Women are both more likely to purchase from shopping and gaming apps and are cheaper to acquire, as found by a newly-released report by mobile user acquisition specialist Liftoff.
According to the group, females are 34% more likely to buy via an app, whether that’s m-commerce or gaming app purchases, and 40% less expensive than males to acquire as customers.
These findings in mind, Liftoff goes as far as claiming that app marketers should be tilting spend in favour of targeting women into 2017.
Female dominated
The bold assertion comes from an index of 7.3 million cross-sector app installs and 65 million post-install events, such as purchases, reservations, subscriptions in the first half of the year, with the aim of detailing cost per action across genders and operating systems.
Last year the cost of acquiring a user who went on to complete a first purchase within a shopping app was $148, according to Liftoff, with male purchasers making up the majority of buyers. However, this cost has been more than halved (-54.5%), and the gender bias has clearly taken a swing the other way.
While the games industry is often regarded as a male-dominated one, Liftoff found that on mobile, it’s female gamers that take a firm lead. This group installs and makes a purchase within a gaming app at a rate of 6.7%, compared to males’ 5.9%. The cost to acquire the former was 13% less than for men.
The findings don’t just stop at gender, though. Liftoff’s app engagement index also revealed that the summer months see a spike in gaming app downloads, possibly as a result of consumers being out and about rather than tucked away indoors with more options for entertainment.
This trend was identified by a slump in cost per purchase between the first quarters of 2016, falling 47% as summer approaches, while the average cost across both quarters sat at $65.90.