1. Earn Money From Home Scams
2. Is It Possible To Earn Money From Home Or Apps

At Money Making Apps, we have made it our mission to research all of the great make money apps in Google Play and Apple App stores. We think everyone deserves to earn a little bit of extra money from their mobile device. We are committed to making that as easy as possible for our website’s visitors.

The mobile app industry is full of opportunities to accelerate your earning from apps. The statement is not only for developers but also for the app owners who are hoping to find answers to the question of how to earn from apps?.

The mobile market is a goldfish offering excellent money-making opportunities. With the same thought, we have come up with the most burgeoning questions “how apps make money” and how much can you earn from an app with relevant facts and figures.

If you own an existing app it’s great, but if you’re thinking of developing a new one just because your existing app doesn’t perform as other successful money making apps, it’s not too late to make adjustments to correct the same.

We at MobileAppDaily conducted in-depth research to bring the facts about how apps earn money and how much can you make from an app. Following the below-described strategies to get meaningful insights into each fact.

Types Of Apps You Should Invest In To Generate Great Revenue

If you’re one of those who already own an app or planning to build one for business promotion, it would be great to take the assistance of a reliable mobile app development company. They are the experts and will let you know what types of apps are good and the best to invest in.

They’ll also let you know the best app type and on-boarding the best app monetization strategies that will tell you ways to monetize apps. If you know how to generate income from app, it would greatly help you get the most out of your mobile app.

The mobile app market has become a big business these days!

The global mobile app revenue is predicted to reach about $188.9 billion by the end of 2020 which is a 200% rise from the stats gathered for 2016.

Coming to the point of highlighting the apps category gaining the utmost popularity and revenue. High power gaming apps can be the best ones that top the list with higher earning from apps.

Category 1: Gaming Apps

Be it a child or a youth, everyone has a passion to play games to polish their presence of mind. It is true that gaming apps dominate the entire mobile app industry and mark a niche in the list of top-grossing apps. Reports gathered as of April 2018, Epic Games’ Fortnite earned about $1.9 million daily, Candy Crush Saga secured the second position in the list with a drastic revenue of $1.3 million and Pokemon Go has filled the pocket with around $800 million in 2018. This is how gaming apps can make ways for how much money you can make off an app.

Category 2: Dating Apps

online, free dating apps are making the utmost money every minute by appealing to users with impressive layouts and interesting feature kits. When you will look deep into how much does an app earn? you will find dating apps at the top of the list. Tinder and Bumble are top-grossing online dating apps that are appeasing millions of global users by unleashing a variety of dating opportunities. These apps have a variety of features among them a few are free and the other can only be accessed when users purchase them through in-app purchases.

Category 3: Apps For Smart Devices

Today, applications aren’t only meant to be installed on mobile devices. There are smart TVs, digital watches, smart speakers, and smart home devices that are offering wide scope to the applications to be utilized.

Accumulated Stats About Smart Devices

• Smart TVs are being utilized in more than 70 million homes in the US
• Smart speakers, Google and Alexa dominated the market and projected to skyrocket up to 125.65 million by 2020.
• Smartwatches are predicted to take over about 51% of shares of wearable devices.

If you think that smart devices like digital watches, smart home speakers and smart TVs make sense then try implementing these aspects in your upcoming apps. This would not only advance the user engagement style but also expand the reach of your app among users.

Don’t forget to integrate such features if you want to make money through apps.

How to earn from apps on Android or iOS platforms? Which one is for you?

App development is the major factor which affects an app revenue a lot. No matter if you are developing an app for Android or Apple OS, you have to be concerned about the platform you’re choosing for app development. The more suitable platform you choose, the maximum accuracy you get for your app features. When answering how to monetize apps, platforms play a significant role in it.

Start developing your mobile app by keeping the market penetration and platform popularity in mind. Decide what platform you need to get your app developed. This greatly affects the app quality and ultimately the app revenue.

Best platform selection can assist both app developers and owners about how apps make money. Today, app developers are in huge demand. They are admired for their skills and the appropriate functionality integration they are offering to the proposed mobile app.

