How Do Free Apps Make Money 9 Monetization Methods

It’s easy to set up and use and helps create video, rewarded, and native ads. A lightweight SDK quickly integrates with iOS and Android frameworks, and Flurry Analytics provides reporting and management tools. InMobi also offers a mediation platform for collaboration with multiple ad networks. Since 2013, this global ad network has worked with 200+ GEOs, 6,500+ advertisers, and 3,000+ publishers. Its Ad Exchange and Self-Served platforms provide multiple collaboration options. A mobile app built for a specific market niche with a substantial user base can find a sponsor in a company with overlapping target audiences.

• This mistake includes a demonstration of ads without taking into account the user data, too much advertising, untimely display, etc.
• Also, you can consider the statistical data that you can find anywhere on the internet.
• Without nailing down your app monetization models, you could end up wasting time and money.
• Well, even if you are a junior and think that your product is primitive and doesn’t deserve to be paid for, anyway, our advice is to try to get at least something from it.
• When the time is over, the person can purchase the subscription and continue using the application.

Implementing an IAP requires extra work on the backend so that transactions run smoothly. And most importantly, you’ll have to give away a huge chunk of the purchase — 30% as commission to Google Play and App Store. In-app purchases are one of the primary drivers of revenue for free apps and year by year it’s on the rise. One of the reasons for this is reported to be the rapidly growing purchasing power of the two tech-savvy generations — Millennials and Gen Z. Well, it’s done through a mobile ad network — a marketplace where you can sell the ad space to the advertisers. It connects you with the advertisers who can then place their ads in your app.

Affiliate income and referral marketing

Choosing the right monetization strategy is just one part of future success. To ensure stable revenue growth, you need to follow the latest trends and avoid common mistakes. Keep in mind that your product can be free to use and still provide income. Concentrate on creating an application that will be useful to the target audience.

This type of ad occupies a spot within your app either at the top or bottom. They remain on the user’s screen while they use the app and refresh automatically after a certain period. This is the most common ad type for app publishers new to advertising. Advertising remains the most common way to earn income from apps.

Using this medium, developers incorporate virtual items in an app that the users are supposed to buy. One monetization strategy brings different results across different platforms. It happens not only because of the differences in UI but also because of the policy that every App Store follows. More than that, some formats of ads aren’t available on all platforms. If you decided to develop an Android app and an iOS app for your project, the monetization approaches should be different. So before you start development, think or search for the information about how free Android apps make money and iOS products as well.

Interstitial ads often occur at natural transition breaks in messaging, news, and content, or when users open or close the app. In gaming apps, they may appear before or after an expected content or functionality, e.g., changing game levels or between game sessions. Although the app is free to download, it earns most of its revenue from in-app advertising.

How do you earn money from Android apps?

Apple and Google both charge 30 % on any sale made through in-app purchase. It is difficult to put a single figure on how much money you can make from an app. It totally depends on your app idea, its capabilities, and the problem it is solving that really defines the amount of money you can make with the app. On an average, entertainment apps earn around $4,000 daily, while gaming apps make around $20, 000, so you can’t really put an exact number here.

In the case of Spotify freemium, once you upgrade, there will be no ads, you can stream tracks at high quality and even download tracks. Freemium apps are those apps whose based model is free. However, you will have to upgrade to a premium plan to use the advanced ones. Freemium apps also include those apps that provide a free trial and then ask you to upgrade to use the app further. Some freemium apps are Spotify, Grammarly, and Youtube. The majority of the time, app owners get compensated when a user clicks or interacts with an ad or when a user installs an app after seeing it in an advertisement.

This ad category also includes rewarded video ads when the app user is rewarded for watching a full ad video. You’ll want to balance cost, profitability, and time-to-market. Building an MVP, which contains the basic features in a skeleton frame, helps to achieve that.

Making money from apps FAQs

Moreover, free apps also make money by hiding ads from those who pay to improve their user experience. Other microtransactions of 1 to 5 dollars are aligned to coins – accessories that increase the user’s level and make them more competitive. By adding all of these and multiplying by the number of users, it is clear now that game owners receive great revenue.

The more popular mobile applications become, the more insecure is this field. Ensure security within your app and protect users data. TikTok, the day’s talk, also generates a lot of money, utilizing an entirely different approach. The company sells its in-app coins that can be exchanged for digital products. Users can buy 100 coins for $0.99, and the prices reach $99.99 for 10,000 coins. In 2021 users spent more than $2,3 million on in-app purchases.

Difference Between Free Apps and Paid Apps

For example, for international transfers or cryptocurrency purchases and sales. Since the commission is small and the app is simple and user-friendly, users don’t mind the service fee. how much do free apps make This business model works very well in such applications. Marketplaces make finding clients and freelancers more convenient, and people are ready to pay a commission fee for it.

This method implies rewarding users for specific in-app actions, such as ad interactions, filling out a sponsored survey, or content sharing. In exchange, users may receive in-app currency or unlock additional functionalities. The strategy promotes better app engagement and loyalty, and most people interacting with such ads pay attention to the brand behind it. These full-screen ads containing images, videos, or text are displayed periodically and can be closed by tapping the cross button or opening the promoted page.

How to Make Money from Free Apps: Final Tips

This type of app monetization is similar to ads, but the difference is deeper integration to the app. Apart from just running ads, you can place a sponsor’s logo or icon on the splash screen, footer, or integrate sponsored content with special offers right to your app. To make this type of monetization model more profitable, find sponsors with the same target audience. For instance, if you have a fitness app, you can find sponsors among fitness centers, personal trainers, or healthy diet websites.

But they are also reported to reward high payouts with over $11 eCPM just like other full-screen ads. The payout is calculated based on the different models of ad campaigns. The most popular ones are cost per click , cost per view , and cost per install .

How to earn Salon Owners from Video Marketing?

The subscription model entails getting payment for a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual use of your solutions. Native ad is a popular type of digital marketing strategy that is absolutely user-centric and is created without interuplting user experience with an ad. A similar ad perfectly fits into the app design and overall concept, allowing to promote the brand or product naturally. This type of in-app advertising is more intrusive as it prevents users from using the app’s functionality.

These include games where developers sell in-app items and content-based apps where the owners charge subscriptions to access exclusive content. Most top-grossing Android apps on the Google Play Store earn money by combining advertising and in-app purchases. Subscriptions are also a major driver of revenue for such apps. These are the most effective monetization methods at large but they may not be what’ll work best for you. Crowdfunding, sponsorship, and referral marketing are also valid methods that you can adopt.

Free app monetization common mistakes

Here is a full tutorial with everything you’ll need to know going forward. To get a more accurate price, you can use an app cost calculator, like the one provided below. A lot of people suffer from FOMO and you can use it as a way to get people to use your app.