Ariel Michaeli, Co-Founder and CEO of appFigures talks about strategies for monetization on the app store and the importance of identifying the best one before starting to build an app.

1. Is your app ready to
make money?
By Ariel Michaeli
Co-Founder + CEO of appFigures
Is your app ready to make money?

2. 1. Build an amazing app
2. Put it on the App Store 🎉
3. 🤔😬😶
4. $$$
Is your app ready to make money?
What most people think
making apps is like:

3. • Started my first company in 2002
• Studied marketing in college but
programming since high school
• Built several web companies (most SaaS)
• Launched two iOS games early
• @appFigures since 2009
Is your app ready to make money?
👋

4. • Business analytics for
app makers
• No SDK required
• Beautiful, Powerful,
Simple
• Started early 2009
• Most strict privacy policy
• Very affordable
Is your app ready to make money?

5. Is your app ready to make money?
The App Store is a busy place
* Data source: Explorer, September 2016
2,249,475
iOS apps
2.3
New apps/min.

6. • There are more mobile devices than ever
(thanks, China!)
• And 💰💰💰billions paid out to developers
Is your app ready to make money?

7. Is your app ready to make money?
Is your app ready to make money?

8. A great app is a good starting point
for making money
Is your app ready to make money?

9. The other most
important thing is…
Is your app ready to make money?

10. Incorporate making money into your
app’s design before starting to build it.
Is your app ready to make money?
IMPORTANT

11. 1. Build an amazing app
2. Put it on the App Store 🎉
3. 😀😀😀
4. $$$
Is your app ready to make money?
0. Figure out your monetization
What making apps should
look like:

12. 1. Identify your user - what do they need, and what
will they pay for it?
2. Understand your own economics - what do you
need to build and maintain this app?
3. Choose a monetization model - one that fits your
user and you.
4. Experiment and iterate - Most of your users
won’t mind. I promise.
Is your app ready to make money?
Four (easy) steps

13. Is your app ready to make money?
Identify your user

14. Is your app ready to make money?

15. 1. What kind of app do they need?
2. Is there anything comparable now?
3. What do they charge?
4. What can this user pay?
Is your app ready to make money?
Identify your user

16. Is your app ready to make money?
5. What will this user pay?
6. How much money/time will you be saving
them?
7. how much does the user want this app?
8. how much does the user need this app?
Identify your user

17. Is your app ready to make money?
Understand your
economics

18. Is your app ready to make money?

19. 1. What will the app cost to make?
2. How much to maintain?
3. Can you produce your own content, or
license it?
4. Are there ongoing fees?
Is your app ready to make money?
Understand your economics

20. Is your app ready to make money?
Understand your economics
5. How often would you need to update?
6. Can you do it all alone or do you need to
hire help?
7. What do you need to make to keep the
lights on?
8. What do you need to grow?

21. Is your app ready to make money?
• Legal (especially if you work with others)
• Accounting
• Support
• Insurance (thanks, Dave)
• One-off costs (Black, or Jet Black?)
Gotchas

22. Is your app ready to make money?
Select the most
appropriate
monetization strategy

23. • Consider all of your answers
• Select a strategy that the user will be happy
with and wouldn’t consider unrealistic
• But also would allow you to keep the lights on
Is your app ready to make money?
Select the most appropriate
monetization strategy

24. Is your app ready to make money?
Monetization strategies
• Free with In-app Purchases
• Free with Ads
• Paid
• Subscriptions
• Hybrid

25. Is your app ready to make money?
Free with In-App Purchases
The good - low perceived risk to users
• Free == Easy for users to get started
• Very flexible and easy to optimize
• Used by 75% of Top Grossing apps
• Tiered pricing improves mass appeal
• Easy to experiment with

26. Is your app ready to make money?
Free with In-App Purchases
The bad - could get complex
• Free == Higher support burden
• Requires constant optimization
• Need to design the app around use-cases and
have enough features
• Requires lots of free users in order to make
money

27. Is your app ready to make money?
Free with Ads
The good - users never have to pay
• Very easy to implement
• Lots of providers who need you more than you
need them
• Users never have to pay for your app
• Fairly predictable revenue
• Easy to experiment with

28. Is your app ready to make money?
Free with Ads
The bad - requires a large active audience
• Higher support burden
• Requires lots of active users to make money
• Fraction of a penny for 1,000 views (in most
cases)
• Changes the user experience

29. Is your app ready to make money?
Paid
• Simple model that’s very predictable
• Less support burden - Users who pay know
what they’re getting into
• Doesn’t require changes to the app
• Easy to experiment with
The good - very simple

30. Is your app ready to make money?
Paid
• Only 2 paid apps in Top Grossing
• Only 19% of all iOS apps are paid
• 42% of paid apps cost $0.99
• Increases perceived risk for mass market
customers
The bad - hard to make money

31. Is your app ready to make money?
Subscriptions
• 23% of the Top 100 Grossing apps already use
subscriptions
• Predictable revenue stream
• Easy to experiment with
The good - sustainable

32. Is your app ready to make money?
Subscriptions
• Requires ongoing content additions
• Requires a back-end that provides additional
value (syncing, backup, sharing, etc.)
• Requires users to make a commitment -
Increases perceived risk.
The bad - requires a service, not a product.

33. Is your app ready to make money?
Subscriptions
Warning

34. Is your app ready to make money?

35. Is your app ready to make money?
Mixing and matching
• Combining could reduce risk for users while
increasing revenue
• Most common is ads + IAPs
• Worth considering
• Harder to maintain

36. Is your app ready to make money?
Let’s give this a try
Say we have an app that:
1. Is used to take notes
2. Can work on a single device without a back-end
3. Can sync to multiple devices with a back-end
Two questions:
1. Who’s the user
2. What are our economics

37. Is your app ready to make money?
Who’s the user
• Anyone that needs to take notes
• Especially users with multiple devices
• Possibly on multiple platforms
• That want something better than the stock
Notes app

38. Is your app ready to make money?
What are our economics
• Large upfront cost for creating apps
• Ongoing cost to maintain an scale a back-end
• Minimal cost to maintain apps

39. Is your app ready to make money?
Subscriptions
If you said
You’d be right!
😀😭

40. Is your app ready to make money?
Experiment and
iterate

41. Is your app ready to make money?
Experiment and iterate
• Every strategy is easy to experiment with
• One size doesn’t fit all
• Once you selected a strategy - try out
different prices or tiers
• Set goals and measure everything
• (Most) users won’t mind
• I know from experience

42. Is your app ready to make money?
1. Appropriate monetization strategy is key to
success on the App Store
2. It needs to fit your users
3. But also requires that you understand your own
economics
4. It’s ok to experiment and iterate
5. And important that you track your success
Let’s review

43. That’s it, for now.
Come say 👋 and let’s 🍻
Is your app ready to make money?

44. Ariel Michaeli
Co-Founder + CEO of appFigures
Is your app ready to make money?
Track all of your apps @ appfigures.com
@arielmichaeli
https://arielmichaeli.com
ariel@appfigures.com