Gen X has become Meta's biggest gold mine
Meta is trying hard to win over Gen Z. But the people actually driving its ad business, are, well, older.
The reason for the age skew? Meta's systems show more ads to users who are more likely to buy or sign up for products and services or install an app — and older users who spend more money are more likely to do this.
In a Barclays report shared with Business Insider, analysts revealed that Facebook's ad load — the number of ads users see — is significantly higher for older users. The report drew from internal documents that surfaced during Meta's recently concluded antitrust trial with the Federal Trade Commission.
"Older demographics see more ads due to their higher purchasing power," Barclays analysts wrote. "This also speaks to the dynamism of the ads stack whereby the company can identify those cohorts with greater willingness to consume ads."
According to the report, Facebook users aged 45 to 54 saw the highest ad load at 22%, with those 55 and older and those 35 to 44 close behind. Users age 25 to 34 hovered just above 16%, while 18 to 24-year-olds saw about half of that. Teenagers age 13 to 17 saw the fewest ads of any group, at just 4.3%.
Meta has been serving fewer ads to younger users since 2021, the report says. Barclays analysts note that this could be due to the shift to Stories and Reels, where ad formats are still maturing, or a strategic response to increased competition from TikTok.
Although age is an important signal that lets Meta decide how many ads a user sees, it isn't the only one. Over the years, Meta has rolled out dynamic ad load technology that adjusts ad volume based on factors like how users behave and who they are. Behind the scenes, Meta's machine learning models like Andromeda and Lattice help determine exactly how valuable each person is to advertisers.
Barclays' analysis shows that this is working. Over the last few years, the report says that Meta has grown ad revenue without showing more overall ads to its users, a shift analysts say is "arguably the most bullish development" revealed in the trial disclosures. In other words, Meta doesn't need to shove more ads into everyone's feeds — it just needs to find the people who will actually click.
The company still talks about building for the next generation, but behind the scenes, it's engineering its business around the one that pays.
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