The Complete Guide to Monetizing an App

Forever Mogul
3 min readNov 7, 2021

Whether you’re a seasoned mobile app developer or a brand-new developer looking to break into the app development game, it’s essential to consider your different monetization strategies. While you can add monetization after publishing your app, it is helpful to consider how you will monetize before your creation hits the app stores. Looking at the various monetization models early in the process allows you to make design changes based on how you plan to monetize.

Here we’ll look at the most common ways to monetize an app and why they may be a good choice for your app.

Paid Apps

The first and most obvious choice is to charge a small fee for your app. While the amount you charge is something you can decide on for yourself, it would be an excellent decision to keep this fee relatively low. Most users have grown accustomed to downloading apps for free, and if your app costs more than a couple of dollars, you are likely to see some resistance.

Most users will be willing to buy an app for $0.99–1.99, but be careful about going much higher than that unless you have an incredibly unique and useful app. You should also be aware of your competitors and their price points. You don’t want to sell your app for $4.99 when other similar apps sell for $1.99.

This method may be suitable for some applications, but the growing trend is toward alternate monetization models. In fact, according to Statista, the percentage of apps on iOS that are offered free is 93.6%, compared to just 6.4% paid apps. This is a trend that has only become more heavily skewed in favor of free apps each year.

In-App Ads

The most common method of monetization for a mobile app is through advertisements. In this scenario, you offer your app as a free download with all the features available to the user. To generate revenue, you can run ads, and you will be paid depending on several factors-including ad views, installs, and clicks-based on the type of ad campaign.

There are several different ad platforms, but Google’s AdMob is likely to be your best starting point. Google understands advertising strategies as well as anyone, and its ads are highly targeted and less intrusive than many other options.

There are a few different revenue models for advertising, and Google AdMob uses a combination of Cost Per Click (CPC), Cost Per Install (CPI), and Cost Per Mille (CPM).

CPC — In the cost-per-click payment model, you are paid each time a user clicks an ad presented to them in your app.

CPI — In a cost-per-install model, the ads are for other mobile apps, and you are paid when one of your users clicks on and installs the advertised app.

CPM — In this model, you are paid for every 1000 views that your app gets.

The amount you can make will vary, but Google AdMob estimates what type of revenue you could see with a handy tool they have. You select your market, app store, and category then you can view the estimated revenue based on how many monthly users you anticipate having. For example:

Read the complete article at https://forevermogul.com on November 7, 2021.

--

--

Forever Mogul

Championing entrepreneurship, mogul lifestyle, philanthropy with a social conscience with a truly global outlook.