1. Influence Of Android OS On Mobile Users

Generally, there are two major platforms one can develop an app with i.e., Android and iOS. Android is on the boom and leading the app development market with a standard salary of $97.6K for skilled developers. iOS app development is also not lacking behind as it facilitates developers with an average gross salary of $96.6K.

Both app platforms are powerful and account for a wider audience that appreciates and uses apps based on them.

Take a glance at how to monetize apps and how much money can you make off an app based on Android and iOS platforms. Now, it’s up to you how you can build an app that can quickly grab users attention and get you maximum clicks and downloads. Be cautious at whatever you are developing with money-making intentions.

2. Significance of iOS Platform In eCommerce Industry

It is studied that iOS users find it easier to make online purchases than Android users. To prove it take a glimpse at the below graphical image.

According to a recent study, iOS earned optimum eCommerce users that counted around 47% whereas Android lacked behind by only accounting 38% of online shoppers. This stat also sets the example of iOS triumph over Android.

But, it doesn’t mean that the Android platform is not worth considering for making money from apps. It is a preferred platform for developers and users that will again make your doubts clear on how much do apps make by opting for it.

By knowing about the platform vitality in app development, it must have been clear in your mind that you can effortlessly make money off an app by using the appropriate OS platform for your app.

How Apps Make Money?

Now when you are aware of the type of apps and the best platforms to build an app with to generate greater revenue, it’s time to move on to the real question of how much do apps make and how effectively it takes place.

Earn Money From Home Scams

To know how much money you can make from an app, you need to work on a few areas.

1. Your app should possess in-app purchase options

Most of the apps are free over app stores. But, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t making money. The real revenue generated from in-app purchases gives with vision mobile app owners the exact reason to earn money from apps.

In the previous year, the global revenue from in-app purchases was estimated at around $71.3 billion. There’s a detailed report behind this theory which states that 98% of app revenue has purely generated from free apps liable for offering in-app purchases options. If you’re still in doubt about how much you can make from an app, this technique will get you the exact insights of your app revenue.

In-app purchases are responsible for accounting 48.2% of the earning from mobile apps which are higher in comparison to ads-based and paid app downloads revenue.

2. Tie-up with other brands or companies and integrate their Ads in your app

Affiliate marketing is another name of In-app Advertising which is considered as a sure-shot tactic which lets app owners know how much you can make from an app.

Suppose you're an app owner and have tied up with a company on a Click Per View Agreement. Here, you must have decided to charge a fixed amount (let say $0.01) from the tied up company. So, now if you succeed to divert 10,000 daily users to your app which further takes them to the featured ad, you’ll still earn great revenue from this tactic. Employing the best app marketing agencies results in reaching out to a newer audience and increasing the app’s revenue.

3. Follow a subscription model for your app

A study made by visionMobile states that all the subscription-based apps are likely to earn 2-3 times more than other based-on advertising or pay-to-download models.

4. App compatibility with mobile devices

When it comes to choosing between native and hybrid mobile apps, you most probably will choose hybrid as you want to provide mobile users with an exceptional regardless of what mobile devices they are putting on.

If your app is fixed for mobile, there are chances that your app earns a lot. Now the question is how much money can an app make, especially when it is meant for a variety of mobile screens, the answer is “more than a static or non-mobile app”.

How to earn money from apps besides popular stores?

There are so many ways apart from app stores where your app can make the utmost money for your business. You must be thinking about what are the ways that can help you effectively earn money. Here is the answer to how apps earn money:

1. In-app purchase

Gaming apps are the absolute models where you can make a lot of money by integrating in-app purchase techniques. Here, you can attach money to an item that you think the users will likely to purchase to get into the next level. Undoubtedly, gaming app developers have been making money through mobile apps by rendering special features and add-ons.

2. In-app Advertising

Is It Possible To Earn Money From Home Or Apps

Monetize app with ads is a process where you allow other brands to display their ads through your application. For this, you charge from them based on per click impression or pay per click. This is the proven strategy you can utilize to earn a lot of money through your mobile app. Going deep into it will let you know the exact insights about how much an app earns with this method and also how free apps make money.

