Report: Baby Boomers Seek Out Marketing Videos on YouTube

New research suggests that video marketers may see more ROI on YouTube by targeting Baby Boomers, rather than Generation Xers and Millennials.

Strike Social recently conducted the “YouTube’s Generational Divide” report in the third quarter of 2017. The data showed that Baby Boomers had a 10 percent higher view rate of marketing videos on YouTube, compared to Generation Xers and Millennials. However, marketers are dedicating more of their video advertising budgets toward Millennials and Gen Xers over Baby Boomers (156 percent vs. 137 percent more, respectively).

“Some of this difference in ad spend can be attributed to the fact that boomers are a slightly smaller audience,” wrote the authors of the report. “But that doesn’t account for the entire gap. In 2016, baby boomers only received a substantial amount of targeting budget in 56 percent of the industry groups, even though they are much more likely to watch an ad.”

The researchers suggest knowing which industries perform best with Baby Boomers in order to appeal to this demographic. Targeting devices they use to view videos and developing a customized marketing plan for them can also be beneficial.

Video Marketers Continue to Thrive on Social Networks

To see more ROI from video marketing initiatives, marketers can benefit across the board from continuing to publish content on social networks.

In June 2017, the “State of Social Video: Marketing in a Video-First World” infographic from Animoto showed that 55 percent of customers view branded videos on YouTube. About 60 percent watch them on Facebook, 59 percent view them on Instagram, and 58 percent prefer to watch them on Snapchat.

Approximately 48 percent of marketers claim that they now develop at least four videos per month. Nearly 81 percent are optimizing them for mobile viewing.