There are only a few situations where you can afford to launch a free mobile app on the market and actually keep it free. In other cases, you need to monetize your solution or find someone who would give you money for hosting and running that app. Let’s review the most popular forms of monetization, the upcoming trends, and how you can take your apps’ unique features and see an impactful ROI.

There will always be competition, so bear in mind your competitors’ weak points. Prior to making attempts to sell your app, investigate! Pay attention to your competitors’ products and feedback from their users. Make sure your product has more advanced functionality, higher quality, or a unique feature audience will appreciate. BTW, interviewing may work here. You can add a short in-app form and ask users to share their concerns and ideas for your app’s beta. After, apply that knowledge to extend your product. No one wants to pay for a solution they can get for free. So, double-check if your target audience has a good reason to prefer your application to others.

How do you monetize apps on the markets?

A free app is still a case for monetization

When you first launch your app on the market, you should definitely consider offering it for free. Since you want to draw an audience, you need to make sure the idea is good, and, finally, you’re looking forward to getting feedback from users. At this stage, providing the unpaid app on the market is the best thing you can do for your business and your brand. However, this doesn’t mean you won’t have a chance to monetize your solution once you’ve launched. To maintain some income and keep the power on you should consider in-app advertising.

Advertising

Want to monetize? — Advertise then!

1. Native Advertising

Ads have become an essential tool in today’s free applications. The tendencies will require you to advertise as natively as possible. Native ads are those that follow the natural form and function of the user experience where they’re placed. This involves a unique ad design specifically tailored for every particular application. As a result, when your users see the ad, they find it difficult to distinguish it from the apps’ content. Native ads not only blend in better with the app but they are not as jarring as pop-up or banner ads – this leads to a more enjoyable user experience. According to statistics achieved with the help of eyes-tracking sensors, consumers look at native ads 53 % more frequently than banner ads.

One of the most well-known examples of effective native ads is Instagram. Advertisers manage to show native ads in the main News Feed as well as Stories, which is another feature of Instagram. Users often find themselves drawn to a well-conceived advert as they do a friend’s picture.

Appropriate for: E-Commerce, News portals, Social Networks, Entertaining solutions, Health and Fitness.

2. Smart Banners

Smart banners are another trendy ad format. One of its key concepts is dynamic retargeting. You’ll most likely have experienced this yourself. Have you ever found yourself googling a product, only to be shown a similar product on an app you use?

Another good case are smart banners created as a result of brands marketing cooperation. In 2020 we’ll have more cases of that. When both brands promote each other through a unified general marketing campaign, they are able to reach a substantially larger audience. The best thing here is that customers are also satisfied by such a move. For example, when using their fitness app, they are presented with clothing from a partner-brand that compliments their exercise routine. When done properly, such an ad offer appears to be a seamless integration of personalized shopping rather than an advert.

The smart banner strategy is also widely applied in the games industry. Oftentimes, when playing a game, an ad for a new game pops up. Clicking on the link will take you directly to the app store. From there, it’s just a single tap to download a new game.

If you take away anything from here it’s that you should design your banner so it appears native to the app. The ad should be dynamic and adjust to all the possible screen parameters and orientation.

Appropriate for: Games, Entertaining portals, Education, E-Commerce, Health, and Fitness.

3. Mobile video ads and rewarded video

Video ads have grown more and more popular over the years and their meteoric rise isn’t slowing down. Video ads allow your users to receive bonuses and in-app awards by watching a video within the app. Reward ads are a great option for users who don’t want to pay for bonuses.

Appropriate for: Games, Lifestyle, Health and Fitness, Education, Video-streaming channels.

4. Offer Walls

Offer walls are widely used as a way to push users to perform a certain action. A large banner appears in front of the user. The banner suggests that they either make an in-app purchase or install a partner’s app. In return for the download, a user will be rewarded within the app itself. For instance, in the case of games, they can gain additional lives, weapons, or levels. The benefit of offer walls is that they are entirely optional. A user can either accept the offer or simply continue using the app as is.

Appropriate for: Entertaining apps, Games, Video-streaming channels.

