Facebook is for chicks?

When we set up facebook ads for the WA Prison Officers Union campaign we didn’t expect the interested audience to reflect such a polarized gender divide.

Contrary to our assumptions; that risks faced by Prison Officers would be interesting to men, the overwhelming response to our facebook ads were from women.

In the first few days, the hit rate was to 331 women : 2 men.

And this was from a pool of 260,260 possible impressions.

We’ve since lowered the budget for targeting men and upped the budget for ads targeting women with our Respect the Risk facebook ads.

One week down the track and the results continue to shine with the estrogen-domination that our political leadership change has reflected!

998 women and just 5 men, have followed the link through to the Respect the Risk website to sign the pledge supporting the rights of Prison Officers in the workplace.

Obviously, it’s raised a few questions for us here at EMC.

Is facebook predominantly the domain of women?

Are women more likely to show interest in facebook advertising than men?

Or is our campaign messaging more rousing for women than it is for men? (“Think your job is risky?”)

Natasha Webb and Stuart Gillies