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Of all the applications downloaded from the Apple and Google stores in 2014, only 10% are chargeable ( Statista Study , 2012). However, developing applications involves certain costs ... How to monetize free applications in order to make the development costs profitable and then generate profit?

Here we look at the business model of completely free applications without in-app purchases - ie achievable inside the application.

Monetize a mobile application through advertising

If iOS is the platform for generating the most revenue for a paid application, it is via Android that you will be able to generate the most advertising traffic ( Opera mediaworks study ). This finding is not surprising, since Android smartphones hold the largest market share (more details here ).

Many possibilities of monetization via advertising are available to you, and this diversity of solutions is found on several levels:

- the various players in the mobile advertising network market: AdMob, Amazon Mobile Ads, InMobi, Adcolony, etc.

- the variety of advertising formats: banner, native format (where the advertising content is assimilated to content offered by the application), interstitial (ie covering the entire phone screen) and videos;

- revenue calculation methods: cost per click (CPC), cost per view (CPV), cost per installation (CPI), or cost per thousand (CPM) views or impressions.

Naturally, the more space the advertising insert occupies on your application, the better you will be paid ... But the worse the experience perceived by users (see our article on UX here )! Indeed, nothing is more intrusive than an interstitial advertisement or a video that launches while browsing in the application.

How not to scare away users?

The gamification of advertisements

Many games integrate the viewing of advertisements into their play process. A concrete case: Angry Birds. When you run out of lives, you have the option of earning another one to continue the game experience, provided you watch a promotional video. It is a way to have a high viewing rate (therefore more likely to turn into downloads) ... with the consent of the players!

Personalization of ads

Choose the brands-advertisers that will appear on your application. If the latter is a music application, displaying brands offering instruments makes perfect sense - whereas displaying a big name in the textile industry, less…

Monetize a mobile application by selling your databases

Much like a website or blog, you can consider monetizing your database if it is well qualified - for example "classical musicians ages 15-30". These data can be behavioral ("such and such a category of users are ready to pay such a sum for such a service"), statistical ("such a percentage of classical musicians play such an instrument") ... and will allow interested companies and brands analyze them in order to refine their marketing targeting

After having mentioned the business model of applications completely free for the user in the previous article , let us now look at the case of a free application to download but with the possibility - without obligation - to make purchases of different kinds.

A mobile application to sell products or services

- For e-commerce players, a mobile application can constitute a source of transactions complementary to the web. Top retailers have understood this well: their consumers have a higher average shopping basket on a mobile application than on the desktop and the mobile browser ( Criteo study , 2015).

- Service providers are not left out. Their mobile applications can serve both as an automated platform for connecting service providers and customers (Uber, MyPouce produced by DZMob for connecting plumbers, electricians and individuals) than as a “counter”: it is much more it is quick and convenient to book your train ticket on the Voyages SNCF application than to queue at the station.

The Freemium model

If your application is of the Freemium type (contraction of Free and Premium ), it will be free to download but will offer the user to pay (make in-app purchases) for different types of digital services (unlock features, access a Premium content…). It is therefore a question of offering to pay in order to enrich or improve the UX (see our article on this subject ). To do this, you must of course develop an application including voluntary restrictions to encourage your users to pay.

This model is suitable for many types of applications, such as:

- games: unlock items, levels, remove advertisements, etc.;

- Tinder-type applications, which offers to pay to make a super-like, return to the previous profile ... (having taken care beforehand to restrict this same navigation in its free version in order to create frustration pushing the purchase );

- the media: read an article, subscribe …;

- etc.