Pay Per Download

Today’s market is overwhelmed with applications. The average smartphone has at least 80 apps on their phone, with 40 used each month. Teens use their phones to edit their photos before uploading them to Instagram. Games are always a tap away for whenever you’re waiting for the subway. Netflix, Kindle, and Facebook dominate the app leaderboards. But with so many free apps available, why would we ever pay for one? What is the secret to getting people to put down their hard-earned money before they’ve even used the app?

What makes you pay for an app

The key tenants of a successful paid app are unique features and a stunning marketing campaign. The innovative marketing campaign should focus on your unique selling point and how you stand out in a market filled with free apps. If your brand already exists in the market, and you’ve already built an element of brand trust with your customers, it’s easy to convince them to purchase your app. In other cases, you’ll have to plan your marketing campaign carefully or search for influential partners that can promote your product through their channels.

Finally, with your app created and marketing strategy prepared, all you have to do is publish your app on Google Play or App Store and set the price per download. The minimum app cost is $0,99. Even though it’s harder to draw an audience to a paid solution, according to statistics, those users who pay are more loyal and value your product higher.

Appropriate for: Entertaining apps, Games, Education, Business/Reporting apps, Healthcare/Fitness.

In-app purchases

This monetization option means that you offer your customers extra perks in exchange for money. In the case of a messaging app, you can offer a unique sticker pack or an advanced interface design at a small additional cost. If you want to monetize your game, you may offer extra lives or more levels for users. This option will continue to work if your solution is already popular. If your users enjoy free features, and your audience is constantly growing, you have better chances to earn money through in-app purchases.

Appropriate for: Games, Entertaining apps.

Subscription for a premium version of a service

If you offer tiered plans for your private users, teams, and enterprise-level customers, you should consider two monetization options for advanced plans: long-term subscriptions (e.g., half a year – year period) and a monthly subscription that is automatically renewed each month. The first option is more suitable for relatively new products on the market. When you want to draw the audience and get them on the hook of your solution. In this case, it makes sense to sell a long-term subscription at a lower price, when your user pays once and then enjoys your app and updates for longer periods of time. Platforms like AppSumo promote your app to their users, thereby expanding your audience, but expect you to give steep discounts in order to do so.

Ad-free app version

You may also offer an ad-free version of your application alongside a paid version. In addition to ad-free user experience, your paid version may offer your users premium features, bonuses, and upgrades of any kind. This strategy works with a number of app types such as entertainment apps like YouTube, or games.

If you already have a loyal audience, sell monthly premium subscriptions. This way you’ll have a stable monthly income from your users, you’ll be able to add additional features, ensure proper support and maintenance, and still maintain a profit. As usual, the subscription is renewed automatically unless the user cancels it at the end of the month. Leveraging the additional features and history as a premium user can convince your audience not to cancel.

Appropriate for: Business solutions, Video-streaming apps, Games, Entertaining apps, Professional apps.

Sponsorship and crowdfunding

In the future, we’re likely to have more volunteers ready to support worthy ideas and startups. The world loses boundaries, people cooperate more, self-awareness grows together with the essential need to help and contribute. All of this means that crowdfunding will strengthen its positions. The bright side of it is that it actually gives you a chance to earn some money even not having your app made yet. The challenge is to come up with something really unique and life-changing. Your idea needs to be inspiring so that Kickstarter or Indiegogo Angels want to make investments and support your idea.

In the case of sponsorship, it works rather like a bartering. Sponsors give you money to secure the product at a cheaper rate, for special perks, or a chance to meet the creators. To consider such a monetization path you need to have a popular app in a particular segment. This way, sponsors see benefits for their brands in cooperating with you, and they may offer co-branding opportunities.

Appropriate for: any kinds of applications that you believe are inspiring, life-changing in some way, or just appealing for successful market players.

Monetize it right!

The truth is you’ll not be able to monetize your solution from the first month on the market. Moreover, to make it a paid one you’ll probably have to wait for a year or so. So, warm up your users and make them love and trust your solution. After they see the product is worth paying for, you’ll be rolling in the dough!