3. Freemium Model

As you can see, initially most of the apps are free to download but when you reach the end level of the free version, the app starts pushing notifications to switch to a premium version to unlock the best features. There can’t be another strategy better than this as when users start liking any app they are even ready to unlock the paid features of it.

Freemium model is best when you want to know how much money an app can make by offering them exciting paid features. Go for it to get excellent app monetization results.

4. Sponsorship

However, this is the least witnessed model of app monetization. Here, you have to first find a brand having a mobile app similar to yours targeting the same audience base. You then approach them with a proposal of app redesigning so that you and the brand would be able to increase the customer base. It's a perfect example of how do apps make money without ads. Just think of implementing it if you want to know the facts explaining how much an app can make.

Breaking the Misconceptions About How Apps Make Money

It seems quite impressive to hear that you can make money from apps in a short period. Let’s discover how true this statement is for popular app monetization models:

• All apps make money: No, not all applications make money! There are certain types of applications that have the potential to earn revenue.
• Startup Apps can’t perform well: The app’s performance doesn’t entirely depend on the brand behind it. That means it’s not compulsory that an app created by a startup or newbie business is destined to fail.
• More features mean more revenue: Including more and more features into your mobile or web doesn’t assure that the product will be earning more money. The continuous addition of features will also result in a higher complexity level of the app.
• It’s all about writing code: Coding is a vital component in building an application but in order to know how much money can you make from an app, you also need proven practices like marketing, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), etc.
• Free apps can’t make money: There are mainly two types of apps, one is paid applications and the other being free ones. There are people that still think that free apps can’t earn revenue which is honestly not digestible.

First, let’s wipe out the misconception that ‘free applications can not generate any revenue’. There are several leading app monetization techniques that can be used by mobile app marketers to make money from apps, especially with free apps.

Facts About Mobile App Industry

• In the year 2018, the US mobile app traffic was up to 52.2%, which started getting a prominent pitch in the current year as well.
• The facts say that adults use their smartphones approximately 3.6 hours a day, which is actually a big reason for the growth of the mobile app industry.
• Mobile apps are leading smartphones towards success where desktops, laptops, and other devices are struggling to keep up with the current trends.

What’s next in the world of mobile app development?

After understanding how apps make money, here we will share what the future of the mobile app industry looks like. The mobile app industry is growing to be the biggest bet for investors in the world of technology. The industries rapidly rising with no signs of slowing down in 2021 as well. Gaming apps have been making money and the pattern will follow in the future as well. Same goes for mobile apps based on Artificial intelligence, utilising chatbots, augmented reality and virtual reality. These technologies are just getting better with time and more likely will dominate the technology world in general, in coming days. Mobile applications are more than relevant in the future with service getting better and offering more utility to the consumer. Players should follow the insights to make the best out of this opportunity.

The Final Word

There are undoubtedly a lot of mobile app monetization strategies to be implemented to make money through apps. You can earn money from apps and figure out how much can you make off an app? provided you’ve considered the right approach and guidelines.

As you can observe the article has a lot of important factors to be kept in mind while developing an app. It is said that a tree will only give you fruits if you nurture it in absolute ways. Similarly, an app will provide you with the best rate of return if and only if you develop it with keen precision and also by integrating all the modern-day mobile demands.

Browse MobileAppdaily if you’re eager to know more about mobile apps and related tech news.

• How much money do apps make per download?

  Commonly, an Android developer makes 2 cents per download and an Apple developer makes 10 cents per download.

• Do free apps get paid?

  Free apps can make money through one or more of the following methods:

  • Advertising (banner, video)
  • Referral Marketing
  • In-App Purchase & Freemium Model
  • Subscription Model
  • Sponsorship
  • Crowdfunding
  • Email Marketing
  • App Merchandise & E-commerce

With a mixture of literature, cinema, and photography, Manish is mostly traveling. When he is not, he is probably writing another tech news for you!

Apps make a lot of money. Spending on Google Play and the App Store hit an incredible $39.7 billion during the first half of 2019 according to data from Sensor Tower. This was a 15.4 percent increase in the same period in the previous year.

