7 Ad Monetization Hacks Top Apps Use Right Now

Coming up, I want to share with you ad monetization hacks that you can use to instantly increase your revenues, whether you're in gaming or non-gaming. Stay tuned. What is up, App Nation? It is Steve P. Young from appmasters.com. We are the experts when it comes to all things app distribution and monetization. And in today, we're going to take a look at ad monetization. Something we don't normally talk about, but something super important, and I'm going to tell you why it's so important.

And if you've got a subscription app, why I think it's important to think about having an ad-supported model at the same time. That's going to help you even drive more downloads for your app. So, without further ado, let's get started. All right. Here are the ad monetization hacks. Steal these strategies to instantly increase your revenues. And if you know anything about me, you know I like to add value where you can see value almost within like a 10-minute task. And that's what these tactics are going to give you right now.

All right. Here's why this is so important. I know it's a little bit hard to read, but this is stats from AppsFlyer, their latest state of subscription report, where it's really talking about how apps are now, in certain categories of apps, are starting to generate revenues from ads. And now, the whole net of it is that a blended model, not solely subscriptions, not solely ads, not solely in-app purchases, it's really a combination of all of the above. And that's what the top apps are starting to do. And I'm going to show off some of those top apps later on. So, stay tuned, and you want to watch the whole video for that. But, I wanted to share with you the why of ad monetization before I got into the how increase ad monetization, all right? So, the net of it all is more apps are starting to do more of a blended approach to monetization versus purely subscription, purely in-app purchases,

purely just ads, all right? Games and non-gaming alike. All right, let's get

into it. All right, the number one tactic is an easy low-hanging fruit. And this is especially for those who are Android and seeing way more traction on Android, app open ads. So, I'm going to give you guys a scenario. Here's the splash screen. Here's the loading screen, and as it loads, you should start loading your ad. So, interstitials, your video ads, it's a great opportunity to start loading them ads so that this app open ad now is shown. Look, it's super obvious. You get the most impressions on the open.

For Android users, they typically are okay with seeing an ad versus wanting to pay you. And then you can still see the ad down here, hit continue the app, and then you're at the app homepage. So, what kind of apps are really good for that? They tend to work well on utility apps. So, think one-time usage, like, okay, if I have to watch an ad so I can use this app for free, great. Casual tools, same thing, right? Here, use it once or twice. Wallpaper apps, duh, cuz you're probably only going to change a wallpaper, I don't know, maybe so often. VPN apps, QR scanners, simple games, and apps with really short sessions. So, that's when you can start incorporating that because if it's a one-time use type of app, they're most likely not wanting to pay you. I have this currency converter app.

It's like, do I really want to pay? No, but I do love using the app, and so I'm happy to watch these app open ads all day long if that's what they want to do. Now, here's one of my favorite strategies. It's a welcome bonus.

Here's one of our clients, what they did a long time ago. It was a game and this is loading. It says, "Hey, welcome. Claim your 2,000 coin bonus." Awesome. Hit claim. Next, watch a video to double it. Beautiful. Every time we gave away, so when AppAdvice was around, but now we have IndieAppSanta. So, if you wanted to do a promo and say, "Hey, every new user gets 2,000 coins." This works great for games. We did it, right? We got a lot of people signing up for this and then we made them watch We didn't make them, but they don't have to. We asked if they wanted to watch a video. Oh my goodness, every time we ran these type of campaigns on now the defunct AppAdvice, but now you can use IndieAppSanta. We saw an increase in downloads and an increase in ad revenue. So, you give this away, they're more likely to watch a video anyways because they got something away for free.

And the best part is as you're giving currency away, you're training your users to use that money, right? It's like gift cards. People love gift cards cuz one, you don't always use it and two, you end up spending more than the initial gift card amount. So, that's the same philosophy here. Give something away, let them double it by watching an ad and just by the sheer act of giving something away, they're probably more likely to spend it and then hopefully more likely to buy more coins versus or watch more videos for coins, thus leading to a more sticky user. All

right. Daily bonus, obvious. So, I'm going to skip I'm going to go fast through the obvious ones, okay? Daily bonus, this is Fun Run, one of my favorite apps. You come into the app, you can see this really quickly, right? Before you even play. Like, cool, I can watch an ad and get more stars. Or the daily bonus, welcome back. I love this, by the way. So, like day one, you like, "Yeah, I'm going to get you this." I hate those that say, "Yeah, I don't know what I'm going to get the next day." So, they tell you day one, day two, this is 200 coins, day four and day five, right? And you could spin a wheel and get all this stuff. So, these are great for retention. Some people love to just spin it, but this is the same philosophy as the welcome bonus. You're giving something away, you're rewarding people for coming back, so you're training users to come back on a daily basis, and you're allowing them

to just get something a little bit more by watching a video. So, I love this strategy, and I think this is one that games and non-gamers should start deploying, right? Give them a little bit of bonus for building that habit that you want them to eventually build. Another obvious one, watch ad to play,

obvious, right? I'm in the arena. I have enough coins. I don't have enough coins, so I can't pay, but I can watch an ad to play and get that. So, that's an obvious one that a lot of like especially casual to hyper-casual apps are doing to monetize, right? Continue or end of round bonus, that's another obvious one, right? End of round, I die. Hey, do you want to continue? I think Block Blast did this. You can watch a video ad and that'll like reset stuff.

