Want To Make Money Out Of Your App? Check Out Top Mobile App Monetization Strategies 2019

Every year businesses set a new milestone for the growth and the same goes for the mobile app business. If you are thinking about making money out of your apps, you need to think in the direction of mobile app monetization strategies.

So, here we are to discuss the top mobile app strategies which can definitely generate revenue for your app business.

Data monetization

When it comes to mobile app monetization, data monetization is considered as one of the non-popular ways. Today everything is data-driven and in such a scenario, data helps in building the right direction for developing the business or working on to improve the existing products and services.

It is possible to get hidden insights about the customers by making use of quality data of users. Whether the business is online or offline, such valuable insights can be used to improve the business which can in turn work towards getting increased revenue.

Now, this is the scenario where the role of app developers becomes prominent. With people spending hours and hours on mobile apps, mobile app development tend to become a great source of accessing the data of the users. Still, you need to know that simply user data is not all about app monetization.

Mobile app monetization goes through collecting all the data then, segmenting and transferring all the information which does not reveal any personal information about the users to the data collectors. Data monetization has nothing to do with the personal information of the users. When collecting such data, the identity of the user stays unrevealed.

Some of such kind of data which gets collected from the users is:

Device version
Device type
Screen size
Country
Mobile operator
Network type

In the case of mobile app monetization, the need is to have non-personal data collected from the users and so the collectors are always looking for ways to have them in bulk. The larger the amount of the data is collected in this manner, the clearer the insights become. This is for the same reason why the apps which have a large number of DAU – Daily Active Users, tend to have increased demand among the data collectors.

So when you look at the scenario from the data monetization perspective, you will understand that it is quite simple. The more the number of users the app has, the more amount of revenue it will generate. So if your app has less than 10,000 DAU then you should work towards increasing and expanding your user base. Once your app reaches 50,000 DAU, then you should plan to build data monetization SDK and let your app start making money for you.

You can follow two ways to make money from your app:

Going for intermediaries
Sending the data directly to the collector.

There are some companies which work as intermediaries. These companies are already partnered with research institutes, telecom companies, marketers, global brands, etc.

Another way is to send such data directly to the data collector. To begin with this process, you will need to find trustful companies who are in need of such data for their business. You can then implement their SDK in your app. In this kind of arrangement, you will get to make more money if you have more number of data collectors signed up.

Whatever medium you plan to choose, you need to have one thing clear in your mind that collection of such data for app monetization needs the consent of the app users. In order to gather data, you will always have to ask the users for their permission. You should always work towards coming up with a consent form for users and add it in your code. This way a pop up will show up when the users will open up the app and they will get to decide whether to share the data or not.

The best thing about mobile app monetization is that you don’t have to keep on monitoring and optimizing the process.

What are the pros of going for mobile app monetization using data?

Here the user experience is not altered as the data collection takes place in the background.
Data monetization is possible for any kind of apps. This means whether you have developed a utility app or a mobile game, you can manage to make stable earnings through data monetization SDK.
Your current SDKs will not get affected by data monetization. So you can have it running separately or along with your app ads.
For every user who agreed for the data collection consent can get you paid every month. This means you will receive payments again and again for the same users.
The SDK which comes for the mobile app monetization just has the size of 50KB and it does not need memory consumption or battery support.

1. Smart banners, rewarded videos and native ads

With time, the amount of time the users spend on the apps has increased enormously and so it can be considered as one of the most effective ways to make conversions. After brands and advertisers have revealed that inventory in apps performs well, in 2018 they moved to make investments from web to mobile apps.

One of the studies says that spending on in-app advertising will triple in the years and by 2021 it will reach $201 billion. With increased investments coming from advertisers, it is expected that by 2021 the app industry will turn out to be the third biggest economy on earth. This will increase the efficiency of monetizing mobile apps.

Among the targeted audience, the in-app traffic is said to bring in increased user engagement. This is the reason why more than web traffic, CPMs for in-app impressions are costly.

Even though in the digital market mobile app advertising is not a new thing, there is a continuous evolution going on in this industry. Again, the same thing is happening with different ad formats.

The in-app users do not like the idea where they are disturbed from what they are doing. This is the reason the advertisers go for high-paying non-intrusive and native apps. In order to perfectly suit the app environment, native ads go for a customized design. This turns out to be a source of ever-growing chance for mobile app monetization that too without affecting the user loyalty or UX.

Smart banner is the new ad format in the market. The standard mobile banner has been upgraded to the smart banner. What makes smart banners better than the old traditional ones is that they are capable to dynamically adjust with the orientation and size of the mobile screen whereas, the old ones come with a fixed length, height, and width.

Based on the study of IAB, around 50% of the advertisers are going to get ahead with making investments on mobile video, digital video, and Advanced TV. The fastest growing video format is mobile video. When you compare the different mobile videos out there, you will find that rewarded videos have been doing the best in 2018.

People tend to spend more time on the app if you offer them in-app rewards in exchange for watching ads. So for the same reason, the in-app revenue that is coming from the ads has increased and the mobile app monetization has grown. It has to be said that the in-app activities of the user do not get interrupted by rewarded videos and the user gets to decide whether to watch it or not.

Some tips to consider when you plan to have ads for the purpose of mobile app monetization

Before you go ahead with some specific categories of ads, analyze the behavior and the interests of your users.
You need to be sure that the ads won’t have any negative impression on the users. You need to decide the time and place to show ads.
To find the cost-efficient and most engaging ads, try out different formats.
Don’t add in more ads in the app.
·To maximize the in-app revenue, try out ad mediation with the help of a number of demand partners.

Mobile ads are said to bring in amazing revenue and you always get to choose which ad units you can have in your app and how many ads you want in there.Just be sure you are putting optimized efforts in this direction.

Reconsidering the effective old in-app purchases

If you are not planning to go ahead with ads, you can go for in-app purchases which are definitely the old and tried mobile app monetization strategy with guaranteed results. With in-app purchases, you can have some items included in the app for sale. You can include items like virtual currency, extra life or even some exclusive features which the user gets to use within the app.

Freemiums ad subscriptions are also the kind of in-app purchases which we usually get in our Android smart phones. In case of freemium, you can offer a ‘free to install app’ to the users and then once they like it, you can offer them a premium version for the upgrade. This kind of apps is found in large numbers in the market and some of the examples are Tinder, Spotify Music, and Evernote. As per Statista, by offering an upgrade to the Plus and Gold versions to the users, Tinder managed to earn around $37 million in last November.

As a part of mobile app monetization strategies, subscriptions are applied to the app. It can be for fitness apps, audio and video streaming apps, cloud services and online magazines. The in-app purchase ratio is quite low today. You may feel skeptical when going ahead with this option and charging your users. You need to know that the amount charged is very low on per user basis. For the mobile app developers and businesses, the main challenge is to spot a user base which is solid when it comes to making regular in-app purchases.

You need to be sure you are making the best offer in terms of user preference or else they will go for a free alternative that can be used instead. Based on the nature of the app, you need to see which type of in-app purchases will be suitable for your app and include them in your mobile app monetization strategy.

Conclusion

No doubt in 2019, mobile apps are definitely going to be a great source of income for developers. This is the right time for you to work on your mobile app monetization strategy, refine it and make money out of it. You can go ahead with any of these mentioned strategies or even go for all the three of them and start making revenue out of your apps.

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