Make Money From Free Apps: Effective App Monetization Methods

The ongoing trend of more and more mobile applications going free continues. It is becoming difficult to drive people to download paid apps. Out of nearly 8,000,000 apps available in the Apple App Store alone, only 24% of the revenue is generated through paid apps.

Free vs paid apps- Which is better?

Free applications are still the leaders in terms of downloads and monetization. Out of all the paid apps, only 20% of them get more than 100 downloads and only 0.2% of the paid apps are downloaded more than 10,000 times. Whereas, in case of free apps 20% of them get 10,000 or more downloads.

Monetize Your Mobile App

So the question is, if you put your app for free download, how do you generate revenue? Here are some very important app monetization methods.

In-App Advertising: As it’s becoming difficult for the paid apps to gain market traction, in-app advertising is becoming more and more popular. Representing a market of about $7.3 billion, advertising is one of the most effective ways to market any product. Mobile-specific banner ad networks today form the bulk of in-app ad revenues. The trick is just to make sure that the app offers enough value to the user. For instance, earlier Facebook had no substantial in-app advertising revenue but today it drives roughly $3 of every $10 spent on in-app advertising.

In-App Purchases: Interestingly about 76% of the app store revenue in U.S is generated through in-app purchases. You can’t force your users to buy an app upfront but you can create a free-to-download app. A free app or game offers limited features and content. An in-app purchase is made to gain access to special content or features such as power-ups, unlocking extra level, stylistic themes, boosts, etc.

A free app with an in-app purchase does not let price be a barrier for the users to download the application, thus, giving the developers an opportunity to prove the value of their product.

The Game Is Not Yet Over For Paid Apps Are the paid apps all dead? The answer is no there are still sectors in which the paid apps are selling. Distimo, an app analytics firm examined and found that there are still several utility paid apps, which are still doing very well.

These paid mobile applications are utilitarian in nature, they are used to  get some important work done – booking travel tickets, getting weather updates, photo editing, dealing with health issues – these things are often done by users which make them worth paying for the features and content they get beyond the free or trail version of the app.

 Which monetization model has worked the best for you? Share with us in the comments section below.