Is Your Mother’s Day Mobile Campaign Monetization-Proof?

By Tim Cronin

This year, Mother’s Day falls on Sunday, May 12. As consumers, moms have a considerable amount of influence and cache in making purchasing decisions. They aren’t just shopping for themselves; they’re making purchases for the entire family including their children and husbands. They’re purchasing goods across multiple categories, whether it’s apparel, groceries/food, consumer packaged goods, entertainment or technology. Now consider that moms are heavy-duty mobile consumers. According to our 2012 “Moms on Mobile” report, 97 percent of these “mobile moms” made a purchase using their tablet in the last month and 31 percent log more than 10 hours per week on their tablet, but log less than 2 hours on their PCs. That sounds just about right when you look at the latest statistics proving tablet sales are on pace to overtake PCs this year. So how can publishers and app developers be sure their sites and apps are monetization-proof this Mother’s Day?

Make mobile apps socially-compatible

Moms aren’t just mobile shoppers; they’re social, too. Take for example some of the findings uncovered in our “Moms on Mobile” report. Half of connected moms use social media on their mobile devices. 81 percent of them are fans of a brand, 86 percent post status updates and 84 percent comment on social media. In December 2012, social networking giant Facebook announced that nearly 200,000 iPhone and Android apps connect to Facebook. Developers like Wooga, Ludia and Buffalo Studios have also suggested that users who log into their mobile games with Facebook spend more time and money in the apps. Those are some pretty big numbers that publishers and app developers cannot afford to ignore if they want to get in on some of that $20 billion monetization opportunity Mary Meeker highlighted last year. Socially connected mobile users are clearly more valuable users than those who are just using social networks like Facebook and Twitter on their desktop computers.

Simplify the checkout process

When it comes to Mother’s Day shopping, the in-app shopping experience needs to be easy to use, display a multitude of products simply for users, allow for easy viewing of photo galleries, and simple to organize and share with friends/family. That’s a sure fire way to ensure your mobile app generates consistent clicks and revenue.

A great way to increase Mother’s Day sales would be to emulate Real Simple’s strategy last year. The mom-friendly magazine created a gift-guide app that allowed consumers to purchase recommended products right in the app. They could also share these products through social networking and mark favorites. With a mobile-friendly set up like the Real Simple app, app developers and publishers can market to moms and allow them ways to share their gift-receiving wishes through the channels they are already prone to using – social networking. This type of targeting could be great for monetization by allowing mobile shoppers the ability to share exact products, bringing consumers back to your mobile site or app to purchase the item.