Generation Z includes anyone born between 1995 and 2012, and in January 2023, there were 68.6 million Genz’rs in the US alone.
As digital natives, Gen Z has grown up scrolling, and with 24/7 access to online resources, they are fast becoming the most well-educated and self-reliant generation yet. In fact, 9 out of 10 Gen Z’rs use social media for over an hour each day.
Considering these statistics, understanding Gen Z is critical when tailoring your marketing efforts. 1.3 seconds is the estimated attention span of a Gen Z, but this doesn’t mean they aren’t analyzing at a meaningful level. Instead, this hypercognitive generation can use their digital filters to quickly access whether a brand, product, or TikTok reel is worth viewing further.
What does Gen Z want from brands? With their early exposure to brands digitally, this means that marketing to Gen Z in 2021 and beyond needs to be strategic, relevant, authentic, and engaging.
Why is Generation Z important to marketers?
Usually, businesses want to reach a larger audience for the best return, right?
Well, Millennials may be the biggest consumers right now, and Baby Boomers have more money to spend, but Gen Z’s power is growing. A recent Bloomberg report shows that students and young professionals have a net worth of $360 billion.
This number will only increase. Marketers are struggling with the best way to market to Gen Z to get them to buy because traditional marketing methods aren’t working.
However, this is deceptive, as Gen Z pays attention and spends differently than previous generations. According to McKinsey research, the main thing that drives this generation is the search for truth.
Once consumers understand that Gen Z is more comfortable researching information and going beyond data sources in their quest for truth, they will understand the content they need to create to reach them. The bottom line is the Gen Z population is reliable, however, they develop relationships built on trust.
15 Essential Gen Z Facts and Statistics
Authenticity and community-orientated attributes are important to Gen Z, with 97% of Gen Zers using social media to inspire and drive their online shopping habits. On this note regarding Gen Z social media usage, let’s take a look at a few fun facts about Gen Z and how they use social media:
- American adults between the ages of 18 and 24 spend less time watching traditional television than any other age group.
- A quarter (25.7%) of American Gen Z adults say they use YouTube more than any other social media platform, followed by TikTok (25.0%) and Instagram (20.0%).
- According to our research, about half of US Gen Z and Millennials shop directly on social media, compared to 38% overall. Gen Zers reported using four or more social media sites per day (54%) at a rate nearly double that of all American adults (28%).
- Meanwhile, 1 in 5 American adults reported using social media less than an hour per day, five times more than the share of Gen Z respondents who said the same (4%).
- Almost all Gen Zers (94%) report that they communicate with their peers via text every week. Phone calls (89%) and social media (88%) are followed as the most used social media.
Below are 15 essential Gen Z facts and statistics marketers should know in order to win their trust in 2022. Understanding this generation’s influence in the consumer market and implementing a marketing strategy with them in mind is vital to converting Gen Z into loyal customers.
- Generation Z represents 26% of the world’s population.
- 55% of Gen Z prefer a friendly and social style of communication.
- Gen Z is expected to make up 27% of the workforce by 2025.
- As many as 91% of Gen Z said that technology will be a deciding factor when choosing a job.
- 97% of all Gen Z people discover new products on social media.
- 58% of Gen Zers would like to have a better work-life balance.
- 53% of Gen Zers have purchased mobile in the past six months.
- 64% of Gen Z use Instagram at least once a day.
- Climate change is Gen Z’s biggest fear.
- Generation Z is more likely to receive medical treatment or therapy than any other generation.
- More than a third of social media influencers are Gen Z.
- The birth rate of Gen Z in the United States has surpassed millennials by 3 million on average.
- Gen Zers say they spend more time socializing with their peers each week, on average, through video games (65%) than at school (64%) or work (51%).
- 88% of Gen Zers use YouTube, more than any other platform.
- Instagram (76%), TikTok (68%), and Snapchat (67%) are used by at least two-thirds of Gen Z respondents, followed by Facebook (49%) and Twitter (47%).
Gen Z Technology Statistics
How can you change your marketing strategy to include Gen Z without distracting your existing audience, or worse, looking like you’re overdoing it? Here’s what you need to know about Gen Z to effectively market to this savvy, stylish, and social generation:
- 95% of American teenagers aged 13 to 17 have a cell phone
- 60% believe that digital first impressions are more important than human ones
- 43% of Gen Zers remember the last website they visited, but not their partner’s birthday
- 40% of Gen Z use TikTok for search instead of Google
- 92% of Gen Zers multitask while browsing the Internet
- 85% prefer to chat or automated customer interaction over a phone call
Expert Tips for Marketing to Gen Z In 2023
To connect with this generation of digital professionals, you’ll want to keep these five strategies in mind:
Create clear standards and messages
Before marketing to Gen Z, it is important to establish the values and goals of your brand. For what? “Gen Z can vote with our dollars and believe the brand’s values reflect our own.
Be clear and accountable
The next step in your Gen Z marketing strategy is to make sure you’re clear and big enough for any missteps.
Gen Z isn’t shy about doing their research. They will dive into a brand’s website, browse its social media accounts, and read reviews and reviews.
Create your style
To engage and connect with Gen Z, create great content that’s well-targeted at millennials. More beautiful, minimalist images – Gen Zers want bold, bold styles with a strong voice and character. Don’t be afraid to make waves!
Relax
Gen Zs have an incredible ability to filter content and have a short attention span, “you have about 8 seconds of luck telling us why we should pay attention before we continue.”
The best way to get their attention is to make them happy!
Create a community
Building a digital community is an important part of your Gen Z marketing strategy.
