App Monetization: With these 3 core strategies you will finally make money with your apps

Finally make money with your apps with these 3 core strategies

At the heart of every mobile strategy is the answer to the question of the specific benefits of apps for your company. In other words, how to implement your app monetization - directly or indirectly - correctly.

Recent figures illustrate how fast the digital world is shifting towards mobile and how huge the growth potential is. App analytics and market data company, AppAnnie, expects global consumer spending across all mobile app stores to increase by around 30% in 2018 compared to 2017, bringing total spending to a mind-boggling $110 billion. Moreover, by the end of 2018, around 80% of global internet usage is expected to be through mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. With all the predictions, one thing seems clear - there is plenty of potential and money in the market. Just how to participate in it?

We have summarized the three most important strategies for you:

1. Direct: Paid apps, in-app purchases, subscriptions
2. Indirect: Influencing purchasing behavior through marketing, additional service, branding
3. Lateral: Paid third-party advertising or sale of user data

App monetization through in-app purchases

The app The Economist Espresso shows how you can earn money through in-app purchases. Every morning, it provides its customers with an overview of the most important topics of the day, compiled by editors. The app is available for free, including one free-access article per day. Access to all articles costs $3.99 per month. In February of this year alone, the app had nearly 30,000 downloads and generated more than $230,000 in revenue. Big plus to this strategy is the low inhibition to install. As a result, you as a company have the chance to inspire users with sample content and arouse curiosity with additional offers.

App monetization through additional service

app enables its customers to project objects from the furniture store's range to the desired location in their own home. They can then virtually walk around the piece of furniture to check whether it fits into their own environment. The key advantage of this is that it creates an additional sales channel and significantly reduces the number of returns. According to a study by the University of Regensburg and the EHI Institute, 80% of the online retailers surveyed said that the most important factor by far in reducing the returns rate was the detailed product description and precise product presentation (3D product preview).

App monetization through third-party advertising

You can also earn a lot of money with third-party advertising. One particularly promising way is to embed so-called native ads. This type of ad integration is already being used successfully by Facebook and many other companies and is particularly appreciated because it overcomes the traditional presentation. The biggest advantage of in-app advertising is that consumers spend almost 86% of their total mobile time (smartphone and tablet) in apps. What's more, mobile advertising already accounts for the largest share of total digital advertising spend.

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