Additionally, app use is growing. In its most recent “State of Mobile” report, AppAnnie found that between 2016 and 2018, time spent in-app grew by 50 percent, while downloads increased by 35 percent. This suggests that there is plenty of proof that many free apps make money.

If you’re wondering how to create an app for free and make money, you’ve come to the right place.

In this article, we’ll first look at how to create an app, and then explore six of the most popular app monetization methods.

Image: William Hook/Unsplash.

Table of Contents

• 1 How to Make an App
• 2 How to Create an App and Make Money
• 3 Six App Monetization Models

How to Make an App

The first step towards app monetization is to go ahead and build one. This means you’ll need a good idea that people will find useful and want to download. If you don’t have a specific idea for an app, you can always think about a problem you have and a way to solve it.

Alternatively, are there any popular mobile apps that you like but think could be improved? If so, why don’t you release an app with the improvement?

The founders of Instagram released the app in part because they loved the filters of Instamatic but thought it would be better if it was easier to share photos. It’s now one of the most downloaded apps ever.

Image: Austin Distel/Unsplash.

If you are planning an app monetization strategy, you should consider this at the start of the design process.

For example, if one of your app monetization strategies is to use ads, you’ll need to build in space to display banners while designing your app.

Likewise, if you want to run a subscription model, you’ll need to consider the features that will be available to all app users, as well as those that will only be available to those who pay.

We have an in-depth article on how to build your own mobile app that you can read here. In the article, we broke the process down into several steps:

First, You Need to Plan Your App

If you already have an app idea, this could be the easiest part of the process. If not, the most difficult. You can check out these 12 ways to generate app ideas if you are struggling.

When planning your app, you’ll need to have an exact idea about what it will do and the problem it will solve. You should also think about the target audience and what will appeal to them. You can get good ideas about the type of apps that are successful and make money by looking at competitors or non-competing apps with the same target audience.

This is also a good way to choose your app monetization strategy. If you notice most apps like the one you want to create offer a free version, you will probably struggle to be successful if you want to charge for your app. On the other hand, this could suggest the kind of app you want to make can be monetized through adverts.

Image: Jexo/Unplash.

Next, Choose How You Will Build Your App

The next step in the app development process is to start building it. You have two options here. The first is to go through the whole process of creating wireframes, graphical interfaces, and testing the front and back end processes yourself.

Alternatively, you can use an app builder to take care of the process for you.

While the first option provides more customization, the second option is easier for those without experience in app development.

If You Choose to go it Alone, You’ll Need to Start by Wireframing

If you choose not to use an app builder and go the custom route, you’ll have to start by wireframing. This will help you create the structure of your app. There are plenty of tools that can help with wireframing, including Microsoft’s Visio and Axure. Be sure to test out these wireframes extensively.

Then Design the Visual Elements of Your App

At this point, you can begin designing the visual elements of your app, including your logo, color scheme, and any graphics or animations you choose to use.

You’ll need to do this whether you choose to build it yourself or use a DIY app builder. If you don’t have the expertise required, you can always hire a professional to take care of the process for you. Sites like Upwork are great for this.

Sort Out Your App’s Back End and Front End

The next step is where things get complicated. First, you’ll need to build the back end of your app. Getting this right will ensure your app works as it should. If you have limited software development experience, this is where using an app builder can save you a lot of time and stress.

Following this, you can design the front end, which is the interface users will see.

Finally, Put Your App Through Final Tests

While you create an app, you should be testing it out as you go. However, the final step in app development is to test the finished product.

You should test the app on numerous devices and give it to different people who fit your target audience. This will allow you to collect a variety of opinions about what works and what doesn’t.

If you notice there are any problems, be sure to fix them before releasing your app.

How to Create an App and Make Money

Now you know how to create an app, we will look at different monetization strategies. In this article, we’ve split monetization models into six categories. These are:

• Paid apps
• Subscription
• In-app purchases
• App advertising
• Affiliate marketing
• Mixed monetization methods

The best way to create an app and make money will depend on the type of app you create. Gaming apps make money from in-app purchases. On the other hand, many software as a service apps earn a lot of money through subscription programs. It’s also possible to use adverts to monetize your app.

The good news is, there are plenty of examples of successful apps no matter what monetization model you choose.

