Author: James Ewen

James is the head of marketing at Tamoco

Categories
Marketing & Advertising

Cross-Device Attribution, Location & The Customer Journey

location based marketing and advertising

Marketing attribution has always been a tough area for marketers and advertisers. Attribution modelling has undoubtedly provided huge value. However, the ability to measure the effect of channels (or touchpoints) on the customer journey has often been fraught with difficulties.

Return on investment has been difficult for a variety of reasons. Understanding the entire customer journey has been problematic. This is especially true in the physical, offline world. Some offline marketing channels have also not been trackable. Attribution solutions have struggled with the multi-channel and real-time aspects that are crucial to understanding the full marketing picture.

Location intelligence has grown in terms of accuracy and scalability. This presents an opportunity. Some of the problems with attribution modelling can be solved with the application of accurate location data. Could this be the solution to the problems that limited marketing attribution in the past?

 

What is marketing attribution?

To understand the problems and the effect that location data can have it’s important to understand marketing attribution.

Attribution is the practice of allocating purchase revenue to the marketing touch points of a customer. In other worlds – understanding the effect of marketing efforts and channels on the purchase decision of customers.

Touchpoints can cover a wide range of customer interactions. Understanding the effect of these on sales or other valuable metrics allows for the optimisation of marketing channels, activity and budget.

 

What is offline location-based attribution?

Location-based attribution is the use of accurate mobile device data to fill in the gaps in traditional attribution models.

Smartphone adoption has grown rapidly. Understanding the where and how people move becomes scalable and precise. Customers rarely move without their mobile device, and this is the key. Higher levels of attribution precision are possible. Connecting the online and offline worlds becomes easier. Customer journey mapping and various touch point measurement is improved.

Until recently it has been impossible to understand the offline world. This has meant that advertisers have often been unable to attribute sales in physical stores and locations to a specific channel.

As smartphone adoption has grown using a device location has proved extremely useful in connecting the two.

Mapping the customer journey – cross device attribution

Basic attribution models have chosen to measure first touch or last touch. Much has been written about the failings of each. The choice lies in ignoring either early, top of funnel activity. Or failing to consider later, bottom of funnel activity that helps to move the customer along the buyer journey.

So the natural next step is to focus on multi-touch attribution. Focusing on touchpoints throughout the customer journey is important. But it requires accurate measurement across channels to be effective. The problem is that multi-touch attribution models don’t always incorporate what is happening in the offline world.

Location data allows a complete understanding of the customer journey. This means that it becomes possible for businesses to say the sort of thing like – okay this person saw our Facebook ad and has now completed a purchase. Previous attribution models would then attribute this purchase to the Facebook ad and not demonstrate how to generate leads on Facebook. But a more holistic view of the individual customer might point out that actually, the customer had visited the physical store previously.

This ability to model attribution across the online and the offline leads to a clearer picture of attribution. It allows brands to be better informed about the effect digital has on physical and vice-versa. Your customers exist across multiple marketing channels, so your attribution should too.

Previously brands have tried to close this gap by using various methods to map the offline customer journey. This usually took the form of a promotional code, which allows the brand to understand which channel had the desired effect. But whilst the picture is slightly clearer, it is not enough to be able to inform marketing budgets. Or to provide a clear understanding of the customer journey and the customer experience.

Only location intelligence can provide these insights. And it can do this across the online and offline world with a sufficient level of detail. Location data is versatile, quick and accurate. This makes it the perfect tool to help close the offline to online attribution loop.

Location data connect online advertising to the offline world. This allows for attribution in physical locations. This allows brands to measure store visits and link this offline activity to other digital touch points. It allows for more accurate customer journey mapping. This data can even be used to understand external offline touch points, such as OOH advertising. Already a complete picture becomes available.

Attribution has always had its problems. But brands and marketers should understand and implement insights from customer data points. In this way, location data provides a better understanding of the offline world. It allows brands to measure touch points more accurately. It allows them to map the customer journey in greater detail. And most of all, it allows them to measure the effects of cross-channel marketing in detail.

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Categories
Data

Location Data And Location Intelligence In 2018

The big data analytics space is growing at an alarming rate. We’re all increasingly connected through our mobile devices. This growth has provided huge amounts of data around audiences and how they behave. What kind of competitive advantage can we expect to see from this location data going forward?

Location data is rising in importance. But there are challenges that companies face as location data becomes commonplace. Businesses will need to understand the best application for this data. We’ll look at this as well as how location intelligence will be put to use across many verticals.

How will location data change the way that businesses approach marketing?

Attribution

Location data will become invaluable to marketers as they look to close the online to offline attribution loop. Traditionally this has been a problem for marketers. It’s difficult to attribute real-world visits and purchases to online marketing. 

Location intelligence will help to illuminate what happens in the offline worldwith unprecedented accuracy. Big data will provide insights well beyond the capabilities of loyalty scenes.

As programming becomes more prevalent, location intelligence will be used to ensure that budgets are optimised. With the improvements in attribution, marketers will be able to accurately understand where ad fraud occurs.

Personalization

Big data breeds personalization. Many a case has been made for the importance of big data in personalization. Location intelligence will help marketers to automate personalization. This, in turn, will deliver accurate, personalized content to the right user in the right place.

Big data insights from location data

Location data will provide a competitive advantage, and not just in marketing and advertising. More industries are realising the benefits of real-time mobile location data.

Location data is being collected and stored by over 90% of companies with over 500 employees. The applications of this data are wide-reaching. Understanding consumer behaviour accurately, and in real-time will signal the adoption of location intelligence outside of the marketing and advertising industries. Location data will allow cities to become smarter. It will allow transportation to become more efficient. 

 

Accuracy and reliability of big data

The accuracy problem

The problem has previously been the accuracy of the data. For companies to use big data to inform business decisions, the data has to be reliable beyond doubt. Location intelligence and precise sensor-driven data now provide this certainty. 

