When viewing Facebook ads that offer a "like" button, nearly equal proportions of men and women directly click the "like" button, but more women than men click on the ad itself, according to a new report by SocialCode.

Younger adults, meanwhile, are more likely than older counterparts to directly click the ad's "like" button, whereas older adults are more likely to click on the ad itself.

Below, additional findings from SocialCode's study, which examines over 4 million data points for Facebook ads that offer a "like" button; the study included roughly 50 clients in multiple verticals over a 10-month period.

On average, Facebook users age 50+ are 28.2% more likely than adults age 18-29 to click through by clicking on the ad, but they are 9% less likely to click on the "like" button.

Compared with the rest of the younger Facebook adult population, users age 50+ register 22.6% higher average CTR and 8.4% lower "like" rates.


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When broken out by gender, age has a pronounced effect on ad CTR among women, whereas among men there is a stronger effect on "Liking" a brand via the ad:

  • Overall, women are 11% more likely to click on an ad, but men are slightly (2.2%) more likely than women to "like" a brand via an ad. 
  • Among women age 50+, average CTR is 31.2% higher than among those age 18-29, whereas that difference is only 16.2% among men in the same age groups.
  • Average CTR among women age 50+ is 22% higher than among women in other age groups on average, whereas that differences is 16.4% among men. 


However, the oldest male segment (age 50+) has an 11.7% lower "Like" rate than the youngest segment (age 18-29), and 9.5% lower "Like" rate than other male age groups on average. 

Among women, those age 50+ have a 7.2% lower "Like" rate than those age 18-29, and a 7.9% lower "Like" rate than other female age groups on average.

"In general, younger Facebook users are more comfortable using the 'Like' button than older users at this point," said Laura O'Shaughnessy, CEO, SocialCode. "With inline fan ads on Facebook, older users have a high level of interaction and curiosity about the ads as evidenced by their high CTRs, whereas younger users have a higher propensity to click the 'Like' button right in an ad on Facebook."

"We assume 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 in advertisements."

About the data: The age and gender research study conducted by SocialCode examined over four million data points for ads containing a 'Like' button across over 50 clients in different verticals for 10 months ended August 2011.

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Women on Facebook Click Ads More, Younger Adults 'Like' More

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