Last Updated: 31 May 2018 | 5 min read
Doesn’t everything get down to business (read money/revenue) at the end? If that is not the ‘ONLY’ motive than at least it must be ‘A’ motive in the entire process because for the survival of your business you need to earn money to keep it going.
We are sure that ‘fun’ is not the only thing for which you have to build your app. Yes, the probability takes a little shift towards enhancing loyalty, create brand awareness, gain access to the new global customer base, etc. But let’s face it, haven’t you invested your time, knowledge, resources and of course money till the app is developed, launched to play store and at many other stages.
Here’s is our list of app monetization model and/or strategy that will drive you most revenue. But at first, we need to understand that since every app is different and hence, a little twist and turn & customization might be needed in the below list to create a go-to-market strategy for your app. A little-personalized research and gathering industry-specific data & insights will be helpful in deriving the perfect strategy that suits your mobile app to generate revenue.
1) Advertising
This is one of the most basic methods to make money from your mobile app wherein, you’ll get paid by advertiser once the user clicks or views an ad shown in the app. This bypasses the need to inculcate pay per download and encourages more people to download your app. Advertising is usually blended in a mixed monetization model. Few of the ad formats are listed below:
i) Banner Ads: These are either placed at the top or bottom and are being considered as most distracting compared to other formats. However, it diminishes your user’s experience of using the app and hence, do your thorough research before using banner ads in your app.
ii) Interstitial Ads: These are transitioned ads placed from time to time and mostly in the form of videos. This ad format is mostly used in games apps and perhaps could generate good results if implemented strategically.
iii) Rewards Ads: A chain of reward ads are spread in the app to grab a prize or gift. The users receive the discount, redeem cards or coupon etc. In rewards ads format, along with the user, ad publisher also get compensated.
iv) Notification Ads: These are interrupting and intruding ads lying at the top of mobile device’s status bar and can easily hamper brand’s reputation and hence we suggest to use them at a good interval of time.
v) Native Ads: One of the good ways of getting things done is what these native ads are built for, as these are content-based and shows up in apps’ news feed. Native ad formats accommodate according to the apps form, format, function and feel. Basically, the ads can easily overlay themselves upon the app’s interface and hence, are neither distracting nor interrupting with the user experience.
Mobile app advertising can be effectively most beneficial, however, care has to be taken in order not to overdo it. Collecting demographic and behavioral data might give some insight to app publisher to overall increase the user experience without being intrusive with ads and still earn money from the app.
2) Charging a One-Time fee:
The most obvious way to generate money from your mobile application is through paid download. Charging users a one-time fee to purchase the app and unlock the full operationality of the app. This could also prove as a fatal attempt as it is hard to convince users to download a paid app before trying it out, especially with so many free options available in the app store. Moreover, Apple and Google both charges 30% and hence, it is advisable to choose this method if your app has unique features over the other available free or similar options and offering added value.
3) In-App Purchases:
This model consists of selling virtually a feature or product or any physical goods within the app. In a way, your mobile app acts a sales channel or storefront in generating money through this strategy. Highly adopted by top-grossing apps and mainly games apps to level-up a feature or other add-ons. If in-app purchases are not well crafted in accordance with the incentive structure, it will not persuade users to spend more.
4) The Famous Freemium Model:
One of the most popular approaches to monetizing your mobile app is through the freemium model, in which the basic version of the app is available for free, however, the full functionality and add-ons are locked until user make a purchase to use the full version. Since, this model offers, ‘Try Before You Buy’, the user gets time to familiarize with the product and hence can make an informed decision before purchasing the full version.
5) Subscriptions or Paywalls:
Subscription-based app monetization methodology is advisable in case if the app is content driven. In such scenario, a limited content is allowed to view for free (for e.g basic classes or lectures) but users need to subscribe to view the advanced lessons/lectures or the entire content for a fee.
As in the case of every product review, marketing and decision, monetization strategy must have to be approached beforehand with the end user in mind. It has to be considered in direct correlation with the user experience. It is hard to advise on the which strategy one should opt for, as it depends on the type of app and the target audience. However, one could apply a permutation and combination of these strategies to make the best out of it.
