Monetizing Mobile Apps

Monetizing Mobile Apps
By Chris Black
@chrisjblack

Background
I am a(n)…
ActionScript developer
Mobile applications developer
SEO optimizer
Google Adwords consultant
Can we merge mobile and Adwords to boost app sales?

The Apps
Terry Paton
XaviVives
Chris Black

Pre market considerations

Types of Monetization
Direct sale through market
30% off the top for Google / Apple
Direct sale through your website
Requires your own infrastructure 100% of sales
Ad revenue within the app
Get paid for displaying ads
In app sales (Smurfberries)
30% off the top for Apple, 10% for Google

Building your App
Consider…
Screen sizes
Input devices
Variety of processors and RAM
Variety of operating systems

Tips / Tricks
Use Adobe AIR or Corona to cross deploy apps

Know your Market
Over saturated markets are harder to sell on
This simple game built by Ebsceron the BlackBerry market has tons of reviews / downloads!

Upfront Costs
Time to design / build the app
Software to build your app
$99 / year for iOS developer account
$25 one time fee for distributing with Google
$200 for every 10 apps with BlackBerry
(first 10 are free right now)
Advertising costs

Post market considerations

Cross Sell Your Apps
Add a link to your other apps from within your application
Offer one or two free apps that link back to the market for your paid apps

Tips / Tricks
Open the mobile market from within your app
Android
market://search?q=terry+paton
market://details?id=air.com.terrypaton.tc2
iOS
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/angry-birds-free/id409807569?mt=8

User Retention
Listen to users and provide timely updates
Build game play and applications for continued use
Social media integration

Tips / Tricks
Allow move to SD for Android
<manifest android:installLocation="auto">
http://mobile.tutsplus.com/tutorials/android/move-to-sd-card/
Don’t take up internal phone storage unless absolutely necessary!

Marketing your apps

Social Media
Twitter
Facebook
Youtube
Both Twitter and Youtube are now featured on the Android market with your app

Advertisement
Drive users directly to the marketplace
Google AdWords
AdMob
As little as $0.03 / click
Thanks to Terry Paton and XaviVives for participating in this experiment

Google AdWords

Tips / Tricks
Don’t publish WAP ads when targeting Android or iOS, they don’t abide by device targeting rules and will eat your budget

Tips / Tricks
Use limiting factors to cut down your cost per day
Geo-targeting the US costs $0.05 / click, the UK increases to $0.15 / click

Comparison
Google AdWords
No minimum daily budget
Some device targeting
Keyword & display network
No OS version targeting
$0.07 - $1.00+ / click
AdMob
$10 minimum daily budget
Great device targeting
Display network only
OS version targeting
$0.03 – $0.25 / click
Google now owns Admob so hopefully we will see the best of both worlds!

Targeting Demographics
Know your users
Offer a free app to gather statistics
Both AdWords and AdMob support advanced demographic targeting!
Target by Age, Gender, and Location
Use AppBrain Insights for user data

Terry Paton’s Meteor Storm

Results
Apps less than $2.99 are very hard to gain a positive ROI through advertisement
We are making $2 - $4 for every $8 to $10 spent
Advertising is a great way to boost your application within the market
Combined with other techniques listed should lead to better results

Special Thanks
Terry Paton @terrypaton1
XaviVives @xavivives
Paul Trani @paultrani
Mobile Twin Cities @mobiletc
Recursive Awesome @RecursiveAwesum
FITC @fitc

Questions?

Feedback
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DPSGTDG

Monetizing Mobile Apps

by Chris Black on Mar 05, 2011

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