Not long ago, the concept of a mobile app was totally alien. With the emergence of smart phones, the app market has boomed into a multi-billion dollar industry with millions of daily users. Now-a-days more than launching & managing an app, the main concern being monetizing for any entrepreneur.
Here’re a few ways you can earn some bucks with your mobile start-up:
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Banner & Native Advertising:
Banner ads are pretty common & fairly easy to implement. ‘AdMob’ by Google or ‘InMobi’ (India’s first unicorn) are the most recommended platforms used to show in-app banner ads. However to build a long-term relationship with customers, it’s better to avoid aggressive banner ads & look for other options.
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Popular services like Instagram, Twitter & Facebook (with their huge user base) dictate native mobile advertising trends. Native ads gel-in with the UI of the apps, making users more interested to interact with them. It’s one of the best ways to monetize your mobile app.
Paid Version of the App:
Last year, the number of downloads from Google PlayStore was twice than that of the AppStore. However, developers selling apps on AppStore earned 75% more than those on PlayStore.
The most popular method to monetize apps is to go for paid versions. Users purchase your app from the marketplace for a one-time fee, resulting in higher revenues.
In-app Purchases:
Apart from the paid & free app categories, there’s a third category including some of the most profitable apps. Many of the apps are free to download but require an upgrade (i.e. payment) to unlock full features, increase the progress of a game or turn off advertisements. It’s one of the smarter techniques to make money through mobile apps.
As an entrepreneur, you have to strategics wisely. If your free offerings are good enough, no one would spend on in-app purchases. You’ve got to spend a fair amount of time balancing out free & paid offerings of your freemium apps. Here’re a few strategies entrepreneurs follow with slight variations:
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- Develop an app that looks & works so good that it’s tough to believe it’s actually free. But mind to include only basic functions that aren’t sufficient for a regular user.
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- Spend money on mobile marketing & attract users working with all kinds of available traction channels. For apps to make money, you require right target audience & not the noisy crowd.
- Offer premium features with different pricing options: super affordable, medium priced & relatively expensive.
With the competition heating up every passing day, launching a profitable app has really become quite a challenging task. Users aren’t very forgiving when it comes to app usage. However, the opportunities are limitless.
It’s not a bad idea to just experiment, learn & then improve. Choose a winning strategy, start with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), get a feel of the market & then go full scale. With a precisely chosen monetization technique, your app could well be the next big success story.
Share your suggestions & ideas to monetize a mobile app. Drop us a line.
