Monetize Your Mobile Apps- some Pointers

Let’s face it. Mobile App Developers have caught wind on how much money is really possible building out great mobile apps. However, the problem isn’t an abundance of great application ideas. The problem lies with Developers not knowing how to properly optimize their apps therefore not being able to retain revenue for further development. Today, I want to address this issue. Not just for the Mobile App Developers whom chose us as their primary marketing and advertising partner but to all mobile app developers to have something “reliable” to read, study and implement.

Time and time again when I offer customized mobile app monetization solutions and marketing plans for Mobile App Developer’s I find that they typically wander off the beaten path. Hooray, you built an awesome app and got thousands of downloads in your first month, but wait…Where’s the money? You’re brilliant idea doesn’t make the cash. Your monetization strategies do.

To be honest, I’ve seen a lot of useless hype within the Mobile App Industry. Just like everything else, there is no free lunch. You have to work, and work your ass off to be successful – at anything. If you think building an awesome app is going to land you a new Lambo or mansion, you’re barely even scratching the surface of what’s possible.

So let’s talk monetization. Let’s get to the point.

One of the biggest mistakes I see mobile app developer’s making is pricing their application wrong. Now if you decide to offer your app at a price, you really need to consider what the actual value of your application is. Is it really worth people spenidng $1.99-$2.99 for it? Put yourself in the customer’s shoes for a moment. If I asked you to pay that amount for my app, what would you do? Before setting a price on your app ask yourself a few questions such as:

• What exactly IS my app?
• What does my app do?
• What are the key features of my app?
• What are the key benefits of my app? (Yes, features and benefits are not the same)
• What apps similar to mine exist already?
• What are the price points of these apps related to mine?
• How many downloads have they generated?
• Which category does my app belong in?
• How can my app help people?
• Will people use my app on a daily basis?

Tip: Once you have the answers for these questions. Start looking at your competitors and analyzing them. Note key points on how you differ from them. This data will help you on how to place your app within the market.

A second mistake I see a lot of mobile app developers making is “Pre-Calculations.”

The first step for ANY developer should be to sit down and start brainstorming on how much money they think they can make on their monetization models (Yes, I provide some here in a bit.)

Monetization rates are going to vary based on where your app is placed (The Category.) Geography, age groups are also factors in which to consider. Take all of this in, and start estimating the amount of users that will use your app and calculate how much revenue you think you are capable of making. This will give you a much more realistic idea for your app and give you some ideas on how you should proceed.

Make no mistake. Monetizing mobile apps is no walk in the park. It’s not easy. Now, I won’t talk much about paid apps. I want to cover the larger target market here – FREE APPS.

Note: Over 80% of all mobile app downloads in 2011 were free apps. So yes, – I concentrate on where the money is. They tend to reach mass market faster and have more potential for revenue. Combine that with the idea that when you do charge for app, you create really an unnecessary wall between the users and the app download. Besides, how many times have you look at apps and felt much more likely to download the free ones? It’s basic human psychology at it’s finest – We all want something, for nothing.

Let’s consider some of the mobile app monetization strategies you can start putting into practice right now:

1. Paid Downloads aka Pay Per Download – Paid downloads work as users pay up-front to download your app once it’s available in one of the app markets. Paid download apps work well for apps in the gaming, entertainment, productivity, navigation and news categories. However, the more users pay up-front, the less tolerant they may be of advertising or in-app purchases. You might try considering to offer a free version plus a paid version of your mobile app with additional content that contains fewer or maybe even no advertisements.

2. In-App Advertising aka Mobile Ads – One of the most popular among mobile app developers. In-App Advertising works by allowing ads run on space sold within your app and revenue is based on number of user impressions and/or clicks. These really work well on the gaming, news, chat and entertainment category apps. However, the small drawback with in-app ads is that your app will have to bring back users regularly, and basically be designed for heavy use.

3. In-App Purchases or Subscriptions – In-App Purchases work by allowing users additional purchasing privileges, badges or subscriptions inside the app once they’ve downloaded it. These work pretty good for apps in the gaming, lifestyle and news categories. However, this type of app really requires a very loyal following of users that are willing to pay for virtual or ongoing benefits. You will need to regularly add fresh content as well.

