作者：Hillel Fuld

由于手机应用市场规模的膨胀，开发者推出一款成功盈利的产品所面临的挑战也随之增长。由于这一领域竞争激烈，开发者会发现除了支持多个平台，发布应用程序之外，保证产品盈利性更是难上加难。

移动广告是人们最普遍采用的应用盈利方案之一，几乎每个开发者都使用了这一模式。假如你也不例外，你选择的是移动广告网站或是其他公司所提供广告服务。但要如何在应用中植入广告才能让效果最大化，例如最大化点击量、最大化每点击回访量，最大化总体收益？

光是这个老大难问题，就已足够我们撰写一整本书针对如何在移动平台投放广告进行讨论。你应该在应用的哪个位置投放广告？它应该什么时候展示广告？哪类广告可以产生最多点击量？广告出现频率？广告什么内容才合适？这还只是开发者希望最大化收益所要解决的一小部分问题而已。

以下是我根据个人经验所总结的5项要点，希望对各位开发者有所启发。

mobile ad(from blog.inner-active.com)

1.选择最显眼，但又最不具干扰性的广告位置

人们看一个网站时的第一眼会落在哪个位置？这个答案决定了网站不同位置的广告报价。某个位置的曝光度越多，其广告报价也就越高。

移动设备也不例外，再加上手机屏幕更小，其广告空间的价值更高。开发者当然都希望将广告设置于最佳位置以赢得最大点击量。但你既不希望广告被忽视，又不愿因植入广告而伤害用户体验，那么我们到底该把广告置于何处呢？

最好是让玩家平静地玩游戏，等他们进入下一关时再插播广告。最忌讳的是干扰玩家游戏过程，从而让他们心中生厌而删除应用。所以得在关卡之间播放广告，但要在哪个位置？就是它自己的广告屏幕。每个关卡之间都可以另外腾出屏幕来播放整个广告内容。

看到这里，可能有人会想，“在一款应用中全屏播放广告？这样不是会赶跑用户吗？”事实并非如此，如果你是免费提供应用（游戏邦注：这就是你在应用中植入广告的一大充分理由），而且是以不具干扰性的形式植入广告，用户一般会体谅这种行为。另外，假如你投放的广告定位准确，很可能就会吸引用户点击广告，从而让他们感觉广告是一个增值服务。

2.保证广告匹配度

正如我之前所言，开发者最伤神的就是如何在最大化移动广告点击量的同时，保证用户留存率。精准的广告匹配可以达到一箭双雕的效果。

Gary Vaynerchuk曾在一次演讲中举了个生动的例子，红灯亮起时，你停下脚步环顾四周，总会发现十之八九的人都不会去注意路面的广告牌，而是把玩自己的手机。既然通过用户随身携带的手机就能向受众传达信息，广告主还有什么必要在广告牌上砸钱？今天的匹配技术甚为强大，时装公司可以通过自己的应用向用户推广品牌，游戏、体育、娱乐公司也不例外。你还可以根据地理位置投放广告，也就是说每个到达你所指定位置的用户都有可能看到你的广告。

那么开发者怎样才能有效地利用这种匹配技术？最重要的是，选择合适的移动广告服务公司。确保这家公司能够根据内容和地理位置匹配广告。下一步就是在应用中添加地理位置匹配功能，只要正确锁定了用户群体，就有可能实现大量点击率和收益。

in-app-ads(from mindgruve.com)

3.巧用富媒体技术取悦用户

这一点显而易见。静态展示广告仍然很有效果，但富媒体广告（游戏邦注：例如HTML5、3D和视频广告）会极大增加你的CPM。静态展示广告一般产生的最大eCPM是3至4美元，而富媒体广告的最大eCPM可能高达20美元。

作为开发者，你需选择一家可以支持这些技术的广告供应商。富媒体移动广告相对更为尖端，所以选择富媒体广告要比筛选成百上千家移动广告网站更为容易。

除此之外，在应用中植入交互式广告也很有利于鼓励和吸引用户，而不会让他们因厌烦而跳过广告。

4.让用户成为合作伙伴

苹果已经明确表态，禁止App Store中的奖励下载行为。不过开发者鼓励用户点击广告的做法却并不犯忌。

要知道用户已经获得了一款本应付费，但因植入广告而免费的应用，最好让他们明白点击广告是维持应用免费状态的一个好方法。所以要时不时提醒用户意识到这一点，可以在广告中加入一句话，告诉他们点击相关广告的合作之举，可让这款应用保持免费状态。在这种情况下，很少人会不愿对自己所爱的免费应用施以援手。

这一招不仅管用，而且有利于培养用户的忠诚度，以及与开发者的合作意识。

5.延迟“跳过”按钮出现时间

这一点也是让不少开发者甚为头疼的问题，我的建议是在广告底端增加一个倒计时按钮，同时延迟数秒“跳过”按钮的出现时间。多数用户都会在出现广告时，点击跳过按钮，作为开发者，你也应为用户提供跳过广告的选项，但不必在广告出现时，立即显示该按钮。要知道用户有可能因多看了一眼广告而获益。

总而言之，广告位置是成功投放移动广告的最基本和必要因素。如果你去看看那些正确对待广告位置的公司，就会发现即使他们收获了无数下载量，其应用内置广告收益也总是比单纯的付费下载模式的盈利更多。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

5 ways to wring more revenue out of your mobile apps

By Hillel Fuld

As the number of mobile apps continues to explode, so do the challenges of developing and monetizing a successful app. This week the mobile landscape hit a significant milestone: one million apps have been published (not to be confused with live or active apps. We still have a while until we hit one million there).

