Her Voice Blog

With the explosion of the internet and the rise of social networking, marketers have been trying to digest consumer's browsing habits to figure out how to reach them.

One development in this realm has been how women have flocked to social media. Perhaps it is unsurprising, due to the social nature of women. Fifty-eight percent of Facebook users are women, and the vast majority of Pinterest users are female (some estimates suggest the number may be as high as 97 percent).

As many women as there are on social media, you would think sites like Facebook would be a ripe orchard for those marketing to women. Not so, says a study by Kenshoo Social and Resolution Media. According to their data, men are cheaper to target and more likely to click on Facebook ads.

The average cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) for men is $0.16, while women command $0.20 CPM. Likewise, the average cost-per-click (CPC) for ads targeted to men ($0.51) is much lower than for those for women ($0.68). This means that it is significantly cheaper to advertise to men on Facebook. Additionally, despite making up 58 percent of Facebook users, only 47 percent of ad budgets on the social networking giant are spent on campaigns marketing to women.

This begs the inevitable question: are men cheaper to advertise to because they click more or do men click more because it's cheaper to advertise to them (therefore they see more ads)?

FletcherPR is a national communications firm that specializes in reaching women through the power of media. Headquartered in Knoxville, TN with staff in Nashville & Los Angeles, we are a full-service agency providing strategic public relations, social media and marketing communications services to our clients throughout the U.S.