Realistic iOS, non-game app earnings through ads? | Hacker News Reader

Realistic iOS, non-game app earnings through ads?

5 pointspharaohgeek3 comments

I'm in the process of wrapping up my an iOS app that I'll be releasing to the appstore. I've written several in the past, but they were typically for fun and had no revenue stream. This is the first one that I recognized A) Doesn't already exist in the appstore (which REALLY surprised me), and B) Has the potential to at least earn me enough to pay for my Developer Program subscription.

In talking it over with some buddies, we've decided that ads may be the better source of revenue over charging for the app. But, I haven't really seen any testimonies saying how much you can actually earn via in-app ads for non-games. This app is more social/utility. Users may open it a few times per week, and will have the ability to share data with other users of the app.

For an app that is not a game, is it possible to make real money via ads? What ad networks or aggregators seem to be the most effective? Any recommendations?

I'd love to hear what your experiences have been with in-app ads to see if it's actually worth pursuing. Thanks!

I believe it really depends on your userbase. I just released Hakka News, a client for HN and I would never consider putting ads in an app gear towards this crowd.

In fact, I believe people on HN are more likely to just buy the app so I didn't bother with freemium or in-app purchase. HN people mostly understand how much effort it takes to develop quality software and they're not poor either.

Now, for something like a reddit client, I would still expect them to be intolerant of ads, so in-app purchase would probably work better here. Reddit userbase, I expect, are less likely to purchase the app.

Then, there are apps geared towards the common people, a much much bigger crowd. Mctube is good example. They used to free with iap, no ads in both version. Then afterward, the dev switched to free completely and with ads. I suspect they're maybe a lot more money with the latter.

Speaking from personal experience, unless you expect a user base in the upper 100k to 1M+, you'll be talking less than a cup of coffee from Apple's ad base.

Direct ads may work, but you will need metrics on your users in order to prove the value to potential ad buyers. If you don't fall into either of these two categories, you're better off using either a nominal sum, if you think it's worth it, or doing a freeware version with some features and a paid "deluxe" version.

People will support reasonable prices for genuinely useful apps, but you have to taper your expectations and be prepared for criticism from some users. Even AAA quality apps have someone who "hates" it or thinks it's too expensive.

You only get responses from people who love or hate an app most of the time.

It depends on the size of your audience. Typically if an audience is very niche (eg user demographics are similar), then selling ads to direct advertisers is more of a possibility.

What do your DAU/MAU numbers look like? How much engagement is there with your app, and how much time do users spend per session?

Feel free to reach out to me if you need more specific advice.

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