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Best ways to market to customers 50+ y/o?

jonahsr

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Hello Fastlaners!

I recently started a niche business (digital service with POD upsells), advertising on Google & Bing ads (high intent keywords). That has been going well so far & I'm making good sales, however, I feel like there might be more effective ways of reaching my target customer.

The target audience for the service is quite general, 80% are 50 years or older. Mostly based in the USA, but also some Canadian, UK & Australia. I've already thought of newspaper ads or radio but that might be too pricey.

Any ideas which advertising channels might be good for old demographics & don't have large upfront investments?
 
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Strategery

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I've already thought of newspaper ads or radio but that might be too pricey.
Have you actually priced these? I would include television to that list.
 

palneoon

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You should narrow down your avatars more than just 50+.

If you can give us more info I might be able to be more specific.

That said, for that demographics my very first tool would be Facebook.

Not just ads. You can:
  • Create and grow pages avatar-specific pages. 50+ users love that stuff.
  • The above bullet includes your own page.
  • Find pages/groups and either acquire them or pay them for sponsored posts.
Also Pinterest might make sense, depending on what your niche is.
 
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jonahsr

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Have you actually priced these? I would include television to that list.
Yes, I looked up some pricing & it seems like a regional newspaper would charge around 1-2k USD for an ad that only takes up 20% of a page. Have you had success with newspaper ads? If I knew that investment would have a 4x ROI I wouldn't mind investing that much into a newspaper ad, but right now it seems a bit like a black hole to me...
 

jonahsr

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You should narrow down your avatars more than just 50+.

If you can give us more info I might be able to be more specific.

That said, for that demographics my very first tool would be Facebook.

Not just ads. You can:
  • Create and grow pages avatar-specific pages. 50+ users love that stuff.
  • The above bullet includes your own page.
  • Find pages/groups and either acquire them or pay them for sponsored posts.
Also Pinterest might make sense, depending on what your niche is.
Those are some great ideas! I will definitely try Facebook ads & also growing pages specific to the service. Thank you!
 
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Have you had success with newspaper ads?
This has been the only way the business I work for has ever advertised. I know I've had plenty of customers ask me about the "ad in the paper," so I'd say it's somewhat effective, though I can't give you numbers.
 

jonahsr

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This has been the only way the business I work for has ever advertised. I know I've had plenty of customers ask me about the "ad in the paper," so I'd say it's somewhat effective, though I can't give you numbers.
Sounds like I might give it a try! Do you know where your employer purchases the ad space? Is there a centralized platform where you can book ads on different newspapers or do you chat with each newspaper individually?

Thanks for your reply!
 

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Sounds like I might give it a try! Do you know where your employer purchases the ad space? Is there a centralized platform where you can book ads on different newspapers or do you chat with each newspaper individually?

Thanks for your reply!
He talks with them individually, but this is in a small town.
 
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Grinder20

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He talks with them individually, but this is in a small town.

My parents are in your target market 65+, retired and they both are on their phones more than my wife and I. However, for some reason they still subscribe to the local newspaper (city of 100K) and keep them in business. I agree ads in the newspaper can be expensive (magazines even more), however, depending on what you are selling, small local town community newspapers are effective, as are believe it or not church bulletins. Radio and cable TV can be good inexpensive in non-peak hours (non-drive time hours). Hope that helps!
 

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Radio and cable TV can be good inexpensive in non-peak hours (non-drive time hours).
I'd say that would be the right time to advertise for an older market.
 
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Andy Black

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Have you tested changing your Google Ads campaigns to target the age ranges you think work better for you?
 
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BellaPippin

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Guys my Facebook feed is ripe with my mom and all their friends stuff, they are on FB more than I am. All 50+ people. My dad can’t put away the damn phone at the table bc he’s on Facebook. Give that a try too.
 

jonahsr

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My parents are in your target market 65+, retired and they both are on their phones more than my wife and I. However, for some reason they still subscribe to the local newspaper (city of 100K) and keep them in business. I agree ads in the newspaper can be expensive (magazines even more), however, depending on what you are selling, small local town community newspapers are effective, as are believe it or not church bulletins. Radio and cable TV can be good inexpensive in non-peak hours (non-drive time hours). Hope that helps!
Thank you! Church bulletins, interesting! I'll look into everything, appreciate your answer!
 
