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You’ve probably spent sleepless nights time perfecting the design and mechanics of your freemium iOS or Android app and put of any thoughts about monetization. The thought of strategizing a return on your investment turns your stomach. But you’ll be glad to know that if you’re reading this eBook you’re already onestep ahead of your competitors. You’ve recognized that you need to weigh all available monetization options and identify the strategy that works best for your app. Say that your app is available for free on Apple’s App Store, Google Play, or an alternative Android app store and generating a few thousand, or even tens of thousands of downloads. You might not realize it, but your app is primed to make money. All that’s left to do is to fgure out how to convert these free users into paying users. There’s plenty of talk centering around freemium monetization strategies like inapp purchases and afliate marketing. While these are options you can explore, advertising is making a strong case regardless of its bad rap. As more smartphones and mobile devices enter the market and more apps are downloaded per phone, time spent on mobile devices is skyrocketing. In fact compared to 2012, U.S. mobile device owners in 2013 will spend 30.3% more time on mobile reports eMarketer. Combine this a 31% In fact, advertising is the best option for new developers. Not convinced? Here’s why. growth of smartphone subscribers globally in 2013, the supply of mobile advertising inventory continues to grow despite not having enough advertisers to fll this inventory. Digging deeper, we can look at Mary Meeker’s 2013 Internet Trend report to identify the opportunity cost of mobile advertising
3 EASY STEPS TO MONETIZE ANDROID APPS WITH ADS DEVELOPER’S GUIDE Monetizing your app 1 5 7 12 22 25 29 37 38 Intro to mobile advertising Breaking down ad formats Identifying your goals Ad Format Examples Analytics Optimization Integrating Ads Step 1 - Intro to Mobile Advertising Step 2 - Goals & Choosing Ad Formats Step 3 - Analytics & Optimzation INDEX Need-to-Know Terms Monetizing your app 1 Where do I begin? Developers would argue that developing the app was the easiest part. The hard part comes after the realization that making the app was only the rst battle. The only problem now is that you’re probably asking yourself, “I want to monetize my freemium app, but where do I begin?” Fortunately, we can help with that. You’ve probably spent sleepless nights time perfecting the design and mechanics of your freemium iOS or Android app and put o any thoughts about monetization. The thought of strategizing a return on your investment turns your stomach. But you’ll be glad to know that if you’re reading this eBook you’re already one-step ahead of your competitors. You’ve recognized that you need to weigh all available monetization options and identify the strategy that works best for your app. If you’re unsure about any mobile advertising terms discussed in the eBook, check out AppFlood’s “Need-to-Know Terms” in the “Index” page. Monetizing your app 2 Why mobile ads? Say that your app is available for free on Apple’s App Store, Google Play, or an alternative Android app store and generating a few thousand, or even tens of thousands of downloads. You might not realize it, but your app is primed to make money. All that’s left to do is to gure out how to convert these free users into paying users. There’s plenty of talk centering around freemium monetization strategies like in-app purchases and aliate marketing. While these are options you can explore, advertising is making a strong case regardless of its bad rap. As more smartphones and mobile devices enter the market and more apps are downloaded per phone, time spent on mobile devices is skyrocketing. In fact compared to 2012, U.S. mobile device owners in 2013 will spend 30.3% more time on mobile reports eMarketer. Combine this a 31% In fact, advertising is the best option for new developers. Not convinced? Here’s why. growth of smartphone subscribers globally in 2013, the supply of mobile advertising inventory continues to grow despite not having enough advertisers to ll this inventory. Digging deeper, we can look at Mary Meeker’s 2013 Internet Trend report to identify the opportunity cost of mobile advertising. According to Meeker’s ndings, the time spent on mobile devices in the United States heavily outweighs the $4 billion ad spend in 2012. The result is a $20 billion opportunity cost in unspent Internet and mobile ad spend. In other words, for the time that people spend on their mobile