How to Make Money From Apps in 2024

Have you created an app with our free app maker tool and wondering how can an app make money?  In this ultimate app money-making guide, we will provide you with all the information on how to make money with apps for free. The online business world makes it possible for anyone to earn millions of dollars online on a yearly basis. The secret is, that you need to know your market. You need to know what your earning potential is, how it works, and what the best possible earning method for your business model might be.

Before we answer all of your questions regarding how free apps make money, you need to look at some important statistics. The app industry is still booming, although, according to Statista, the percentage of paid app revenues has decreased to 37.8 % from 75.9%, the mobile application market is still worth billions of dollars.

So, How Do Apps Make Money Without Ads?

The fact is, people, do make millions from apps yearly. The statistics above show us this. So you have a free app and now you be wondering just how exactly you can make money from a totally free app? Do people spend money when using free apps? Well, it is simple, people use smartphones on a daily basis, and a lot of people spend money on free apps. They will spend money in the form of in-app purchases, and upsells, for example.

Although when we look at the stats, most free apps where people spend money, falls into the gaming apps category, this should not discourage you. If you don’t have a gaming app, but want to monetise a different free app, there are still multiple ways that you can make money from your app.

We will talk about all the ways in which you can monetise your free app below, but before you can determine how you can make money on your app, you need to take a look at different factors and follow certain steps.

You can find the best monetisation method by answering questions, such as:

  1. What Type of App Do You Have?
  2. Who Will Be Using Your Mobile Application?
  3. What kind of user interface does my app need to have?

The questions we listed above should give you a good idea of the data that needs to be considered before you can monetise your app.  If you are still not 100% sure, you can take a look at the steps below.

6 STEPS TO DEFINE THE BEST APP MONETISATION MODEL

TAKE A LOOK AT THE 6 STEPS YOU NEED TO FOLLOW TO DEFINE THE BEST APP MONETISATION MODEL:


CONSIDER THE BUSINESS GOALS THAT YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE

Business goal

Before you start with your development process, you need to know what your end goals are with your app. Be clear about what you are trying to achieve. Depending on your end goals, you will need to adjust your monetisation strategies.

If you are only interested in generating quick and easy income, the advertising model might be the best option for you. If you want to build a long lasting eCommerce business, you will look at a different monetisation method.


DEFINE THE VALUE OF YOUR APP

app value

You need to evaluate how valuable your app will be to the market you are in. You might be competing with other apps in your niche that are already seeing a lot of success. You’ll need to determine what your app offers differently and what values you can offer. If your app is no different than the rest, it might be pointless to introduce just another app to the marketplace and niche. 


DEFINE WHO YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE IS AND WHAT THEIR NEEDS ARE

Target audience

Not all monetisation strategies will work on all audiences. So, this why this is such an important step. You need to determine who your target audience is in order to determine what will work.  For example, gamers will click on video ads that offer rewards.


CHECK WHAT YOUR COMPETITORS ARE DOING

your competitors

You need to know who your competitors are. This is important for any business not just for an app. You need to know what you are up against and look at what they are doing. 

If you’re planning to launch an app in a crowded marketplace, check who you are competing with and if you will be able to monetise your app in the end. 

You can whether your competitors are offering good user experience while running ads and if they are using a paid subscription model for example. 


CHECK WHAT THE ECONOMY ALLOWS YOU TO DO

the economy

The end goal will naturally be to be as profitable as possible with your app. In order for this to become a reality, you’ll need to define the number of users, conversion rate, average spending, and a predictive timeline to breakeven.

You’ll then want to be realistic and compare it with the current market sentiment and how other competitors are doing and if they are successful. 


MAKE USE OF PROTOTYPING AND TESTING

prototyping

In order to have an app that can easily be monetised, you’ll need to make sure your users can easily use your app. The only way to ensure that is the case, is to build a prototype and test it. Get feedback from people and change the app until you feel it is good enough to make money.

Your app users need to be able to understand what your app offers and how it works. They need to see how it will benefit them.


HOW TO MAKE MONEY OFF OF AN APP

Have you ever wondered how free apps make money?

As we mentioned above, most of the time, you download an app from the store and simply start using it. But the fact is, the app owner will always expect pay in some form, whether it is with in-app purchases or subscriptions. Let’s take a look at ways that you can make money from your free app.

MAKE USE OF ADVERTISING

Advertisement

Using advertisements on your app is one of the easiest and most profitable ways to monetise your free app. You can display advertisements in your app via a third-party ad network.

The first answer anyone jumps to when they think about ways to make money from apps, is ads. This can include ads such as banner ads, in-feed video ads, and more.

There is an advantage of choosing this method, and this is high retention rates, as users receive a reward for watching these ads. The method works best in the gaming apps market, the gamer like free things, the effective cost per millie with this type of advertising is higher than for any other ad type.


REFERRAL MARKETING

referral marketing

You might be wondering what referral marketing means? Well, referral marketing usually includes a third-party product or service. You will use the third-party product or service as a way to optimise your app for revenue opportunities.

