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v2club

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 13, 2011
161
0
When you are developing a free apps that contains some ads, do they appear automatically like google ads or you have to put them there, and also how is it pay per number of app downloads or per click on the actual app and how much does it pay per download/click?
 

dejo

Moderator emeritus
Sep 2, 2004
15,982
452
The Centennial State
When you are developing a free apps that contains some ads, do they appear automatically like google ads or you have to put them there...
You have to put them there.

...also how is it pay per number of app downloads or per click on the actual app...
Advertising normally pays of a "cost-per-impression" and/or "cost-per-click" basis.

...how much does it pay per download/click?
How much it pays varies widely, based on a number of factors. Suffice it to say that normally the advertising service will pay you a percentage of the revenue they get from the advertiser for showing/having-clicked-on the ad.
 

samdev

macrumors regular
Sep 16, 2011
126
0
When you are developing a free apps that contains some ads, do they appear automatically like google ads or you have to put them there, and also how is it pay per number of app downloads or per click on the actual app and how much does it pay per download/click?

You have to design your app, so that banner ads fit at the top or bottom of the view, without anything
obstructing them. They usually have a fixed size, and you control their placement. You can hide
them or move them off the screen at any time, but that's not going to get you any clicks. :)
 

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,560
6,059
how is it pay per number of app downloads or per click on the actual app and how much does it pay per download/click?

It doesn't; don't bother. I have three apps.
App #1 is a lousy game for $1. I spent 2 months making it, it got me $30 the first month and has made under $10/month since.
App #2 is a pretty good app that's ad supported. I spent 4 months making it, it has thousands of users, and I made $5 in the first month and about $1/month since.
App #3 is a pretty good app that took about a week to make and brought $200 in in the first month. The second month is on track to bring in $300.

Lesson I learned? Never ever bother with an ad supported app. I have thousands of users and make $1/month! To make it pay off as well as app #3, it'd have to bring in 2000x as much as it does! I'd need millions of users to make that happen. Supposedly Angry Birds brings in $1M/month from ads... it seems to me they have to have one billion monthly users to make that so (I suspect they lie about how much the ad supported version makes.)
 

thewitt

macrumors 68020
Sep 13, 2011
2,102
1,523
Though as based revenue is quite variable, don't assume your download to revenue numbers are typical.

A game like Angry Bird is used hundreds of times in a month by every user, so their ads have dramatically more exposure to each user than other typical games....
 

dejo

Moderator emeritus
Sep 2, 2004
15,982
452
The Centennial State
Lesson I learned? Never ever bother with an ad supported app. I have thousands of users and make $1/month! To make it pay off as well as app #3, it'd have to bring in 2000x as much as it does! I'd need millions of users to make that happen. Supposedly Angry Birds brings in $1M/month from ads... it seems to me they have to have one billion monthly users to make that so (I suspect they lie about how much the ad supported version makes.)
Art, you should probably refrain from drawing conclusions and calling people liars without understanding the factors that affect ad revenue. As thewitt has alluded to, the number of people who install an app is meaningless; what's important is the number of impressions and the number of clicks. Your app could have an install-base of hundreds of millions but if users are never running it, you will never see ad revenue. In order to see that, you need to have engaged users: ones who will run the app for good periods of time and will click on ads they're interested in.

I'll give you a bit of a peek into my personal experience. One of my apps, a.k.a., which is ad-supported, has had over 65,000 impressions via iAds so far this month. I'm seeing a click-through-rate of 0.21% and my revenue so far is $22.07. On top of this I am also serving AdMob ads, so there's additional impressions, clicks, and revenue that I have to consider. Hope this helps.
 

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,560
6,059
Art, you should probably refrain from drawing conclusions and calling people liars without understanding the factors that affect ad revenue. As thewitt has alluded to, the number of people who install an app is meaningless; what's important is the number of impressions and the number of clicks. Your app could have an install-base of hundreds of millions but if users are never running it, you will never see ad revenue. In order to see that, you need to have engaged users: ones who will run the app for good periods of time and will click on ads they're interested in.

I'll give you a bit of a peek into my personal experience. One of my apps, a.k.a., which is ad-supported, has had over 65,000 impressions via iAds so far this month. I'm seeing a click-through-rate of 0.21% and my revenue so far is $22.07. On top of this I am also serving AdMob ads, so there's additional impressions, clicks, and revenue that I have to consider. Hope this helps.

My month to date totals:
9240 impressions
0% click through
$0.11 eCPM
$1.02 so far.

I suppose the number that jumps at me is the 0% click through. Possibly therein lies my mistake... In designing my app to be as quick-in quick-out as possible, the user doesn't even notice the ad. They see the glyph they want, tap it, and return to their email or whatever they're typing. But of course if I tried to slow down the user, that'd just be poor app design.

I have considered the possibility of full screen ads that interrupt the user every few usages... That might encourage them to pay the $1 ad removal fee... but I don't know how to make full screen ads and I'm not really that interested in working on something that will ultimately just annoy the user...
 
Last edited:

samdev

macrumors regular
Sep 16, 2011
126
0
If you don't expect to make a lot of money by putting Ads in your app, then there are still
other reasons to do it. For one, you can use Ads as a way to convert free users into paid users.

To get rid of the Ads, the user has to buy the full version. Very simple ploy. There has to be
some reason why they should want to buy your app. So, nag them. :)
 

PierJes

macrumors newbie
Mar 21, 2016
16
11
Quebec, QC. Canada
It doesn't; don't bother. I have three apps.
App #1 is a lousy game for $1. I spent 2 months making it, it got me $30 the first month and has made under $10/month since.
App #2 is a pretty good app that's ad supported. I spent 4 months making it, it has thousands of users, and I made $5 in the first month and about $1/month since.
App #3 is a pretty good app that took about a week to make and brought $200 in in the first month. The second month is on track to bring in $300.

Lesson I learned? Never ever bother with an ad supported app. I have thousands of users and make $1/month! To make it pay off as well as app #3, it'd have to bring in 2000x as much as it does! I'd need millions of users to make that happen. Supposedly Angry Birds brings in $1M/month from ads... it seems to me they have to have one billion monthly users to make that so (I suspect they lie about how much the ad supported version makes.)

Do you know why revenues from ads decrease instead of increasing ?
It's because people such as myself despise ads ans uninstall those pesky apps.

If you want to make money, charge a reasonable fee at download and make sure the app is worthwhile. That means upgrade it from time to time.

Greed is not good to keep a customer.
 
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