Earn Money with Your App

Do you want to earn money with your app? If yes, then you came to the right place. According to Statista, the mobile app industry was worth more than $403 billion in 2021 and is steadily growing. So, it is not surprising if you’re eyeing the use of mobile apps to earn money.

Thus, it is undeniable that you can actually earn using an app. In this post, you will learn everything you need to learn about earning money with a mobile app.

What are the different ways to monetize my app?

Right from the start, you should already have a business model in mind if you’re planning to monetize your app. However, you might be asking, what might be my options? Here are some of them:

1. In-app advertising

The most common way, and perhaps, the easiest, app developers earn from their app is through advertising. The way this works is you sign up with an advertising company and agree that you would let their clients advertise on your app.

Usually, your earnings would be calculated according to the number of people who saw the ads or the people who have actually clicked on the ads.

There are different forms of ads. It could be video ads, banner ads, or text ads.

While in-app advertising is the easiest and quickest way to earn money from your app, you must realize that it could potentially annoy users. So, be sure to weigh how many ads you will display and when to display them.

2. Don’t show ads

Here’s an alternative choice. If showing ads doesn’t appeal to you, you can offer your users a premium version of your app. They can pay you in exchange for not showing ads.

3. Sponsorship

Sponsorship is working directly with brands and companies. While it may sound like in-app advertising, the main difference is that you don’t need to go through third-party agencies.

The best thing about sponsorship is that you can potentially earn a lot of money. Plus, you don’t need to show random and sometimes annoying ads in your app.

4. Affiliate program

You can join a mobile affiliate network to help you earn from the users you send to your partners. An affiliate program is usually a commission-based earning strategy. Once you connect with a network of app affiliate marketers, you get affiliate codes or links. Use those links on your app, and once a user clicks on them and buys a product or uses a service, then you get a portion of that earnings.

5. In-app purchases

You can sell your users specific services, upgrades, or premium content. It depends on the type of your app. There are a lot of options you can do here.

For example, if you have a fitness app, you can ask your users to pay you to unlock new features. If you have a gaming app, users can get an extra life, time, or items in exchange for payments.

If you’re going to use in-app purchases as your business model, it is best that you decide how exactly you’re going to do this in the earliest stage of your app development. It would be difficult to keep on changing your app just to accommodate your chosen business model.

6. Subscription

You can set your app as a subscription-based app where users would pay you at regular intervals, usually monthly or yearly. One advantage of a subscription is that users can access premium content at a low price without committing too much. They can decide later whether they would continue with the subscription or not.

If you want to attract more users to become paying subscribers, you can offer free trials. Once the free trial period is over, you can then offer your users an option to continue with a paid subscription.

7. Sell products

Some of the most popular mobile apps today are e-commerce apps. Some of them include online marketplaces such as Amazon, Etsy, and eBay.

If you have products to sell, then definitely, an app can help you sell more as you reach people via their mobile devices.

To effectively sell products, you can offer your app for free in exchange for your users’ email. You can then run an email marketing campaign to promote your products.

8. Promote services

Medical, fitness and educational apps are among the top categories where promoting services are done. In this example, you can offer free information, articles, eBooks, or any material. Once you have established your authority and reputation, you can then offer your users the services that you have.

Services may include teaching, content writing, web designing, app creation, etc.

9. Use the app to promote an existing business

Many popular apps today started not in the app store but in the real world. Perhaps, you already have an existing business, and you’re looking for a new way to reach customers.

As of 2021, there are more than 3.8 billion people who use smartphones across the globe. You can just imagine the great potential of having an app for your company or business.

10. Sell your app

You probably heard of Instagram and how Facebook paid $1 billion to acquire it or how Google bought YouTube for $1.6 billion. You see, if your app offers unique and powerful core features, you might be able to sell it for hundreds or thousands of dollars.

How can I choose the right monetization strategy for my app?

There are just so many ways to monetize your app. There are other strategies that we haven’t mentioned here, but all these strategies should help you get started.

So, your next question might be, “Which one should I choose?” 

The answer would depend on one app owner to another. However, to help you decide, here are a few steps you should take:

1. Know your target audience – you need to be familiar with the people who will use your app. Are they teenagers or children who still don’t work? If yes, then selling them products might not be a good idea, but ads will do. If they are from the working class, then they would most likely have the money to spend on your app.
2. Define your app’s core features – what needs does your app meet? What problems does it solve? You can align your business model to your app’s value proposition.
3. Identify your competitors – check apps similar to yours. See how they are monetizing their app. Your competitors can even inspire some ideas that you can improve on.
4. Weigh your options – list down all the possible monetization strategies that you are considering. Study each of them. See their advantages and disadvantages. From there, you can have a better idea of which one to choose.
5. Test and track your earning strategies – sometimes, you won’t get it right the first time. Gathering as much data as possible would help you make a better decision. If you believe you’re not earning as much as you should with your current earning strategy, don’t be afraid to test out other methods. Experiment as much as possible until you find the best strategy that works for you.

What are some tips for maximizing revenue and profitability from my app?

Everyone wants to earn a lot of money from their app. However, how do you do that? Again, the answer would depend on your app and how you will earn from it. Here are some tips you should remember:

1. Select the right monetization strategy – to ensure you maximize your revenue, you should have the right monetization strategy to start with. Your choice would dramatically determine how much you will earn.
2. Optimize your pricing – you need to know whether you charge too high or too low. You want your pricing to be competitive. Experiment with various pricing strategies, promos, and offers.
3. Perform effective app marketing – your earning greatly depends on how many people use your app. So, you need to make sure that people know about your app and that they will use it. App marketing can be through paid ads or App Store Optimization (ASO) strategies.
4. Provide customer support – be sure to be there for your users. When they feel you care, they become loyal paying customers. Moreover, other users would see this, and they would be convinced to give your app a try, leading to more customers.
5. Continuously update your app – your app should adapt to changes. You should also add more features and give your users more reasons to use them.

Improve further your earning potential

When earning from your app, you need help to improve your overall app performance. There are just so many factors that could affect your income. Wouldn’t you like to have a group of experts to be by your side in every step of the way?

Thankfully, you can have the support you need with the help of ShyftUp.

ShyftUp is one of the best user acquisition agencies today that would surely maximize your earning. They have the right expertise, technology, and experience to create marketing strategies that bring in more loyal customers.

If you wish to learn more, get in touch with them today!

How can I earn money using my free app?

If your app is free, you can still earn money from it. Some of the most common ways to do this would be through advertising, sponsorship, and affiliate marketing.

How much money do apps make?

The top 200 apps earn about $82,500 per day. Those apps in the top 800 earn around $3,500. How much your app earns would depend on numerous factors such as what service you offer, the pricing you give, the demand for your services or products, and others. Some apps don’t even earn anything while others earn less than $100 per day.

How much money do apps make per ad?

The average earning from per ad impressions depends on the type of ads. Banner ads have the lowest earning at around $0.10 per impression. Interstitial ads may make more at around $1 to $3. However, video ads are the ones with the highest earning potential, which can be around $5 to $10.