devices, advertisers must collectively spend nearly $16 billion if they want to ll all the empty mobile ad inventory. As more advertisers recognize the value of mobile and hop on board on the mobile ad bandwagon, mobile advertising will heat up. But from the publisher’s perspective, you can look at the ad spend opportunity this way: $20 billion is the total pie that you can get a cut of once advertisers pick up their mobile ad spend. Monetizing your app 3 Why mobile ads? (cont.) Step 1 Intro to Mobile Advertising Step 1 - Intro to Mobile Advertising 4 There’s no such thing as a universal app. Likewise there’s no such thing as a universal ad format. So to retrot the variations in app designs, ad networks have come up with dierent ad formats to choose from. For example AppFlood oers interstitials, panels, banners, app lists, customized ads, icons, and notication ads. But wait a minute. What the heck are “interstitials,” “lists,” and “panels?” The jargon that we’re suddenly throwing around might be confusing, we know, but don’t worry. We’ll walk you through the major ad formats that you need to know and familiarize you with the mobile advertising industry. Eventually, you’ll be able to quickly identify the ad format that best suits your app and become a publisher in no time. But before we delve into the nitty gritty details, we’ll go over the basics starting with eCPMs. 5 What is eCPM? eCPM is a core concept in advertising and it’s important enough that we’ll take a moment to dig deeper into its meaning. “eCPM” (also known as “eective cost per thousand impressions”) is a widely used benchmark in advertising that’s used to measure how much money you’re making from each advertiser per 1,000 impressions. Generally speaking, eCPM is a measurement unit that gauges the quality of an advertiser. Let’s take a look the eCPM formula so we can get a clearer picture of what eCPM actually means. total number of impressions that advertiser’s ad has gotten, shows you how much you’re earning for a single impression. Since CPMs are measured and paid out per 1,000 impressions, the result is multiplied by 1,000 to give you an eCPM value, or in other words how much you’re 46 eCPM = Total Earnings Total Impressions x 1,000 Step 1 - Intro to Mobile Advertising Learn more about why the eCPM metric isn’t as simple as it appears. average for every 1,000 impressions. Theoretically if you want to generate more revenue, what you want is to maximize your eCPM. Word of caution: As great as the eCPM metric is, you should know that it’s not a foolproof standard for measuring your ad’s performance. One advertiser with a high eCPM might generate less revenue for you than a lower eCPM advertiser simply because you’ve distributed more impressions to the lower eCPM advertiser. $1 $5 Banner ads are inescapable and we’ve all seen them on our favorite websites before. If you’re a developer who’s looking for a quick advertising solution, banner ads slide up or pop up at the top or bottom of the screen. The simplicity of deploying a banner ad makes it a popular choice among developers, despite its negative reputation. What is a Banner Ad? The interstitial advertising format in a mobile app takes over the app’s screen, which might remind you of a pop up ad. No one likes pop up ads. But you’ll be surprised to learn that because of its full-screen nature, interstitials can sometimes generate high CTRs compared to other ad formats – some more than 25% or even 40% as we’ve seen on AppFlood’s network. But interstitials can be considered spammy if What is a Full Screen Interstitial? 47 balance between showing the ad often enough to generate impressions (the number of times the ad is displayed), without annoying users. Step 1 - Intro to Mobile Advertising Developers earn more money with interstitial ads. Here’s why. Interstitial 790 x 470 Panels are an ad format often embraced by game publishers. The ad format displays ve ads with the largest ad panel at the top of the screen, followed below by four thumbnail ads. More importantly, panels oer your users an unobtrusive user experience. Publishers can implement a custom button, somewhere within the app’s navigation bar, that can trigger the ad should the user tap on it . Either an ad list of “More Games” or “More Apps” can be displayed. What is a Panel Ad? An app list displays ads in list form. The app list was designed keeping in mind that smartphone users are familiar with this ad format. You might recognize that app lists resemble app store lists. At the same time, the layout of the app list is inherently designed to pack in as many ads as possible into a mobile screen. So somewhere down the list, an app is bound to catch the What is an App List? 8 user’s interest. Like panel ads, this format can also be triggered from a custom button. The catch is that the app’s creative (the image advertising the app) has only enough retail space to display a single icon for each app. On the other hand ad formats like interstitials and panel ads reserve a larger surface area for larger creatives. Step 1 - Intro to Mobile Advertising More Games 454 x 222, 182 x 89 App List [...]