Peter is a freelance mobile application developer who developed awesome app source codes for his client but the biggest challenge for him is to find a consistent work for the living. He is also having various application ideas to execute but he is not clear about how to make money from an App Idea? I know there are many freelance android and iphone developers who are facing this challenge everyday. If you are the one who want to earn money by developing mobile apps from an app idea, this article is for you. Here you will learn unique ideas about how to monetize apps be it android or iphone platform.
There is no doubt about the fact that the free mobile apps have outmaneuvered the paid ones when it comes to the number of downloads. With that said, there is a good chance that a lot of free apps making more money than paid apps using some super cool mobile app monetization strategies. Here is a statistics to back up previous statement, “Research says the paid app revenues immensely decreased from 75.9% to 37.8% worldwide during the period of 2011 to 2017.”
So, How to monetize free android or iphone app? What are those strategies to make money from an app idea? This is the common question when we are investing our hard earned money on developing app.
Well, to address exactly this question I have written this article. In today’s post, I am going to reveal the truth behind the Trend of Mobile application monetization and how you too can start making money from your free mobile apps.
Without any further ado, let’s jump right into eight surefire ways that can help you monetize your mobile app and hit your revenue goal easily.
#1 Build Email List to Sell Products
First up, Making people aware about your product (here it is application) through emails is certainly an old technique, it is effective though if you want to monetize your app. Give this a shot and see the results.
Here are three ways to build an email list
- Ask users email during sign in your app.
- If your app is designed in such a way where there is no sign in required to use it, you can ask users for email ids with a pop-up box. In return, you can offer them free features, and some other lucrative offers. It will be a win-win situation for both sides.
- Have Facebook login enabled in your app. It will allow you to collect email ids with proper user consent.
- Building an email list will also help you in promoting your future application to generate initial customers.
This email database will help you easily reach your users who have not used your app for a while and are not aware of your app’s new features and updates. User retention is the important part in mobile application promotion strategy and this method will help you to stay connected with your existing users.
Important Note:
Make sure you make your users aware about how you are going to use this data; be it email id or any other information. If you are from Europe, you must follow EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rule to avoid any legal issues. Mention your cookie policy, terms of services, privacy policy clearly when you are collecting any information from the users.
#2 Run Advertisements
Well, well, well, what do we have here? The most talked about topic when it comes to app monetization. It is clear that the future of monetizing android apps depends on the ad-supported model. And again folks, no kidding here.
Look for yourself –
“According to TechCrunch, “73% of apps in the Android marketplace were free, and of those, 80% relied on advertising as their main business model.”
When you run advertisements in your app, it acts as a tool to display ads from most relevant advertisers. You can advertise any other app or game in your app and make money if any user interacts with those ads. But before planning to monetize your android or iPhone app through such ads, you need to choose the right mobile app monetization platform and what advertiser campaigns it offers. This will give you a profound idea about what actually you will be paid for.
#3 Do Sponsorship And Partnership
This comes next on how to monetize android and iPhone app strategies. Let me tell you how it works. When you start finding out that your application is getting a good amount of users, you can contact a sponsor company with quite similar or exactly same kind of target audience. Approach the company with the idea of updating the design of your app to match that sponsor’s brand. There are mainly two key kinds of deals that you can get the advantage of – one is you be a partner of your sponsor and split the overall revenue, and another is getting a certain amount of sponsorship fee on a monthly basis.
Cool! Isn’t it?
Advertisement is the biggest source of revenue for Google and you can follow the same model to start making money from your app. Here the key factor is; you should have good number of active users to attract merchant for spending money to advertise their product on your app.
#4 Promote In-App Purchase
Take a look at this statement on how monetize android app by ThinkMobiles,
“Revenues generated from mobile apps, including advertisements and in-app purchases, will double by 2020”.
In-app purchase is an interesting app monetization strategy for free apps. It helps the users get access to special features like power-ups, restrictive levels, premium content, bonus and unlocking game levels.
You can harness the benefits of in-app purchase in three ways:
- Offer a product that the users can buy or use for only one time within the app, such as virtual money
- Offer something that has no expiry date, such as new game level
- Offer something that users can enjoy for a limited period, such as digital content
If done rightly, in-app purchases can give you great ROI and well, that’s what you are looking for isn’t it?
#5 Do Cross Application Promotion
Do you want to know one of the most affordable ways to monetize android app? Well, I can tell you a way where you do not have to open your wallet at all and still can get profit from your app. Use cross-application platform.
Marketing your app through the right cross-application platform can skyrocket your profit by saving on advertising cost. This works by exchanging ads. Thus by displaying other’s ads, you can get a credit that you can use to promote your app on other platforms. This process lets you show tailor-made advertisements to your target audience. This way your app gets better visibility, increase in download rate and eventually great profit.
#6 Send Away Rewards to Your Users
With this model, you can provide your app users relevant rewards when they complete the actions that you have designated within your application. The most commonly used way to leverage the benefits of this model is showing rewarded video in your app. Instead of making your users feel bored with random videos when they use your app, show them rewarded videos that give them something as a reward if they watch those videos completely. The rewarded videos are usually about any other game or app.
So in a way you advertise others’ products in your app while keeping your users happy as well. This can give you great profit.
#7 Sell Subscriptions
Keep a limited version of some features or content in your app. Sell subscription of the full version of them. Let users know that they can unlock the features or get the full content after buying the subscription. This method can be more intriguing for your users if you offer a free trial period to them and charge a subscription fee for the full access.
#8 Promote Events
If you have good traffic in your app, you can opt for another monetization technique, i.e. event promotion through the app. Promote an upcoming event, sponsored by somebody else, and get it noticed by your app users. If your users click on that event ad and perform an action, you will get monetary benefits from the event organizer.
Here you need to prepare media kit for your app that should include your app statistics like; geography, demography, usage data, user behavior etc. That will help you to pitch merchant with clear presentation may result in better deals.
Best Practices To Boost Earning from Mobile app
Knowing only the process of monetizing a free app is not enough to sustain the profit. You need to follow some necessary practices to maximize the ROI and sustain on it.
Here are few ways to do that
- Improve User Experience
- Promote Your App to Add New Users
- Keep Yourself Up-to-Date with Latest Trends
- Opt for Mobile App Store Optimization
- Measure The App Performance, Optimize When Needed and Adapt for Betterment
Wrapping it up, with various options available to monetize a free app, you must decide which one suits your app framework. The methods and practices I have discussed today can help you kickstart the process. Hope you find this post useful and have understood how much profit you can make from your free app. So which process are you following to monetize your app? How is your choice giving you benefits? Do share your experience here. I’d love to know.