Accuracy and precision will become of paramount importance as technology gets better.  It’s important that businesses that benefit from location data and location intelligence can safely say that they are working from accurate sources. 

First-party location data

Challenges in sourcing accurate first-party data were found with scalability. With a lack of first-party data, unreliable third-party data was used. Often out of date and imprecise, the insights were not reliable. Especially for businesses serious about using location intelligence for commercial success.

Today Tamoco adopts a network approach to location intelligence. This means that through our mobile SDK we can understand mobile device location directly. Thanks to our network approach, we can understand these signals across multiple sensors types. 

This improves accuracy and will allow businesses to act based on a more precise understanding of audience behaviour. 

Real-time data

Location intelligent decisions must be informed by real-time data. Location data must be instantaneous. Data that is out of date is simply not useful for businesses. This means that data must be communicated in real-time to optimise and achieve the desired goals. 

This is another reason why first-party data is important. It allows for location intelligence to occur quickly.

The location of things

The IoT will soon be in everything. For example, by 2020 IoT technology will be in 95% of new product designs for electronics. Now that’s great but it’s only the beginning.

This huge growth will produce large amounts of data. However, it’s may be difficult to interpret data sets without location. Location adds context and a better understanding of what is happening in a specific location. This allows us to better understand the offline world. 

The location of things – the IoT is actually only useful if you know where the thing is. Tamoco’s sensory agnostic approach allows us to gain location intelligence across a wide range of sensors. These range from beacons, Wi-Fi and Geofences to connected IoT devices. This approach allows us to understand location across many different sensors. This creates a deeper understanding of the offline world. Businesses using location data will have to take a similar approach to understand the connected world we live in.

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Categories
Marketing & Advertising

How To Improve Mobile Targeting With Location Data

Mobile advertising is growing incredibly fast. Smartphone adoption has never been higher. Accordingly, marketers are adopting a mobile-first approach. As marketers look to target audiences on mobile devices, they will need to adapt to stay effective at targeting the right person, with the right message at the right time. 

Mobile targeting is set to pass other channels as more budget is being allocated to reaching audiences on the move. To stay ahead here’s how to improve mobile targeting and advertising using location data and today’s location based marketing technology. 

 

Location intelligence is an effective method to improve mobile targeting

Location data is a useful tool to help target mobile devices effectively. It allows in-depth segmentation of mobile audiences. It also facilitates real-time message delivery based on a device’s location.

This level of accurate data insight improves the effectiveness of mobile targeting. Location based marketing has been proven to increase engagement and conversion rates. This is because mobile targeting occurs contextually, at the best possible moment.

Location data is used to build complex mobile audiences profiles. This is achieved by understanding these anonymous location signals. Mobile targeting campaigns should feel personal and relevant to the user.  This is achieved by applying offline behaviour to the targeting process. 

Adding location intelligence to mobile targeting means less chance of delivering content that is irrelevant or annoying. In a world of increased ad-blocking, users want marketing to be helpful. Location based marketing allows mobile targeting campaigns to be just this. They reach users in the best moment with personalized and useful relevancy of the content. 

 

Personalize mobile content and combine this with relevant mobile targeting

Location intelligence allows brands and marketers to target users in real-time with accurate and personalized content. Ensure that mobile campaigns combine accurate targeting with contextual content relevant to the user’s location. Personalization should extend beyond simply addressing a user by name. It should be personalized to a level that reflects the location and situation of the mobile device. 

Personalization is key to successful mobile targeting. Improving the relevancy of the content will improve the success of campaigns. High-level mobile personalization is achieved with accurate location data. Understanding the situation of a mobile user allows content to be targeted and personalised. Users are more likely to interact with content that is targeted to their situation. 

 

Make sure your data is accurate and precise

Using location intelligence to target mobile users in the right micro-moment will improve campaign performance. Targeting devices at exactly the right time ensure that you will reach the user in the best place at the right moment. This requires the location data that fuels your campaign to be precise and instant.

Ensure that your location data partner that can source accurate data in real-time to inform your mobile targeting campaigns. Ask how your data is sourced. Using third-party data may not be helpful as it could be incorrectly sourced or out of date. 

There’s a lot of bad location data out there. Effective mobile targeting should be based on first-party data sourced from precise sensors. For example, at Tamoco, we source location signals across multiple different sensor types. This helps to understand device location with accuracy. It also ensures that errors in location data are not included in data sets. Data is also sourced from first-party sources. This means that there is little chance of data being out of date, or lose accuracy through the reselling of source data. 

Marketers should take accuracy and precision seriously. It means that mobile targeting campaign budgets are as efficient as possible. It ensures that brands and advertisers don’t waste time and money targeting the wrong audience. Each advertising dollar goes further as brands get better, more accurate mobile targeting. 

 

Apply mobile targeting and attribution across channels

Use location intelligence to understand if your mobile targeting is working. Location based marketing provides accurate attribution after devices are targeted. This allows marketers to understand campaign performance in the offline world. The aim of your targeted mobile campaign might be to send users to a specific store. It makes sense to measure the performance of this using location based attribution.

Many mobile marketers aren’t aware of the huge potential for location in closing the online to offline attribution loop. It can help brands to make better mobile targeting decisions over time.

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Categories
Apps

App Monetization Strategies – Which Is Best For My App?

The complete guide to mobile app monetization strategies. And, how to turn your app into a viable business.

Mobile app monetization in 2017

App monetization is pivotal to your mobile app business strategy. The revenue generated from your mobile app must outperform the cost of your user acquisition. If it doesn’t, then you’ll start to run into some serious problems.

That’s why it’s crucial to stay informed and to understand different app revenue models. One of the biggest challenges of creating a successful mobile app is figuring out which app monetization strategy best suits your app.

