Study Reveals Facebook Age Gap: Older Users Don't 'Like' It, But Are More Likely To Click Through
- by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, August 30, 2011
The study from SocialCode, a full-service agency supporting Facebook campaigns, examines more than 4 million data points across over 50 clients from a variety of industries to get a better understanding of how age and gender affect "Like" and click-through rates on Facebook.
While age has a strong positive effect on whether a user will click, it often times has the opposite influence on the likelihood of the user becoming a fan of a page. Results show that for ads with a "Like" button, older Facebook users tend to click through to the Web site, while younger users tend to "Like" something in the Facebook ad.
Consumers age 50 and older, the oldest segment in the study, are 28.2% more likely to click through and 9% less likely to click "Like," compared with those ages 18 to 29, the youngest group monitored.
Compared with the rest of the younger population on Facebook, users age 50 and older see a 22.6% higher CTR and 8.4% lower "Like" rate.
Older women seem to show a little skepticism in social media. Laura O'Shaughnessy, CEO, SocialCode, said the data backs-up ad industry general advertising trends. "Older women seem to want to investigate a little more before they hit click the 'Like' button," she said. "Women are active on Facebook. They tend to vote and fill out purchase information, but given that trend, we don't see them click 'Like' in the ad."
Think about the goals of the brand. If the brand appeals to younger men, and the marketer wants to build up a Fan base, O'Shaughnessy suggests deploying the "like" technology. When doing that know a more mature female audience will not likely respond to this type of ad, she said.
Age influences CTRs for women much more than men.
When it comes to "Likes," men seem to click the "Like" button just slightly more than women. It turns out women are 11% more likely to click on an ad. For women, CTR is 31.2% higher for the 50+ age group compared with 18-29 year olds, men only see a 16.2% difference between the age groups.
Compared with all age groups, women age 50 and older are 22% higher versus a 16.4% difference for males. The oldest male segment has an 11.7% lower "Like" rate than the youngest segment, as well as a 9.5% lower "Like" rate, compared with all age groups. Women experience a 7.2% and a 7.9% difference, respectively.
O'Shaughnessy said the study doesn't include data on Google+, but expects to see similar data for the +1 button. It may take some time before consumers become familiar with Google's social button. "Part of Google's success will determine what the social site and +1 button becomes," she said. "I do think, in general, it may take longer for the older audience to become comfortable with this technology. They seem to take more time and consider the offer before acting on it."
I often find these self-serving studies and results unimportant yet "interesting" in that they confirm perception.
The more critical question, however, is just how can these result be put into actionable use (if at all)?
Paragraph seven, Paul. "Think about the goals of the brand. If the brand appeals to younger men, and the marketer wants to build up a Fan base, O'Shaughnessy suggests deploying the "like" technology. When doing that know a more mature female audience will not likely respond to this type of ad, she said." Please be more specific and provide information on the audience you want to reach, and I will help answer the question.
The real problem with this is it only deals in percentages, which I suspect are used to mask the insignificance of the data. CTRs are tiny, almost nonexistent, so these "findings" are meaningless.