The goals and purposes should be clearly defined in the very beginning to put the idea into practice. There are several questions to think over when you want to create your application:
As Statista reports, there are 33 categories of apps in Google Play and 24 categories in the App Store.
And only seven categories from this list cover more than 3% of users.
As soon as you figure out the category of the future application, you can start exploring the top list to reveal key features and core functionalities of each app to create a competitive project. It will even be useful to create a list of features to keep them right at the surface.
Pay attention to the graphic design and ergonomics of placing buttons, color schemes, transitions, animations, and fonts. All this will help with the practical part of creating an app.
After you have decided on the concept and design of your application, the way of building an app should be considered.
There are two common ways to create an app: via an app builder or a custom software development. And this part of the article will brief you on how to choose an app builder or a software development company for working on your project.
An App Builder is an online tool that helps to skip the overall developing process and get a ready-to-use application within a short period of time. App builders are very simple so anyone, even without coding experience, can create an app by choosing features supported by a certain app builder. For example:
You can find more on this list of top app builders.
Before going for one of those app builders, decide on what platform the application will be for. Then look through the list of all the features you want to have in the app to double check if an app builder will be able to provide you with those features. The same should be done with the design. Confirm you can find necessary templates, color schemes, and other details.
Of course, along with all the advantages, app builders have some flaws. Let’s list them in the table below:
Pros of Using an App Builder | Cons of Using an App Builder |
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App builders will not provide you with customized features and design, but it will take much less time to create, download, test, and release the application. Quite profitable for small businesses if a custom development’s price is not an affordable one.
Custom software development is the designing and developing of an application on specific requests or needs by a software development company. This is the way to create a unique application and get a competitive advantage compared with app builders’ apps.
Check out the pros and cons of custom development in the table below:
Pros of a Custom Development | Cons of a Custom Development |
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Custom development costs a lot more and will take more time. But you can rely on a team of experienced and skillful developers and designers, who will be fully dedicated to you at any time. Potentially, a custom development can be a good investment because in this case, you are sure the application will meet all your business’ needs and will be unique.
There are some ways of apps monetization and making money after the time spent on development.
This is one of the favored ways to earn money with an app. An advertisement is simply shown on the app. The payment depends on the category of ads and the number of clicks.
Banner and video ads can just pop up randomly or users can get a certain motivation to watch ads, for example:
Videos will make more money than banners, but be careful with the customers’ patience. Should decide on the frequency and length of videos.
Not showing ads at all is also a way of earning money. Users can be suggested to upgrade their accounts and never see any ads in the application again.
In-App Purchases can be expendable or non-expendable. Expendable like in-app or game currency.
Non-expendable like bonuses, premium content, additional levels.
Such purchases are found in the freemium model of applications. An application is free but has premium content or advanced access levels.
According to this model, a part of an application content is available for free. As soon as a person starts enjoying the application, the account can be upgraded to a paid subscription.
There also exists a free trial period when a person can use and enjoy the application and all its functions for a limited period or a certain number of times. When the trial period is expired, a user cannot use the application any longer. Then the subscription should be bought.
Great examples of this business model are Spotify, Netflix.
It is a fixed price for downloading an application. It is a very questionable way to make money because according to statistics, 250 billion free downloads account for only 15 billion paid apps. For example:
The strategy works out only if the sponsor has the same or at least similar target field and audience. And the sponsor needs to be found first, then an application created. There should be a niche app for a sponsor’s customized application and audience. Then you can make a deal to either split the revenue or monthly sponsorship payments.
Sponsorship helps to promote and enhance the user base when the application is just released.
An example is TED and Rolex’s collaboration.
Affiliate Network platform serves for advertisers and app owners. For people who want to sell their products by buying ads and for those, who can place advertisements in their apps.
Businessofapps names some Apps Affiliate Networks, such as Mobvista, AdCombo, MyLead.
Advertisers can pay for each click, installation, or any other action.
App owners can get a commission fee per each deal that an owner generates for an advertiser.
Those are the basic models of monetizing an application. They can be combined or rerolled as you wish or find more likely.
An application revenue is driven by Cost Per Mille (CPM) where Mille is 1,000 connections or impressions to ads.
The simplest example of a formula that helps to count an app’s income is given below:
Impressions × CPM = revenue.
There are also some other factors that can influence the revenue, you can use the Mobile Advertising Calculator to count or predict the app’s income.
Analytics is one of the key elements for making decisions in economics and promoting mobile applications. Using statistics, you can determine the most effective sources of traffic, identify the pros and flaws of the product, find out what needs to be improved metadata, advertising, localization by region, etc.
Companies use statistics to solve a wide range of tasks: building a marketing strategy, improving the application itself, evaluating competitiveness.
There are some popular analytics services that might help listed below.
These services will allow you to find the best way to market and improve your app. And sometimes it makes sense to combine these services to get more accurate and complete information.
The app market keeps growing and there is always room for new ideas. This article was written to brief you on what to do if you want to create an app and earn money. Be wise at each stage of developing your application and success will not take long.
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Jonas says:
App analytics are outdated. Appsee has been acquired and is shutting down. I recommend adding UXCam instead, which provides similar services.
Cheers
Karol says:
Hello! What a nice article I’ve just read!
Thing is that I’ve been considering some changes in my app to get a bit more money you know.
And I can’t decide what to start with. What do you think is the best monetizing feature to implement first?
Victoria Daneeva says:
Hi, Karol!
Answering your question: the most popular monetizing features for apps atm are In-App Advertising, In-App Purchasing, The Subscription.
Karol says:
Hey! Thanks for the reply. Good to hear from you again!
One more question:
What do you think are the best in-app purchases?
Denisha Bongo says:
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Joan says:
Hello. Thank you for such a good and informative article. I would like to develop a mobile app like Netflix. How much will it cost?
Victoria Daneeva says:
Even though it is impossible to give you an accurate estimate of such a project, I can say that the total cost may vary between $18,000 and $25,000 for Android and iOS mobile apps. Please, remember that the final price depends on the features you want to include in your app, company you are going to hire and its rates.
Noah says:
Hello. I found out that a custom software development will cost me around $15,000 – $20,000. Why do I need a custom development then? App builders are a way cheaper!
Victoria Daneeva says:
Hello. The main advantage of custom web development is that your app is tailored to your specific needs. And you can edit the code as many times, as you want. Add and remove features etc. Many builders have restrictions on integrations, for example.
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