There are many different ways to monetize mobile apps. Ultimately, you need to figure out two things to form an effective app monetization strategy:

  • What value does your app provide to your app users and what is the price?

  • Which types of revenue will you pursue?

Understand your app monetization strategy in the context of your wider business model. We’ll talk more about this late on. For now, let’s look at some of the most common monetization strategies out there, as well as some that you might not have heard of.

 

No monetization strategy is the same

Your mobile monetization strategy is a constant balance between app revenue and user experience. In this balance lies the opportunity to propel your app to success. There are many theories on how to monetize an app effectively. But no particular method is inherently better than another. 

What’s the difference between android app monetization strategies and iOS app monetization solutions? Some app monetization models do provide different results on different platforms. It seems that iOS apps find it easier to monetize their audiences, but it isn’t exactly clear why this is.

As you might have realized by now, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t adopt different monetization strategies for your app. Make sure you’re aware of the effectiveness of each model on each platform. And always remember to put yourself in your user’s shoes when considering app monetization trends.

Anyway, let’s get onto the different app monetization strategies for your app.

It’s a topic that generates much debate amongst developers, users, and brands. But, for now, it’s here to stay. Mobile advertising has grown at an incredible rate in recent years. It’s a common response when people ask how to monetize free apps.

Mobile ad spend is set to reach $50 billion by the end of 2017. Mobile advertising as a percentage of digital advertising spend is also increasing year on year. This trend is predicted to continue.

Many apps head along the in-app advertising strategy. There are some app monetization challenges along the way. But, it can be one of the easiest and quickest way to monetize your audience.

 

In-app advertising

This is by far the most popular way for apps to generate extra revenue. Without advertising revenue, many apps wouldn’t exist.

There are a few ways that you can monetize apps with ads. There’s a huge variety in CPM and there are not that many guarantees on exact income until you get stuck-in. In-app ads are developing and aren’t as intrusive as they once were.

  • Third party ads within your app experience. These include everything from banner ads to third-party push notification advertising. Income can vary depending on your audience and your partner.

  • Build your own network of advertising space. This app monetization strategy requires a decent sized budget. Of course, once you manage to get to this stage you’ll reap the benefits of 100% of that ad revenue.

There is a lot of noise in the mobile ad space and it can be difficult to understand which solution is the best for your app. For a app network to advertise with, you’ll struggle to find a better list.

 

App push notification advertising.

You could be receiving significant income from your mobile app by allowing third-party brands to reach your users with third-party push notifications.

This monetization strategy is a two birds one stone solution to the monetization problem. If you ensure that the content delivered to the user is valuable, then you can also engage your users whilst monetizing your app.

With mobile monetization there will always be challenges. In-app advertisers often come across a pretty big one. 

Users hate ads.

There’s no getting around it. If you go for this kind of app monetization you are more or less signing up to decrease your UX.

Now if you have a mobile game app then this can be fine. But for other apps, it can become problematic. You need to think long and hard about your app’s function. Think how important experience is to the success of your app before implementing this monetization strategy.

You can always set limits to the amount of in-app advertising – many successful apps find a nice balance between the two.

  • Pros: quick and simple – pretty much any app can implement.
  • Cons: User experience is almost certainly lessened.

 

Monetize app data

One of the best ways to incorporate a free app monetization strategy is to leverage the huge amount of data generated from your mobile audience. It’s also another great way to monetize free apps without passing on the cost of the app directly to your users.

If you have built up a large mobile audience then big data around these user’s habits are extremely valuable for other companies. Their interests lie in understanding customers, and apps can help with this.

There’s huge potential for revenue here. This is a mobile app monetization trend that’s improving in popularity amongst developers.

CPMs are much higher than in-app advertising. There’s also the added benefit of not compromising your app experience. Data monetization takes place entirely in the background, ensuring that you can focus on improving the app experience. Rather than pestering users with in-app ads.

This method works well as a social app monetization strategy. But, it’s also effective revenue generator across most of the categories in the app store.

It’s important that you find yourself a valuable partner when embarking on this monetization strategy. You should ensure that your users are clearly opting into data monetization services. The key is explaining the process to your users. As with any mobile app monetization strategy, there’s always a trade-off for the user.

Ensuring an opt-out is important for any strategy. If done properly, this method can be one of the most lucrative app monetization templates.

  • Pros: best app monetization strategy for revenue and user experience
  • Cons: Requires reliable partner to implement.
 
 
 
 

Affiliate marketing and lead generation

Affiliate marketing is a method of app monetization that involves earning a healthy commission when your audience downloads, buys or engages with another product or service. If they do this through your app, then you’ll get generate revenue every time this happens.

This isn’t too dissimilar to mobile ads, and in some cases, it can appear just as blunt.

 

An affiliate in-app ad in cut the rope

 

But many other apps do this well and in these cases, it rarely affects the app experience negatively.

There are networks that help with affiliate marketing. The reward is much higher if you have the capacity to negotiate these partnerships yourself.

  • Pros: less negative effect on the user experience.
  • Cons: requires potentially lengthy relationship building with partners.

 

Transaction fees

Your app might include a marketplace or include many audience transactions. If this is the case then a transaction fee monetization will most likely be part of your app’s business plan already.

This app monetization strategy scales really nicely. Unlike listing fees, this encourages users to use your app service. The more transactions that go through your app, the more income you receive. That kind of information is helpful when forecasting app revenue and setting clear app growth KPIs.

 

 

Etsy charges app users a fee

 
  • Pros: Scalable and easy to predict monetization income
  • cons: Requires an engaged audience using your marketplace/service

 

Freemium

The freemium app monetization model is one that has gained a lot of popularity in recent times.