App publishers can promote or sell affiliates’ products or services based on the number of clicks or installs. You can use pop-up ads to promote someone else’s app or advertise products in your free app.


IN-APP PURCHASES

subscriptions

Using a subscription strategy is a method where app owners can choose to offer free content in their apps for a limited amount of time and then charge users a subscription fee that will allow them to access full content without any restrictions.

This is a popular and common technique used by the majority of free app publishers is to offer a free trial period and then charge the subscription fee to those who wish to continue to accessing and using the app.


SPONSORSHIPS

sponsorships

The sponsorship method is less commonly used as the above mentioned strategies, but can be powerful if used correctly.

If the app owner have a powerful niche, and a great target audience, this can work well. You can partner with various businesses within your niche.

Before building the app, creating a list of organisations and brands that could benefit from the partnership is a good starting point.


COLLECTING AND SELLING DATA

Apps collect a lot of users’ data, in terms of user behaviour or other app usage. These user data are desired by many researchers in different fields. There are two ways that you can benefit from this monetisation model; you can either track what your users do and sell their data to companies and researchers, or you can use the raw data for your own future business purposes.


SELLING MERCHANDISE

selling merchandise

Selling merchandise on your free app is a great an easy way in which you can make money. 

You might be wondering how you can actually make money this way? Well, a lot of online businesses build free versions of their website apps to sell physical goods such as toys, shirts, shoes, etc. these physical products can be sold directly to your app or via email marketing.

To encourage purchases, you can use a popular new strategy by using Amazon.

Amazon has started a service called Merch by Amazon. This allows anyone to create their artwork, upload it to their platform and promote their products. It is a win-win strategy for the app owners and app users.


HOW TO MONETISE YOUR APPSGEYSER APP

LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT HOW YOU CAN MONETISE YOUR APPSGEYSER APP

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

HOW DOES A FREE APP MAKE MONEY WITHOUT ADS?

Free apps are monetised through various means, including in-app purchases, sponsorships, and referral marketing.

IS IT DIFFICULT TO MAKE AN APP?

No, with Appsgeyser, it is very easy! To build an Android app, you need to go to the App Builder website, choose on the app templates for your purposes, and follow the step-by-step guide on the development page.

IS IT FREE TO BUID A MOBILE APP?

Yes, with AppsGeyser’s App Builder you can produce mobile apps for free. There are no charges for making, downloading, and sharing apps.

HOW TO BUILD A MOBILE APP WITHOUT CODING?

To build a mobile app without coding, you need to open one of the free app templates, upload the app content, and name your app. It’s that easy. Yes, with AppsGeyser’s App Builder you can produce mobile apps for free. There are no charges for making, downloading, and sharing apps.

CAN I BUILD AN APP FOR IOS ON APPSGEYSER?

No. AppsGeyser offers app templates only for Android app development. The Android app market is the largest in the world. It’s more popular than iOs. Plus, it’s less expensive to publish apps on Android app stores. That’s why we endorse you to build apps for Android, not iOs.

IS IT FREE TO SHARE A MOBILE APP MADE ON APPSGEYSER?

Yes, you can share and publish your Android app without any charges from AppsGeyser.

HOW TO USE APPSGEYSER APP BUILDER?

To start using AppsGeyser’s App Builder, open the Creation page with the list of app templates. There are 3 types of app templates: business, individual, games. Choose a template to proceed and follow the instructions inside. After building an app, you will have to create an account on AppsGeyser to download the apk.

WHAT IS THE BEST APP BUILDER?

AppsGeyser is the best App Builder. It offers a completely free app creation for any purpose.

WHAT IS AN APP TEMPLATE?

An app template is an app code file created by the App Builder. It can be edited via an online form. App templates are used to build native and functional mobile apps by inputting new content.

CAN I MAKE MONEY WITH MY ANDROID APP?

Yes. You can monetize your Android app created on the App Builder with one of the monetization options: banner advertising or in-app purchases.

CAN I BUILD AN APP ONLINE?

Yes. With AppsGeyser you can develop mobile apps without app making software. You can build an app on Windows, Linux, phone, tablet just by using the online website.

HOW MANY APPS CAN I BUILD?

You can build an unlimited number of Android apps on AppsGeyser’s App Builder. There are no limits and no need to pay to make hundreds of mobile apps.

HOW TO BUILD AN ANDROID APP FROM SCRATCH?

To build an Android app from scratch, open the App Builder website. Choose a free app template for your app idea. Then follow the simple instruction, input the content, and app name.

WHAT YOU NEED TO BUILD AN ANDROID APP?

To build an Android app, you need to come up with an app idea, then choose one of the relevant app templates and prepare content. The content for the app can include links, texts, images, videos.

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO BUILD AN APP?

With the App Builder, you can build an Android app within 10 minutes. Choose on on the free app templates to get your app in the shortest time possible!

Last Updated on March 13th, 2024