Study: Demographic Targeting on Facebook
Social Media Marketing

Study: Demographic Targeting on Facebook

27th September 2012

Targeting, it is almost a science to find the right target audience. And not as easy as it seems as well. I often ask the question ‘who is your target audience’ in talks and training sessions. In general the answer then is ‘male or female between the age of…’. The follow up question then is: ‘what should they be doing’, on which most responses are ‘buying our products’. With that people tend to forget about the extra target audience they have: influencers.

But when you have things narrowed down most companies still target based on group-details, starting with the difference between men and women, after all we all know that men are from Mars and Women are from Venus, so we should treat them differently right?

A new study of Facebook advertising by Resolution Media and Kenshoo Social looks into that difference and some assumption we all make about the differences between men and women are challenged. Like for example that targeting men gets a better response rate and is cheaper.

You are better of targeting the men

The research called ‘Men are cheap’ shows at first that there are more women (58%) than men (42%) active on Facebook. If you stop thinking there you might assume that it would be a better idea to target the women, but you should always think a few steps further.

The research shows that there is more budget being reserved for targeting men than women. This automatically means that more men get to see specific ads than women do, men are more advertised to.

And for a reason as Alan Osetek, president of Resolution Media explains:

“As it turned out, ads targeting men performed better and thus warranted the increased investment. Men delivered better Exposure Rates and click through rates than women, increasing their value for marketers.”

Men are not only getting more ads because they click on them more often, but also because they are ‘cheaper’.

Think outside of the box

So when targeting on Facebook, men might actually be the most interesting group to focus on. Then again, if everybody is targeting men, the opportunities might also lie with the women…

The big message here: don’t stop thinking and researching with the first numbers you see, there is always an angle to find which will be different and benefit you.

Full report can be downloaded at Resolution Media or Kenshoo Social

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Written By
Bas van den Beld is an award winning Digital Marketing consultant, trainer and speaker. He is the founder of State of Digital and helps companies develop solid marketing strategies.
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