How are your Bing ad campaigns doing lately? Wait — you are running Bing ads, right?
With how dominate Google’s presence on the internet is (I mean, how many company names have become a verb synonymous with what their largest tool does?) it’s quite easy to forget that other search tools exist — but they do, and they’re starting to make some noise as far as ad dollars go.
By now you may be asking “just who exactly is using Bing, and why should we be advertising to them?” and the answer is simple; the largest buying force in the country (accounting for 48% of all consumer spending and 70 percent of the disposable income in the US). Still don’t know who we’re talking about? The Baby Boomers, of course!
Bing isn’t the only avenue that Baby Boomers are using to expand their presence into the e-world, either. Facebook continues to grow as a haven for older users of social media. Millennials may be heading up the online buying experience, but Baby Boomers are making a worthy claim to the co-pilot spot.
You’d think with such a large market presence and commanding control of disposable income that the Baby Boomers would be the target of most (if not all) online advertisements, but the reality is the older generation is targeted in less than 10% of advertisements — or put into simpler terms, most companies are missing out on a huge marketing opportunity. We’re not telling you to dump your entire Google Ad words budget and reinvest into Bing, but we are telling you that if you’re not targeting Baby Boomers in your advertising, now is the time to start.
Now that we’ve convinced you that you should be attempting to cash in on the boomer market, let’s talk about how you should be marketing to them.
Appeal to the family
Messages that reference family really resonate with the Baby Boomer demographic. If possible, use creative and copy that stress the importance of family, and that portray heartwarming messages to really resonate with your audience.
Make your message clear
Millennials respond to flash and a lot of info — Baby Boomers want the opposite. If you can’t look at your ad and easily understand what your product is and what it does, it won’t work as effectively for the Boomer audience.
Longer details help
Speaking of product information; make sure there’s a lot of it. Just because Boomers want an ad that gets to the point doesn’t mean they don’t want you to spare the details either. Baby Boomer’s attention span is much longer than Millennials (about 25 seconds longer) and your ads should reflect this.
Avoid over using humor
Humor resonates well with millennial audiences, and companies like Wendy’s on twitter have leaned into this fact, but you should use caution when attempting to use humor with Baby Boomers. They want information, not to be entertained.
The Baby Boomers are aging, there’s no denying it, but that doesn’t mean that they are irrelevant to the marketing world. They’re twice as likely to create a new business in the next year, compared to millennials, and with the $15 TRILLION they’re expected to inherit over the next 20 years they’re certain to continue to grow in value for marketers.