When designing an ad, app, book cover, or any piece of marketing, it’s important to consider the target audience. Results from a recent PickFu poll show how filtering a target audience down to a particular age group could provide startling results that may impact product sales and downloads.
In this particular poll, a health company wanted to test two different images for its pregnancy app, Ovia.
Both images show a pregnant woman with text on the page about the app. Both images also show a photo of the phone, but the image on the phone is different for the two. Option A shows the app’s logo:
Option B shows a screenshot of the app in use:
Can you guess which one won?
Out of 50 female respondents, 74% preferred Option B, while 26% preferred Option A.
Drawn to detail
Nearly half of those preferring Option B liked to see what app did. We see this often at PickFu; respondents like to have a clear sense of what the product does by looking at the picture.
One respondent wrote, “As a potential user I’d rather see a screenshot of what the app is supposed to look like and what it will actually do for me.”
In other words, many want to know what to expect when they download an app. Read other ways to improve your app store screenshots.
Minimalism for millennials
This is where things get interesting. While most preferred Option B, once we look closer at the responses based on age ranges, we find that most respondents under the age of 34 actually preferred Option A.
Many of these respondents used words like simplicity and clean to describe the design of Option A, but used words like cluttered and busy to describe Option B.
This might be due to the fact that the younger generation prefers a simple design. A 2016 study conducted by the Nielsen Norman Group found that those between 18 and 25 prefer simpler, flat website designs.
At first glance, Ovia’s app developers might assume that Option B is better for their target audience since it won the poll. But given that there are far more pregnant women under the age of 35 than there are over 40, Option B might not be the ideal choice for its intended audience.
Using more than one audience targeting trait
Ovia’s poll results are a fantastic example of how you may want to target your polling audience by more than gender. PickFu enables you to customize the target audience based on education, ethnicity, age, income, region, and more — or any combination of these traits. Targeted polling ensures that your marketing is laser-focused on your ideal customers.
