Did you know that there are over 3 million mobile apps out there? If you have one of them, how do you make it stand out? How do you make it so that yours makes money?
Learning how to monetize an app can be the difference between it helping you out and remaining successful, or just becoming another one of those 3 million apps you and no one else has ever heard of.
Read on to learn a few tips for how to monetize your mobile app!
1. Create In-app Purchases
One of the most creative ways to monetize your app is to create in-app purchases. This allows people to get your app for free, but then charges them if they want to upgrade or get something within the app.
For instance, if you have a gaming app, you may charge to unlock a level early. Or, you may charge for the player to buy more coins to be able to dress their character how they want, play more levels, or buy certain weapons or gear to help them out with the game.
Consider adding in a bundle so that people buy more, but to them, it seems like they are buying less.
2. Create an Email List
While you may not automatically think of an email list making your app money, it will! If you talk about your app to your email list of people, it will create more engagement.
Sending emails to existing customers about your app will keep it at the forefront of their minds. From there, they are more likely to try out the app, and if they have to pay for something in it or to get it, they may since they are already a loyal customer.
Need more emails for your list? Add a subscription form to the app so that when people download the app, they become part of your email list.
3. In-app Advertising
If you don’t have in-app advertising set up as part of your monetization strategy, you may want to start. App advertising is a very popular way to monetize your app since it helps keep your app free to consumers.
However, you don’t want the in-app advertising to be too overwhelming to your customers who download your app. You want to make sure you are up-to-date with the right terminology, you keep the right types of ads on your app that are relevant, and ones that will be of interest to your customer and app user.
If you’re not sure how to do this, monetization companies can help you.
4. Creating Strong Code
If you develop your app through code, a lot of times, other app developers and creators may come to you to have you redesign their app or to re-skin your app. This is mostly to benefit them, but will also benefit you as the creator of the code they want.
When this happens, you can license your code to make money. Not only that, but if you are done with your app and feel that it has run its course, you can sell the code for another developer to use to create their own app.
The main idea here is that you are making money because you are saving other developers time and money developing their own app and code.
5. SMS Marketing
Similar to email marketing, SMS marketing sends messages and alerts like promotions straight to your customers’ phones. If a customer sees a promotion that they like, they will likely go to the app and take advantage of the promotion you are offering.
This is one of the top ways to increase customer engagement and bring them back to your app.
6. Premium Version of the Free Version
If you have a free version of an app and notice that people want more, you can create a premium version of the app. This means that if they want no ads, want more access to other areas of the app, or get special access to something, they will buy the premium version.
This can either be a one-time payment or can be a monthly or yearly payment.
For instance, Spotify has a free version and a premium version. However, on the free version, you cannot listen offline or on an airplane since you cannot download songs. You will also be capped at how many songs you can skip.
Since that is unappealing to some, many people choose to get the premium version, which is exactly why Spotify created premium — for people to pay.
7. Multiple Subscription Options
If your app is one that is regularly updated, you can create a subscription option for people to sign up for. However, a great way to do this to monetize your app more is by creating subscription tiers.
Many times, people will spend a bit more to get more access to everything, even if they don’t always use every part of that subscription.
Steps for How to Monetize an App
With so many apps out there, you want to make sure that your app stands out. Not only that, though, you want to make sure you know how to monetize an app so that you have money coming in from all the hard work you did to create the app.
If you’re ready to monetize your app but want help, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at Orquidea! We’ll make sure that you get the money you deserve for your app.