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jonahsr

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Have you tested changing your Google Ads campaigns to target the age ranges you think work better for you?
Yes, I have already excluded people 35 and younger as they don't convert well. Do you have experience with Gmail ads (through Google Ads)? Since the potential customers send emails to us asking about custom requests etc. I was thinking of advertising to them when they are already in Gmail...
 

Boychamp

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That said, for that demographics my very first tool would be Facebook.

This. I would definitely go for FB ads.

Also, make sure you're setting up retargeting to re-capture people visiting and abandoning.

A company that I would suggest checking out ads for that targets a very similar demo (although completely different space) is BOOM! by Cindy Joseph.
 
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jonahsr

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This. I would definitely go for FB ads.

Also, make sure you're setting up retargeting to re-capture people visiting and abandoning.

A company that I would suggest checking out ads for that targets a very similar demo (although completely different space) is BOOM! by Cindy Joseph.
Will do! Thanks!
 

GigMistress

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Definitely, but my way of thinking was that people that are.. say 65 plus use offline media more than digital media.

That may be true to some degree, but I think you're making an assumption that bears some research. Boomer statistics don't bear this out to the extent that you may think.
 

JordanS

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I know you're looking for offline answers but I definitely agree with trying facebook. Nowadays it is mostly the older crowd and they convert very well. Majority of my winning campaigns on FB have been 45+ buyers.
 
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jonahsr

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I know you're looking for offline answers but I definitely agree with trying facebook. Nowadays it is mostly the older crowd and they convert very well. Majority of my winning campaigns on FB have been 45+ buyers.
I'm convinced :D Will try out Facebook ads today. Thanks for all the info guys!
 

Viper4all

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If you're going with online marketing, Facebook is definitely better than the alternatives like Instagram and Snapchat
 

Viper4all

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I'm convinced :D Will try out Facebook ads today. Thanks for all the info guys!
Awesome, just think about where your Facebook ads are routing. You want to have the best chance at converting prospects so you may want to route them to a funnel.
 
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Ing

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the time, where young people are at fb is gone, the time, where old people do, did startmabout 2 years ago.
I d give fb a try, too.
many mature people have. Discovered fb for info abouthobby.

and second local newspaper, third television program papers
 

BizyDad

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I have done a lot of online advertising to the 50+ segment. One thing to keep an eye on is 65+. Occasionally I find that things that appear to be leads from that segment, actually aren't good leads if I listen to the phone call. In terms of e-commerce occasionally that group will have a higher return rate. It is just something to be aware of because 65+ is a 40-year window of age span. People with dementia use Facebook too, so keep an eye on it. If it happens, refine and exclude audience interests that skew 80+.

Anyhoo... For more off line ideas, I'm not sure what you consider a large upfront investment, but you can do small direct mail batches, or check out a phone book ad as just a couple more ideas to add to the list.

Going back to newspapers, sometimes you can test to see if it'll be effective by running a classified ad first, before you take out a half-page ad.

Hope this helps.
 
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sparechange

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I have to disagree with Facebook marketing in regards to 50+ age demographic, now its just a theory and thought in my head with no hard data to back it up, I believe older generations are total opposite compared to younger people and they would prefer mail or telephone communications.

In the past I've done door knocking and had an elderly woman that purchased snow shoveling services, which she mentioned that it was appreciated I walked around the neighborhood offering my services.

Try out some good old cold calling and mailing. Might be the best bet & worth a go. Connecting with your customer on a personal one on one basis is generally the direction to aim for, while not doing a one and done, but getting a repeat customer whilst having them recommend your services to all they're friends on bingo night.
 

Ing

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I thought about it.

Well a word about old people.
I m 54 years old and what me and my friends on fb connects, is riding motocross and dirtbikes. Maybe climbing is another point.
I don’t know, wheather I m a typical 50+ , but I have developed a view to simply oversee posts, which are advertisement. my first look is, wheather a „sponsored“ is under a heading and I don’t read any of them. ( since i m in the tff I sometimes force me to do because of interest for ads) and overread them.
My wife avoids fb because of the ads bs.

But I hope we aren’t typical matures.
 

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