5 Effective Ways to Monetize Your Mobile App

Mobile apps are one of the latest viral marketing and revenue strategies you would find in today’s world. They are fast becoming a dominant medium for businesses to connect with their consumers more effectively and provide more streamlined services to solve their problems. However, the catch is that building and maintaining mobile apps is exorbitant. Unfortunately, most businesses do not monetize it as well as they should. 

Virtually any business/brand can create a mobile app nowadays – irrespective of what sector it operates. Business owners need to understand that a native app is not just a mobile version of your website – instead, it is much more. When building a mobile app, the creator should focus on the users’ experience to drive engagement and boost revenue. 

In these modern times, every avenue should be a source of revenue for your business. In this article, we will discuss five effective ways to monetize your business’ mobile app. 

1. In-App Adverts

In-App Advertising is one of the easiest and most popular methods adopted by marketers to bring revenue through mobile applications. In this method, the app itself is free to download to attract massive users. Your business then connects with ad networks to automatically start showing ads when the customer is active on your app. Another monetization technique is to offer the option of disabling ads in your mobile app for a fee.

Nevertheless, you must ensure that the featured ads are neither obtrusive nor overwhelming, else it could turn the app users off, reduce your app usage, and subsequently decrease revenue, thereby forfeiting the purpose of engaging this method. 

2. Freemium Model 

In the Freemium model, what obtains is that a user can download your app for free. However, it comes with limited functionalities. Many businesses usually offer a free plan with the basic features of the application whilst selling a paid plan with more advanced features and premium services at little and affordable cost. The free package attracts the app users to the business, and then the added benefits of the paid plan persuade the users to upgrade. The company experiences a revenue increase when users upgrade to the paid version. This approach often expands audience reach and increases the frequency of app downloads which positively affects your mobile app’s ranking in the app store. Users obtain the opportunity of exploring the app’s features for free and are then in a better position to make an informed choice on upgrading the app’s features. 

Brands need to find a balance between providing the necessary features to attract users to upgrade and bestowing too many features that eventually kill interest in making an upgrade. 

3. Subscription Plans

A subscription plan is another very prevalent method of monetizing mobile applications. Some of the biggest brands in the world, including Netflix and Spotify employ this method. This plan involves giving users free but limited access to the content on your app. 

However, to maximize the experience, users will have to pay for access to an extended package or unlimited access for a certain period if they desire. It could be for a month, a quarter, or a whole year. In recent years, the popularity of this method for monetizing mobile apps has been on the rise. It has proven to increase income whilst steadily growing the customer base of the business. Users must see enough value in a brand or product to invest their hard-earned money into it, but this form of growth doesn’t happen overnight. It is a result of effective marketing strategies, impressive customer experience, and a solution-oriented business approach.   

A subscription plan is another very prevalent method of monetizing mobile applications. Some of the biggest brands in the world, including Netflix and Spotify employ this method. This plan involves giving users free but limited access to the content on your app. 

4. In-App Purchases

In-app purchases are one strategy quite popular with mobile apps involved in game development. Many of the most played games on the app store employ this method of monetizing the app. The app is often available for free, but users can purchase additional features like coins, accessories, weapons, and more to boost their experience on the app and increase game playtime. It is a sub-type of the freemium method of mobile app monetization. 

The biggest task businesses often face in this model is similar to that of the freemium app. It requires that users find the free model immersive so that they can’t wait to get more of the app. The users’ obsession with the app drives them to explore the additional options at a fee. 

5. Data Monetization

It is not uncommon for business owners to generate user data from their mobile app usage. Apps with a large user base have access to a wealth of data and information essential for marketing. Information obtained is essentially anonymized, quantified, and traded for research and marketing purposes. This information usually provides valuable insights into customer behaviour that is useful to deliver more efficient and personalized advertising to users. 

Data monetization has often been seen as a controversial method as most businesses go about data collection and sale in unethical and illegal means unknown to the user audience. Companies are obliged to state in their privacy policies why they collect user’s information, especially if it’s for marketing and sales purposes. They must also obtain the users’ permission through transparent and legitimate means before proceeding with sharing users’ information with a third party. Doing otherwise is tantamount to unethical and illegal practices – an infringement on the users’ rights and a breach of their privacy that is punishable by the law. 

Summarily, monetizing your business’ mobile app is not as herculean a task as you might imagine. It can be one of the largest sources of revenue for your business if applied rightly.