作者：Tim Green

或许你和周遭好友都曾经考虑开发一款手机应用。我们每天都能听到像Rovio（《愤怒的小鸟》开发商）、Zeptolab（《Cut the Rope》开发商）和Outfit7（《Talking Pets》开发商）之类开发商的成功故事，这让我们憧憬也能够获得同样的成功。

但是事实在于，Rovio在《愤怒的小鸟》面世之前已经开发过大量的应用。正如你所知道的那样，以前这些应用并没有被公众谈起过，也没有获得数百万的下载量。

成功手机应用的发布总是伴随着许多挑战。这些挑战包括曝光度、用户留存率和盈利。当然，你也可以像做其他生意那样促进用户下载并培养巨大的用户基础，但是这片领域中并没有万能的运营模式，或许有人会说你正在浪费时间。

因而，你可以暂时抛开在数十万手机应用中突出重围的挑战，考虑什么才是使手机应用获得可观盈利的最佳方法。

目前，手机应用盈利有多种方式可供选择，比如老式的付费下载模式、应用内置付费功能以及应用内置广告等。

如果说某种模式能够通用于所有手机应用，这是不对的，但是我们分析了所有选项及其为手机开发者提供的盈利。随后，我们得出了明确的结论：如果做法恰当的话，手机广告模式可以为手机应用带来可观的收入。以下是相关原因：

持续性盈利

考虑到应用的盈利性问题时，每个开发商最初的想法是“为何不向用户收取下载费用呢？”现在，我们知道这并不是个明智的方法。数据显示，2011年下载应用中81%是免费应用，而且这个比例还在不断增加。那么，为何付费下载不是个良好的选项呢？

其中的逻辑其实很简单。无论你将下载费用定为0.99美元还是4.99美元，你只能收取用户一次费用。当用户下载应用时，你获得了盈利，但只此一次。如果使用手机广告模式，你是通过访问量和点击率获得盈利。只要你努力创造出能够吸引用户不断再次使用的应用，那么盈利便会源源不断。手机广告采用的是这样的盈利方法。

降低门槛

所以，你应该期望的是不断产生的盈利，而并非一次性的付费。这样，你才能通过应用获得可观的盈利。但是为何要选择手机广告呢？为何不在应用中提供虚拟货币，然后通过应用内置购买来盈利呢？后者也能够带来稳定的收入，不是吗？近来没有人怀疑过后者的盈利能力，但是事实在于，手机用户并不希望为应用或应用内的任何内容付费。

如果你曾经做过调查，你就会发现免费应用能获得更多的盈利。把你自己当成应用消费者，你在iTunes或Android Market上查看应用时，会先注意什么呢？90%的人会说是价格，而非“免费”字样的价格标签意味着需要继续浏览和寻找其他应用。这完全可以算得上是不必要的障碍。

在试图接近大众市场时，应用战略的重要部分之一是免费并利用整合广告来盈利。当你免费向用户提供应用时，就可以获得更高的下载量，这意味着能够给应用带来更多的流量以及更多的广告盈利。

人人都在采用这种模式

这听起来不像是个很好的理由，不是吗？在这片领域中，你完全可以借鉴其他专业开发商的做法，看看他们采用何种盈利模式。确实有某些开发商选用其他的盈利模式，但是如果你看看所有手机平台上的大型开发商，你就会注意到几乎所有公司都有个利用广告盈利的免费版本应用。比如，Android版的《愤怒的小鸟》，EA、Digital Chocolate、Firemint、Gameloft和Pico Brothers等公司也都采用了这种模式。

angry_birds_android_adverts(from bgr.com)

有人或许会说这样的推论是幼稚的，但我觉得应该认识到Rovio以及以上大型公司精通于应用的开发和盈利。我的看法是，作为一个开发商，你并非孤独作战，你可以学习其他率先踏足这片领域的开发商的做法。

定位能力

在数字领域中做广告的主要优势之一是定位能力。如果购买报纸上的广告栏位，你根本不知道谁会看到你的广告、广告转化成销售量的比例为多少以及广告能够产生怎样的品牌意识。而数字广告通常不会出现这种情景，最不可能出现上述情况的便是手机广告。

目前仅美国便有超过3亿的手机用户，结合手机广告的高级定位能力，你可以精确定位你的目标用户及其位置，随时随地将品牌展现在他们面前。当然，衡量广告投放结果也是必须的，这种在网络广告行业中常见的方式依然适用。

已证实有效的方法

因为之前我们已经培养起Web广告，它有着移动领域常见的特征，因而我们应该追随这股趋势继续发展。

我们可以利用的功能和特征包括搜索、多媒体内容和高速互联网接口，而且还能够为应用产生盈利。

如果你想知道手机广告领域未来的发展态势，看看当年的小型初创公司谷歌现在通过广告获得大量的盈利便可知晓。许多人认为，2015年手机广告行业的产值将达到500亿美元。

无论未来的情况如何，使用手机广告模式来为应用带来盈利的有效性是无法否认的。当然，关键之处在于手机广告必须正确呈现，不会让用户感到不适。需要强调的重点是正确地定位用户、呈现相关内容以及顶尖的设计，这样手机广告模式便能够比其他应用盈利策略为手机开发商带来更多的盈利。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Five reasons mobile advertising is the best way to monetise apps

Tim Green

If you consider yourself even remotely geeky, chances are you, or some of your friends, have considered the idea of developing a mobile app. All the wild success stories we are fed daily about developers like Rovio (Angry Birds), Zeptolab (Cut the Rope), and Outfit7 (Talking Pets), have us dreaming of achieving similar success.

