Source: Adweek
How many young people live in the United States?
It depends who you ask.
According to Facebook, there are 41 million adults between the ages of 18 and 24. However, according to data from the U.S. census, there are just 31 million. Facebook also says there are 60 million between the ages of 25 and 34, while the U.S. census puts its estimate at just 35 million.
The difference was pointed out by senior advertising analyst Brian Wieser at Pivotal Research, who in a report distributed via email said the discrepancy was not widely known by various agency executives he spoke with about the topic. While the difference might not deter media buyers from spending money on the platform—which Facebook often touts for its “people-based” approach for targeting—Wieser said it might not help the social network with its pitch to win over more traditional TV advertising dollars. (Over the past few weeks, Facebook has been rolling out its Watch tab, which features original content that media companies and other content producers are creating specifically for Facebook.)
So why is there a difference? Facebook’s age data is self-reported, meaning that some younger users might say they’re older than they actually are. Also, Facebook’s ad targeting is based on location-based data for both residents and visitors that aren’t counted by a country’s census.
According to Facebook, the tool is an estimator for campaign planning rather than something that quantifies officially how many people a business can reach in a given campaign.