Before We Start: What Cut Do App Markets Take?

Even though free apps make money, you need to consider how much the app marketplace you choose to distribute your app on takes. Both Google Play and the App Store have a very similar pricing structure. Let’s take a look at them.

Google Play

• Google Play takes a 30 percent cut of the cost of all apps and in-app products.
• It takes 30 percent of all subscriptions for the first 12 months of a customer’s subscription. After this, it only takes 15 percent.
• Developers have to pay a one-off $25 fee to create a Google Play developer account.

Apple App Store

• Apple takes a 30 percent cut of all apps and in-app purchases.
• Like Google, this reduces to 15 percent after a customer has subscribed for 12 months.
• Developers have to pay a fee of $99 per year to release apps on the Apple App Store.

Six App Monetization Models

Here is a look at six app monetization models you can use to generate app revenue.

Sell Your App

Creating a paid app is perhaps the simplest way to make money from your app because they result in a higher average revenue per download.

All you have to do is create an app and make money from people who download it. Both Google Play and the App Store make it easy for users to pay for apps, so you have a ready-made audience.

However, being successful can be difficult.

If you want to encourage people to download your paid app, you will have to offer a lot of value. It can help if you have an existing audience, you can market your app to or if you have a budget you can spend on promoting your app.

You’ll also have to put a lot of effort into your app market listing as you’ll need to give people a good idea about your product without them actually being able to experience your app.

When pricing your app, there are plenty of things you should consider.

Take a look on the respective app stores at the average price of competitor apps to see how much you can charge. If you want to use advertising to encourage people to buy your app, you’ll have to consider how much it will cost you to get one person to download the app.

As you can see from this screenshot, most paid apps are cheap. On the current list of top paid apps in the U.K., most are under £5 with only two in the top 21 costing over £10. Those are Site Audit Pro and FL Studio Mobile.

Things to Consider: Free Apps vs Paid Apps

While paid apps can be a good way to make money from your app, it can be limiting. First, there is no way for people to try out your service. This can act as a barrier that stops them from downloading your product. This is even more likely to be the case if your brand is unknown, and you may struggle to convince people to pay for your app.

A slight workaround could be to offer your app for free and then offer customers the option to pay a one-time fee to unlock the whole app. Although, on both Google Play and the App Store, this counts as an in-app purchase as the user isn’t paying to download the app.

Overall, you may find that other methods of app monetization are more effective. According to AppAnnie, the highest-grossing paid app on July 3 in the U.S. was Minecraft. However, it was only the 29th highest-grossing app overall. The second highest-grossing paid app is Heads Up, which isn’t even in the top 50.

If you are looking for a way to maximize app revenue, using a subscription or in-app purchases could be a better option than charging users to download your app.

Use a Subscription to Get Repeat Payments

Asubscription is when developers charge users a recurring fee to use the app. The fee is usually monthly, although developers can give users the option to pay for a longer-term—for example yearly or quarterly—upfront for a discount.

This type of monetization is common with software like service apps or apps that provide access to media. Think about streaming apps such as Spotify or Netflix, or productivity apps like Microsoft Office or Dropbox.

Image: Freestocks/Unsplash.

Subscriptions are great for app developers as they can get consistent recurring money from the people using their apps. It works for users, too, as the monthly fee is often modest.

Unlike paid apps, subscription apps are usually free to download. This can be a good way for developers to gain a base of users and earn money. Having a larger number of downloads will also look good on the App Store and Google Play Store.

To encourage people to use the service, it is common for developers to offer a free trial. This will allow them to use the app for free and get an idea of what the app is about and how it can benefit them.

Consider a Freemium Model

Alternatively, apps that use a subscription model can offer a basic tier that provides some of the app for free, and then a paid tier that provides the full-service. This is what is known as a freemium model.

A good example of an app that does that is Medium, which offers users a limited number of premium articles per month, as well as access to the site’s free articles. If users want full access to the service, they have to pay a fee of $5 per month or $50 per year.

This can be a good way to keep people interested who maybe don’t want to sign up for the subscription now, but perhaps could be persuaded to do so in the future.