The model is simple. You offer users a free, basic and useful version of your service. Simultaneously, you educate and entice your users to upgrade to the paid version with advanced features and capabilities.

The most common example of this app monetization is SaaS-based apps. 

 

Headspace makes certain features available to premium subscribers.

 

There are a few different freemium models:

  • Time-based – the users get the entire version of your app including all of its features. But, this lasts for a set period of time. This is similar to the free trial model that many non-app based SaaS providers offer.

  • Feature-based – in this app monetization model the user has access to only a select few features. To unlock the full range they must subscribe or upgrade their membership.

  • Limits – the user has access to all of the app features but they are given a usage limit. When they hit this limit they must upgrade their membership to keep using the app.

Some apps adopt just one of these methods but some have been known to mix two or even all these methods. Again, it really depends on which aspects of your app will entice your users to pay for the whole shebang.

  • Pros: Can be applied to the majority of mobile applications.

  • Cons: you must really focus on creating a useful and well-liked product.

 

Virtual currency

Generally one for those games apps out there but increasingly seen in other app categories. Many successful app monetization strategies involve offering a virtual currency to users. This can then be earned by playing/engaging with the app.

The users can use this currency to get ahead in the game or unlock certain app features and services. The user can then purchase this currency using real money.

You can really get into app economics here and there are many companies that offer expert advice on how to get the balance right. There’s actually a surprising amount of psychology involved.

Ultimately, you must understand your user’s motivations. As well as give audiences sufficient opportunity to earn the virtual currency themselves. Either way, there are a huge number of people that are willing to get their credit card out if what they are getting in return is good enough.

  • Pros: can provide large amounts of income and scales nicely.
  • Cons: Some of the app stores take a huge cut for in-purchases.

 

Which is the best app monetization platform?

Wouldn’t it be helpful if you could access these strategies all from within a single platform?

There are a few solutions for this – especially the mobile ad monetization platforms.

But some of the data platforms are quick to integrate, simple to use and provide you with a great overview of your mobile monetization strategy in real-time.

You can see exactly how your monetization strategy is performing. This allows you to forecast potential income streams. It also helps to predict how much of your mobile app budget you can allocate to other parts of your mobile business.

 

In conclusion

So that’s it, the main ways the world’s apps are generating money from their mobile app audience. There might not be a single best way to monetize your Android or iOS app. But there are many app monetization ideas out there to ensure that you get the best shot at generating app revenue for your business.

  • You must understand your audience to be able to monetize your app effectively.

  • No single monetization strategy will work on its own. The majority of apps looking to succeed as a viable business will consider all the options and implement more than one to their strategy.

  • Put your user first = if your app relies on a beautiful and seamless user experience then don’t overdo the ads.

  • Don’t expect overnight result – use feedback and data to understand and learn about your app and its users.

  • Every app is different – what works for your app might not work for others and vice-versa.

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Categories
Apps

5 App Monetization Trends To Watch Out For In 2018

Which trends will shape app monetization in 2018? As the world becomes better adapted for mobile, developers will benefit from greater revenue than ever before. However to do this they must balance the needs of the user with app monetization practices.

We’ll look at five trends that will influence the way that app moentization will work in 2018.

App experience will become more important for developers relying on ads to generate revenue.

In-app ads remain a popular method of app monetization for developers. Despite them having obvious drawbacks when applied poorly.

In 2018 app advertising will be all about the user experience. developers must strike a balance between the number of ads, where they appear and how the user interacts with them. This will be pivotal to app monetization success. App owners will also have to consider how these changes will affect their users in 2018. Too many ads will negatively affect the user experience. But that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to provide value whilst delivering in-app ads.

Mobile app advertising is maturing quickly. Make sure you look for a network that uses safe brands, smart ad targeting, and provides support for interactive ads.

When integrating an app advertising strategy you may find a trade-off between ease of integration and spamminess of ads. In 2018 it might be worth taking the time to focus on putting user experience first.

Don’t expect revenue from app ads to jump to new heights anytime soon. If anything expect app ad revenue to decrease as more apps adopt in-app advertising. Perhaps 2018 could be the year to supplement your app revenue with another method.

 

 

More apps will adopt a freemium model as more users are becoming used to an app being free at the point of use.

Freemium is allowing app owners to increase session length and generate engaged users. This is a great place from which to convert users into healthy revenue. After a positive app experience app users are more likely to opt-in for premium features. Having the chance to nurture and educate your users before this has a positive effect on your app monetization strategy.

Try not to appear like you are cheating your users. Make it clear that your app is a freemium app from the very beginning. They won’t want to invest a lot of time in a game or app to realise that they have to pay to use some features.

It seems that freemium is here to stay. With users finding it standard practice to not pay for an app at the point of purchase. Because of this, developers are finding it harder to justify an upfront fee. The freemium app monetization model is a great opportunity to engage and nurture audiences for app monetization.

 

Users will become dissatisfied if they have to commit huge amounts of time or money to unlock all app features.

In-app purchases as a method of app monetization is still experiencing healthy growth. This may be slightly overstated due to the inclusion of ‘services’ as purchases (think Uber etc).

One of the main trends well see in 2018 is that app developers will need to focus more on engagement rather than only increasing app monetization.

Once a user has purchased in-app content then they are more likely come back and spend more time in the app. This translates to better engagement and retention and in turn better monetization.

No category has benefited from in-app purchases more than the gaming category. Here, developers are benefiting by placing engagement first. The user now has the option to pay to advance through the game quicker or access powerups and features.

Developers need to make sure they are getting this balance right. In-app purchases are effective because a few users spend a lot. There will always be users who only want to play your game for free. True these users don’t generate revenue, but they are still important for your app to exist.

Whilst not being a mobile app, developers can still learn a lot from the EA debacle in the new Battlefront game. Users quickly noticed that to unlock some of the features they would have to play the game for 1000 hours. Alternatively, they could pay to unlock them. This seemed rather unfair, especially when they had purchased the game upfront.