According to polls, Gen Z is the loneliest generation in America, so they’re desperate for ways to engage and connect with like-minded people. Brands can help facilitate real connections and conversations, but that goes beyond working with mega-influencers. The answer? Find great people who have platforms to interact with and embody your brand values.
Generation Z Marketing Strategies
Now that you have a good understanding of Gen Z and what makes this generation tick, we are going to reveal some of the best marketing strategies and approaches you can use:
Show your brand’s sense of humor
This is an obvious place to begin when marketing your brand to generation Z. after all, the majority of Gen Z want to get behind brands they see as “cool” or “fun.” This is why meme-centric and humor-based content is so popular on social media. Ryanair and Specsavers are two brands that do this particularly well.
The challenge you are going to face in this regard is keeping up with the speed of the Internet. If you post memes that are a month old, for instance, you risk coming across as dated.
Use time-sensitive posts to tap into their FOMO
When marketing to Gen Z, think about how you can tap into the audience’s fear of missing out, otherwise known as FOMO.
When using Instagram Stories, for instance, you can drive time-sensitive engagement, ensuring you become a continual feature in the feeds of all of your followers via notifications.
Their new feature, known as Drops, gives businesses the ability to generate buzz ahead of any upcoming product or service launches, yet they are only available for a limited time frame.
Experiment with interactive content
Finally, a combination of interactivity and creativity is best when capturing the attention of Gen Z. In other terms, the younger generation wants to do something when they land on your posts, whether this is clicking, swiping, or tapping.
Take Instagram as a prime example. Interactive features such as sliders, stickers, and polls can add extra fun to your in-feed posts and stories.
Challenges When Marketing to Generation Z
Addressing price and quality
According to a study conducted by Lincoln Financial Group, 6 out of 10 Gen Z have a savings account in their bank and more than 7 out of 10 say they think about saving rather than simply buying.
But does that mean Gen Z is stingy by nature? Not at all!
In this sense, one of the challenges brought by Generation Z to e-commerce is to balance price and quality so that they are closer than ever.
Provide customer service 2.0
Did you know that Gen Z is the first generation of consumers born and living on the Internet? They don’t know what it’s like to live without a smartphone, Wi-Fi connection, or social network.
This is not a bad thing, but marketers need to understand the consumption habits of this generation. For example, when a millennial customer wants to write a complaint or raise a question with a business, what channel do you use, phone, email?
Make the ad clearer and more concise
Another challenge for marketing to Gen Z is the preference for content and advertising that is concise, and relatable.
Leave a positive social footprint
Many Gen Zers believe that companies have a social responsibility not only to their customers but also to the environment, society, etc. In this sense, their way of thinking may seem absurd, but it makes sense in the context of the current competition.
Be receptive and open to criticism
And if you still wonder what the challenge is for Gen Z, know that advertising, exaggeration, and dishonesty in advertising are not well received by these customers. And they’re not afraid to speak up about e-commerce when their marketing efforts go wrong.
As a result, Gen Z will make industry disruption a major threat to the brand. They do not call or send a letter of complaint to the company: they broadcast their discomfort on social networks so that everyone knows.
Gen Z vs Millennials
You may be wondering how millennial marketing statistics differ from those about Gen Z. There are some significant differences between both, which is imperative because understanding this can help to drive your marketing efforts.
Naturally, Gen Z is a lot more tech-savvy. While millennials are competent with tech, they can remember a time without it being so heavily involved in their lives. For Gen Z, tech is all they know. They also have different attitudes to money, with millennials often putting their money into buying more services or products that will give them the best experience, while Gen Z is more focused on practical products and savings.
Some other key points to note are as follows:
- Both generations do not spend as much as previous generations
- Millennials pay attention to ads for a longer period of time
- Gen Z is more likely to make purchases on their smartphones
These points are important because they help you to understand your audience so that you can craft marketing campaigns that actually appeal to their buying habits and what matters to them the most.
Impact Of Technology on Generation Z
Gen Z is a true digital citizen. A survey of Gen Z shows that 95% own a smartphone, 83% own a laptop, 78% own an advanced game console, and 57% own a desktop computer. 29% use their phone after midnight every night. They thrive in this environment, but they also show signs of addiction. 69% feel relaxed when they are offline for more than eight hours – and 27% can only last an hour!
Joining an online community and accessing digital information has become second nature to Gen Z and severing that connection can be problematic. The Internet is also where Gen Z gets entertainment all the time.
As previous research has indicated, 73% of Baby Boomers, 69% of Gen Z, and 59% of Millennials say they use the Internet to get information, and 72% of Gen Z access the Internet for entertainment.
The attachment also extends to communication and social growth. 51% of Gen Z say they rely on the internet every day to access and connect with others. They see themselves as part of a network of different digital communities, and friendships and even reputations they develop – 60% of Gen Z believe that the Internet reputation will be the main determining factor.
Final Thoughts
It is a misconception that the short attention span of Generation Z means they are not making pragmatic, meaningful decisions. This generation has lived a life of hybrid connectivity between the physical and virtual worlds. As the Gen Z statistics show, can identify authenticity, navigate platforms, and source information faster and more accurately than any other generation.
Their moral compass embedded in them from previous generations, along with their interest in the environment’s future and equality for all people, proposes they lean into brands that align with their values. Do you have any interesting Gen Z observations? Let us know in the comments below.
Looking for more insight into how to create gen z marketing strategies in 2022? We’d love to help. Get in touch here to tell us about your project.
This blog post is Last updated on Feb 20th, 2023.
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