Shopping apps targeting women generate better profits

Marketers must target women if they are looking to succeed and make profits in the mobile sector, according to a new report.

The Mobile App Engagement Index from performance based marketing platform Liftoff analyzed 7.3 million app installs across five sectors to unearth key app trends from the first half of this year. It finds that female customers are not only more likely to make a purchase in both mobile e-commerce and gaming apps, they are also less expensive to acquire compared to their male counterparts.

Liftoff found that women were nearly 34 percent more likely to make a purchase within a mobile app, indicating that females are the driving force behind overall mobile spending. The findings also showed that females were 40 percent less expensive to acquire as customers than males.

What's also interesting is female dominance of the mobile gaming market which has often been perceived as a male domain. Liftoff's research finds that female gamers installed and made a purchase within a gaming app at a rate of 6.7 percent, compared to males who had a rate of 5.9 percent. Additionally, the cost to acquire a female gamer who makes an in-app purchase was about 13 percent less than that for men, indicating that mobile marketers could benefit from moving more spend towards their female audience.

Another surprising finding from the data is that gaming app activity actually spikes during the summer season rather than the colder months when everyone is huddled up indoors. On average, the cost to acquire a user who made an in-app purchase (such as extra lives or in-game currency) was $65.90, with a sizeable difference in cost per purchase between Q1 and Q2. During the first half of 2016, the cost to drive an in-app gaming purchase decreased by 47 percent, indicating that mobile users are more likely to spend on games as summer approaches.

The report's authors conclude, "Gender differences will always be a factor in mobile app engagement, but the effects have remained consistent over time. Women are still more comfortable and willing to make mobile shopping purchases, while men are more likely to subscribe to mobile content or purchase financial services".

You can download the full report from the Liftoff website.

Image Credit: Hasloo Group Production Studio / Shutterstock