There are many app developers and business startups out there who are so focused on their ideas and design development that they forget a very important ingredient for any app-related money-making recipe: developing a solid monetization strategy.
If your main goal is to make money off your app (and even if it isn’t, you have to admit – getting paid for your creativity and good ideas is always a nice plus), you need to come up with a solid and realistic monetization strategy. While the best and cheapest way to increase your revenue is to let your users do it for you, there are a few other effective strategies you can employ. Like offering some special bonus products or services and making use of in-app advertisements. Here are some tips on how to boost your app revenue in 3 steps.
To Charge or Not to Charge?
First, you must establish the price of your app. You can offer it as a free download. Or charge users anywhere from $0.99 to $4.99 and up in app stores. Determining this figure isn’t always easy to do. Your first thought might be that the best way for you to make money off of your app would be to charge users for downloads. In most cases, this assumption is wrong.
Consider whether you should charge users to download your app at all. While you might think that the most obvious way to make money off of your app would be to sell it in app stores, the majority of people who browse app stores only look at the apps that are available for free, so this isn’t always the wisest decision. By charging for your app, you could be missing out on a large number of customers who would potentially use and love your app if they didn’t have to pay for it initially. Also, whether you’re selling your app through Google or Apple, they’ll take 30% of your profits.
There are some nice ways to work around this obstacle, though. Many developers have found that the best monetization strategy for their app has been to offer their app for free. And then monetize from within the app through the use of in-app offers, in-app ads and a few other common strategies, which we’ll discuss next.
Offer Something Extra
No matter what type of app you’ve developed, you can offer something extra for users to purchase after they’ve downloaded and started using your app. There are a number of ways in which apps allow you to buy subscriptions or extra content, unlock special features or purchase virtual goods. Most apps use this strategy a lot to make money. What you don’t want to do is go overboard with it.
If you design an app, offer it for free in the app store. And then make it barely usable without in-app purchases. It will most likely turn users off and make them look for a better app that they can do a bit more with for free. However, if you let users see how amazing your app is and make them feel like they need it and could do something important with the in-app purchases on offer, they’ll be more likely to make those in-app purchases.
Use Ads Wisely
Another common method used for boosting app revenue is to use in-app advertising. For an example, you can try one of the top mobile ad platforms like Appnext as your next app advertising platform. Their in-app advertising getting quite popular nowadays. The market for mobile advertising in 2016 is close to $100 billion dollars. There are a number of different models that you can use. Something including banner ads, rewards ads, interstitial ads, offer walls, native advertising and notification ads.
Banner ads are those advertisements you see at the top or bottom of an app. Interstitial ads sit at the transition points of an app and might pop up as the app is opened or after a level of a game is completed. Rewards ads offer a reward, like a gift card or discount. Offer walls provide the user to earn something by completing a task, such as signing up for a trial account. Native advertising and notification ads are two of the least popular types of in-app advertising. They are a bit more invasive and tend to slow the speed of the app.
Get Inspired
You can gain inspiration for your monetization strategy by taking a look at what some of the most successful players in the app game have been doing to boost their revenue. Check out some of the most profitable games this year. Also take a look at some of the features and in-app purchases they offer. Pay attention to how much it costs to download them and how much in-app advertising they use. You’ll probably notice a pattern or come up with some good marketing ideas of your own.