As a result of the extreme competition that the mobile app landscape brings, developers find it increasingly difficult to create an app that supports multiple platforms, distribute that app and — the hardest part of all — monetize it.

One of the most popular ways to monetize an app is mobile advertising. Everyone is doing it. So let’s assume you are, too. You chose an ad network or some other company to serve your ads. But how do you integrate ads into an app so that you achieve maximum results, meaning maximum clicks, maximum return per click, and maximum overall revenue?

Just as with its big brother web advertising, you could write an entire book on advertising on a mobile device. Where do you place an ad within an app? When should the app appear? What type of ad generates the most clicks? How often should an ad appear? What should you advertise for? These are just some of the many questions that arise when trying to maximize the developer’s bottom line revenue.

The following five tips are ones that I have learned to implement over time, and they have proven super effective in generating the maximum results for developers.

Choose the most visible, least annoying spots for ads

There have been many studies conducted about a person’s attention on the Web. Where does a person look first on a website? Of course the answer to that question affects the pricing of different banners on the Web. The more attention a spot will get, the more expensive the banner.

The mobile phone is no different, and with a smaller screen, mobile real estate is even more valuable. As a developer, you want to place your ads in the optimal locations to generate maximum clicks. But while you don’t want your ad to be missed, you also don’t want to damage the user experience by placing the ads in annoying and spammy locations. So, practically speaking, where should the ad appear?

Let the user play the game in peace. They passed the level? Now display the ad. The last thing you want to do is disrupt their use and run the risk of them deleting your app. So you display the ad between levels, but where? On its own screen, that’s where. Every ad should live on another screen between the levels , the ad should be displayed on the entire display.

I know what you’re thinking. “Full screen ad within an app? That will annoy the heck out of users!” Not true. If you offer an app for free (one of the perks of incorporating ads in an app), and you serve ads in a unobtrusive way, users will understand your decision to include ads. Not only that, but if they are targeted appropriately, users will actually click on them and think of the ads as added value.

Keep your ads relevant and your users happy

As I mentioned, one of the main conflicts in mobile advertising is, on the one hand, maximizing clicks and, on the other, retaining your uses. The best way to kill both these birds is by using a stone otherwise known as precise targeting.

Gary Vaynerchuk said it perfectly in a presentation he gave last month. When you stop at a red light and take a look to your left, you will notice that nine out of 10 people are paying no attention to billboards. They are looking at their mobile phone. As an advertiser, why spend your budget on billboards that can’t be targeted for your audience when you can reach your consumers directly via their mobile phone, which is in their pocket all the time anyway?

Today’s targeting capabilities are endless. A fashion company can advertise their brand to consumers who are using fashion apps. The same goes for games, sports, entertainment, etc. You can also target by location, which means a person in the vicinity of your location will see an ad promoting your brand. How much more relevant does it get?

So what can a developer do in order to effectively utilize such targeting abilities? First and foremost, it is about the company you choose for your mobile advertising campaigns (see disclosure in my bio). You need to ensure that the company supports targeting based on content and location. The next step is to enable geo-targeting in your app. Once you target your audience correctly, you can expect to see a serious boost in clicks and overall revenue.

Utilize rich media to excite users

This one is somewhat of a no brainer. While static display ads are still very effective, rich media ads — HTML 5, 3D, even video — can drastically multiply your CPM. Static display ads generate a maximum of $3-4 eCPM, while it isn’t unheard of for rich media ads to generate $20 eCPM. You do the math.

Your involvement as a developer is choosing a provider that supports these technologies. Rich media mobile advertising is still somewhat cutting-edge, so making that choice should be somewhat easier than choosing one of hundreds of mobile ad networks.

In addition, the inclusion of interactive ads within your app will have most users excited and engaging with the ad as opposed to annoyed and skipping it.

Make the user your partner

Apple has made it very clear that, as a policy, incentivized downloads are a no-no. Still, the line between encouraging a user to click and incentivizing them is very fine.

Given the fact that users get access to premium mobile apps for free as a result of incorporated ads, it is in the user’s best interest to keep clicking on the ads to keep the app free. So sometimes users need a reminder. You can include a sentence above your ad reminding the user that they are your partner in the ultimate goal of keeping this app free, and that they can help by clicking on relevant ads. Who wouldn’t want to help you deliver a product they love for free?
Not only does this work, it actually gives users a feeling of loyalty and cooperation with the developer.

Delay the Skip button

This last point might appear to be the most problematic for some developers, but hear me out. What I am suggesting here is that you add a countdown button to the bottom of your ad and delay the Skip button by a few seconds. Presented with the option of clicking a skip button, the majority of users will. Now obviously, you as a developer need to provide the user with a way to bypass the ad if they choose to, but no one says you have to do it immediately. A user could actually benefit from an ad they might otherwise never have looked at.

To summarize, ad placement strategy is a fundamental and necessary part of implementing a successful mobile advertising campaign. If you look at some of the companies that take their ad placement strategy seriously, you will see that even if their app is getting millions of downloads, they are generating more revenue from in-app advertising then they might ever dream of making from downloads alone.（source:gigaom）