STUDY: Women Click More Facebook Ads Than Men

Gender and age directly relate to how often a Facebook user clicks on an advertisement.

This finding comes from a study by Facebook marketing agency Social Code. Researchers  tracked click-through rates and like rates for Facebook ads that contained a like button, then correlated data directly with the genders and ages of the Facebook users who saw the ads.

In all, Social Code spent 10 months analyzing four million pieces of data supplied by over 50 million client companies in a variety of industries.

Social Code found that:

• Facebook users over the age of 50 are 28.2 percent more likely to click an advertisement than 18 to 29 year-old users.
• Women age 50 and older are even more likely to click advertisements, at a rate of 31.2 percent higher than young adults.
• The gap between the rate at which men age 50 or older click advertisements is much narrower than women, representing only a 16 percent difference from their younger counterparts.
• Older Facebook users are nine percent less likely to click the like button on an advertisement.
• Overall, men are 2.2 percent more likely to click like than women.
• Men over 50 years old have an 11 percent lower like rate than younger males, and a nine percent lower like rate than people from all age groups.

Social Code’s Chief Executive Officer, Lauren O’Shaughnessy, believes this is because “younger Facebook users are more comfortable using the like button than older users at this point.”

She points out that “while older users are adopting Facebook at a high rate, they are also the newest subset to join the social network, meaning they may not have high friend numbers, so ads are less likely to have social context.”

The social context used in Facebook advertisements, where ads show how many of a user’s friends like a brand, have proven quite effective overall. Facebook’s users trust their friends’ opinions about products, so they are naturally more apt to like a brand their friends like.

When it comes to clicking the like button, men are 2.2 percent more likely to do so than women. While this is not a great percentage difference, it does beg the question: Are men more influenced by their friends’ opinions than women?

Social Code admits that ad performance varies a great deal, depending on numerous variables.  Even so, the information contained in this study can be used by advertisers to hone in on their target audiences, especially if older women are their target audience.

Readers, are you more likely to click like if your friends already like a brand? And how often do you click Facebook ads?

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