4. Sponsorships – Sponsorships can work by individuals or businesses basically under-writing your app in exchange for recognition type benefits. An example of this would be maybe an ad or logo within your app. These work best for Local + Event focused apps and narrow focused audiences. The drawback here is that these are typically a one-shot source of revenue. They usually aren’t ongoing or scalable. However, it’s a pretty good way to get a first app off the ground.

Note: Any revenue you may earn from your app from paid downloads or in-app purchases is most likely going to be brokered from the marketplace of where your app is published. Remember this and keep it in mind when calculating revenues and expenses.

Tip: I’m not really going to cover advertising networks today. I’ll do that later on. If you decide to feature in-app advertisements within your app, you can simplify the process by contacting myself here at Revived Media. We have over 20+ Whitelisted Ad Agency Accounts with most of the Major Mobile Networks out there. However, if you decide to go at it alone, remember that these companies do act as a broker between app publishers who have space available for ads and those wishing to purchase mobile advertising. The systems, payment policies and development requirements will vary from network to network so make sure you read the fine print with any network you choose to do business with. Listed below are some of the revenue generating opportunities some of these networks offer.

For reference (feel free to Google these and research more into them), here are a few other options Mobile App Developers can consider for monetizing their mobile apps:

Push Ads: Ads are displayed in the notification tray of an opted-in user’s device. CTR’s and conversion rates are sky high with this format, since there are no accidental clicks like with in-app ads. Advertisers pay on a CPC basis. Unlike traditional mobile ads, these ads are not placed inside apps. Each ad is also tagged with a permanent opt-out link, as well as the name of the app which delivered the ad. However, on iOS systems, you can get really crafty with Apple’s push notifications availability. (Be careful with that).

Icon Ads: Similar to the pre-installed apps which come with a new smartphone, Icon Ads are sponsored shortcuts (icons) placed on the home screen of an opted-in user’s device. Advertisers pay on a CPI basis for each icon installed on a device.

Dialog Ads: Ads are displayed as a dialog box inside an app, presenting the user with a 1 sentence call-to-action along with an OK and Cancel button. For example, the ad can ask the user “Check out a free new 3-d game” with an OK and Cancel button underneath. Advertisers pay on a CPC basis.

SmartWall Ads: SmartWall is a new interstitial mobile ad format which dynamically optimizes between multiple sub-formats such as Rich Media, AppWall, Video and Interstitials. With SmartWall, app developers no longer need to choose between the overwhelming numbers of full-page mobile ad formats available on the market. Via a single SDK, SmartWall determines the optimal full-page ad format to display in real-time based on yield, network connection type, and other parameters. SmartWall generates significantly higher CPMs than other leading full-page ad formats and represents a major leap forward for both developers.

OfferWall Ads: Ads for individual promotional offers are placed in a single in-app interstitial and can be selected by a user for participation. Advertisers pay on a CPC or CPA basis.

Video Ads: High-quality Video Ads are shown in-app. Our proprietary ad server only displays Video Ads to users on a wi-fi or 4g connection, ensuring a positive viewing experience. Advertisers pay on a CPM basis.

Rich Media Ads: A full landing page is embedded inside an app, with a fixed close button at the top. Advertisers can build rich experiences which are directly embedded in another app.

Full-Page Banner Ads: Ad is displayed as an in-app interstitial to users, with a fixed close button at the top. Advertisers pay on a CPC basis.

AppWall Ads: AppWall a new interstitial mobile ad format that Advertisers can use to generate huge CTRs and higher engagement than virtually any other in-app ad type. Displayed within an app session, AppWall displays a variety of different offers and actively optimizes their placement in order to drive results that were never before possible in the mobile marketing space.

No matter what monetizaton strategy you choose for your mobile app (or bundle of strategies) always remember (because most mobile app developers tend to forget this) is that to actually get real value out of any mobile app monetization strategy, you really need to consider when and how ads should be displayed within your app to get you the best possible results.

Ads should always be considered as an integral part of the app – in which they appear. Ads that stick out like shit, not only ruin the concept of the app, they will most likely not generate clicks by users.

