How Much Money Can You Earn Through Your Mobile App?

By Prateek Saxena| Tuesday, April 10, 2018 14:22 PM |6 min read

App Industry comes attached with a huge potential of earning millions of dollars. However, not every app have it in them to earn that type of revenue. It takes a certain kind of application that promises to become a million dollar story from the very day its idea is conceived.

While I am sure your app development company will get you up to date with what is working in the world of play store and app store and what isn’t, we have prepared an article that will give you insights on what the users are paying for and how. It will give you an idea of what to expect as the future of your application in terms of its money earning capabilities.

But, before we look into the details of how much you should value your expectations when it comes to earning money through your app, let us first look into how does the payment cycle work in Play Store and Apple Store.

How are Payments Made in Apple Store?

iOS App Payments are usually made in under 45 days of the last working day of a month when the app purchases were made. To receive the payments, you must have provide all the needed bank and tax details and documents, and you should maintain the minimum payment level.

How are Payments Made in Play Store?

The amount that your paid Android app earns gets credited to your account within the cycle of 30 days. There is no minimum threshold when it comes to the amount that your app has to earn. Any amount above 1$ gets credited to your account.

Although, Play Store works on a 70:30 payment distribution ratio. On the amount of money that you make, Play Store keeps 30% and credits the other 70% in your account.

With payment models such as these, where exactly are both the platforms – iOS and Android standing at, currently, in terms of revenue?

The global app revenue grew by over 35 percent in year 2017 to arrive at around $60 billion, as cited by a new report that was released by Sensor, the app intelligence firm, which measures subscriptions, paid apps, and the in-app purchases that has happened in both Google Play and Apple’s App Store.

However, the report found that Apple is the platform that is seeing maximum revenue growth – a value that is twice as much as what Google Play Store is making. Between 2016 and 2017, Play Store and App store a revenue growth of 34.2% and 34.7% respectively. Even Though, the percentage of rise in app downloads was 16.7% in Play Store and only 6.7% in App Store.   

Without further ado, it is time to look where your application has a chance to stand in the revenue game.

Now that you know how payment system works in Play Store and Apple Store and the scope of generating revenue that both the platforms have to offer, let us now get down to the numbers of it all – How Much Money Can Your App Make for you.

Here are some questions that will help define how much money you are able to earn from your app –

What Platform Is Your App Based On?

The platform you develop your app for can have a major impact on the money earning capability of your app.

When it comes to money making capability, Apple wins the race. Over 25% of the iOS App Developers earn over $5,000 from their app while only 16% of the Android App Developers are able to make anywhere around $5,000 from their Play Store Applications

Does Your App Has an In-App Purchase Option?

Apps with in-app purchase options, a strategy mostly applied by gaming apps, has proved to be a money mine for a number of app developers.

Candy Crush makes over $800,000 every day through in-app purchases. Supercell, the creators of Clash of Clan game generated over 848 Million Euros all with the help of in-app purchases.

Have You Tied up With Any Company to Show Their Ads in Your App?

In-App Advertising is another sure shot way to make money off your app, after in-app purchases.

Imagine this, you have tied up with a company on Click Per View Agreement. For every advertisement you charge .01$ from your partnered company. Now, if even you get 10,000 daily users on your app and they see your advertisement to move on to the next level, you will earn 100$ everyday, on the maximum level.

An app developer, Akshay Laghate shared his money earned through app data on Quora. This is what he had to say –

Does Your App Follow a Subscription Model?

Tinder has a $9.99 monthly plan for the Tinder Plus subscription, and a $14.99 model for the Tinder Gold subscription. This approach has helped generate over $285.3 million for Match, Tinder’s parent company. Tinder is not the only brand enjoying the perks of subscription model. It is at the back of its subscription model that Netflix app has been able to generate over $11B In Revenue.

When your app offers something of real value to your customers, something that would keep them hooked to your app, they prefer spending money month on month or on yearly basis as seen in Amazon Prime.

Is Your App Fixated on Mobile?

If your app is such that it is present on more than one device and works between them seamlessly, the chances are that you will be making more money off of them as compared to when you restrict yourself to mobile. With Smart Tvs finding a place in the homes of over 34% of global Play Store and App Store users, the amount of visibility and the chances of people paying to install your app, has grown manifold.

So now that you know the category of apps, which generate maximum revenue in Apple and Play Store, look where your app stands in the categories list.

An important thing to note here is that you should be in sync with your app development company, from the moment you get the idea of developing an application, in terms of your app monetization model.

There are four ways you can make money off of an application, irrespective of the store:

Let us skim through them –

• In-App Purchase

Mostly seen in case of Gaming apps, in-app purchase model is the one where you attach money to an item that your user would need to move on the next level or for getting special powers.

• In-App Advertising

When you allow another app brand to show their advertisement in your application, you can charge them on the basis of Click Per Impression or Click Per Click. You can make the most of the strategy by making it mandatory for the users to view ad.

• Freemium

Freemium mode of Monetization is when you offer an advanced version of your application to the users in return of a sum of money. The idea is to keep the best features in the locked version to let the users pay to take advantage of them.

• Sponsorship

One of the least seen monetization model is that of sponsorship. This is how it works – you first have to find a brand that is offering an app similar to yours to a similar set of audience and then you approach them with the proposal of redesigning your app according to their app style, so that both your and their customer base increases.

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