Picture this scenario: You have built a successful app and have a good amount of users. But with rising amount of costs, you start looking out for ways to earn money from your app. No matter what stage you are at, your app business cannot run without revenue.
If your aim is to only raise venture funding for your app, you may think it is pointless to earn money but keep in mind that any investor would only invest in your app if you have plans to monetise somewhere down the line. Apart from the obvious benefits of earning money for your app, revenue streams from apps makes users confident that the app they are using won’t go away anytime soon (a moment of silence for all the Google products that were killed for lack of revenue).
In this article, we will explore ways to get more revenue generated from mobile apps.
Fixed Price
This is one of the straightest ways you can earn money from your app. You can offer your app upfront at a premium price. In our experience delivering countless apps, this strategy works great for a lot of games as well as apps designed for a specific niche.
While you get paid upfront for your app, there are many users who might be turned off by paying for your app before they get to even use it. You should choose this option only when you have validated that there are people willing to pay for the app.
Tweetbot for iOS is one famous example which offers it’s app for an upfront cost. When working with a fixed price, you will have to try different prices to see what fits your user base.
Freemium Model
Employed by a countless number of apps, this is a strategy that has proven to work for many apps. The idea is to offer a basic functionality of your app free of charge and then provide extra features for additional money via in-app purchases. That way, users who genuinely want to use your app can download it, try it and, if they like it, will pay you for your efforts.
Overcast for iPhone employs this strategy, where the entire app’s feature is offered for free. If you want to remove the app’s advertisements you pay for a subscription. Overcast also shows the number of users who went premium the current week, thereby urging users to go premium.
In-App Advertisements
Often detested by a lot of users, you can install Google Ads or any other ad network SDK with your app and show banner ads. When users open your app, they see advertisements. You earn money when users click on these ads.
While this works really well on a high volume, users can find ads intrusive as it breaches their privacy and annoys them. And with the rise of ad-blockers, ads are slowly going out of business. If you absolutely want to go this way, offer users a way to remove ads by paying for a premium version or subscription.
Payment Gateways
Does your app have potential to deliver any services like Uber or Lyft? If yes, a good way to earn money would be to integrate payment gateways like Stripe or Paypal. You can sell movie tickets or other services via your app and, when users buy them, you get a direct profit of the service sold.
However be wary of scammers trying to attack your payment gateway with fake credit cards and then claiming reimbursement.
While there are certainly more ways to earn money from mobile apps, the above four methods cover most of them, and should get you going on the right path to create some good revenue.
Do you have an app with lots of users but are struggling to generate revenue? Contact us today and we will work to see how your app can earn you more money.
