Marketing to Gen Z in 2024: 6 Proven Tips for Success
Ebuka Ikeagwu
Gen Z is one of the most challenging generations to market to, thanks to their unique preferences, characteristics, and digital savviness.
While they may not have much earning power—like the Millennials and Baby Boomers- learning how to market to them can drive profits for your business.
In this article, we covered 6 proven tips on how to market to Gen Z in 2024. We also provided insights into their buying behavior to help you understand what drives their purchasing decisions.
Is Marketing to Gen Z Difficult?
Marketing to Gen Z is a whole new ball game thanks to their unique buying behavior, shopping habits, and tastes. As tech-savvy individuals, you expect the average Gen Z to find traditional marketing tactics boring while gravitating towards digital marketing alternatives.
That’s true.
However, here is the kicker:
While Gen Z loves digital marketing, capturing their attention can be difficult as their heavy online activities make them prone to information overload.
The result?
Your message gets lost in the crowd like a needle in a haystack.
To tap into the booming Gen Z market, you must understand their buying behavior.
How do they shop?
What compels them to buy a product or service?
What drives their purchasing decision?
According to an ICSC survey, 85% of Gen Zs admit that social media affects their purchasing decision, especially Instagram and TikTok.
Peer recommendation, influencer endorsement, digital review, and ratings, including authenticity and transparency, also play vital parts in Gen Z purchasing decisions.
Gen Z Marketing Statistics
Marketing to Gen Z requires lots of brainstorming and basic data analysis. This process helps determine what’s working and what’s not and make informed decisions based on your findings.
Below are some Generation Z marketing statistics that provide insights into their buying habit, beliefs, values, online habits, etc.
Gen Z makes up 20.67 of the United States Population, which is around 68,600,000 Americans.
61% of Gen Z prefer short videos (under 1 minute long)
Gen Z spends 24-48 hours monthly on TikTok
83% of Gen Z shop on social media (especially Instagram and TikTok)
40% of Gen Z prefer to use TikTok for search than Google
64% of Gen Z visit local business’s websites before shopping or physically visiting
97% of Gen Z say social media is their top method for researching shopping options
64% of Gen Z will pay more for environmental-friendly product
87% of Gen Z want a personalized shopping experience.
The statistics emphasize the importance of social media marketing to Gen Z, which shouldn’t come as a surprise as 54% of Gen Zers spend at least four hours daily on social media.
In addition to improving your social media marketing game, it’s important to prioritize authenticity and visuals if you want to capture the attention, loyalty, and wallet share of Gen Z.
Why is Gen Z Important to Marketers?
While Gen Z may not be as deep-pocketed as baby boomers or Millennials, their spending power, which has reached $360 billion, is hard to ignore. And even if you somehow manage to ignore that, consider their spending influence.
The average Gen Z can influence the buying decision of their household, making them the perfect brand evangelist for your brand.
Did you know that 75% of Gen Z spend over half of the money available to them each month?
Think of how much money you could make if you can capture their wallet share.
Where are Gen Z shopping, Online or Offline?
As a tech-savvy and the first digital native generation, you expect the majority of Gen Zers to shop online.
But they don’t.
According to a new survey, Gen Z isn’t totally reliant on online stores. They still prefer brick-and-mortar stores as they allow them to see, touch, and try products before purchasing them.
Plus, buying from these stores eliminates waiting times and the need to pay for delivery fees.
So, what does this mean for brands?
It’s simple.
As you improve your online shopping experience, ensure you do the same to your offline shopping experience. This will help cater to your online Gen Z customers, including those who shop in your physical store.
How do you Market to Gen Z?
Gen Z is tech-savvy. When looking to engage a brand, they don their Sherlock Holmes hat and do their research.
Plus, this ambitious and ethnically diverse generation comprises thriftier, socially conscious, and ad-averse individuals with short attention spans.
This makes marketing to them complicated.
Below, we shared 6 practical Generation Z marketing tactics to help you market to Generation Z, thus converting this generation into loyal customers.
1. The Shorter, the Better
Did you know that Gen Z has an attention span of 8-12 seconds? This is way shorter than the attention spans of Millennials, Baby Boomers, and Generation X.
What does this mean for you?
It means the average Gen Z won’t watch that 6-minute product launch video even if you spent a whopping $35,000 on it.
It’s too long.
Gen Zers are suckers for instant gratification.
They want to instantly experience the dopamine that comes with that information or entertainment. So, if you want to capture their attention and ensure that they watch your video till the end, be brief.
Create videos that are under 2 minutes. And ensure you make your content mobile-optimized as Gen Z, on average, spends up to 9 hours of screen time daily.
2. Don’t be Boring
Gen Z has a strong sense of humor, which can be dark, absurd, and obscure. So, if you want to capture their attention, you’ll have to do more than thrill them with your ads; you have to make them laugh.
Truth is:
You don’t have to crack Dave Chappelle-esque jokes to make Gen Z laugh their heads off and fall in love with your brand.
A good meme would do, especially one that fits your brand narrative. However, this has to be done authentically as Gen Z are good at spotting fake or inauthentic content or agenda easily.
Take a cue from brands like Wendy’s, Netflix, and Denny’s.
Research popular Gen Z memes and humor and integrate them into your marketing campaign. Better still, hire Gen Zs in social media roles. After all, no one understands Gen Z’s ridiculous and absurd sense of humor better than Gen Z.
Remember, Gen Z loves brands that can engage them in a fun and entertaining way, and not like a salesy salesperson who needs to make a sale badly or risk being sacked.
3. Be Authentic
Being funny will get you Gen Zs attention. But your authenticity is what’ll make them engage your brand.