So, it's a great way to get people to use the ad. It's also a great way to reward people. Hey, you just earn 500 coins for finishing this level. Want to double it by watching an ad? It's a nice little break. They just finished the round anyways, they're more willing to watch an ad. All right. Now, pay attention for this.

Like I said during the AppsFlyer report, ads for subscription apps. I'm starting to see this more and more, right? So, this is one app that we took a look at called Cleanup. It's a great app. It deletes duplicate photos. And so, here's the onboarding. And then, I see the paywall. I hit X out of the paywall, and I'm like, okay, ready to go. I want to start deleting. They said, "Hey, watch a rewarded ad to delete these photos." So, I'm like, "All right, fine." So, I'll watch an ad and then I get to delete a bit more photos. So, really great monetization strategy for those who are not willing to pay. Look, there's going to be a percentage of people that will pay you. But, on average, 80 to 90% of all your installs will not want to pay you.

Right? So, why not figure out a way, especially for these type of like utility apps and one-time use type of apps, especially why not try to monetize them? You spent a bit of money probably to acquire them. So, why not try to monetize them this way, too? And we're starting to see like AI generation, "Hey, you know, to generate this this image, watch this ad." So, you see that happening a lot in AI apps, as well. Okay, here's even some more obvious ones. So, hopefully I'm ending You guys can see this pattern. Ending with more inspirational things like, "Hey, these other apps are starting to think about ad models. Maybe you should, too." For non-gaming apps. Gaming apps, I think

you guys already know. Non-gaming apps. So, for content apps, right? Spotify, an obvious one. There's a freemium plan. And if you don't want to pay their premium plan, you're going to have to listen to ads, right? So, different features are locked, but ads are definitely part of their monetization model. Here's the ad. It's a video ad, so I wanted to kind of show this off, as well. Obviously, if you have a new type of app, you can always do banner ads, like my Yahoo Fantasy. It's the best fantasy app by far, and they monetize through ads right here.

And obviously, Netflix. Right? So, hopefully this starts inspiring you, because you know most people, especially for subscription-based apps, especially for non-content apps, you know, most people don't want to pay. So, having some plans where you have ads is an interesting interesting model. Most people, me included, sometimes I'll just sign up for the cheaper plan. I'll watch those, that's fine. Give me the ads. I don't mind it at all. I'm willing to pay a little bit less. And so, so these last examples were for you to get inspired and start thinking about ways that you can incorporate ads into your app. All right, last couple things I want to end with. Now, for you indies out there and especially those bigger

companies, my friend Moyo said it the best. He said, "Look, I do run ads in my subscription based apps. Now, most of my revenues come from subscriptions, but the money I make from ads, my ad revenue, I use to market my app." I was like, "That's a great way of thinking about it, Moyo. You The money you make from your ads is your marketing budget. The bulk of your revenues are going to come from subscriptions, but you can always use the money that you make from your ads to supplement and help subsidize your marketing budget." All right. Now, here's how you can monetize

your apps more effectively. Go check out Yango Ads. They help you monetize your ads a lot better and in markets that are severely undervalued. There's huge opportunities. So, if you're trying to target these underserved undervalued markets that actually have money and you've been struggling to monetize outside of just the obvious ones, check out Yango Ads. They got over 30,000 apps already using it and you can unlock over 600,000 advertisers including some major major brands. Let's take a look at a case study that's really really cool. And this is the opportunity that Yango Ads allows you to do. Like I said before, they help you target these underserved, undervalued markets. All right? So, Sensus Tech, a US-based app publisher, saw new opportunities in the Russian market after major brands exited the region. By focusing on organic growth, localization, and optimized monetization, the company grew to

250,000 250,000 monthly active users. So, here's a bit more about Sensus Tech, and you can read about this case study. But, why did you focus on the Russian market? Google Ads was no longer there. It exited. So, ad rates dropped, and keyword competition became lower. So, with keyword competition becoming lower, they decided to focus on ASO. So, for those who think ASO is dead, not quite yet. Okay? They also localized their app in Russian, and this is where Yango Ads truly helped out. With Google Ads, AdMob no longer available, they needed a local ad solution. And so, Yango Ads gave them access to a large ad ecosystem in popular local apps, AI-driven ad targeting for better CPM rates, and reliable payouts for steady revenue stream. After they integrated it, their monetization performance improved significantly.

So, really cool stuff there. They've got a lot more case studies that you can read on. And one last thing for those who made it towards the very, very end, for all of you AppMasters viewers, listeners, Yango Ads is going to hook

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Thank you to Yango Ads for this special special offer. All right, that's it. Let me know your favorite strategy in the comments below and if you got any questions for me or looking to grow your distribution and monetization, reach out to us anytime at appmasters.com. Once again, thank you to Yango Ads. Go check them out. yango ads.com. Lots of .com. Now, I will say I will see you on the next video.