Online advertisement in a pink-colored market

Abstract

It is surprising that women are often charged more for products and services marketed explicitly to them. This phenomenon, known as the pink tax, is a major issue that questions women’s buying power. Nevertheless, it is not just limited to physical products – even online advertising can be subject to this type of gender-price discrimination. That is where our research comes in. We have developed a new methodology to measure what we call the digital marketing pink tax – the additional expense of delivering advertisements to female audiences. Analyzing data from Facebook advertising platforms across 187 countries and 40 territories shows this issue is systematic. Particularly, the digital marketing pink tax is prevalent in 79% of audiences across the world and 98% of audiences in highly developed countries. Therefore, advertisers incur a median cost of 30% more to display advertisements to women than men. In contrast, advertisers have to pay less digital marketing pink tax in less-developed countries (5%). Our research indicates that countries in the Middle East and Africa with a low Human Development Index (HDI) do not experience this phenomenon. Our comprehensive investigation of 24 industries reveals that advertisers must pay up to 64% of the digital marketing pink tax to target women in some industries. Our findings also suggest a connection between the digital marketing pink tax and the consumer pink tax – the extra charge placed on products marketed to women. Overall, our research sheds light on an important issue affecting women worldwide. Raising awareness of the digital marketing pink tax and advocating for better regulation.