There are many purposes of creating a mobile application, creating a product that will help the people and make the world a better place to live. The app developer wants to give a better user experience to the users and wants to attract millions of happy users, and makes money, to be honest.
After creating an astonishing app, it is quite obvious that you definitely want to make it paid. Henceforth, in this article, we are continuing our previous article app monetization strategies and are going to discuss other potential monetization models that involve third parties.
How to monetize your app – Part 1
In-app Advertising
Whether it is a website, YouTube, TV commercials, newspapers, magazines, or the internet, advertising is everywhere. In fact, this is the most common way of making money. In your mobile apps too, you can incorporate apps to make money. Most of the apps with in-app advertising are free of cost but indicated the presence of ad pop-ups. To get ads on your app, firstly you need to make your app popular. The number of downloads of your app indicates the popularity of your app. When your app gets popular, then you can choose an advertising network, and implement its SDK on the app.
You also need to choose the format of your ad to be displayed on your app. The only disadvantage of this monetization strategy is that sometimes the users get frustrated from your app and may uninstall it. This may lead to the bounce rate of your app. However, if properly implemented you can still retain the users.
Here are the different types of in-app advertisements:
Interstitials
Interstitial ads are full-screen ads that cover the complete area of the mobile screen. The ads can appear random while the user enjoying the content of the app such as during playing games or reading a blog. These are not as such irritating because on seeing them the user can either click on them and will redirect to another page or app download link or can simply close them if they are irrelevant to him. It is not just the most profitable money-making strategy of your app but it is also a safe play as most of the users understand that an app needs ads to earn money. However, the app should appear at proper points and doesn’t disturb the flow of UX. It also has a good click-through rate. When the user clicks on an ad you earn more money.
Banners
A banner is present on almost every app and the reason is quite obvious they are easy to deploy. However, the revenue by banners is less in comparison to the interstitials. Banners are mostly present on the home page of the screen. Often the developers apply a trick to generate more revenue. They just place the banner right after the UI buttons. But we can’t be so harsh towards them as they also need to earn some money.
The size of the banner is fixed adopted by Google and Apple which is as per the screen size of the device but smart banners are also evolving. The smart banners would be able to adjust as per the device screen size. To know more you can go through this article. Apple comes with its own smart banners to promote an app in the mobile Safari. So if you already had a website of your business then the banner will appear on the top of your business site to promote the mobile application. You can know more here.
Video ads
Video ads are another growing ad strategy in the apps. It is almost similar to the interstitials but unlike interstitials which is just a single image ad, it is a complete video which gives more information about a product or service. It is a great way of advertising thanks to:
- Sneak peek factor
- Time-saving
A video ad is always had a better impact on users than many other ad formats. Users are well-informed through a video ad and know what an application can do. It is not good for advertisers only but for publishers too. This has the highest click-through rate among all different ad formats. There are many video advertising networks. Some of the popular ones are AdColony, Vungle, Beachfront.io, Facebook, YouTube, and others.
This is a new monetization strategy. With sponsorship, you give rewards to the users whenever they watch a complete ad of the sponsors. The rewards can be anything such as virtual money in games. There are two benefits of this strategy. The sponsor is assured that his complete ad is getting watched by the users and the users also don’t get frustrated as they are getting rewards for watching it.
Networks of Advertising
To earn money through ads, firstly you should have ads on your app. For this, you need to get the help of advertising networks. They will help you in promoting your app so your app will get ads from agencies.
Some of the best advertising networks are Admob and iAd. A developer can use the SDKs of them to integrate an ad broadcasting feature on the app. The developer can also choose the ad format which he feels most appropriate. Some of the other advertising networks are Appnext, adCash, and AppLift.
How to make your app discoverable?
Last but not least, it is important that your app is easily get discovered by users on the app stores. The number of searches on the Google Play Store is 53% while on the Apple App Store are 47%. This makes it vital for you to optimize your app so it gets easy to find. The name of the app shouldn’t be hard and easy to search. It should have a captivating app description with relevant keywords and have screenshots and videos the user can wander through.
When a user thinks of an Android app, the first thing that came in his mind is Google Play Store from where he can download the app. So it is essential that your app should be highly optimized on Google Play Store to make it discoverable. Especially, when we have other 2.9 million apps on the same platform. Same is true for the iOS app. You can also use app store optimization tools such as TryMyApps platform for iOS, App Annie ASO, and App Annie Analytical tools.
The icon of an app also plays an important role in its recognition. It is the first thing by which the users’ encounters of your app. Henceforth, the icon of your app should be intimidating, beautiful, identifiable, and memorable. While creating the app, we do a lot of research for UI & UX, and other functionalities while forgetting about this very first thing. You can go through the guide shared by Google and Apple regarding the app icon.
How to design a perfect icon for your mobile application
The other ways to make your app discoverable are:
- App Optimization on the App Store
- Showcase your app benefits on the Landing page
- Take reviews from the users
- Do content marketing
- Try to use Guest posts
- Leverage Social Media
- Join relevant groups on social media
- Use referral policy
- Enlist your app in app directories
- Release a demo video
- Involvement incredible forums
- Tie-Up with influencers
To know more about these factors, you can go through this article.
Even a highly outstanding app can require promotion. Just mobile application development doesn’t guarantee success; you need to put more effort.
If you wish to optimize your app by us then we also provide this service, contact us now.
