[Sever Bronny]

I'm curious what you all think about demographics, specifically as they relate to fantasy audiences. I'm getting more and more into facebook advertising of late and noticed I don't specify anything in the behaviors and the demographics section, other than targeting users aged 17-45 (all genders) and interests of course.

So, in your opinions, what kind of people generally tend to read fantasy, strictly from a demographics perspective?

(I suspect this kind of thread can be made for every genre.)

 

[chrisanthropic]

Obviously things get skewed a bit depending on the subgenre (paranormal fantasy vs epic vs sword-and-sorcery vs urban etc.) but we've found the same. 17-45 male/female where ours leans a bit more to female given since some males don't like a female protagonist.

 

[Sever Bronny]

Sorry, should have been a bit more specific.

My genre is YA coming of age fantasy with adult cross-over potential. I've been reading that specifics in categories beyond age and interests can severely limit a campaign, but I wouldn't mind experimenting if people have ideas. No big deal though, I can live with what I have--a broad audience for the ads

 

[Patty Jansen]

Movies (think of names), comics (give names), RPG

 

[Sever Bronny]

Those are covered in the interests category, Patty (which I've decked out properly)

Demographics in this case relate to facebook's options:

• Relationship
• Education
• Work
• Generation
• Ethnic affinity
• Parents
• Politics
• Life events

Then there's behaviours:

• Digital activites
• Expats
• Mobile device user
• Seasonal and events
• Travel

That's my fault for not being clear in my original post typical me. What do they say when you ASSume?

 

[Sever Bronny]

That's cool, Jeff. Just casual thoughts here, nothing more.

Wait, did I read that right? You've never been on facebook?

 

[Sever Bronny]

You're certainly not missing out on anything.

 

[Sever Bronny]

It's also not very conducive to writing ... on multiple levels.

 

[Annette_g]

Some demographics for you from a fantasy fan:

I'm female, mid-40s, love the Harry Potter books and am an avid sword and sorcery fantasy fan. I'm not really into urban fantasy, but have a read a few. There are some writers I will cross genres for. Married for almost 25 years, not working outside the home as I am borderline agoraphobic, probably why I like books so much, can have adventures through reading and writing. Husband is a scientist who can't wait to retire so he can get writing more too.

 

[Chris Fox]

I steer away from demographics when advertising on Facebook, and tend toward interests. I'm often surprised by the type of people who want to read about werewolves and zombies, and if I pigeonholed a specific age or gender I'd lose out on the awesome 67 year old grandmother who loves my work.

Targeting the largest books in my also bought list and genre seems fairly effective so far. I've also added movies and TV shows I assume my readers also enjoy.

 

[Mark E. Cooper]

According to my facebook and adwords, my audience is primarily 60% female 35-65 years of age US and CA. I only know that basic info through Google Analytics and a facebook pixel on my main webpage. When I use FB ads for an event of some kind, I usually use interest in books written by bigger authors in my genre. Little 'ol me wouldn't show in the interests area, but Jim Butcher and David Weber would. John Ringo, and then there are shows like True Blood, or book characters like Anita Blake etc.

 

[Rick Gualtieri]

I write Urban Fantasy that I would consider is primarily aimed at mid-twenties males.  The reality is vastly different.  Pretty much an equal mix of male/female, and age range tends to skew much higher than I would have thought...mid-thirties on up. 

Pretty much the same thing Chris Fox said. These days I tend to aim more toward interests than demographic.

 

[nonbreaking space]

i've had the most luck targeting fans of movies/tv shows that align with the book. i personally wouldn't limit age. i have more than a few over 60 year-old readers (i know because they've written to me).

 

[kyokominamino]

Disclaimer: I'm still an itty bitty prawn in the pond. I'm not super popular by any stretch of the imagination.

I write urban fantasy. My main character is Afro-Latina. Based on what I personally have seen, I've tapped into the twenty-something through the forty-something female readers. Those are the ones who have liked my Facebook posts, signed up for the mailing list, and engaged with me on Twitter the most out of everyone else. I surprisingly have not seen many female teenagers. I wonder if it's because my novel is not YA, or if I'm just not appealing to them with either my book cover or my style of writing. Additionally, most of my readers are from the US, but I seem to slowly be picking up traction in the UK. I've been getting consistent sales from them over the last 3-4 months, which is very cool. I'm also seeing a bit of interest from Canada and Australia now.

Those are my stats. Hope I helped in any small way.

 

[SBJones]

Facebook ads, in my experience, is like playing minesweeper.  You start off by just hunting and pecking and it always ends badly.  Eventually with enough data you start to navigate where it is you want to go, but no matter what, it will eventually blow up and you have to start over.

edit:  It's also time consuming and boring.

 

[Sever Bronny]

Thanks for the responses, everyone. Via the demographics report on FB (which I should have checked ages ago), I discovered my audience is 18-24 females (by a ratio of 2:1 over males), and by an even higher ratio for age groups. I'll mess with this some more. This will be interesting.

 

[SBJones]

I'm pretty sure all markets and economies are driven by the purses of middle aged women with disposable incomes.

 

[Sever Bronny]

Funny you mention that, SB, as my 44-54 female demographic happens to have the highest CTR rate. Set up an AD just for them too

 

[80593]

I see one of the options is "digital activities." I'd suggest targeting gamers. Anecdotally only, I see a lot of crossover between fantasy/rpg players and fantasy readers. Plus rpg/mmo gamers tend to get super into the lore/stories of the game world. A good audience to invite to immerse themselves in a made-up world.