Gen Z loves brands that are genuine, transparent, and authentic. For them, authenticity is key to engaging with a brand. For brands, authenticity is essential for building solid relationships and connections with Gen Z.
Look:
Gen Z can spot fakeness from a mile away. So you are better off being authentic than displaying even an iota of fakeness, whether in your content, product, or brand persona.
That said, how do you achieve authenticity?
Here are a few ways:
Be transparent about your challenges
Use images of real customers in your content
Treat your customers like humans, not numbers
Leverage UGC. It’s more authentic than branded content
Use real and honest content in your marketing campaigns
Be open about brand practices and showcase behind the scenes of your operations
Embracing authenticity is an effective Gen Z marketing strategy. It is the best way to gain Gen Z’s trust, turning them into loyal customers.
But that’s not all.
A loyal Gen Z does more than just engage your brand. They also act as brand ambassadors, influencing family and friends’ spending decisions.
4. Leverage User Generated Content
Gen Zs are less trusting of brands than other generations. Their lack of trust is shaping how they engage with brands online, forcing marketers to suspend branded content and come up with a more authentic and Gen Z-friendly marketing strategy.
UGC is one of such strategies.
User-generated content is content created by a brand’s customers and published on social media platforms. Unlike branded content, UGC is authentic and relatable, making it an effective Gen Z marketing strategy.
Besides, Gen Z looks to their peers before making a buying decision. So, by leveraging UGC, brands can easily influence their purchase decision.
That said, how do you leverage user-generated content in your marketing campaigns?
Here are a few tips:
Encourage customers to create and share UGCs.
Create branded hashtags
Run exciting UGC campaigns
Reward customers for sharing their UGC
As you kick start your UGC campaign, adhere to the following UGC best practices.
Know your goals
Only re-share UGC that aligns with your brand values
Use credible content
Request permission to share content
Always credit the content creator
In the end, ensure you track the UGC’s success. Monitor key metrics like engagement rate and reach. This helps you understand what’s working and what’s not. Plus, the insights gathered can help you make informed decisions.
5. Leverage Influencer Marketing
Unlike your promotional content, which Gen Z assumes is over-exaggerated, recommendations from influencers are believed to be more genuine and trustworthy.
According to statistics, 44% of Gen Z have made a purchase decision based on recommendations from a social influencer. The right social influencer can act as a brand advocate, drawing Gen Z’s attention to your product and eventually encouraging them to make a purchase.
Remember, influencer marketing is more than just paying a top influencer big bucks to read a script, write content, or post videos that put your product or service in the best light.
When selecting an influencer for your brand, ensure you choose one that:
Is trustworthy
Your target audience can relate to
Relevant to your target audience and are experts in your niche
Has good connection/relationship with their followers
Has enough followers and good engagement on branded content
You should also study past collaborations and performance metrics. And ensure you prioritize short-form content, like short-form videos, due to Gen Z’s low attention span.
How do you find Gen Z influencers?
Need help finding Gen Z influencers for your brand? Here are some methods to consider.
Google search:
To search for Gen Z influencers using Google search, simply input keywords related to your industry or product long with terms like “Gen Z influencer” or “young influencer.”
Instagram Hashtags:
Instagram hashtags are another easy way to find Gen Z influencers for your Gen Z marketing campaign. Simply search for tags related to Gen Z, such as:
#genz
#youthculture
#millennials
#teeninfluncer
While sifting through posts and account owners, ensure you go for one with a huge following and engagement.
Influencer marketplaces:
If you haven’t found the ideal influencer for your brand, you may want to consider signing up for influencer marketplaces like Ainfluencer.
With this platform, you can search for Gen Z influencers based on their location, category, or number of followers. Other influencer marketplaces to consider are:
Grin
Creator.co
Upfluencer
LTK (formerly called rewardStyle)
#paid
Klear
Post for rent
Ensure you do your research before selecting an influencer for your Gen Z advertising.
6. Use More Visuals
Gen Z are visual learners, hence they prefer to consume more visual content than text-based content. Use short and sweet videos with eye-catching graphics in your marketing campaigns to boost engagement. Leverage clear infographics, engaging images, GIFs, and memes as well.
When it comes to videos, YouTube is Gen Z’s favorite platform, followed by TikTok and Instagram.
Plus, this generation prefers vertical videos to horizontal ones thanks to their compatibility with mobile devices and the viewing experience they provide.
Here is what Mark McIntyre, CEO of advertising and web design agency MaxAudience, had to say in his interview with The Manifest:
Snapchat and Instagram are cooler for younger generations because they have less content,” he said. “You get to choose to see all the good stuff and none of the junk. It’s way more image-based and way less text-based, and you don’t get everyone’s rant.
Adding subtitles to your video is another bonus, as it aids comprehension, thus increasing the chances of Gen Zs watching it to the end.
Remember, social media, especially Instagram and TikTok influences Gen Zs buying decisions. So, you want to focus on improving your overall social media marketing game to capture Gen Z attention and turn them into paying customers.
Leverage Gen Z Marketing to Secure Loyal Customers for the Future.
Even though Gen Z is the second youngest generation, their spending power is significant. Add that to their influence over household spending, and you have a generation that can boost your brand revenue in the long term while promoting your offerings organically.
By winning Gen Z’s hearts and wallets, you’d be securing loyal customers who’d shape the future of your brand thanks to their influence and increasing spending power. Remember, a successful Gen Z marketing strategy is built on authenticity, transparency, and diversity. So ensure you include these qualities in your marketing campaign,.
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Posted Feb 28, 2025
Discover 8 effective Gen Z marketing strategies to captivate, engage, and convert your audience into loyal customers.
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