Hi , does anyone know how free apps make money from ads etc ? Just trying to work out if making one free one would be worth it .
How Do Free Apps Make Money
dealover on 09/02/2016 - 21:07
Comments
In general making apps doesn't make money. It's just not at all lucrative for the majority of developers.
If you want to make money from ads, you need something they will have open and running a lot so you can feed lots of ads (eg games). Something they might open once in a blue moon isn't going to bring in much.
Paid apps reduce the installs significantly.
Thus many go for in-app purchases, including 'play-to-win' for games. Thus it looks free, but once you have them hooked, you make them pay for key things. Of course if they aren't hooked, no money.
Ads are something but they don't make much. In app purchases are a huge deal and make a chunk of change. Candy crush was said to be making $1 million per day in in app purchases (in the extreme example)
Also,sometimes they're free so the app can get a good market share/build customers/ goodwill in hopes of a future sale
Even free apps without paid tiers or ads, there are plenty which are engineered solely to maximise market share and exposure with the intent of being acquired down the line by a Facebook/Google/Microsoft, who'll then monetise it (likely through ads).
Remember that for every Flappy Bird and Candy Crush there's hundreds of thousands of other games (and other apps), some of which may even be better, which make less money back than the cost of development.
Make an app to learn the skill, for fun, or because you need an app that doesn't exist. Don't make an app to make money (without a big company budget backing you).
Ads
Depends how long it takes for you to make the app. If you're expecting the user to use it frequently making it free with ads can be good. If they use it like once a week, it's probably better to make it a paid app.
Flappy bird creator made a decent amount for the short time it was popular; average person would see an ad every few seconds.