Along with maintaining a high quality standard for the mobile apps you create, having viable monetization plans for them is also of essence. We will here take you through some important pointers for monetizing new smartphone applications.
Mobile application development can potentially be a highly profitable business. Well-designed, user-friendly custom mobile applications typically boast of high download figures – resulting in handsome revenues to their developers. However, in the absence of a smart monetization strategy, even a qualitatively excellent app can fail to make any significant amount of money. Over here, we would discuss some important factors to consider, for monetizing your smartphone apps:
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Set realistic targets – Not all apps can earn equal money, and looking for an unrealistically high profit figure from any of them would be rather naive. On the basis of the type of your app, its prime user-group, the mobile application development platform used, and the geographical area where you would promote it – determine an approximate revenue figure from it. Factor in the promotional/registration costs you would have to incur as well.
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Choose an ad strategy – A mobile application development company generally prefers to launch a free version of new apps (for a limited span of time), and release the paid version after the former has become relatively popular. During these initial stages, it is of essence to choose a viable ad sponsorship scheme for your mobile apps, to earn a steady stream of income from them. Apart from the conventional push-notification advertisements, you can integrate icon ads, smartwall ads and information on special deals in your apps. Make sure that the ads never hamper user-experience though.
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Use different strategies for separate web platforms – iPhone apps are different from Android apps – and the general preferences of app-users also vary across every mobile application development platform. Free applications are generally more popular among Android users, making it important for you to have a good sponsorship plan in place. Paid iphone apps, on the other hand, find greater acceptance – and you need to have a flat download fee/pay-per-download scheme for them.
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Monitor the eCPM levels – This is where the importance of testing alternative sets of app advertisements come into the picture. Any established iphone application development company in India would have multiple test ads running on their recently launched apps – with executives tracking the eCPM (Effective Cost Per Mile) figures. In broad terms, this metric refers to the number of impressions each ad gets. Make sure that advertisements are displayed adequate number of times (without causing disturbance to the end-user), to ensure a high revenue.
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Make monetization a part of the app marketing strategy – Right from the prototype creation and mobile application development cost determination stages, to getting apps approved at online App Stores – you need to include monetization as a part of the overall marketing and promotional strategy. Unless you have a clear idea about how you would go about publicizing a new app – setting an arbitrary price on it is not going to help.
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Keep your ads in sync with the overall layout of your app – If the in-app ads you choose stick out like a sore thumb, users would soon start getting distracted – and might get rid of the troublesome applications from their phones altogether. Irrespective of whether you are involved in Android, Blackberry or iphone app development in India, you have to chalk out plans for custom mobile applications – where the ads would seamlessly blend with the app user interface. There are several professional advertising networks, who can help you to come up with attractive and creative ads for mobile apps.
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Create a buzz about your app – This one is pretty much elementary – unless people are made aware of the application you have recently launched/planning to launch soon, its download figures would remain low, and all the smartly-laid monetization plans would go to waste. Start promoting your apps through social media sites, online press releases and banners, and your business website. The higher the initial sales of an app would be, the greater would be the amount of money it’ll start to make from the very outset.
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Provide subscription offers – Within your smartphone apps, you can also integrate offers to users, for subscribing to e-newsletters, app-badges, and other such material. Make sure that the stuff you provide for subscription would actually be of value to people, and have a nominal price on all such additional downloads. In particular, if you have a news or a gaming application, such subscription deals can prove to be really successful.
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Balance the app download charges with your advertisement plans – It is only natural that when a person downloads a paid mobile application, (s)he is likely to be less tolerant about multimedia advertisements in it – than when (s)he is using a free app. You can afford to be a bit more aggressive with your ad strategies on free applications, while sticking to a much more minimalistic plan for your paid apps.
Take a cue from the strategies that are being implemented by the top players in the field of mobile application development, and try incorporating some of their methods to monetize your apps. You should ideally hire the services of an experienced, reliable mobile ad network agency as well. With increasing popularity, the potential revenues from a smartphone application can rise rapidly – you only need to have a good monetization plan for it in place!