Beyond this, it is even possible to offer multiple layers of pricing. For example, there could be a free layer, a low-cost layer with some added features, and a layer with premium features that contain everything.

Productivity app Airtable allows users to use the app for free. However, there is also a Plus version for $10 per month, a Pro version for $20 per month, and an enterprise version with custom pricing.

Another type of subscription you could consider is non-renewing subscriptions. These subscriptions provide access to content for a limited amount of time. For example, an app could provide access to seasonal content during a global event.

What to Consider When Monetizing Your App with Subscriptions

Subscriptions are a great way to consistently make money from an app. However, your product has to offer enough value to make users willing to pay for it.

Unlike with advertising-based monetization methods, you won’t create an app and make money from people who use your app for free. Although, it is possible to display ads on the free version of your product and then take them away when the user signs up to a subscription.

In-app Purchases Can Be Highly Lucrative

In-app purchases are one of the most effective ways to make money from an app. According to Apple, there are four types of in-purchase:

• Consumables are items such as in-game points or currencies that can be used within the app. These are common in games, and they can be used by players to buy new items or access new levels. As the name suggests, these items can only be used once.

A game that has been highly successful at using consumables is Pokemon Go. In the game, users buy Pokecoins, which can then be used to buy various in-game items. Reports from earlier this year suggest Niantic has earned a total of $2.3 billion from the game.

• Non-consumable items are those that do not expire once a consumer has bought them. Examples of this include extra options in a photo editing app. Once a user has bought these items, they can use them for as long as they own the app.
• The final two types of in-app purchase are auto-renewable and non-renewing subscriptions.

Image: Onur Binay/Unsplash.

The good thing about in-app purchases is there is essentially no limit to the amount people can spend. Paid apps that have a one-time fee, or even subscriptions with a recurring fee are highly limited in the total amount they can earn per user.

Games that use in-app purchases can be incredibly lucrative. In games, in-app purchases are often used to let users buy items to make their gaming experience better. This has led to free apps like PUBG, Clash of Clans and Pokemon Go consistently being ranked among the highest-grossing apps.

However, it isn’t only games that can effectively use in-app purchases. Other types of apps that successfully offer in-app purchases include photo editor apps offering additional options or filters or messaging apps offering users the chance to buy emoticons or gifts.

For example, the messaging app Kakao Talk is one of the highest-grossing apps globally. While it is free to use, one of the ways it earns money is by selling emoticons that people can use within their chats.

What to Consider When Monetizing Your App with In-app Purchases

The most important thing to consider is whether or not your app can offer something enticing enough as an in-app purchase. If you can’t, it is unlikely that anyone will buy what you are offering or make money from your app.

In general, games have a lot of success with in-app purchases

Another major consideration comes with the controversy around loot boxes. Loot boxes are products users can buy that provide them with a random selection of in-game items. While these are an effective monetization model, many countries are debating whether they are a form of gambling.

Because of this, loot boxes are heavily regulated and even illegal in some countries. You should be sure to check out the regulations of the country you plan to operate in if you want to offer this kind of item.

Use an Advertising-Based Model

Mobile advertising is a huge business. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) recently said that in 2018, 65 percent of all digital advertising revenue came via mobile platforms. This includes browsers and text messages, as well as apps.

Advertising is commonly used by free apps. For example, news apps or games. It can also be used by apps that also offer in-app purchases or paid versions as a way to monetize non-paying customers.

The best thing about advertising is that it’s a good way to make money from your app without your customer having to spend any money.

The easiest way to get started is through a cost-per-click advertising platform. Some of these include Google’s AdMob or AOL’s SSP. Signing up to one of these will allow you to start placing ads into your app.

Most ads come in the form of banner ads, interstitial ads, or videos.

• Banner ads are interspersed around your content. They are fairly non-intrusive; this has the advantage of not interrupting the user experience, and these ads are easy to ignore.

In the screenshot below, you can see how podcast app BeyondPod uses a banner ad within the user’s podcast feed. It is almost too unobtrusive, and it is easy to ignore.

On the other hand, YouTube shows much larger banner ads that fit in well with the content the user is already watching. If it wasn’t for the “Ad” marking in the bottom corner, it would be hard to work out if the recommendations were ads or not.

