Top 6 Strategies To Monetize Your Mobile App

Businesses are rapidly adopting mobile apps to reach a large customer base and enhance customer engagement. With the annual number of app downloads worldwide estimated by Statista to be 299 million, it is imperative to monetize your mobile app. Mobile app monetization is the process employed to generate revenue from mobile apps without charging a download fee.

In this article, we will guide you on how to implement diverse monetization strategies for your mobile app.

How Can You Make Money from Mobile Apps?

You can adopt one of the following app monetization models to ensure their app continues to grow its revenue while maintaining a remarkable user experience. Alternatively, you can employ a hybrid strategy by combining two or more methods.?

Subscription for Premium Features

Spotify is a top mobile application that is making money using the subscription method. In 2021, it earned $8.460 billion in revenue from premium subscribers. If you are a service-based company, then consider choosing a subscription strategy. The subscription model is the most effective app monetization strategy, especially for startups or small companies with limited bandwidth and funding. You can offer basic features, content, or services to users for free and charge them for premium features, content, or services. This model tends to generate high revenue per user and guarantee a reliable income. You can predict revenue on a monthly basis and plan for a consistent revenue stream. You can get customer lifetime value (CLV/CLTV) and enhance customer engagement.?

Freemium Pricing

The freemium pricing model can help you earn high revenue from the mobile app. Candy Crush generated over USD 1 billion in revenue in its first year, and it has reached USD 20 billion in revenue. If you have a large user base, high lifetime value (LTV), and a clear value proposition, choose the freemium model to monetize your mobile application. Users are initially offered the free app but have to pay for special or optional features like boosts and power-ups, restricted levels, virtual money, and extra characters. App users are engaged until they are inclined to pay for additional in-app premium features.?

Sponsorships for Profitability

Sponsorships can play a crucial role in helping businesses monetize their mobile apps. Angry Bird yielded a high profit through the subscription model. It partnered with McDonald's, which helped Angry Birds to increase brand awareness and introduced the game to a new generation of fans. How do sponsorships work? Generally, after having a good customer base, you develop a user-friendly mobile application to reach a wider audience. Make sure your app has the potential to attract sponsors. Get in touch with the sponsor company and provide them with the updated layout of your mobile app that aligns with the sponsor's brand. There are two types of sponsorship deals: you can either share the profits with your sponsor or receive a monthly sponsorship fee.?

In-App Purchases

In-app purchases (IAPs) are utilized by an estimated 50% of non-game apps and 79% of game apps, making it a popular monetization model. If you want to sell the content, virtual goods, or other functionalities to the end-user after they have downloaded your mobile application, then this model is the best option. In-app purchases are a reliable and sustainable way to monetize your mobile app. Pokémon Go earned over $2 billion from in-app purchases within the first two years of its launch. It can help you cover the costs of app development and maintenance, app reinvestment, create new features and content, and boost user engagement.?

In-App Advertising

If your app has a considerable amount of users or somewhere around 50,000 downloads, you should definitely opt for in-app advertising. Statista has forecasted mobile advertising spending to reach USD 327.1 billion worldwide and is estimated to reach nearly USD 399.6 billion by 2024. In-app advertising is the most common and easy to implement for monetizing mobile apps, especially free apps. Advertisements are integrated into the app's interface. When users achieve a specific milestone, like reaching a certain level in the game or completing a video, the mobile screen displays the ad. These advertisements include interstitial ads, banner ads, video ads, and native ads.?

Ad-Inventory- Header Bidding

In-app header bidding is gaining popularity and rapidly becoming the industry standard for showcasing programmatic ads on mobile apps. BuzzFeed, a digital media company, implemented header bidding in 2019 and saw a 30% increase in mobile ad revenue. Header bidding will enable you to auction your ad-inventory in real-time and simultaneously bid collection from multiple demand resources within your mobile app. You can sell you ad inventory to the highest bidder to significantly increase revenue. The competition of your inventory will increase with header bidding, which will increase the revenue you earn from the same ad-inventory.?

Conclusion

With our expertise at Spiral Mantra in the diverse monetization strategies available, recognizing the unique value your app can offer, and aligning your approach with your business goals, we can harness the full potential of your app to generate revenue and enhance your business visibility. Spiral Mantra specializes in Mobile App development and has successfully delivered native Android, iOS, and Cross-platform mobile apps. Get in touch with our experts to build a tailored mobile app for your business.