking” brands on Facebook, so if you haven’t already tried this tactic, see how it works for you.

Can you get younger users to click through in higher numbers? Again, this may take more time and trust. While younger users are freer with their “Likes,” it may take several offers on your Facebook page before they see something worth clicking through to. Experiment and see what works.

Image by Flickr user Ethan Prater (Creative Commons)

This entry was posted on Friday, September 16th, 2011 at 6:00 am and is filed under Marketing, Small Business, small business, Social Media, social media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.


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