... ads What is a Push Notification ad? Push notification ads push ads to the smartphone’s system notification dashboard Notification Ads With Google’s developer guideline update, push notification ads have also been banned from Google Play, but the format can be integrated into apps published to alternative Android app stores Step 1 - Intro to Mobile Advertising 9 What is a Custom Ad? Custom With custom... are seeing ads, you can tinker around with the ad format’s placement or design to figure out how to boost clicks or installs Banners and interstitials may have unremarkable CTRs, with a modest 5.70% CTR for interstitials and a 0. 23% CTR for banners, but that doesn’t go to say that interstitials and banner ads aren’t useful Click-Through Rate by Ad Format (Aug 20 13) Banner 0. 23% 0 .37 % Custom ads 5.70%... objectives to help guide you as you determine a suitable ad format for your app Are you looking to balance revenue with a tolerable user-experience? Do you want minimally invasive ads? Do you need to monetize quickly? Is your app a mobile game? Do you want to maximize your earnings? Step 2 - Goals & Choosing Ad Formats 12 1 Looking to balance revenue with a tolerable UX? Now if your focus is to create... higher with list ads If it were left up to us, we’d recommend using list ads, but keep in mind that not all developers’ apps are the right fit for the ad format All-in-all, both of these formats are a great way to supplement your earnings, but we wouldn’t rely solely on them if earnings is a concern Here’s how to decide between app lists or panel ads Step 2 - Goals & Choosing Ad Formats 17 3 Need to monetize. .. Ad? Icon ads are pushed to the user’s home screen and displayed within an app’s icon When the Icon Ads user taps on the icon, the ad format opens up either a panel or list ad format depending on the publisher’s choice Because icon ads are banned from Google Play we’d recommend Android developers to avoid integrating this ad format However alternative Android app stores continue to accept apps that... AppFlood (Aug 20 13) 1.11% 2.07% 2.15% 13. 95% Banner Custom ads 21. 93% 58.52% Intersitial List Panel Others Step 2 - Goals & Choosing Ad Formats 13 1 Looking to balance revenue with a tolerable UX? (cont.) You’ll see from the chart “Impressions by Ad Format,” impressions from interstitials on average are higher than other ad formats Because the full-screen takeover encourages enough users to click-through,... have deployed various ad formats into their games Games make money with ads If you’re not convinced, we’ll show you how Step 2 - Goals & Choosing Ad Formats 19 5 Want to maximize your earnings? If you’re not particular about an ad format and all you’re looking to do is to maximize your earnings, we’ll have to dip our toes into more advanced concepts that delve into CPC, CPI, and CPM campaigns We’ve... Arcade & Action (Game) Personalization Tools Interstitial Custom ad Custom ad Step 2 - Goals & Choosing Ad Formats 23 Step 3 Analytics & Optimzation Now that you’ve familiarized yourself with ad formats and may even have an eye for one that you’d like to test out, there are a few more details and strategies you’ll need to know before you’re ready to get AppFlood’s ads up and running Mobile advertising... advertiser’s ad By is set to “Auto.” It’s O.K if you’re not familiar with allocation We’ll delve further in depth with these features shortly But before that happens, we need to look at the final tool that you’ll use to analyze your app’s monetization What I’m referring to are charts Charts conveniently take care of your trend reporting with organized data points and advanced filters Step 3 - Analytics & Optimzation... Generating revenue is what ultimately matters to you, so before you jump into the thick of it all, you’ll want to understand how to analyze your earnings and utilize these optimization strategies that we’ll make available to you Monitoring your app Say that you’ve deployed an ad format What do you do eCPM from here? $3 $1 $5 $4 $2 You need to first-and-foremost be able to understand what you’re looking at when