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For marketers, 鈥極K, 产辞辞尘别谤鈥� isn鈥檛 such a bad phrase after all. Baby boomers (ages 60 to 78) make up 20% of the US population yet control $76 trillion鈥�52% of the country鈥檚 net wealth, per the Federal Reserve as reported by The Economist. Despite marketers fixating on Gen Z, boomers wield substantial spending power and have distinct behaviors worth noting.

customers: Just 47% of Gen Xers and 26% of baby boomers said the same.

Shooting games are the favorite among Gen Zers, while millennials prefer action/adventure games, and Gen Xers and boomers prefer puzzle or logic games, according to the Collage Group report. Gen Xers and boomers may be more comfortable with digital versions of games they grew up with (like Yahtzee or crossword puzzles) on a device they already understand鈥攖heir phone.

The exceptions, again, were Facebook and baby boomer shoppers. Snapchat beat both TikTok and Instagram in creator-driven shopping. In our survey, 85.6% of social shoppers who said Snapchat content led them to make a purchase also said they had made a purchase because of creator or influencer content.

Influencer marketing is often associated with Gen Z and millennials, and for good reason. Nearly half of both generations are more likely to trust an ad featuring an influencer they trust, according to June 2024 data from Captiv8. But 79.8% of US Gen Xers and 53.9% of US baby boomers will use social media this year, per our May 2024 forecast. To ensure marketers seize the untapped potential for reaching these generations, we鈥檝e compiled a generation-by-generation breakdown on how and where to reach them.

They鈥檙e also 22% more likely than baby boomers to be in high-income segments, according to GWI.

However, Facebook is most popular for making buys among millennials, baby boomers, and Gen X social buyers. The US had over 100 million social buyers as of 2024, according to our forecast. TikTok Shop, which debuted in the US in September 2023, is a hefty contributor to the nation鈥檚 commerce sales and buyer growth.

The number of Gen Z users will increase 15.5% this year, far outweighing the user growth among millennials (1.8%), Gen Xers (5.6%), and boomers (6.4%). Many Gen Zers flock to BNPL as a financing option because they don鈥檛 yet have credit cards. And a nervousness to acquire credit card debt, driven by high interest rates, is pushing many to put off applying for one.

Baby boomers (51.9%) and Gen Xers (26.7%) primarily see such ads on linear TV. This doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean that healthcare and pharma brands are advertising less on linear TV鈥攂ut rather that younger people are noticing these ads on digital media, where they鈥檙e increasingly spending time. Weight loss drug ads are a prime example of this trend.

The top three tasks that boomers Internet users find technology important for are managing money (cited by 73% of respondents), staying informed with current events (69%), and keeping their home secure (59%), per an October 2023 Razorfish survey conducted by GWI.

Marketers may be obsessed with reaching younger consumers, but that doesn鈥檛 mean that baby boomers aren鈥檛 worth their time. Next year, 11.3 million consumers ages 55 to 64 and 10.8 million consumers 65 and older will make a purchase via social media, per our forecast.

Millennials were born between 1981 and 1996, Gen Xers between 1965 and 1980, and baby boomers between 1946 and 1964. Digital video is a huge part of Gen Zers鈥� daily lives. Digital video viewer numbers are approaching saturation among Gen Zers: 96.3% watch digital video, increasing to 97.6% by 2028. What and where they鈥檙e watching is likely quite different from their peers in other age groups.

But equally concerning is that 51% of baby boomers don鈥檛 know much they need to have saved for retirement, per data solutions firm VettaFi鈥檚 research. And 59% of baby boomers haven鈥檛 considered the costs of long-term care, which can be extremely expensive. That鈥檚 why baby boomers could use a 1:1 meeting with their FI鈥檚 financial advisors to plan for their futures.

Sometimes, consumers don鈥檛 behave how we expect. Despite their digital-native status, Gen Zers still shop in-store, while baby boomers are all about new-kid-on-the-block Temu. And though they鈥檙e still mostly children, Gen Alphas are making their mark on the retail landscape.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss the digital habits across generations: what baby boomers' top digital activity is, Gen X's approach to all things digital, and how much more time Gen Zers actually spend on social media over other generations. Tune in to the discussion with our analyst Paola Flores-Marquez and vice president of research Jennifer Pearson.

In the US, 56% of Gen Z adults prefer to buy from companies that reflect their social values, according to Morning Consult. Gen Z鈥檚 figure is slightly lower than those of other generations, with Gen X at 61% and baby boomers and millennials at 59% each.

Gen Z will make up 20% of the population in the US this year, putting it solidly in line with millennials, Gen X, and baby boomers, per the US Census Bureau. That said, 42% of Gen Zers will still be minors, and as a result their spending power will remain below that of older generations.

Baby boomers make up the largest share of TV viewers, while 25- to 34-year-olds predominate CTV usage. Marketers increasingly plan their buys across these mediums to achieve their targeting goals.

Gen Zers and millennials are more likely than older generations to do their holiday shopping in-person at the mall, whereas Gen Xers and baby boomers are more likely to shop online via retailer websites, per The Harris Poll.

More than half (57.6%) of US Gen Z consumers say they 鈥渙ften鈥� or 鈥渁lways鈥� accept cookie notifications, compared with 36.0% of boomers per a July 2024 蘑菇AV survey. Only 32% of global publishers had begun preparing for the end of third-party cookies on Google Chrome, according to a May 2024 Teads survey of 555 publishers in 38 countries.

The share of Gen Z consumers who acknowledge that targeted advertising has at least a moderate influence was almost three times bigger than the share of baby boomers who did. How marketers can respond. Advertisers have known for a while that consumers do not necessarily pay mind to their messages.

The number of Gen Z users will increase 15.5% this year, outstripping growth among millennials (1.8%), Gen Xers (5.6%), and baby boomers (6.4%), per our forecast. In 2028, Gen Zers will use BNPL services more than any other generation. Click here to view our full forecast for US BNPL service users, by generation. The Gen Z BNPL debt trap has yet to materialize.

Gen Zers鈥� and millennials鈥� encounters with affiliate marketing are the inverse of what Gen Xers and baby boomers encounter. Younger generations are social first; older generations begin in a web browser. There was a nearly 30-point gap between the share of baby boomers who had seen affiliate ads on YouTube (28.5%) and the share of Gen Zers who had seen such ads (58.0%).