Remember This —> Advertising should be part of the experience, not an interruption of it.

Ads that become part of the experience will cause a ripple effect that will encourage users to engage and click the ad. Interaction opposed to interruption will drive up the Developer’s revenue, and the enjoyment of the app users. Then everyone wins.

In mobile advertising, it is all about delivering the users with the right, relevant ads. Targeting users based on location and content they are viewing is just considered the essentials. Doing this will help increase the number of clicks, conversions and overall revenue from your app.

Since In-App Advertising is among the most popular forms of monetizing mobile apps, let me talk a little bit about this subject so that you have a better understanding of it.

When it comes to In-App Advertising, here are a few key things to remember:

• Text Ads / Text Banners should always get their own dedicated screen inside the app
• Make sure to “blend” the ad to look like part of the app in terms of design – It’s less intrusive
• Frequency Caps – Only allow ads to show enough to get attention – not annoy the app’s users
• Animate the banner – Simple and effective
• Don’t disturb game-play. Put ads between levels of the game or after the game is over
• Make the banners stick when people are scrolling down-wards
• The “Skip” button for the ad – Delay it 1-5 seconds.

Now if you choose in-app advertising, you should understand that you might see a large percentage of your ad-requests will go unfilled. Just ask your Ad Network of choice about “ad mediation” and they’ll be able to explain the exact process with them. There are tons of ad networks out there so you will have to learn about which ones perform best for you and in what geographic areas and segments. Mobile advertising is still a baby. That means that most major ad networks are still faced with more supply (lots of apps) than demand (the advertisers).

Note: Fill Rate – Fill Rate is the percentage of times a users opens your app and sees an ad. You want this number to be as high as possible to give you the best chance of increasing ad revenue! Just go and ask your ad network of choice, what their fill rates are. For me to even start listing them, would be madness.

Tip: eCPM – When it comes to in-app advertising, developers are typically paid on a metric known as eCPM (effective Cost Per Mille). This really means what you, as the developer are paid for every 1,000 impressions. The higher the eCPM, the better!

In order to integrate advertisements in your application, you first must become a publisher by registering a publishing account with the mobile advertising network. Typically, an identifier is provisioned for each application serving advertisements. This is how the advertising network correlates advertisements served in applications. In the case of AdMob, the identifier is known as the Publisher ID. You should consult your advertising networks for details.

Mobile advertising networks typically distribute a specific SDK, which consists of code that takes care of communication, ad refresh, look-and-feel customization, and so on.

