Advertising to over-50s: why fifty isn’t one audience

The number of people in the UK aged 65 and over is set to rise by a third in the next 25 years, yet older people are disappearing from advertising. The bigger mistake is treating them as one group. A 55-year-old and an 80-year-old get their news, and see your ads, in very different places. Here’s how media habits change from your 50s to your late 70s, and where we’d spend the budget to reach each stage.

The audience advertising keeps missing

The UK is getting older. According to ICAEW, the number of people aged 65 and over is projected to rise by 34% over the next 25 years, against just 1% for working-age adults. Older people have long been big spenders, too. Back in 2018, the International Longevity Centre estimated that over-50s accounted for 54% of UK consumer spending.

Advertising is moving the other way. CreativeX, which tracks who appears in ads worldwide, found that over-60s made up 4% of people in ads in 2022. By 2024, that had fallen by 62%, to just 1.4%.

The public notices. In research for the ASA in June 2025, 44% of UK adults said older people are under-represented in ads or missing altogether, and 35% said they tend to be negatively stereotyped. Older people told the ASA they feel “bombarded” with ads for funerals, care homes and mobility aids. A 2025 study by Human8 found that 58% of over-50s feel undervalued or overlooked by brands.

Part of the reason is who makes the ads. The IPA found that just 8% of people in UK advertising agencies are over 51, compared with 33% of the UK workforce. It’s easy to plan for an audience you’re not part of using assumptions rather than data.

Fifty isn’t one audience

The usual answer is to put “over-50s” in the brief and move on. But Ofcom’s news research shows how much media habits change across the age range. The chart below shows how people get their news. It’s a good guide to where their attention goes more generally.

Print overtakes social media somewhere between 65 and 74. Online use for news drops from 67% of 55-year-olds to 64s to 37% of over-75s. Someone in their early 50s looks much more like a 45-year-old than a 75-year-old: in Ofcom’s 45 to 54 group, 74% get news online and 52% use social media.

So in practice you’re planning for at least three audiences.

TV matters at every one of these ages, but it’s an expensive way in, and habits are shifting even here. In Ofcom’s Media Nations 2026, live TV viewing among 65 to 74-year-olds had fallen by 47 minutes a day since 2022. It’s another reason not to put the whole budget in one place.

Not everyone in the older group is online, either. According to the Centre for Ageing Better, 27% of over-65s didn’t use the internet at home in 2024, around 3.5 million people. For 55 to 64s, the figure was 9%. A digital-only plan for “over-50s” misses a large part of the audience altogether.

Where to find them

National, regional and local press

Print is where the age curve works in your favour. Newspapers reach older readers in a setting they choose and trust. Regional and local titles add something national papers can’t: people who live near your shop, branch or care home. We’ve bought print since 1999, and we’ll even track down a small parish magazine if it reaches the right people.

Magazines

People aged 55 and over make up 40% of the total audience for UK magazine brands, across print and digital, and print does especially well with them, according to PAMCo data published by Magnetic. Special-interest titles, from gardening to travel to finance, let you reach people through what they enjoy rather than their date of birth.

Advertorials and publisher websites

For people in their 50s and 60s, the websites of the papers and magazines they already read are a natural fit. Advertorials give you room to explain a product properly, which matters for bigger or more considered purchases. There’s one condition, covered in the next section: they must be clearly labelled and genuinely useful. We’ve written more about advertorials and sponsored content separately.

Facebook

Among over-65s who use social media, 75% say Facebook is their main app, according to Ofcom. Among 16 to 24s, it’s just 6%. If you’re running paid social for an older audience, Meta is usually the place to start.

Sceptical, savvy and easily put off

Older audiences are the hardest to win over with advertising. Advertising Association research found that 18 to 34s are almost three times as likely to trust advertising as over-55s.

They’re also good at spotting it. Ofcom found that over-65s were better than 16 to 24s at recognising a paid partnership and at picking out sponsored search links.

Put those together and three things follow.

Where the ad appears matters. A sceptical reader judges your ad partly by the company it keeps. A trusted newspaper or magazine lends some of that trust to you. We’ve written about this in the currency of trust.

Don’t try to disguise an ad. An advertorial that pretends not to be one won’t fool this audience. One that’s clearly labelled and actually useful can do very well.

Show people as they are. In the ASA’s research, 49% of people said ads that make fun of older people are likely to cause offence. Human8 found that 93% of over-50s say people should be seen as individuals, not grouped by age. That means older people at work, travelling, buying tech and starting businesses, not only on the sofa or in a care home.

Buy the title, not the age tag

Digital platforms let you tick an age box, but that age is often a guess. In a 2019 study, researchers tested audiences bought from third-party data companies and found the ads reached the intended demographic group only 59% of the time. Gender on its own was identified about as well as random chance.

Print and publisher audiences are measured differently. Industry surveys such as PAMCo tell you who reads a title, so when you buy space in it you know roughly who you’re reaching. Online targeting still has a place, especially for people in their 50s. Just check the results rather than trusting the label.

How we’d plan a campaign for over-50s

1. Split the audience by life stage. Work out whether you’re really after people in their 50s, recent retirees or the over-75s. Each needs a different plan.
2. Pick titles by readership. Choose national, regional, and local press and magazines based on audience data and what your customers enjoy.
3. Add depth online. Use advertorials and placements on publisher websites for people who want the details, especially those in their 50s and 60s.
4. Follow up on social and search. Meta for older audiences, plus search to catch people when they go looking.
5. Get the creative right. Real people, no stereotypes, and a clear reason to act.
6. Measure the whole journey. Look at enquiries, calls and branded searches, not just clicks, because not every response happens online.

Frequently asked questions