DIGITAL - Important Facebook Demographics for Marketers

With over 1.13 billion active daily users, Facebook is one of the most important social media channels for marketers.

So it’s vital to understand the demographics of the Facebook user and accurately target your social marketing campaigns.

Gender

Pew Research Center’s report on social media users in the U.S. showed that 77% of female and 66% of male internet users are active on Facebook.

While some people claim Facebook users are diminishing, daily usage continues to grow along with mobile users. The switch seems to be from desktop to mobile rather than a shift away from the channel.

Age

According to the Pew study, 82% of internet users who use Facebook are 18-29 years old. 30 to 49 year olds make up 79%, 50 to 64 year olds account for 64% and 48% are over 65.

The rumours of young people leaving Facebook for platforms like Instagram and Snapchat seem to be just that. The prime target demographic for marketers of 24 to 35 years, seems to fit well with the social media channel.

Location

Facebook has more rural users than any other social media platform with 67%. But you are also likely to find them in urban areas (74%) and suburban (72%).

The geographic reach of Facebook is broader than other channels so if you want to market beyond the city and suburbs, it may be for you.

Income

78% of online users with incomes over $75,000 use Facebook.

The next step in Facebook demographics is to use the Audience Insights tool - designed to help marketers learn more about their target audiences, including aggregate information about geography, demographics, purchase behavior and more.

And you can view this information for three different groups of people:

• The general Facebook audience
• People connected to your page or event
• People in custom audiences you’ve already created.

Once you have defined an audience, you can save it and create an ad based on those target Facebook demographics.

The better you know who your audience is, the better you will be at engaging with them and developing strong customer relationships.