Keywords that Work

Over the next week or so, I'll continue a short course in keywording the Dreamstime way. I can't promise that our guide will take all the tedium out of the job but if you follow it, the time you spend in adding data to your images should improve your downloads and the process made smoother. Ok, let's admit it. You don't love photography because you love keywording. Keywording can be a dull task and the rewards for good work elusive to document. But, for certain, you won't get many kicks or kudos from poorly keyworded images. Better keywords=more satisfied users=more downloads. The point of good keywords is simple: eliminate user frustration and increase downloads. Proof: check out the message boards where Dreamstime contributors tell how their downloads increased once they "fixed" their keywords. Dreamstime 'rules' and practices should take some of the guesswork out of entering the image information. Let's get the ugly part over first. Below are all the Do Nots of creating image information for Dreamstime. The good thing about the Do Nots is that they are things NOT to do and will cut down the time you spend in adding needless information. FIRST: Don't try to find ALL the words that describe every little thing in the image. The picture on the left is obviously of a rooster. It is not an image of lumber just because there are a few pieces of old wood in the far background. Ask yourself, "Would I be happy if I was looking for wood and the search returned a male chicken?" The second image would be closer to what I wanted. You may ask but what if someone wanted a picture of a male chicken with pieces of old wood in the background? I refer that question to Photoshop. Don't spam. More about that later. Cut and Paste: Yes. But make certain that the words you cut and paste belong with the subsequent images. Example: The image on the left below has the keywords silver and belt. The belt is not shown in the next frame. Many of the same keywords will apply to both images but belt and silver will not. Careless cut and paste would include those words in the second image. Caution: the most common keywording error is to cut and paste words from one image to a similar one without making certain that the elements are present in the subsequent images. Did I mention: Don't spam? Too much information. Poor data can creep in even when you are not cutting and pasting or spamming. Example: The image on the left below is titled Asian Tourist Taking Pictures. The photographer must have known that the man was Asian but the man's ethnicity is not obvious to the viewer. Leave out any information that you may know but that can't be seen in the image. The second image would be returned in a successful search for those terms. Perhaps the woman isn't a tourist but there is a cruise ship prominent in the background so the assumption is sound. Don't use the same title for several images like Portrait (1), Portrait (2) etc. Example: Create unique titles for each image in a series in order to have your images scattered about a search. Rather then naming the images below: Brick wall 1, Brick wall 2 and Brick Wall 3 name them: Red Brick wall, Tan brick wall and Grey brick wall Don't use keywords for something that COULD happen but is not in the image. Example: We often see still life images of bottles of wine with the keywords drinking and drunk. If someone drank the wine in the pictures above they might become drunk. But there is no drinking going on. Drinking and drunk are bad keywords for these images and will produce a less than optimum search result. Don't use opposites as keywords. A photo of ice crystals should not have the keyword hot. Molten lava should not have the keyword cold. Don't label each element of the face in a portrait. Eyes, ears, noses. We all have them. They are in all portraits. Don't use these keywords unless the particular part of the face is prominent in the image. Example: The image on the left requires the keyword eyes but the one on the right does not. Don't name every article of clothing in a full-length shot. All full-length images of people will surely show feet and shoes. But unless the feet are up on a table or prominent in the image, don't use those words Example: In the image below, the keywords shoe and shoes are appropriate only in the image on the right. Don't try to guess a possible end usage and add that use to the title or to the keywords ever! The images here could be great greeting cards but should not have the keyword greeting or postcard. Leave it to the end user to find an image by searching on what it is a picture of-not of how it might be used. The above images should NOT be labeled with the keywords card or postcard. Don't use model's name in title nor keywords. You need to protect their privacy. Remember DON'T SPAM when keywording. Example: For a tight in shot of a woman from the waist up on a massage table with only the back of the woman's head, her back and a towel covering her to the top of her legs with no one else in the image, the bad keywords were: asia, asian-image had no ethnic identifying characteristics, background-no background in the image and image would not be an appropriate background image, beach, sand-no beach in image, management and business-no business going on as even the business of a spa was not evident, businesslady-misspelled and no way to tell what the woman did as a business or job, businesswoman-ditto, de-stressed-not a word, destressed-mispelled word correct is distressed, experience-because the woman was simply resting there was no experience and nothing to experience, people-only one person in the image and people is covered in the categories, heel sole, sole, toe, toes-feet are not in the image thailand, travel, traveler, travelers, traveling, traveling, travelling-image could have been taken anywhere in the world or even in the woman's home. Not a travel image. The photographer might have traveled to take the image but that isn't information that is available in the image. Correct Image Name, Description, Categories and Age of Models. Dreamstime offers a variety of methods to identify the important information in an image. The system provides variety and choice by offering four different means of adding