5 Tips For Monetizing Your App: In A World Moving Towards Free Downloads

A lot of developers talk about the need to monetize their app but what does that really mean? This talk covers 5 things you can do to turn a poor performing app into a money making machine. While there is no magic wand that can automate this, you'll walk away with the knowledge of where to begin. We'll go step by step over marketing your app, in-app purchasing, ways to take advantage of ads, what eCPM is and alternative markets to distribute your app in. If you have struggled to make money from your apps or games in the past you won't want to miss this talk.

Transcript

1. 5 tips for monetizing your app IN A WORLD MOVING TOWARD FREE DOWNLOADS Download slides at http://bit.ly/wipjam-5-tips
2. JESSE FREEMAN HTML5 & GAME DEVELOPER EVANGELIST, AMAZON @jessefreeman jessefreeman freej@amazon.com
3. Gartner is forecasting that, by 2017, 94.5 PERCENT OF DOWNLOADS WILL BE FOR FREE APPS Gartner  -­‐  h*p://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2648515  
4. ALL IS NOT LOST!
5. REAL WORLD SCENARIO
6. PICTURE  COMING  SOON   CIGAR SMUGGLER h*p://jessefreeman.com/games/cigar-­‐smuggler/  
7. Cigar Smuggler was one of my most popular games WITH 50K+ DOWNLOADS BUT ONLY GENERATED LESS THAN $1K.
8. Looking back HERE IS WHAT I SHOULD HAVE DONE BETTER •  I didn’t focus on making money. •  I didn’t try to make the game more engaging. •  Abandoned game when I lost interest. I’ve decided to reboot the game and here is what you can learn from my oversights. PICTURE  COMING  SOON  
9. Revisiting an old project is an opportunity TO EXPAND ON WHAT YOU DID RIGHT
10. HOW TO MARKET YOUR APP
11. Marketing your app IS GOING TO INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF BEING DISCOVERED Just publishing an app to a store doesn’t actually mean you will get noticed. It takes time to market, promote and get the word out that your app actually exists.
12. The name you pick IS GOING TO BE THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT DECISION YOU MAKE The most basic thing you can do to help your app be more successful is to simply give it a descriptive name.
13. People are very open-minded about new things- AS LONG AS THEY’RE EXACTLY LIKE THE OLD ONES. -­‐  Charles  Ke*ering  
14. The more apps you make THE BETTER YOUR CHANCES OF BEING FOUND IN A STORE Take advantage of related app listings in store, especially where you see “additional apps made by the same developer”. If someone likes the app you made, chances are good that they will be more willing to pay for another one you made.
15. YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE TO BEG TO GET MONEY FOR YOUR HARD WORK
16. Unfortunately, most people don’t want to buy an app WE NEED TO STOP USING THE CUP OF COFFEE VS $0.99 APP ANALOGY! Post  by  Josh  Lehman  h*p://bit.ly/1dwmtxD     “                                    
17. Each use session is an OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE MONEY I launched Cigar Smuggler with built-in ads but did a few things wrong: 1.  I never researched higher paying ad services. 2.  Most of the time my ads didn’t even work in the game. 3.  Wasn’t strategic about where I placed ads. 4.  I relied solely on ads and never thought about alternatives revenue sources.
18. What does eCPM mean eCPM translates to the advertising revenue generated per 1,000 impressions.
19. “The $2.87 eCPM we saw through Amazon far exceeded our expectation. Now we're racing to get Amazon integrated in all of our apps across all Android stores.” -­‐-­‐  Mahesh  Khambadkone,  Co-­‐Founder  Games2Win  
20. Why use Amazon’s MOBILE ADS? Amazon Mobile Ads is an in-app display advertising API that offers: •  Monetization opportunity with great eCPM •  High-quality ads from Amazon and brand advertisers •  Easy integration and revenue tracking through a single portal •  Distribution at scale through Amazon and other Android stores Learn more at http://bit.ly/amzn-ads AMAZON MOBILE ADS SUPPORTED  ON  
21. Be creative with IN-APP PURCHASES You should be pushing the limits of IAP, especially if your app is free. When I created Cigar Smuggler, IAP was not supported on Android. Even worse, no one really knew how to take advantage of it when it was finally introduced. Now there are lots of great apps to draw reference from that excel at taking advantage of IAP.
22. Why use Amazon’s IAP API? Amazon In-App Purchasing API that offers: •  Creating a "freemium" model for your app where the app itself is free but you charge a premium for advanced services or functionality •  Allowing customers to purchase in-app currency directly within your app experience •  Allowing customers to subscribe to content available within your app •  Making content available for purchase to be viewed within your app Learn more at http://bit.ly/amzn-iap AMAZON IN-APP PURCHASING SUPPORTED  ON  
