How to Monetize Your Mobile App

In an app business, it typically becomes most important to earn money. What do you think the services like Uber, Instacart, Tinder, Deliveroo have been prioritizing with their app models?

No wonder, they have stood up to solve the real-time problems of people across the world by providing them taxis on demand, delivering food and groceries at their doorstep and helping them find their life partner just from their phone. Ultimately, these app models are here to make money and believe me, they are not just earning but literally minting money in this app-driven landscape.

How? From the massive user-base they have. They have more than a billion downloads and their net revenue is worth a billion now. But these brands are no superheroes; they started as any of you will do. It’s just that these companies have made the right choices, targeted the right market with a future-ready business model, constantly upgrading it as per user’s dynamic demands. You can do it too. Really!

So, if you have an app of your own or you’re planning to have one, here’re a few quick hacks on how to increase your app revenue:

In-app purchases: This is tricky; you don’t ask for any money to the users for using the app. They automatically get stimulated to pay for the premium features to use your app. Once users gain interest in using your app, you can play your game here. In a gaming app like Candy Crush when the player needs just 5 more moves to break the jelly and move to the next level, the app asks them to buy those moves for just $0.5. And since the user is so intrigued playing this super fantastic mobile game, spending $0.5 is no big deal.

Your app can provide opportunities to users to purchase your products, services and treats directly from the app. In-app billing services can be a good option.

Disruptive advertising: Another big thing to consider is to include ads in your app. This is indeed a remarkable opportunity for app monetization.

Leveraging the benefit of the immeasurable amount of time people spend on their phones, you can make the most of in-app advertising. But sometimes advertisements are a big turn-off especially when they are banner ads that pop up at the top/bottom of the app screen. Likewise, pre-roll video ads that the user is forced to watch before the video actually starts playing make the user experience sour.

To place ads in your app without really annoying the users, you can opt for native advertising. Ads that are relevant to the user and can be integrated into the existing content of your app. For instance, if you are providing a ticket booking app to users for creating their travel itineraries, you can show them ads of the famous restaurants of that place or travel websites that give tips on great places to visit this summer.

Subscription

Consider creating subscription models for your regular users, who keep returning back to your app. You can give them monthly and quarterly offers on the purchase of your products.  This will add value to the app and users will be keen to pay for subscription services.

Freemium model

Make an app that is free to download. Most users stow away from paid apps. After certain levels of app usage, start providing premium models to users. They are like in-app purchases, with a difference that in premium model, the user gets to use advanced features of the app, giving them a more fulfilling experience.

Once the users realize that your app serves an important and exciting purpose in their life, they won’t shy away from buying the premium services.

Sponsors and Partnerships

You can win this monetization game if you partner with another leading brand in the app world. Serving a similar customer base as yours, your partner can add value to the user’s experience. You can go on to create an integrated experience with the app partner.

User data is the treasure-trove

The data you’re pulling from your app is the goldmine. It is giving you hundreds of new cues to market your app. Details of user do not only confine to name, address, email id or phone number, but you can also know them better than they know themselves.  You can gain insights into their likes, preferences, dislikes, priorities, how they behave while they are on your app, what they seek and everything else.

Data-driven strategies are the most advanced methods of generating income from your app. When you get to know why users are abandoning your app, you can spend all of your time in improvising the app and focusing on the users who have already downloaded the app.

Conclusion

This all boils down to one important conclusion that no matter how purposeful your app is, you need to invest your efforts and money in app marketing. Only then you can generate more app revenue year-after-year.