information. These are the Image Name, Description, Categories and Keywords. Here are some tips to entering information that will give you the best success: Overall Impression. First, get a general overall impression of the image and note the words that come first to mind: • What does the image "say" to you? • What is the image about? • What is in the foreground? • What is the biggest element? • Which element has the most impact? • What is the major element regardless of how much of the overall image it physically takes up? • Ask yourself why would someone want to download the image. This may differ from why you made the picture. Image name: This is the caption or title. It doesn't need to be long and drawn out. Save the details for the Image Description. The caption for the image on the right below is Five barns. The second image is captioned A game of pool. Perhaps a better title would be Man playing pool. Only capitalize the first letter of the image name unless it contains a person or place name. Never use model's names in any of the fields. Articles Limit the use of a, an, the especially in the image title. Example: The title of the image on the left below should be Woman in backseat of car. Not A woman in the backseat of a car. The second image should be Woman and dog. Image description: Enter the details about an image in greater detail. The image description for the barn images is Barns on the top of a hill with a storm cloud in the background. A good description for the pool playing shot would be: A young man aims cue at pool balls in foreground. Only capitalize the first letter of the description unless it contains a person's name or a place name like John F Kennedy airport or Tower of London. Category selection: This part of the process seems to be the most challenging of the four major tasks in completing the image information page. If the image doesn't fit into more than one category, just enter it into one category. If you can't find a good fit in the categories, pick the closest one. If you can find three categories that are appropriate that is great. But remember at least one category is mandatory. Clarification: A portrait should be an image of a person or an animal that focuses mainly on the face or at the most waist up. Example: There are three categories that are appropriate for the image of a teen below on the left. People: teens and notPeople: women should be selected because the model is a minor. Other possible categories are People: portraits and People: Expressions. People: cosmetic and makeup. Objects: clothing and accessories isn't a good category as the striped top is not prominent. But no need to obsess about making certain everything is in the right slot. Everyone has different approaches; it is difficult to be wrong, especially in the categories. Specific categories: The categories under the Abstract list can be difficult to apply. The image of the flower above is certainly abstract in style. It helps to think of the abstract categories as both as a place to identify images with abstract style and/or and to attach a concept word to an image. Example: The flower above is abstract in style and would fall into the category of Abstract: color and/or Abstract: background. The two images below are not abstract in style but do show abstract concepts: They are both correctly in the categoryAbstract:fun. Objects: Still life. Another category that can be confusing is Objects: still life. In fine art, a still life is a composition made up of an object or several objects usually against a solid background. Many images of objects will be both in Objects: still life ANDObjects:any subcategory that applies. See below. Example: The image of a button on a solid background has been correctly categorized in two different Objects categories. It is correctly identified as Objects: Clothing and accessories as well as Objects: Still life. The musical instrument is in Objects:music and sound and could also be in Objects: still life. Age of model: If possible find out the age of the model. In some cases it will be possible for you to look at a passport or driver's license to get the correct age. You can indicate both the actual age as well as the age that the person appears to be. Images of minors (under age 18 in some places; under age 21 in others) are limited for certain uses. In the US only people over 25 can be used in ads for alcohol, for example. If the model is a minor, don't use the category People:women or People:men. Use People: teens. Here some guidelines that aren't rigid but that might help you select more accurate age categories. More information about providing accurate keywords will follow in the next installment. Infant/baby: This is a child from birth until four or so. Other good words for this age group include toddler, pre-schooler, child,kiddie, Child: four or so to twelve. Other good words are kid, grade-schooler, tween (9-12) Teen: age 13-20. For this category be certain to get teen or the actual age into the image data somewhere either in the image title or description. Other good words are adolescent, teenage, teenager, teenaged Young adult: 21-40. If you don't have the exact age base the keywords on how young or old the model appears to be. Use young adult or man or woman and add their profession or trade if its obvious: businesswoman, fireman, teacher and/or their relationship: mother, father, etc. Middle-aged is reserved for people over 40 and under 60. Many of the same words apply as to the young adults. Retired and mature should be used for healthy and active people over 50. When you add ages to images think of why they would be sought. This age group is about to become the largest single consumer group in American and other parts of the world as they reach retirement age. The designation should apply only to healthy and active. Other good keywords for this group areboomer and older. Elderly and old should be reserved for the very old depending on their looks from 70 on up. They may be retired but generally that word is reserved for the more active people. And remember: Don't SPAM Keywording is both a science and an art. No matter what you call it, it can be the best cure for insomnia available outside of a bottle of sleeping pills. But