3 Best Ways To Monetize Your Android/ iOS App/Game

For innovators, there are plenty of opportunities to earn some side cash, but in this tech savvy world nothing beats the earning potential and convenience that app development offers. So, you have developed a killer app or game app for smartphone, be it Android or iOS, and wonder how to turn your hard work into green mean money making machine, then we have got you covered. It’s important to bear in mind that apart from adhering to Google and Apple’s criteria for publishing apps, you have to follow best practices for marketing and provide a decent level for support along with good user experience.

With these in mind and a few extra tricks up your sleeves, you too can do wonders and become an overnight hit, remember Flappy Bird. If you are not sure what to create, here are some unique gaming ideas on Friv and Juegos Friv, and play along with your thinking hats on.

Here are a few methods to generate money stream from your app.

Fremium and in-app Purchases

Ideally, the app should be published for free to increase number of downloads. There can be exceptions to this rule, but for beginners it is best not to take chance.

Once your free app has penetrated in the market, downloaded in hundreds, collect and analyze feedback from your customers. Know what they want you to add in your app. Note down every suggestion about value-added feature. Then go ahead and make a similar second app with those features and market it through your free app to your registered clients, offer it at a competitive price.

Or, you can offer those additional features as in-app purchases. This way you won’t have to go through the whole routine of developing and then getting it approved by Google/Apple for publishing. However, we recommend taking the longer route. Why? It is simple; second time around, you will be more efficient in developing the code, making the app more user-friendly, agile, responsive and streamlined, thus improving its value even more.

Ads

It’s important to know that paid apps are on the decline in both Android and iOS ecosystems. That’s the reason multiple innovative approaches to in-app advertisements have emerged, which actually work and deliver. You should thoroughly explore and employ the best suited option.

The most commonly used are:

• Banners
• Interstitial
• Capture form
• Notification ads

Banners

Banners are horizontal strips with advertised message, appearing at top and bottom of app screen. Experts are of the view that these can be the least intrusive of all ad types if you design app-controls away from them. As a developer, your intention shall be on providing a good stable user experience, monetizing that good experience into cash comes after that. So, selecting preferred ad position away from app-buttons will ensure that users don’t click on them accidentally and leave app prematurely, ruining user experience.

Interstitial

Full screen pop up ads are Interstitial. They are a good option for game apps, but for productive apps, this approach should be avoided.

Capture Forms

Another type of full screen ads, where some incentive is also offered to users for clicking. Again, a good option for games, but not really helpful for serious apps.

Notification ads

Most intrusive of all, these adds will pop up as notifications in notification bar. Though users may take a while to guess which app is causing this intrusion, but when they do, it’s almost certain that app will get uninstalled quickly.

Partnerships

Though it can be used by newbies with slight tailoring, but this option for monetizing your app works best when you have generated a huge user base. New comers can partner with similar or complementing businesses, and only show their ads. The chances of getting clicks increase by 13% if relevant, value added ads are shown.

Another way is using other brands within your app and charge them for space in your app. Like said before, it is only viable if your app has very good download and usage figures. A very good example is Temple Run, where you can purchase and play as famous sportsmen and animated characters. This benefits both business/brands, as it engages audience in an innovative way.