What are some of the best ways to increase app revenue for your company? Keep reading to learn more!
Despite the technological advancements in this direction, investing in mobile app development still requires a lot of budget set aside to get your app up and running. Nowadays, you can expect to pay anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 for a regular app, prices that can go high up if you want to add advanced features to it.
On top of that, you don’t get to keep for yourself all that you have earned through your app – app stores want their piece of cake, too. With Apple collecting a 30% app commission on in-app purchases, in many cases it’s difficult to evaluate your potential return on investment, and whether it is worth developing a native app. After all, among all other goals, many businesses create an app to further boost and maximize their profits.
Luckily, there are some ways to increase app revenue that are definitely worth trying – including one that can help you skip Apple’s 30% commissions altogether!
So, without further ado, let’s find out what they are:
1. Try a Freemium Plan
Let’s be honest – nobody likes paying straight away without trying what they are buying to see if it’s worth the money. As a company, you should be able to correctly showcase the value of your products and services (in this case, your app) to help users make up their mind without commitment.
For this reason, a Freemium Plan is usually a great way to boost sales and increase app revenue. If you are not implementing it yet, or you aren’t familiar with the concept, it refers to a pricing strategy in which the basic product is provided for free, but users are charged money if they want to upgrade, use extra features, or simply get more physical goods or services.
The idea behind it is to allow your audience to get a glimpse of your app so they can have an idea of what they could expect if they continue using it with the paid version. According to Statista, Freemium is the number 1 pricing strategy in practicall all app categories across all app stores:
Although giving your product for free may sound counterintuitive at a first glance, it is actually a very effective strategy to increase app revenue because it converts better. After all, many people will simply choose to not install your app if they have to pay directly, and they have no idea what value you are providing for the money.
2. Send effective push notifications
Another strategy that can help you increase app revenue is implementing the right push notification strategy. Push notifications are a great way to keep your app users engaged, and boost customer spending on your mobile or progressive web app. Some of their benefits include:
- Improved customer engagement – an outcome that comes with delivering relevant content and updates to your audience;
- Better conversion rates – push notifications are excellent and non-intrusive if you want to announce promotions, discounts, and reminders;
- Target the right audience – they can help you impact an audience that is already familiar (and using your app), which in turn makes them more likely to convert;
- Get valuable data – push notifications can also help you get valuable data on user behavior and engagement so you can continue improving;
As you can see, push notifications can have a lot of benefits for business. However, if you are not using them correctly, the results may backfire as people might feel spammed or overwhelmed if you are sending way too many, or at the wrong time.
For this reason, when implementing a successful push notification strategy, keep in mind the frequency. If they are sent too often, users might find them annoying and simply turn them off. Additionally, make sure that they are relevant – for example, sending a discount for a first-time purchase when the user already purchased is probably not a good idea. It is not only at the wrong time, but the chances are that the user will get annoyed that they purchased the product for a full price.
Make sure that you are sending the right notifications at the right time – for example, you can use geofencing technology and location-based services to deliver timely discounts, promotes and sales based on the user’s physical location.
3. Bypass app store commissions with a PWA
As we already mentioned previously, one of the best ways to increase app revenue is to bypass app store commissions altogether. But how does this happen exactly?
It is, in fact, more simple that you might be expecting, and that is to switch from native app development to progressive web app development.
In our article No App Downloads? 6 Solid Reasons to Bypass App Stores, we explained that publishing an app on the app store is not only associated with a lot of initial investment, software update and maintenance costs, but also with high commissions on app revenue. Depending on the app store, these commissions start from 15% and can get up to 30% for stores such as the Apple App Store and the Google Play store:
Considering how difficult it already is to maximize your app revenue and convince users to purchase, it is no surprise that these commissions are making it even more difficult for businesses to see a return on investment on their app.
Luckily, there is a cheap and easy way to bypass app stores and keep all these fat commissions to yourself, boosting your earnings without too much extra effort. The answer is: progressive web apps. Because PWAs are essentially websites that have the look and feel of a native app, they can be accessed with a single URL, and without the need to be downloaded from an app store.
This means that not only your app visitors will avoid the hassle of downloading heavy apps that will later end up uninstalled, but you will avoid giving up those commissions to third parties. And the best part is, you can create a progressive web app without any coding skills, and from just a few dollars per month.
4. Assess your monetization strategy
Having a good monetization strategy is essential for any business that wants to increase app revenue and maximize return on investment. What’s more, a lot of outstanding apps on the market are doomed to fail simply because the monetization strategy was never really there.