The thing is, Rovio, if we are going to take one example, actually developed dozens of apps before Angry Birds, and as you know, those apps are not talked about or downloaded by the millions.

There are many challenges that accompany the launch of a successful mobile application. These include discovery, user retention, and monetisation. Of course, like any other business, you can generate downloads and have a tremendous user base, but if there is no business model in place, well, some might say you are wasting your time.

So, putting aside the challenge of standing out among the hundreds of thousands of mobile apps out there, what is the best way to generate substantial revenue from your mobile app?

There are many options available to monetise mobile apps such as the old-fashioned pay per download model, in-app purchases, as well as in-app advertising, and others.

To make the claim that there is one model that fits all would be misleading, but here at inneractive, we analysed all the options and the revenues they generate for mobile developers. We then reached a concrete conclusion that if done right, mobile advertising is the way to go if you want to generate significant income from a mobile app. Here is why:

Ongoing Revenue

Every developer’s initial thought when it comes to monetizing apps is “Why not just charge the user for the download?” Today we know that is not a smart move for many reasons. The numbers show that 81% of all app downloads in 2011 are free apps, and that number is only growing. So why is the pay per download not a good option?

It is actually simple logic. When you charge for your app, whether you are asking $0.99 or $4.99, you make that money once, and only once. When the user downloads the app, you get paid, but that is where it ends. With mobile advertising, you get paid for impressions and clicks and since you worked so hard creating a stellar app that will bring users coming back for more, there is no reason you should not be paid for that engagement. Mobile advertising is the way to do that.

Taking Down the Barriers

So, you want ongoing revenue and not a one time payment. That makes sense. But why mobile advertising? Why not offer virtual currency in your app and charge for an in-app purchase? That can bring a steady flow of income, right? Well, there is no debating that this model has had some traction lately, but the fact remains, mobile users do not want to pay for apps or anything in the app.

If we have learned one thing here at inneractive, it is that free apps actually make more. Think about your patterns. You find yourself on an app’s landing page in iTunes or the Android Market, what is the first thing you look at? 9/10 people will say it is the price, and a price tag that says anything besides “Free” means one thing, time to move on. That is what’s called an unnecessary barrier.

When trying to reach mass market, which should be a significant part of your app’s strategy, nothing beats giving away the app for free and cashing out on integrated advertisements. When you offer your app for free, by definition, you can expect to multiply your downloads, which means more traffic, and more advertising revenue for you.

Everyone is Doing it

Sounds like a bad reason, right? In this case, there is nothing wrong with looking to the pros and seeing what monetization model they have chosen. Yes, there are some that use other options but if you look at the big developers across all mobile platforms, you will notice that almost all of them have a free version of their app with advertising. It is true for Angry Birds on Android, it is true about EA, Digital Chocolate, Firemint, Gameloft, Pico Brothers, and the list goes on.

Some might say this is a naïve argument, but I think it is safe to say that Rovio and the others on that list know a thing or two about developing and monetizing apps. The way I see it, as a developer, you are not working alone, and you can learn from the developers before you who have made it in this space.

Targeting Capabilities

One of the major advantages to advertising in the digital era is targeting capabilities. When buying a full page ad in a newspaper, you have no idea who saw your ad, what percent converted to a sale, and what type of awareness the ad generated for your brand. That is not the case with digital advertising in general, and it is most definitely not the case with mobile advertising.

In today’s day and age with over 300 million mobile users in the US alone, combined with the advanced targeting abilities of a mobile advertising campaign, you can decide exactly who and where your target audience is, and get your brand in front of them at any time and any place. Of course, measuring the results of the campaign is a no-brainer, something some might take for granted with the web advertising industry continuing to take off.

A Proven Method

Since we already brought up Web advertising, one of the obvious characteristics of the mobile space in general, is that it is clearly following in the footsteps of its older brother, the Web.

This is true for features and functionality including search, multimedia content, and high speed internet access, and it is true for the ability to monetise an app.

If you want to see how big the mobile advertising space can become, just take a look at a small startup called Google that makes the majority of its billion upon billions of dollars from advertising. The numbers are in, and the mobile advertising industry, according to many, will reach numbers as high as $50 billion by 2015.

Whatever the case may be, there is really no debating the effectiveness of using the mobile advertising model to monetize apps. Of course, it is crucial that mobile ads are displayed properly, and not in a disruptive and annoying manner, but that is a topic for another time. The important thing to emphasize is that with proper targeting, relevant content, and top-notch design, mobile advertising can generate more money for a mobile developer than any other monetization strategy out there. (Source: Mobile Entertainment)