Advertising: Men are cheap on Facebook

Over the course of a year, Kenshoo and Resolution media analysed 65 billion Facebook ad impressions and 20 million clicks.

They found that targeting men on Facebook is a lot cheaper than targeting women. On average, ads targeting men cost less in terms of cost-per-thousand impressions ($0.16 male / $0.20 female), as well as cost-per-click ($0.51 male / $0.68 female).

The reason for the disparity, says Viji Davis, Resolution Media's VP of Marketing, is that men have a less focused approach to their use of Facebook. While women concentrate on nurturing relationships and 'following an agenda' while on the social network, men are less absorbed and more likely to notice advertising.

"While this may seem counterintuitive given the laws of supply and demand in an auction marketplace, our advertisers capitalized on this trend and spent 53% of Facebook advertising budgets reaching men," said Alan Osetek, president of Resolution Media. "As it turned out, ads targeting men performed better and thus warranted the increased investment. Men delivered better Exposure Rates and click through rates than women, increasing their value for marketers."

Tags: cost per click, cost per thousand, exposure rate, Facebook, online advertising, research, social marketing, social media