To keep users happy, developers will need to strike the right balance between monetization and experience.

In 2018 more and more users will become aware of how apps monetize their users. That’s why app monetization methods must be clear and fair, in the long term it will benefit you.

 

A conversation will need to be had with users about monetization of data and opt-out methods.

Users are more aware than ever of the need for developers to monetize their app audience. The conversation around app monetization is shifting to help users understand why apps are free.

In 2018 consumer personalization will be a high priority for brands. They will achieve this by using consumer data to help provide an improved user experience.

Mobile app owners are sitting on a lot of behavioural data around their users. This is of value to those who wish to improve personlization for their customers.

Data monetization is secure, private and becoming more popular amongst developers. Users are more likely to understand that this data will help to generate improved personlization. By communicating the benefits and education users about opt-in developers can monetize their app in this way.

A benefit of app data monetization is that the user experience remains intact. There are no intrusive adverts or the need for the user to pay anything upfront. This means that the user will spend more time in the app and engage with the app’s features. The app monetization strategy can be adopted alongside other methods of monetization.

Data monetization allows developers to monetize a much higher percentage of users. The users don’t need to be engaged for it to work. The revenue that you generate from each user will also be higher. This means you don’t have to worry about monetization in relation to platform. It’s the same regardless of the device.

Expect revenue from data monetization to increase from a high starting point with better technology. 2018 will see the consumer become more aware of the power of big data and better educated on how it affects them.

 

App subscription models will more closely resemble SAAS subscriptions.

The subscription model is one that looks to remain popular in 2018. Again, users are used to trialling an app and its features before parting with any cash

Subscription models are becoming more complex than a simple buy or don’t buy. In fact, many pricing structures now more closely resemble a SAAS model. It’s common to see several pricing tiers with many different features.

This allows app developers to persuade users who would previously not part with any cash to subscribe to a lower tier of membership. This method of app monetization is still the best fit for service apps.

A side effect of this is that developers will need to clearly help users understand the benefits of upgrading. More tiers and features mean a better explanation is needed.

 

Closing thoughts for 2018

Developers will continue to benefit from the app economy with revenue from app monetization set to grow throughout 2018. Free apps will become the new normal, compared to previously where single pay purchases were the most popular. This will allow developers to generate more revenue over a longer period of time.

Developers will need to place more emphasis on the monetization experience. This means that the developers are more likely to miss out on revenue from app monetization if the app experience is not up to scratch. Due to the free to download culture, more emphasis on experience and education is needed. This will help to persuade users to enter into premium models and subscriptions or to engage with in-app purchases.

More and more developers will need to adopt hybrid monetization strategies. Developers should not rely on a single method of app monetization. Instead, spreading monetization across multiple strategies will provide stability. Especially in a market that can change quickly. The preference of app users is volatile. The changing platform rules around app monetization may also affect developers in 2018. It’s important to stay one step ahead!

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Categories
Apps

How Do Free Apps Make Money?

Everything you wanted to ask around app monetization, app revenue and how to monetize apps.

If you’re a developer or an app owner then you might feel slightly confused with all the content around app monetization.

The monetization of apps is something that doesn’t always have a simple solution. App monetization changes based on many different factors. It’s something that’s not simple to explain in a single way.

So we’ve taken some of the more common question that app owners ask around monetization. We’ve tried to provide some simple clear answers to these.

We update these questions regularly. If you would like to have your question answered then please send your question via the comment box below.

What does app monetization mean?

In its most basic form, app monetization simply means making money or revenue from your app. It’s not necessary to sell a specific product in order to monetize an app. It could mean that you generate background revenue without offering anything to your users.

App monetization is the act of converting app users into app revenue. You’ll be making the link between app usage metrics such as number of active users and time in apps and linking this to app revenue.

 

How do apps make money?

There are multiple app monetization methods that app publishers can use to generate revenue. These include:

  • In-app advertising – delivering adverts to users whilst they are using an app
  • In-app purchases – offering a paid service or product (both physical and digital) to users
  • Data monetization – tapping in-app activity to generate insights and revenue
  • Subscription and freemium models – providing users with access to the app for a recurring fee.

To explore all of these ideas in much more detail then check out this guide:

How to monetize your app

App Monetization Guide

 

How do free apps make money?

If your mobile app doesn’t generate revenue at the point of install then there are a number of methods to monetize app users.

Free apps have grown in popularity in recent times. Users are used to not paying money upfront for the app. They are increasingly aware that they will be monetized via another method.

This describes the majority of app monetization strategies that app owners employ today.

 

How do free apps make money without ads?

There are many effective ways for an app to generate revenue without delivering ads to their users. This is beneficial to the user because ads generally decrease the user experience. Lower user experience means that an app may lose users, which in turn will decrease monetization. That’s why app ad networks might not be the best option for your app.

The most popular ways that app publishers are monetizing apps without heading along the advert route are as follows:

 

How much money can you make from a free app?

The best way to look at this is by looking at your users. There are many different methods of app monetization and these will provide different results. However, you need active, engaged users in order to test monetization strategies.

Statistics around monetization can be difficult to predict. Use the following form to see how much you could make from data monetization.

 

How many app monetization methods should I use to monetize an app?

The short answer is it depends. Many developers use a combination of different app monetization methods. This means that they can generate more app revenue per user.

However, it would probably be a bad idea to go all in for every app monetization strategy under the sun. You must consider the cost of app monetization. That is, will it negatively affect the user experience, will it cause users to uninstall the app?

 

What’s the difference between these methods?

Some app monetization strategies generate guaranteed income, such as advertising. The cost of these is potentially quite high.

Some generate more income but mean that you will probably monetize a smaller percentage of your users.