without relevant keywords, images will be lost in remote territories and never be found. Here's a checklist that might help you stay on track and not miss good keywords. Try for 25 words (10 is the minimum) but stay away from extraneous words just to make a quota. It is highly unlikely that more than forty keywords will be useful in finding an image without introducing confusion in search results. Let's pick up from where we were in part II... 1. Look at the words you have already used in the image title, description and the categories. Add these words and any synonyms and different tenses or plurals into the keyword box. 2. Carefully look at the image one more time. Scan the image with your eyes from top to bottom to see if you have missed anything. Try to think of alternative words for each important element and get those into the keywords. Make certain that what you find on this final look really matters to the message of the image. 3. Spell check. Before you hit the "submit" button SPELL CHECK! Click on the check box  and change any misspellings. CAUTION: In using a thesaurus, do not copy all the words under a listing. Many will not be appropriate. Only use a thesaurus to suggest relevant words that you might overlook. Never enter a word when the meaning is unfamiliar to you. Rules and standard practices for Dreamstime keywords. Place Names and Proper Nouns • No need to capitalize place names in keywords • Unless it is obvious an image is from a specific locale or the elements in the image are important to the region, do not use the location name. Example: The image of the man below has this description: In the city, New York. But there is nothing about New York in the image. Keywords relating to Manhattan or New York would also be wrong. This image would get many more downloads if New York was replaced with words more relevant to the image. The image of the couple below had the keywords Manhattan and New York. These images were both taken New York but that fact isn't evident in the images. There is no specific landscape in the following images but they are typical images that say Turkish souvenirs (the colorful shoes) or Argentina (Flamenco) and someone wanting to illustrate a tourism brochure would find them if they were keyworded to the locale. • Do not use a model's name in the caption or in keywords. This is important to protect their privacy • Don't enter the names of pets in the caption or in keywords Singular/Plural forms • If only one object is in the image, do not use the plural form of the word. • Example: The keyword for the images below is woman NOT women. Only one woman in each image Example: Two women in an image. Keywords would be woman AND women. Verbs. Only use a verb to describe what is in an image if the action is actually taking place Example: Don't use eat or eating when the image is a food still life. There is no eating going on in the image of the burger. Only the image on the right has eat and eating as correct keywords. Nouns. Only use the word if the object is actually in the image. Example: The image of the woman on the phone is found when searching on keyword desk but there is no desk in the picture. The illustration correctly has the keyword desk. Colors • Only use words describing color if the color is prominent in the image. • Don't describe all the colors in a plaid shirt, for example. • Use a keyword describing clothing if it is a prominent feature of an image and the color is a solid color. Example: Blue would not be an acceptable keyword for the image on the left but is an important keyword to the image on the right. • Indicate the dominate, overall color of the image. Sometimes designers want an image because its dominant color matches a certain a palette. • It is important to identify a prominent background color with a keyword. • It is also important to name a color that predominates in an image even when it isn't the background color. Example: The dominant color on the left is blue and the image should have the keyword blue. Yellow dominates the image on the right and accordingly should have the keyword yellow. Concept keywords. Concept keywords denote an emotion or an idea. They can be very subjective and culture dependent. Try to use them but be careful. Concepts can also be identified under the various sub-categories in Abstracts. Example: Some noun keywords for the ocean wave image could be wave, ocean, and spray. A concept keyword would be powerful. Noun keywords for the image on the right below could be mother, child, toddler. Joy is a concept keyword for this mother and child: Example: In the image of the tulips below the most important element is the yellow tulip. Yet it is very small in comparison to the whole image. It has the most impact because it is different from the rest. And it carries a strong concept. Noun keywords: tulip, flower, red, yellow, group. Concept keywords: individual, unique, different. Noun keywords for the row of men would be men, suit, row, jeans. Concept keywords are the same as for the tulip image: individual, unique, different. Ethnicity. If you know the ethnicity or nationality of a model indicate it in the keywords and image name. If the ethnicity is obvious, it is ok to use but don't guess. Example: The keyword Latina will identify the woman in the red dress below to the many users for Hispanic and Latin images. The user looking for image of those of African descent will easily find the mother and child image below if it is keyworded African American or African descent. Nationality is an important element in images. There are visual clues embedded in images taken in different countries that users in those countries value. When Americans, for example, want to photograph youth culture in a distant country, they sometimes miss the mark and the images look silly. Variant spellings in English. Whenever possible please keyword images with both the US and the UK versions of English spellings such as color and colour. The trunk of a car in America is the boot in the UK. Don't Spam. Spamming causes poor search results. It makes the site less useful and does nothing to improve your sales over time. So just don't do it. Think of keywording as a crossword puzzle: get all the words right and you win.