Guide
Generational marketing
How to develop advertising strategies that engage different generations, from zoomers to boomers
Generational marketing is a strategy for tailoring your marketing efforts to appeal to specific age cohorts based on their unique characteristics, values, preferences, and behaviors. Gain tips and inspiration for how to best connect with relevant customers from different generations, including Generation Z, millennials, Generation X, and baby boomers.
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What is generational marketing?
Generational marketing is a marketing strategy that involves engaging with customers by age group. This approach is based on the recognition that every generation has its own unique characteristics, experiences, and cultural influences that help drive their purchasing decisions. By understanding these distinctions, marketers can be more effective at increasing customer engagement and loyalty.
What is generational segmentation?
Generational segmentation is a type of demographic segmentation that involves grouping your audience into separate groups based on their age, and then tailoring your marketing efforts to each cohort in a way that reflects their characteristic wants and needs, communication styles, shopping habits, and life stage considerations. Although the exact dates used to define each generation vary slightly by source, the following categories are commonly used to describe the four generations most active in today’s consumer landscape:
- Adult Generation Z: Born 1998–2006
- Millennials: Born 1982–1997
- Generation X: Born 1966–1981
- Baby boomers: Born 1946–1965
Why is generational marketing important?
Generational marketing is important because it can allow advertisers to more effectively engage specific age groups who may represent high-potential and/or high-priority customers. The better you understand your core audience’s shared experiences, values, and preferences, the more fine-tuned your messaging can be.
What are the benefits of generational marketing?
The benefits of generational marketing can include improved customer engagement and brand loyalty, but it's most effective when combined with interest-based audience strategies. As noted in Amazon Ads Beyond the Generational Divide report, campaigns that use both age-based and interest-based audiences have conversion rates up to 2.2X higher than those using age-based audiences alone.1
Considerations for generational marketing strategies
Advertisers can use generational marketing as one component of their audience strategy, helping to inform their planning. However, as a first step, advertisers should focus on understanding the key characteristics that help drive the behavior of their core audiences beyond age alone—such as product interests, technological fluency, values, and spending priorities. Consider the following when developing generational marketing strategies.
The Beyond the Generational Divide research found that 61% of Gen Z feels that society's assumptions about their age group are inaccurate. While this generation shows strong digital engagement with tactics like livestreaming, video marketing, audio marketing, and social media, they share universal values with other age groups: 76% wish to leave the world better than they found it, and 72% say their interests and passions define them more than their age.2
Fifty-seven (57%) of Millennials find society's assumptions about their age group to be inaccurate. While often characterized by their digital nativity, 74% of Millennials say their interests, hobbies, and passions define them more than their age. They share many universal values with other generations, including health and wellbeing (71%) and the importance of having a supportive network (78%).3
Marketing to Generation X
Over half (56%) of Gen X also finds society’s assumptions about their age group to be inaccurate. This generation demonstrates that age alone doesn't define media preferences, as they engage across both traditional and digital marketing channels. Like other generations, 72% of surveyed Gen X respondents say their interests and passions define them more than their age.4
Marketing to baby boomers
While it’s true that this generation may be comfortable with traditional media such as radio, print, and television, 62% of Baby Boomers find society's assumptions about their age group to be inaccurate. In fact, 83% say their mindset defines them more than their age, and 79% say they have things in common with people from all age groups. They share many universal values with younger generations, including the importance of health and wellbeing (74%) and having a supportive network (82%).5
While understanding generational characteristics can provide valuable context, the Beyond the Generational Divide research shows that audiences are more powerfully united by their shared values (1.4X more than generations), communities (2.2X more than generations), and behaviors (2.1X more than generations).6 The most effective marketing strategies consider both generational insights and the universal experiences that bring people together. The following case studies demonstrate how brands successfully put this approach into practice, creating meaningful connections with their audiences by combining age-based understanding with shared values and behaviors.
Generational marketing examples and related research
expert advice
Retirement services provider TIAA worked with hip-hop superstar Wyclef Jean and Amazon Ads to spark important conversations around financial literacy with younger generations. The first-of-its-kind branded entertainment campaign took the form of an original song, “Paper Right,” including a music video featuring multiple artists who discussed the importance of generational wealth and preparing for a financial legacy.
Case-studies
To reach millennial and Gen Z gamers, Fizz Mobile partnered with Amazon Ads on an omnichannel campaign leveraging Prime Video ads alongside Fallout's premiere, combined with IMDb page takeovers and Twitch media buys. The strategy used pre-roll, bumper, and flex advertising on Prime Video, customized IMDb pages for Fallout and its top actors, and included display remarketing to audiences exposed on Prime Video and Twitch, driving 37 million impressions, a 21% lift in brand awareness, and a 25% lift in ad recall.
Research
While generational labels have long been a staple in marketing strategies, the Beyond the Generational Divide research from Amazon Ads and Strat7 Crowd.DNA uncovers how consumers’ identities are truly shaped—not by the year they were born, but by their interests, beliefs, and experiences. Through analysis of over 600,000 news articles and surveys of 26,400 consumers across 11 countries, the research reveals a more nuanced picture of today's consumers and the power of combining age-based and interest-based audiences strategies for more effective engagement. Explore the full report to learn more.
FAQs
Demand generation, lead generation, and marketing operations are separate marketing functions that work in tandem to support an organization’s overall marketing strategy. Demand generation focuses on creating awareness and interest in your product or service within your intended audience so you can establish a pipeline of prospective customers, whereas lead generation focuses on converting customer interest into actual sales. Marketing operations, on the other hand, is the function of overseeing an organization’s broader marketing program, campaign planning, and annual strategic planning activities—with the aim of increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of both demand generation and lead generation.
Millennials are the largest generation group in the U.S., making up 21.8% of the population as of 2024.7
Baby boomers are the wealthiest generation in the U.S., with an aggregate total net worth of $78.55 trillion.8
Sources
1 Amazon internal data. January 2024 – December 2024. Analysis based on 710 Amazon DSP campaigns that used either age-based audiences only or both age-based and interest-based audiences. Among advertisers in US, CA, UK, IN, FR, JP, AU, BR, AE, TR, DE, ES, IT that sell their products on Amazon.com.
2-6 Amazon Ads custom research with Strat7 Crowd.DNA. Beyond the Generational Divide: The new rules for consumer connection. Fielded December 2024 to January 2025. Data reflects AU, BR, CA, DE, ES, FR, IT, JP, MX, U.K., and U.S. aggregated. Base: All respondents (26,400), Gen Z (6,680), Millennials (6,680), Gen X (6,668), Baby Boomers (6,372).
7 Statista, 2023.
8 U.S. News and World Report, 2024.