App monetization is all about getting the right balance between the two.

 

How long should I wait to monetize my audience

As we’ve already mentioned, app monetization does come with a cost. If you are looking at ad app monetization then it might be worth waiting to monetize. Once you begin, you may find it more difficult to acquire and retain users.

Another point to consider is that revenue from app monetization usually increases with the number of users. It might be worth waiting to monetize your audience until you have carefully nurtured an engaged set of users.

Each app is different but in short, these are the main things to consider before monetizing:

  • How many users do you have?
  • How much revenue will be generated from each user?
  • Is this revenue worth the potential cost of app monetization?

 

What’s the link between app monetization and app engagement?

App monetization is affected by the number of app users that are using your app. As well as the amount of time that they spend using your app. This holds true for many methods of app monetization.

The better your app engagement metrics then the more revenue you will generate from your audience. That’s why it’s difficult to avoid engagement when strategizing for app monetization.

 

What makes up a successful monetization strategy?

The main things that app developers should consider in the monetization of apps:

  • User experience – how will this be affected by monetization
  • CPM – how much will I be generating per user
  • Acquisition costs compared to monetizaiton costs – is revenue outperforming user acquisition costs?
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Categories
Apps

How Your Push Notification Strategy Boosts App Monetization

Push notifications are an important part of any mobile app business. An effective push notification strategy helps to drive app engagement and app retention. It can also have a direct effect on your mobile app revenue or app monetization strategy.

Many developers understand the value of push notifications in relation to communication. Whilst this is one of the main benefits of adopting a push notification strategy, there are other rewards that developers can tap into.

These rewards are slightly different depending on the kind of app that you have. There is evidence that effective push notification strategies have a strong impact on in app monetization. We’ll look at what you can gain, other than engagement, from developing and nurturing your mobile app push notification strategy.

Abandoned carts, lost revenue

Users abandon 90% of mobile shopping carts. That’s a high number that app owners can combat with an effective push notification strategy. This is especially true if you create the right strategy. One in which your push notifications follow the golden rules of push.

 

Push notification best practices

  • Relevant – always ensure that you send push notifications to users at the best possible moment. Don’t send notification at times which aren’t relevant. This will decrease app engagement and ultimately app monetization.
  • Helpful – Your push notification service must be able to provide value to the user. A successful push notification strategy will communicate helpfully to the app users at the point of delivery.
  • Analyse data – always use data to inform your push notification strategy. Measure everything, hypothesize, test and repeat.

 

Now, this presents developers with a huge opportunity. With such a high number of mobile users abandoning baskets, app owners must address the issue. One way to reduce the number of abandoned baskets, and increase app revenue, is through the use of relevant push notifications.

Now we’re talking about something different to sending generic push notifications. Also, let’s remember – relevance doesn’t only mean addressing a user by name. Push notifications are much more effective when you consider relevancy. So let’s look at how you can adapt this into your push notification strategy to boost revenue.

The traditional abandoned basket push notification journey goes like this:

This push notification strategy may work in some cases. But the effectiveness of the push notification can be improved if it’s delivered at the right time. 

You need a push notification service that allows you to understand and engage with your users at the right moment. Remember the push notification best practices – how can we apply them to this situation?

One way you can apply these to your push notification strategy is by using location.

Back to our abandoned cart push notification. Layering this push notification with location can achieve a much better result.

 

What is a location-based push notification?

A push notification strategy that uses location delivers push notifications based on the users’ location. This is helpful for many reasons. One is that it allows communicating specific messages to users in helpful and relevant moments. This translates to better engagement, and in turn, better in app monetization.

 

So in the case of an abandoned basket, we can hypothesize a few locations in which it would be helpful to remind a user.

One might be when they are in a consumer shopping location. The user will already have shopping on the mind and in most cases where they have forgotten about the items in their basket. Communicating with the user in this moment is much more likely to produce engagement.

Of course, this can be fine-tuned depending on what your app offers to its users. If you have more niche items then you can increase the specificity. For example – sports goods, communicate when they leave a gym.

Using push notification as reminders in relevant locations rather than sending generic cart abandonment messages will dramatically improve your app revenue.

 

User purchases

Now here’s another look at how mobile push notifications can have a positive effect on your mobile app revenue. If your app offers users the option to purchase goods, be it physical or digital, then push notifications can be useful.

Again, look at when it could be beneficial to deliver these notifications. If you can find a way to deliver value to your users then you’ll boost engagement over time. This will translate into better app revenue and improved monetization of apps.

Try informing and promoting user purchases at the right moment. In times of value, you will dramatically improve your revenue from in-app purchases.

It’s not as simple as picking a single time or day. Push notification strategies should be based on more than that. Namely, the location and situation of the user. That’s where location comes into your push notification strategy.

Try sending promotions or communicate in-app purchases at a moment of locational relevance to the user. Again, this will vary depending on the type of app or the type of purchase, but let’s look at a few examples.

Let’s say you have a language learning app with a subscription model. You could offer a promotion for the subscription to entice users into subscribing. But you can go one step further with location. Try sending notifications to the users when your users return from a trip through an airport.

These are just one example. You can get ultra-specific with your location based push targeting. The more precise you get, the more engaging your push notification strategy will be. More engaged users mean better app monetization.

Get in touch to see how location can specifically improve your app and help you generate more app revenue.

 

Time in app – monetization

If you have considered your app monetization strategy you’ll know that the monetization of apps is affected by the number of time that users spend in your app. That’s app engagement, and it’s something that push notifications can directly improve.

Therefore, by crafting an effective push notification strategy, you can allow your users to spend more time in your app. This will lead directly to improved app revenue.

Consider the push notification best practices when trying to boost app engagement and retention. The effectiveness of a push notification strategy is improved with location.

