Do you need hacks for monetizing your app?

What is the first question to be asked when someone wants to venture into an app. It is how it will monetize. This post takes account of some hacks that help in monetizing apps successfully. These are the tricks cautiously picked out of the ongoing trends.

It seems a completed challenge to make money from a free-to-play game or app. The mobile app developers need to keep a perfect balance between keeping users engaged with app and in the mean time, showing ad messages. Many developers are clueless how this balance can be brought in an app. They have to make money from app still its performance, speed and productivity should not be affected in any way.  

Here are some cheats that clear a lot of things for those app developers who anticipate making money through apps.

What ad formats work best?

The basic rule

You can perform an AB test for different ad formats/placements and then choose one of them which produce highest conversions against traffic.

Here is the hack

As we know there are more than one ad formants to consider. But by trial and error, some developers have learned that the combination of full screen interstitial ads and videos ads often prove to be more effective and revenue generating. It is more rewarding than traditional display banners.

The key of success is the placement of ads. Interstitial ads work when a game progresses from one level to another. The video ads are proved to be more responding when they are introduced a bit after the game play. Keep them short – 15 seconds is deal. Use a vertical layout for making the display of ads simple for users.

What metrics should I pay attention to?

The basic rule

Often time gut feeling is important at this point but do not ignore what better is offered by others. Look at the dashboard of your analytics and make your decision on actual data you have. Most ad network partners and mediation networks make available the information you need, so use it.

Here is the hack

A complicated analytics may restrict you from understating important data. It means if you are not able to see a complete picture, you will not be able to understand it. Do not get overwhelmed by variety of data offered by different analytics dashboards. Instead, concentrate on single dashboard and all of its important metric: customer lifetime value (LTV).

What is the way to get competitive edge?

The basic rule

Research on the adverting strategy that works well for your category

Here is the hack

However, there is no a real time-saving hack, but understanding it isn’t that much hard. Things can be learned by copying successful ones. A lot of the resources are available to help you collect competitive intelligence.

What is the way to target the most relevant users?

The basic rule  

Know who your audience is and then go for such advertising content that interests them. Keep in mind that the more specific is your audience, the more revenue you can make.

Here is the hack

There are multiple things that can help you understand your target audience. Device adoption percentage, carriers, geo-location, and demographics including age, gender, education and income as well as contextual factors like interests, are quite helpful in understating the targeted audience.

How to boost engagement?

The basic rule

The more an app has engagement, the more it can be monetized. So engagement is everything. If your apps aren’t engaging, ad being showed up by them will also not be engaging and in result, they will not make desired revenue.  

Here is the hack

Let users experience something special in your game. You can use incentivized video ads which rewards users. They can be as game perk. An extra life, a level up, or a weapon upgrade works well. It means if they watch the ad videos to full, they can get some kind of rewards.