Skip to main content

Winning Over Gen Z Shoppers in the Face of Value

1/23/2025
Matt Knust of InMarket

CPG advertising spend reached nearly $50 billion and increased 16.6% in 2024, outperforming the average across industries of 12.6%, according to eMarketer and LiveRamp.

As spending continues to rise and the shopping and media landscape grows increasingly fragmented, marketers are doubling down on the groups they believe will become increasingly engaged and ultimately drive sales and lifetime loyalty for their brands. 

Many have set their sights on Gen Z — the demographic that is projected to overtake Baby Boomers in spending by 2029 and reach about $12 trillion in spending power by 2030. This creates significant opportunities for marketers, but it's critical to understand Gen Z's individualized behaviors and interests. Most importantly, ensure you're poised to remain one step ahead so you don't fall behind their fast-moving lifestyles. 

Here are three important considerations for winning the hearts — and dollars — of Gen Z as value remains top of mind:

1) The tea on shopping patterns. Consumer shopping patterns are fragmented with a single retailer capturing less than 0.5% of a shopper's total annual retail visits in 2024, according to the InMarket Index.

It's also essential to understand their prevalence on the social media platforms that have become increasingly commerce-focused like Snap, TikTok and Instagram. Gen Z is the predominant demographic on those three platforms and make up 52.3%, 43.8% and 35% of the shares of total users, respectively. 

These stats showcase a sliver of the complexity and fragmentation marketers face as they attempt to reach Gen Z when it comes to where they’re shopping and how they’re spending their screen time. 

One opportunity for understanding Gen Z is strategically expanding insights. Look beyond your own products and brand into the performance of key competitors. Going deeper to understand product variations like new flavors or mini-sizes, high-growth retail channels, surprising seasonal moments and more that attract Gen Z shoppers for both your brand and competitive sets spills the boiling hot tea needed to create effective, data-driven strategies that can drive incremental return on ad spend.

Advertisement - article continues below
Advertisement

2) Fortunately, it's not just about price. Price remains a top priority, but there are other key factors that contribute to purchasing decisions for Gen Z. (This is why meaningful insights are so important.)

For some Gen Zers, quality ranks above price. Other factors like nostalgia, innovation, health and convenience also contribute to purchase incentives. In our private label-ridden world, this is where name brands shine. 

Craft campaigns that lean into those insights, meeting Gen Zers consistently where they are. Let's say you're a CPG brand known to be a Gen Z childhood favorite in the early 2000s and now looking to drive sales lift across your product portfolio. Combine attributes like nostalgia and quality with current, relevant trends. Lean into the lore of social influencers and "Sweet Treats," for example, with shoppable ad experiences across channels, transforming static social and mobile ads or CTV campaigns into interactive experiences. 

Showcase an array of Y2K favorites in an interactive social or mobile ad letting viewers create the ultimate nostalgic sweet treat package before their next shopping trip. Uplevel CTV ads with gamified experience enabling viewers to take a quick quiz to find out what iconic 2000s snack they are, reminiscent of the Buzzfeed and J-14 quizzes, and quickly add it to their online shopping carts. Ensure every touchpoint not only shows your value, but does it in engaging and meaningful ways.

3) No, not every trend suits your brand. Any marketer who's spent time doomscrolling understands the appeal of pressuring your team to hop on the latest viral trend. This virality-focused way of thinking can certainly generate buzz and maybe short-term sales lift, but no one wants their brand to be a one-hit wonder of social success — it's long-term engagement and customer relationships that matter most.

As you're testing and learning with Gen Z audiences, cross-channel measurement can enhance inflight campaigns and future success. Social media platforms are doubling down on measurement partnerships because understanding the online and offline impact for advertising is critical amid our omnichannel, macroeconomic environment and extremely competitive retail landscape. 

Everyone knows the role measurement plays in accountability, but smarter marketers seek enhanced, cross-channel measurement for the added value of the comprehensive insights. With the right measurement approach, you can go further than simply understanding whether that influencer or social campaign drove sales lift and purchases. You'll find out which retail channels saw the biggest uptick among Gen Z, what was the total basket size, which markets flourished and more. There's also opportunity to embrace tools like dynamic creative optimization to adjust call-to-actions, offers or media based on performance, ensuring your ad experiences are consistently meeting Gen Z's needs while increasing iROAS.

As marketers, one of the most exciting aspects of Gen Z is not just their potential in spending power over the next few years. It's their passion and loyalty that can transform them from just occasional customers to outspoken advocates of your brand. Don't let relying on stereotypes prevent you from breaking through their saturated feeds and building long-term connections. Let the insights guide you and make sure you have the technology on hand to keep up. 

About the Author
Matt Knust is InMarket's VP, practice leader, for the CPG category. With nearly 20 years of CPG industry experience, Knust has become one of ad tech's leading professionals with a proven track record for success. A trusted adviser to retailer and shopper marketing teams, Knust has a strong history of driving top results for brands and their customers.

X
This ad will auto-close in 10 seconds