Whether you are in the process of developing an app, or already have one but it is not getting enough earnings, it will be of key importance to stop and assess the state of your monetization strategy. In other words, how are you currently making money with your app? Are there any tactics that you are not implementing, but could be very effective for your business?
What are the strategies, tactics and actions that you can undertake to not only increase app revenue, but also the overall profits for your business?
To answer these questions and assess your current state, you will need to have a good understanding of what are the different possible options that are available for your business.
Some of the most common ways of monetizing an app include:
- In-app advertising – in other words, earning money by displaying ads on your app. Although this sounds pretty straightforward, you will be surprised to know how many companies are doing it wrong. By taking look at your Analytics tools and some of the most recommended best practices, you can find the perfect amount of ads for your app – and the right placement for them. The difference these details can make may be surprising!
- In-app purchases – with this strategy, the basic features of the app are provided for free, but users can make additional purchases within the app. Think of a game such as Sims Freeplay – I can play the game for free, but I also have the option to purchase different pieces of furniture, decorations, or houses for my Sims with real money.
- Paid mobile apps – we already discussed the Freemium model and how it can benefit your mobile app, but another alternative that you can try is to make your app a paid one from the start. In other words, users will have to purchase it before actually trying it. Although we don’t necessarily recommend this model for many reasons, it can be effective in some cases as well.
- Subscription payments – a great monetization strategy to increase app revenue are subscription payments. With this strategy, the user is charged monthly for premium content or advanced features – you can also offer a yearly subscription. At Beezer, we just launched a Subscription payment manager feature to allow companies to take advantage of this exact strategy for their progressive web apps.
5. Pay attention to user feedback
Getting, assessing, and understanding customer feedback is absolutely essential for improving your app and maximizing your profits from it. It is the key to brand reputation management in general, and it should not be overlooked at any cost because it can make or break your business. After all, users play a critical role when it comes to the success of your app.
Pay attention to negative feedback – and be grateful for it. Many app users will simply uninstall your app (or stop using it) without saying a word about what they didn’t like. So, be grateful to those users that actually bother giving you feedback, and apply their constructive criticism to make your app better. This is a golden strategy for any business that wants to increase app revenue in the long run – keeping customers happy, and paying actual attention to their needs and expectations.
Pay attention to positive feedback – positive feedback is great, and you should definitely appreciate it as well. Use it as a way to understand what you are doing well with your app, so you can further enhance it and promote it in front of future app users. However, don’t let it go to your head; it is never a reason to stop improving your app and making it better. You should always look for ways to deliver a greater product.
6. Leverage the power of Marketing
Your job doesn’t end with developing and launching your app – in fact, it barely starts there. Contrary to what some people think, your app will not get a flock of excited users and hundreds of downloads just by sitting and collecting dust in the app store. You will have to promote it actively in order to get in front of the right audience, and of course, to increase app revenue as a result.
Some of the most powerful Marketing strategies include:
- Leveraging the power of Social media – create insightful and engaging content that links back to your app. For a native mobile app, users will have to pass through the app store, and you will have to convince them to download it as well. For progressive web apps, it gets even easier – all you need is the app URL, and users will be able to access the content straight away, without any hassle.
- Making use of Search Engine Optimization – this Marketing strategy works great for progressive web apps. Because they are indexable by search engines, you can focus your SEO efforts on improving your content and enriching it with the right keywords to gain organic traffic directly from Google.
- Digital advertising – undoubtedly, one of the most powerful strategies to increase app revenue by reaching your target audience is through paid advertising. This can include advertising on Google in its multiple forms (Search, Display, Gmail…), Programmatic, Social media ads on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, among many others.
Depending on the type of your app (native, hybrid or progressive), you might have different Marketing strategies at your disposal. For example, promoting a progressive web app is very easy because it doesn’t require extra steps for the user, such as going to an app store and downloading a huge file on their electronic device. All you need is a URL, and you can do everything that comes to your mind to give it more visibility – you can also check our article 12 PWA Marketing Strategies That Work for more information on how to do that.
As opposed to progressive web apps, native mobile apps are harder to market, which could make it more difficult for businesses to increase app revenue as well. The reason why is because having a third-party digital distribution system – or in other words, the app stores, creates a lot of extra steps for the users.
From cleaning up space on their devices to going through the process of downloading the app, many users just won’t bother doing that. So, you will have to be extra powerful to convince them.
And that was all from us for today! There are many ways to increase app revenue for your business, but one of the best strategies in the long run is to switch to a progressive web app. They are not only easier to promote, but provide you with a lot more ways to monetize your content. So, if you are ready for the next step, click here and create your first progressive web app today!