• Interstitial ads take up the whole screen. They will usually be shown for a certain amount of time or until the user clicks to close the ad. These ads are effective as the user is guaranteed to see it.

The downside here is that these pop-ups are intrusive. Because of this, you should think carefully about when you place an interstitial ad. Good times could be when the user has finished editing a photo or when they are about to start a new level in a game.

An excellent example of this is the advert below from the video editing app PowerDirector. When the user clicks to leave the app, a pop-up appears showing an advert. The advert is almost impossible to ignore as the user has to perform another step to leave the app.

However, it isn’t too annoying because it only appears when the user is leaving the app, not mid-way through a project.

• Video ads are often either short ads or longer ads that the user can skip after a certain amount of time. Clicking on the ad will take the user to the advertiser’s product. Video ads are useful for advertisers as they are a good way to get across the message of the product.

Video ads are often shown while another video is loading, or before a level in a game. Perhaps the app most well known for video adverts is YouTube, which shows an advert before many videos on the service.

Things to Consider When Monetizing Your App with Advertising

While it is easy to get started with mobile ads, there are some downsides. The most obvious one is that to make good revenues, you will need to have a lot of users.

According to Businessofapps.com, the average CPM (the amount an advertiser pays per one thousand people who see its advertisement) for banner ads is $1, interstitial ads is $3.5, and video ads is $3.

This means it is hard to create an app and make money unless your app has a lot of regular users.

Another thing that could prevent you from making money, is that whenever a user clicks on an advert on your app, they will be taken away from your app. This will reduce the amount of time they spend on your app and could even introduce them to a direct competitor.

Make Money Through Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a common type of marketing on the web, although perhaps less commonly found in apps. With affiliate marketing, the app developer will advertise products on their app and then take a cut of the sale when a customer makes a purchase.

Booking or comparison apps are a common type of affiliate marketing. For example, Skyscanner makes it easy for people who want to buy a flight to check prices from a range of providers.

The company gets a percentage of the cost of the flight whenever a user books a journey after being redirected to the booking website through Skyscanner. You can see how it works in the screenshot below.

Another example of how this could work would be a fitness app directing users to the website of a nutrition shop or exercise equipment store and then taking a cut of any sales made. Or a financial planning app that suggests financial products to its users.

The good thing about making money in this way is the number of data apps have about users. For example, in the above example of a financial planning app, the app developers can offer the exact type of product that the user will find useful based on the data they have about the user.

Things to Consider When Monetizing Your App with Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing suffers from many of the same issues as advertisements – you’ll need a lot of users before you can make money.

It can also help if the product you are affiliated with is an expensive one or one that offers a large cut of the total cost of the purchase. While receiving ten percent of a £1,000 flight will get you a nice payday, receiving 3 percent of a pair of £50 running shoes is less impressive.

Use a Mixed Strategy to Monetize Your App

Many of the most successful apps use a variety of monetization methods. This way, developers don’t have to rely on one strategy. Here are some examples of how mixed monetization strategies could make money in practice.

• A common mixed monetization strategy is to ask users to pay to remove ads. This is good as an alternative to a paid app. It means app developers are still able to monetize free users, while also offering a more lucrative option to those who can pay. To make the paid option more appealing, you can even choose to add in some extras for those that pay. This could work for both one-off payments and subscriptions.
• Some paid apps, especially games, charge a fee for the app, and then offer in-app purchases on top of the price of the game. Minecraft, NBA 2K19, and the Moment Pro Camera are all apps that have successfully used this strategy.
• If you plan to rely on adverts as your monetization strategy, it could be a good idea to experiment with both affiliate marketing and regular adverts. If you do this, you can see which type of advertising is most lucrative and then focus on that.

Wrapping Up

This is the end of our guide on how to create an app and make money. Hopefully, you found at least one monetization model you can use for your next app idea.

As you can see, free apps make money if you know what you are doing. In-app purchases and subscriptions can be incredibly lucrative due to the potential for recurring income.

However, many apps can successfully use other monetization methods such as advertising or charging the user upfront.