What are the most common types of in app advertising solutions?

Having developed a proficient app that intends to target niche audience, your utmost efforts should be in the direction of advertising your app to build a wider audience and thereby create greater buzz. While, few of the affluent app marketing tactics such as app store optimization and app landing page creation leverages the profitability of the marketing efforts to a certain height, in-app advertising is another major and effective marketing method of promoting your app via posting interesting ads within other apps.

 

In-app advertising:

 

By opting In-app advertising, developers can simply avail an enormous platform to reach out to their app’s niche audience just where they tend to spend their maximum amount of time, i.e on smartphones and tablets. To procure highest profitable results, the goal should be to deliver ads that are as relevant and interesting as possible in order to witness maximum number of audience respond to the ad.

 

Developers can choose from a variety of In-app advertising solutions discussed below. These various types of in app ads are offered in different pricing models by some of the best mobile ad networks in the market, that would be discussed as well.     

 

Interstitial ads:

 

Interstitial literally means in-between. Interstitial ads can be placed between the transition points in the app. It could be during the launch, during the completion of levels if its a gaming app or as video pre-roll. They are comparatively more intricate and tend to be full-screen ads. Interstitial ads are considered more effective in terms of generating clicks compared to the banner ads, because they tend to easily grab the user’s attention. However, the frequency of these ads is a matter of question. As these ads are likely to take the users a bit away from their flow of activity, the users shouldn’t feel that they are being distracted too frequently or else it could end up affecting negatively rather.   

Banner ads:

 

Mobile Banner ads are one of the most common ad formats offered by the mobile ad networks. These are the ads that show up either at the top or bottom of the app screen. Banner ads are capable of communicating in no time, hence it is essential to make sure that the ads are effective enough to convey the message. These ads can be also displayed while operating the app activities.

 

Rich media ads:

 

Rich Media mobile ads tend to provide the best user experience to the users through multimedia experiences that is more than just displaying text, animations, pictures or videos. These Rich Media ads convey information much more effectively compared to the conventional banner ads. Moreover, the additional multimedia elements makes the ads even more attractive and catchy. Hence, it results in high conversions, click rates and engagement.

 

Reward/ Incentivised Ads:

Reward based ads aims to present the users with coupons or other offers for downloading the apps. You can bring in even more users just by offering them relevant coupons or rewards that can be redeemed by them immediately. 

 

App wall: 

 

App walls are basically single in-app interstitial that display multiple apps at the same time. Here, your app has to compete with many other similar or different apps as the audience will have many choices before selecting one. Hence it is essential that your app looks convincing enough to trigger more clicks as it is all that would matter to increase your app’s download numbers. 

  

Below are some of the common pricing models of these In-app advertising ads.These Pricing models glossary will help you understand the basic pricing terms. 

 

CPI (Cost Per Install) 

 

CPI that is Cost Per Install provides a great benefit to the developers where in they have to pay a certain amount only when the app is installed by a user.

 

CPM (Cost Per Mile)

 

CPM stands for Cost Per Thousand Impressions where the developers are suppose to pay a certain amount for every one thousand times their ad is viewed.

 

CPC (Cost Per Click)

 

CPC is a popular model that has already been exploited heavily by the web advertisers. Cost Per Click model is similar to CPI model. A set price is to be paid every time someone clicks on the ad.

 

To conclude, we would like to give you 3 useful tips on in-app advertising:

• Send ads with highest relevancy to your target audience
• Provide clear call to action within the ad
• Test what works best for you

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Why should you opt for Freemium Business Model in 2014?

Free apps aren’t a new thing in the market. Infact people became familiar with the ‘Free app’ tag just when Apple had launched the app store with more of paid apps along with fewer free apps. However, 2013 had a different story to tell, as Freemium model was all that mattered the most and now is all set to contribute some key trends to the app market in 2014.

Freemium Model comes with a simple format to understand. The audience can avail the app for free at the first go and then avail the premium version or an advanced version that serves them with advanced features and functionalities of the app by paying a specific amount for the same. In a way, an app which is free and offers in-app purchases can unleash a critical gateway to bring in maximum number of installs by attracting majority of the audiences with the free app tag. As a developer, you offer them a chance to try your app for free and if they find it interesting enough they can go ahead and indulge with the paid version of the app.

Now, there is a major possibility of users of the free version or lite version to show keen interest in knowing what the advanced version has to offer, which might compel them to pay and indulge with the premium app. It is a procedure similar to the tiered services where in people gain something more for the money they pay.

Moreover, experts have to say that, In-app purchase model might take a bit longer in generating revenues compared to the regular models in which people are to pay upfront, but the results of the former are much more intriguing and rewarding when compared to the income acquired by the regular apps. 

Some critical insights on In-app purchase model:

The app market in 2013 saw major evolution taking place in terms of mobile app monetization models. Tons of researches indicated that the Freemium business model has been the most lucrative one in the year 2013. Indeed it was in the year 2012, when the freemium games managed to combine together approximately 80% of the mobile market, giving a thorough push to the app business.

According to Distimo, the monetization strategy of the freemium business model (free apps with in-app purchases) continued to be successful through 2013 as the revenue share of this business model increased. If we pay attention to the revenue proportion of in-app purchases, it increased from 77 percent to 92 percent in the Apple App Store and from 89 percent to 98 percent on Google Play. While the other app monetization models such as paid apps and paid apps with in-app purchases showed minimal revenue share.

Infact the top grossing apps of 2013, Supercell’s Clash of Clans and King.com’s Candy Crush Saga acquired the success due to their In-app purchase models. Which also suggests, that it was the Games Category that made the maximum profit in 2013. Distimo’s Christel Schoger was quoted saying, “ For games especially, freemium has become a successful business model. If the user is interested after the first look at the free game, I can imagine that he will often be likely to ‘invest’ more in the game.”

Interestingly, Mojang's Minecraft was the only paid app amongst all the other nine free games with in-app purchases in the Top 10 grossing Apps in the Apple App Store.

While it is evident that the freemium model is largely popular with the gaming industry, there are even more categories in the app stores that have been cashing in through in-app purchase models which opines critical options for developers.

If we go by the above chart, there are in all 7 categories that have cashed in above 50%  revenue through in-app purchase model. To top it all, the revenue in the top categories i.e Games and Social Networking is majorly generated from free apps with in-app purchases. While there are categories like Newsstand and News that managed to bring in even higher revenue portion through in app features.

While in terms of geographical market, Asian market brings in more revenue through free apps with in-app purchases compared to the Western market, where the paid apps still make a considerable portion in revenue.

To summarize, all these tendencies help us derive that by all means, freemium model shows a major scope of leveraging the success of mobile applications from not only gaming genre but from many more categories on both the platforms and across the globe. It seems to be the right time to smartly exploit the the in-app purchase model in this favoring app market scenario. However, it still remains a question whether to choose a freemium model or not, as each app has different business needs to accomplish. Unless your aim is to provide value to your customers with unlocking features.

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