So in terms of engagement – we can look at ways that location-based push notifications can improve app engagement metrics. This is to do more with communicating with the users at the right time to encourage them to spend more time in your app.

Always have your in app monetization strategy in mind when considering your push notification strategy. push notifications can be useful beyond engagement. Stick to the push notification best practices and you’ll be on your way to more app revenue.

Conclusions

  • App push notifications can boost app revenue and the monetization of apps, as well as engagement.
  • Push notifications best practices include being relevant, helpful and data-driven.
  • Adding location to your push notification strategy is an effective way to improve engagement and revenue.
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Categories
Marketing & Advertising

Retail Marketing Attribution Using Mobile Devices

What is mobile marketing attribution and what does it look like for retail?

Attribution is a term that is thrown around quite a lot at the moment in retail marketing. If your business is investing in mobile, then it’s time to understand what it means, and how it can help you.

 

But what does it actually mean? What can it do for your mobile strategy?

Attribution is the ability to measure marketing efforts. It’s about uncovering the inner workings of your marketing strategy and using this information to optimise, adapt and provide a great ROI.

 

What does this have to do with proximity marketing?

Proximity marketing uses attribution. This means that it’s possible to measure marketing efforts and directly attribute marketing decisions to events in the offline world. These can be store visits, for example.

This is extremely accurate and based on location. Not only can proximity provide attribution in the offline world, it does this with incredible accuracy. Using Bluetooth beacons and Wi-Fi hotspots it’s possible to pinpoint a consumer’s location with an accuracy of 1 meter. That’s incredibly useful for measuring attribution around individual products.

These insights are actionable for retail mobile marketers. More on this coming up, but armed with this information, retail brands can understand their ROI better, optimise budgets and create more engaging campaigns in the future.

 

Why is it useful in mobile marketing?

Attribution provides a clearer view of the customer journey. By measuring customers visits to specific areas of stores it’s possible to create a better image of how consumers interact with your store or product. By visualising your customer’s journey, you can gain insights into customer pain points and develop your marketing efforts to adapt to these. For example, you might realise that your OOH audience is visiting a competitor after seeing your advert. This is offline attribution and is only measurable through proximity technology.

This attribution also provides a better understanding of marketing spend. Get more specific information on your return on investment. You’ll be able to see exactly where your budget is most effective by assigning a value to individual mobile adverts or physical advertising. Your digital marketing is now measurable.

Understand the customer better in many previously unknowable locations. You can now see the customer journey from advert (physical, digital or mobile) to end goal. Know the exact number of store visits that your proximity marketing campaign caused, for example.

Create an intelligent mobile marketing strategy. Attribution allows for marketers to adapt mobile campaigns in real-time based on data that extends beyond clicks or site visits. If more people visit your store after seeing specific notification copy, then you can act on this information.

Find out how mobile marketing attribution can positively affect your brand’s retail marketing.

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Categories
Apps

Why Should You Send Push Notifications To Your App Users?

What makes the best push notifications? There are many push notification best practices guides out there. We ask – what can really make the difference for developers when sending push notifications?

Most push notification strategies assume that all push notifications are created equal. They view a push notification almost as a psychological trick. One that aims to get the user to look at their phone and see what they have to offer.

This may well be the case. But what happens when you take a closer look at push notifications and app engagement? You might find that the trick is not a realistic option if you want to sustain mobile growth and engagement.

Take a look at any push notification enabled vs app retention charts. You’ll see that retention is always higher when push is enabled than disabled. But there’s something here that nobody ever talks about. Nobody mentions that both of those lines trend downwards at almost exactly the same rate.

So, when it comes to engagement were as bad at sending push notifications as we are at not sending them.

That’s because the standard push notification is a ploy. Perhaps your user will fall for it, but they won’t make the same mistake twice. This is why you need to think carefully about your mobile app engagement strategy. You must ensure that app engagement improves through value and great user experience.

Don’t think of your push notification strategy as a tool to grab your users attention. Think of a push notification as a tool to deliver value to your audience. Provide them with true value and engagement and retention will follow. Your users are not dogs – they won’t chase every stick that you throw their way.

Push notifications must be reliable – your users have to trust your app communication. If you want engaged users then you’ll have to create an engagement strategy that your users rely on. Not one that is reliably annoying.

That means you’ll need to personalize your push notification message strategy.

 

What do we mean by personalized app push notifications?

A personalized push notification is a powerful method of app communication. It doesn’t mean just putting a user’s name in the push notification. Personalized mobile push notifications are personal in the sense that they provide value for the app user.

It’s about solving problems for the user at the right moment, right from the lock screen. Instead of delivering a push notification that drifts into the notification center and is never seen again.

Developers should send push notifications in these personal moments. Nurturing engaged and appreciative users are much more beneficial to a mobile app. Trying to grab a user’s attention with aggressive and unpersonalized push notifications is not.

You can achieve personalized push notifications in a cross platform push user experience. Personalization is not limited to Android push notifications or iOS push notifications.

 

When should you send push notifications to your users?

The truth is that there is not a concrete answer to this. The question that you should be asking is why should you send push notifications to your users?

The answer to this is also complex. It provides better insights into your user’s psychology. This is helpful to understand how to best personalize your push notifications.

Why would a user want a personalized notification at a specific moment? Once you start to ask yourself this question you’re beginning to look at the value that your app provides.

Let’s look at this in a specific example. Say you have a recipe app and you’d like to improve engagement with mobile push notifications.

Rather than asking when or how many mobile push notifications you should send, ask why.

The answer for when might be between 4-7pm. That’s the normal time that your users might be thinking of what to have for dinner. It seems reasonable to throw them a stick (push notification) during this period.

But there’s a subtle difference between when and why that helps you understand user psychology. In this case, why would users want you to send them a push notification? Well, now you’re starting to think about what it is that your app provides to users, and how they will find it useful.