23. In-app purchases generated only 53% of revenue in the Apple App Store for iPhone in January 2012 in the U.S., but generated a record 76% in February 2013 clearly demonstrating the success of this monetization method -­‐DisWmo  h*p://www.disWmo.com/blog/2013_03_publicaWon-­‐how-­‐the-­‐most-­‐successful-­‐apps-­‐ moneWze-­‐their-­‐user-­‐base/  
24. Thinking outside of the box with MOBILE ASSOCIATES The Amazon Mobile Associates API offers a new way for you to monetize your apps: •  Offer physical and digital products in your apps and games distributed through Amazon and other Android stores. •  Earn up to 6% advertising fees on purchases made through your apps and games via the popular Amazon Associates program •  Leverage Amazon’s safe and trusted checkout experience Learn more at http://bit.ly/amzn-maa AMAZON MOBILE ASSOCIATES SUPPORTED  ON  
25. Don’t be afraid to experiment CONTINUE TO REFINE YOUR APP UNTIL YOU FIND WHAT WORKS.
26. PICTURE  COMING  SOON   KEEP USERS ENGAGED
27. Improve player retention with AMAZON GAMECIRCLE The GameCircle experience and Whispersync for Games are now available for all iOS and Android devices, including Kindle Fire. It's free to use and provides everything you need to implement achievements, leaderboards, and saved game syncing across any device, regardless of mobile platform. Learn more at http://bit.ly/amzn-gc AMAZON GAMECIRCLE SUPPORTED  ON  
28. Always know WHAT IS GOING ON IN YOUR APP
29. Review the most important metrics to QUICKLY ASSESS HOW USERS ARE ENGAGING WITH YOUR APP One of the greatest ways to gain insight into how people use your app is to actually track their interaction. But implementing Analytics alone will not help you increases your sales. Learn more at http://bit.ly/amzn-stats AMAZON ANALYTICS SUPPORTED  ON  
30. IDENTIFYING PATTERNS
31. What is your app’s LONG TAIL In statistics, a long tail of some distributions of numbers is the portion of the distribution having a large number of occurrences far from the "head" or central part of the distribution.
32. Check out how updating the game IMPACTS THE LONG TAIL
33. Strong A/B testing plan will allow you to increase your revenue. You will also learn valuable insights about your customers, because you will know their preferences instead of guessing what your customer may want. -­‐  Jaan-­‐Ma\  Lillevälja  h*p://conversionxl.com/how-­‐to-­‐build-­‐a-­‐strong-­‐ab-­‐tesWng-­‐plan-­‐that-­‐gets-­‐ results/   “                                    
34. Amazon now offers FREE CROSS PLATFORM A/B TESTING TOOLS With Amazon A/B testing, it’s easy to run in-app experiments to create a better experience for your users. To learn more visit http://bit.ly/amzn-ab AMAZON A/B TESTING SUPPORTED  ON  
35. iOS isn’t the only game in town DON’T BE AFRAID TO EXPLORE OTHER PLATFORMS
36. While iOS is important ANDROID IS EVERYWHERE When I first started making an Android game, the number of Android users was dwarfed by the number of iOS users. Now you can leverage Android to deploy to a number of alternative platforms that are all additional opportunities for revenue. ALTERNATIVE APP STORES
37. Interested in publishing to the Kindle Fire? OVER 75% OF ANDROID APPS WE'VE TESTED JUST WORK ON KINDLE FIRE, WITH NO CHANGES REQUIRED.
38. Perfection is achieved, NOT WHEN THERE IS NOTHING MORE TO ADD, BUT WHEN THERE IS NOTHING LEFT TO TAKE AWAY -­‐  Antoine  de  Saint-­‐Exupe   “                                    
39. Making a successful app IS A NEVER ENDING PROCESS If you really want your app to successful you need to be committed to continue to refine and perfect it over time. Think through what you want to add in each update and make sure there is a good return on your time investment. PICTURE  COMING  SOON  
40. Recapping the five things we LEARNED TODAY 1.  Market your app correctly. 2.  Explore monetization opportunities. 3.  Focus on user retention. 4.  Track user behaviors for better insight. 5.  Explore new app stores for better exposure. PICTURE  COMING  SOON  
41. And no matter what YOU SHOULD NEVER GIVE UP
42. Amazon sponsored 24 & 48 HOUR WIPJAM HACKATHONS
43. 24 hour event AMAZON KINDLE FIRE PORT-A-THON Now is your chance to show off how great your app or game is on the Kindle Fire during this 24-hour porting event here at WIPJam. For full description and rules visit: http://bit.ly/amzn-wip-24
44. 48 hour event ADOPT AN AMAZON CROSS PLATFORM SERVICE For this hackathon, we are looking for developers who implement one or more of our services in their app or game distributed on any platform. For full description and rules visit: http://bit.ly/amzn-wip-48
45. The end THANKS FOR WATCHING Don’t forget to checkout https://developer.amazon.com/public/ for more info on how Amazon can help you better monetize your own apps and games. Also take a look at my blog posts at https://developer.amazon.com/public/ community/blog/author/Jesse+Freeman PICTURE  COMING  SOON