How Can You Make Money from Your Free Mobile App?
So, you are all geared up to launch your new mobile application? With all the die-hard brainstorming with your stakeholders and enough of ideation with your technical and design team, finally you have planned to create a product that will be one to be proud of. BUT, wait, creating a great product is not enough for you. It is rather of no use if you are not earning well from it the very next month of the launch, right?
Let us take you through some of the most essential ways if you dream to earn well from the Android or iOS application you have created.
Advertising on Your App
Well, this may sound to be too evident and the most common ways to monetize your mobile application platform, but it is equally essential to know the key areas to fetch the most out of this way. This one is the most profitable platform especially for those who are offering free Android or iOS application. It is quite similar to Adsense for your website.
The whole idea revolves and works around creating a strong user base that engages regularly on your application. You can go for different types of inventories or ads on your App namely Banner ads, Native ads, Text ads, interstitial ads, video ads and more. These are available for most apps.
Your next concern may be on which type of ad would be the best in terms of monetary aspects. Well, out of these, video ads have higher eCPMs than interstitials while banner ads cost the lowest as they are a quite intruding for the users.
In-App Purchases
In-app purchase is one of the most effective monetization strategies. This allows users spend money while they are on your app for buying higher levels or versions of the App. However, there are certain important factors that shouldn’t be ignored while your take this up:
Understand your customer
You certainly cannot entice your customers if you do not understand what they like. There are different ways to gather their interest- you can build a community, ask for feedback and build a quick chat module to capture their interests and opinion.
Engaging your users
It is significantly important to keep your users hooked to your app. They should not just visit and leave. For this, you must keep on updating your app and give them a new experience after every few days. You may think of some ideas that help them get some extra benefits after 2–3 visits.
The Right Moment
You need to figure out when your user has reached the maximum level of engagement. And believe us, it is not easy to find this out. But, yes, repeated actions on a certain module and analyzing the user behavior may help you in this. You must throw your ads for purchases at this moment when the user is the most engaged and would not be willing to leave amidst.
The primary monetization way for the famous game Candy Crush is in-app purchases. The users get 5 lives for free and once the lives are gone, they can either invite Facebook friends and earn more lives or purchase lives. It started in April 2012 and by December 2012, it reached ten million downloads.
By 2013 Candy Crush crossed 500 million downloads. This is when it earned $633,000 for Kings, the owner and that too alone from US market.
Initially, Kings released the app with advertising in order to earn revenue, however, ads were withdrawn and the game moves solely with in-app purchases. By 2015, the monthly revenue went up to $120 million but with declining purchases on the app, it lowered down to $53 million per month in 2016. Still, revenue is no less to motivate a start-up. It is still earning $24 million monthly as the figures say below about this year.
Angry Birds game is one of the best examples of monetizing the app through this means.
Surpassing over 350 million downloads and the next version, Angry Birds Space reaching 10 million downloads, this app earned around 4$ million profits in 2011 with in-app purchase model. Since then, there has been no looking back.
Criminal Case is another example of a gaming app that hits the top charts of App store. It brings 8 figures income (approx. $10M+) in 2017.
Freemium Model
Most of the Apps use Freemium model that allows users to download basic features of the app for free. Extra features, in-app virtual purchases, and other items can be set on sale in the app itself. This is a wonderful way to encourage users to try the sample usage of your app and later turn them into committed users. This is a rather preferred way to monetize against paid app models. Subscription models can also be considered as Freemium when a user has tried the first level or version for free.
Go For Affiliate Marketing
Although this one is the least used methods of monetizing the App, but it is quite effective too. Some networks can be joined for affiliate marketing. Apple Affiliate Program and Google Display Network can be used for iOS and Android application respectively. This simply works as your affiliate marketing on websites. You can sign up for affiliate network and drop the products on your App to earn commissions.
Encourage Sponsorships
Sponsorship strategy demands robust user base to be successful. However, this is the best way to leverage your high traffic if your App is doing great. Your traffic would rather attract sponsors to come and advertise on your platform. You may be proudly sitting on the negotiation table if your app grabs huge success.
These are some of the most effective and quick ways to monetize your mobile App whether on Android or iOS.
If you are looking for experts to help you for your app marketing activities or guide you through the monetization of your already created application, our team of skilled professionals expertise in making your applications stand out and grab eyeballs so that you get the best return on investment.
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