The answer might be – to communicate a recipe idea when they are in a store and lacking inspiration.

Identify this and you’re doing much more than guessing and attempting to engage with a stick. No, you’re personalizing the mobile push notification message to the user’s situation. Guess what – that will have an invaluable effect on app engagement.

 

How you can implement the why

This requires some technical skills to personalize push notifications to this level. But a simple and effective way to personalize push notifications is with location. Adding location to push notifications helps add relevancy to the push notification strategy.

In the example above this notification is sent when the user is inside a specific store. This can even be a or specific type of store.

A location is a powerful tool for personalization of push messages. It’s where you start to provide high value for your users.

There are many solutions to add location to your push notification strategy. You can do this with some push platforms. But it doesn’t stop here. You must also realize that you’ll need to test and measure your push notifications as well.

 

Test and test again – use data to understand your results

A single human is pretty bad at predicting what personalization looks like to your users. That means that it will take a few different people or attempts to answer the question of why. Even then, you might not get it right.

So, you’ll need a local notification platform that allows in-depth insights on smaller user segments first and then get in-depth insights on engagement.

Use this data to answer why you should be sending push notifications. Insights on location and app engagement can be effective in understanding user psychology. Be prepared to be shocked. Your previous understanding of how users use your app could be shattered.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The point is you’ll be closer to providing high-value, relevant mobile app communication. This will come in the form of helpful push notifications.

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Categories
Apps

What Is The Future Of App Monetization & App Revenue?

If you want to create an app that forms a part of a successful business modelthen it’s crucial that you have an app monetization strategy in place. Generating app revenue is no easy task – many app publishers are occupying an increasingly crowded space, with many developers having to compromise other important aspects of the app user experience in order to generate app revenue.

So, is the way it has to be? What’s the future of app monetization as we move into 2018 and beyond? Will we be looking at mobile ad networks taking control of mobile app revenue or will there emerge an alternative app monetization option for developers?

We’ll argue the case that there are some lesser known app monetization strategies that will generate app revenue in a way that will protect developers from the fluctuating app revenue involved with ad networks and will allow them to keep their app experience intact.

Which app monetization strategies are being used

First of all, let’s look at how app monetization has changed over the last few years. In 2015 app revenue was around $70bn. By the end of 2016, this figure had risen to $88bn. 

Time spent in apps increased from 700bn hours to 900bn hours between 2015 and 2016. Downloads see a simlar increase from 75bnin 2015 to over 90bn by the end of last year. 

App monetization strategies are still dominated by in-app advertising. Ad formats are indeed getting better – incentivized advertising is driving app monetization and app revenue models are increasingly packed with advertising. Native ads are popular as well – something that the app ad space loves to point to as progressive in-app advertising.

Paid apps are still popular in both app stores with 20% of apps adopting these app revenue models. As an app revenue model this is remaining steady – but the growth of subscription models are becoming more popular as the idea of recurring income seems attractive to developers.

 

Most popular app revenue models

But what can you learn about your app revenue model by looking at these statistics around mobile app monetization?

It will be interesting to see how 2017 matches up. But for now, app ads are on the rise. But will developers see the bubble burst? There could be a reward on offer for apps that steer away from the advertising app revenue strategy in the future. And this is entirely possible with the growth of alternative app monetization methods.

 

App experience is more important than badly implemented app revenue strategies

 

The app experience is becoming less important for developers as they look to implement as many app monetization strategies as possible. Have we forgotten about user experience?

Many mobile app monetization strategies are based on delivering an advert to the end user. Whilst these can generate app revenue, little attention is given to the effect that this will have on the user experience.

Many mobile ad networks are making a lot of noise about native ads as a method of app monetization, but is this really the experience that users want from mobile. App revenue is growing but surely the messy in-app ad bubble will burst when developers realise there are alternative app monetization options that are big app revenue generators, without negatively affecting the user experience.

These strategies exist, and more developers are adopting these app monetization strategies.

 

Data as an effective app monetization strategy

Revenue from customer data has been commonplace in other industries for a while now. This can and should be extended to mobile app monetization. With CPMs that are much higher than advertising app monetization models, it makes more sense for developers to try generating app revenue from user data. Along with the added bonus that apps can hold on to their beautiful user experience as this app monetization model operated in the background.

Of course many are quick to criticise this method of app monetization. But the issue demonstrates a wider issue that is prevailing around app monetization in general. Users are so used to apps operating on some kind of free app monetization model that they generally forget that are paying with something other than money.

It can be flashing adverts or it can be data app monetization. Either way, the conversation around app monetization needs to be clearer. Users need to understand exactly why apps are free. Data collection process absolutely need to happen securely and they need to have a clear opt-in process, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not a viable app business model.

 

Powerful, first-party data

Data that you collect directly from your app is called first-party data. Many apps are not doing this, and they are sitting on a pretty large, untapped pile of app revenue. And that’s fine – but in this competitive arena of app monetization, and along with the development of secure, non-identifiable data collection methods – apps should no longer be afraid of leveraging this data.

The data can be used for a developer’s own needs – understanding user behaviour and interactions with app/features is one. By leveraging powerful and accurate user data, developers can understand how their app is used, where users get the most from their app and where to improve.

The data can also be used in tandem with an apps current advertising inventory to boost ad price. If you use data to trigger in-app advertising then you create more relevant adverts. This means higher inventory price.

Data should underpin everything that you do in your app, from app engagement to app monetization. With the development of advanced audience SDKs, developers should no longer be afraid of leveraging data from their app audience.

A clearer conversation needs to be had  around  why apps are free at the point of use – a data monetization model is no different from a subscription, freemium or ad monetization method. Stress needs to be applied around clearly communicating what it is that the user gets in return and providing clear opt-out channels for those who don’t wish to share their data.

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