Social Media Strategies to Target Gen Z, Millennial, and Boomer Shoppers

Social media’s constant evolution is driven by innovative technology like artificial intelligence and data to take targeted retail marketing to the next level. Mainstream social platforms like TikTok and Instagram are enabling brands to provide customized and unique content to users, and each generation is getting influenced by “trending” products. The rise of social selling and sales-oriented social media ads has created seamless shopping experiences — and new opportunities for retail brands and influencers — shifting the digital marketing landscape.

We know that younger millenials, Gen Z and now Gen Alpha users dominate TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, while older millennials and baby boomers gravitate more toward Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. With the increase of social selling, networks have adopted features to aid marketers, influencers and affiliates in specializing campaigns, making it feasible for users to shop and purchase items directly from a link, product tag, storefronts, etc. These include LTK links in bios, TikTok Shop, and Instagram automation.

Each generation lies on a different point of the buying influence spectrum. Due to this, brands and influencers must target their campaigns per audience. For example, TikTok has the highest in-app purchase revenue in the world at $189 million, nearly double the next most profitable app (YouTube, $111 million). Gen Z and Gen Alpha users are highly influenced by popular creators and affiliate marketers, selling products they've tried and tested themselves. Fifty-five percent of Gen Alpha want to buy the products their favorite YouTube or Instagram influencers use. Partnering with a TikTok influencer or creator can boost a brand’s advertising view-through rate by 193 percent, while 32 percent of marketers say Instagram is the easiest platform for influencer marketing.

Considering 70 percent of shoppers use Instagram to purchase products or services online, this is often the starting point for many e-commerce businesses or retailers. Companies like Kylie Cosmetics have gone as far as introducing lipstick “try on” Instagram filters to influence their products amongst younger audiences. On the other hand, brands such as Warby Parker and TOMS attract millennial users by communicating corporate social and environmental responsibility. Paris 2024 has also sparked many brands to weave their way into the mainstream media, such as SKIMS and Ralph Lauren, which created Team USA uniforms and featured athletes on their social media pages.

Brands must understand and segment their target audiences, creating content and advertising campaigns that align with each audience's pain points, behaviors and interests. To be effective with social selling, tailor your content per network and offer a seamless buying experience. User attention spans have only decreased, which makes the first impression crucial. Whether video, image or text content, storytelling should guide your messaging.

Where many brands fail in marketing is not measuring past campaigns and content performance. The data provides answers to user demographics, top-performing content, engagement, conversion rates, etc. Brands should use this information to improve their social media marketing strategy.

Social media is an integral part of retail marketing and in some ways completely shifting the modern shopping experience. While each generation has different characteristics, online shoppers want to feel in control and informed honestly. Younger generations demand social media authenticity, while older generations want to feel responsible for their purchases. Furthermore, shoppers expect brands to take the extra step — staying in communication — to upload transparency and customer loyalty. Social media can be used as a tool to both sell products and foster online communities.

Juan Pablo Tejela is CEO and co-founder of Metricool, a platform that offers tools for analyzing, managing and measuring social media performance, making data-driven strategies accessible to all.