作者：Mitchell Weisman

是否持有手机应用？疑惑广告能否帮你从应用中赚取收益？下面8点注意事项能够有效协助你将手机应用转变成收益。

1. 赚取收益需要依靠用户

虽然这是关于创收的建议，但你能够从应用中赚取的收益高度依赖于你所拥有的用户数量。只要应用受到广泛欢迎，其成功就会呈螺旋上升趋势。要达到临界用户覆盖水平，积极采用最佳用户获取举措，从交叉推广到病毒式传播，从PR到应用内部广告。尝试各种渠道，看看哪种适合你，锁定允许你基于同独特商业需求相关的表现参数进行付费的供应商。例如，若你真正关心的是安装量，那就不要采用点击付费模式。

Mobile Apps from spotonpr.com

2. 了解你的用户及其价值

不是所有用户都处于平等地位。通过用户获取渠道了解他们的终身价值。例如，以3美元成本获取一个终身价值6美元的用户，那这就是“高价值”用户，以1美元成本获取一个终身价值2美元的用户，那这就是“低价值”用户。不要认为获取用户是非此即彼的决策。你可以从“高价值”用户中获得3美元收益，从“低价值用户”中获得1美元收益。两类用户都能够带来收益，所以要积极获取这两类用户。

3. 平均值不可靠

无论如何，不要掉入将用户获取成本平均化的圈套（游戏邦注：同时还有用户价值）。在上述情境中，若你将用户价值平均化，那么你也许就会投入2美元获取“平均价值4美元”的用户。以此价位，你多半无法获得价值6美元的用户，因为你的出价过低，以致无法具有竞争性，你会投入2美元获取同等价值的用户——从中你没有获取任何利润。毋庸置疑，这对用户发展来说并非有利可图的模式。

4. 免费模式通常是最佳选择，但并不绝对

应用价位应主要根据用户同应用的互动情况。例如，如果用户只使用你的应用数次，那么广告支撑的模式就缺乏可行性，因为你只能够从每位用户身上获得几便士收益。定价99美分、3.99美元会更合理。虽然付费模式的销量远不及免费的广告支撑版本，但总体收益会更高。但若你的应用会被用户使用多次（游戏邦注：这代表大多数应用），那么免费模式是最佳选择。当然免费试用和免费增值模式选择也是促使用户着迷于服务的绝佳方式。在这之后，他们更有可能在你的应用中掏钱。

5. 不要在收益上厚此薄彼

有很多应用开发商陷入是要通过广告，还是虚拟货币创收免费应用的决策中。不要再琢磨两种方式哪个更胜一筹。关于金钱，所有收益都是有益的。尝试两种选择——很多主流应用开发者同时采用这两种甚至更多方式。幸运的是，在应用中植入广告能够基于自助模式，而且几乎是瞬间性的。进行反复试验，查看特定模式是否适合自己其实并不会带来多大风险。

6. 不要在合作伙伴上厚此薄彼

设置简单并意味着你可以跳过对创收伙伴进行严格评估。你应该展开调查，选择若干潜在创收伙伴——逐一进行试验。思考应用的创收进程。就若干合作伙伴进行测试，直到找到能够给你带来最多创收的伙伴。

7. 不可过度依赖外部支持

不要期望你的创收伙伴会完成所有工作。你比任何人更了解应用。批判思考广告的合理位置和过渡时间。若你开发游戏，考虑在关卡和游戏结尾之间的自然过渡节点放置广告。思考用户何时愿意同广告互动，然后在相应位置放置广告。最终结果是，你给用户带来更优质的体验，同时提高创收。

8. 将分析置于主导地位

投入必要时间和资源进行可靠分析中非常值得。进行内部分析，以真正了解用户价值、用户属性模式和创收支出，运用各种各样的外部工具，协助你就目标市场、优先平台等各种关键战略决策做出明智选择。

鉴于智能手机覆盖率持续提升及应用使用率越来越高，现在是成为手机应用开发者的绝佳时机。不妨充分利用这一机会。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

8 Ways Mobile Developers Can Make The Most Money On Their Apps

By Mitchell Weisman

Editor’s note: Mitchell Weisman is CEO at global marketing and digital advertising company LifeStreet Media.

Have a mobile app? Wondering if advertising can help you make money from that app? Here are eight must-know tips to help you turn mobile app inventory into dollars.

1. It takes customers to make money

While this is a piece about monetizing apps, the amount of money you can generate from an app is highly dependent upon the number of users you have. Once apps achieve popularity, their success spirals. In order to reach critical user adoption levels, engage in user acquisition best practices, from cross-promotion to viral distribution, and from PR to paid in-app advertising. Try multiple channels to see what works for you, and stick to vendors who allow you to pay based on the performance metrics that are relevant for your unique business needs. For example, don’t pay for clicks if what you really care about is installs.

2. Know your customers – and their value

Not all customers are created equal. Know the lifetime value of your customers by the channels in which they were acquired. For example, let’s say you can acquire a “high value” customer – say someone worth $6 in lifetime value — for an acquisition cost of $3, and let’s say you can acquire a “low value” user worth $2 in lifetime value for an acquisition cost of $1. Don’t think that pursuing one customer or the other is an either/or decision. You make $3 in profit from the “high value” customer and $1 in profit from the “low value customer.” Both sets of customers are profitable, so pursue additional acquisition of BOTH types.

3. Averages lie

Whatever you do, do not fall into the trap of averaging your customer acquisition costs — nor your user values. In the above scenario, if you average the value of your customers, you might attempt to pay $2 for customers worth “an average of $4.” At that price you probably couldn’t get the $6 high value customer because your bid would be too low to be competitive and you’d be spending $2 to acquire a customer worth exactly that – with no margin leftover for you.  Needless to say, this is not a profitable path for user growth.

4. Free is often best –  but not always

What you charge for an app should be based largely on how users engage with it. For example, if people use your apps just a few times, an ad-supported model probably doesn’t make sense, as you’ll earn just pennies per user. It makes more sense to charge 99 cents, $3.99 or another small fee up-front. Even though sales at the paid price will be a fraction of the free, ad-supported version, the total revenues are likely to be higher. However, if you have an app that is likely to be used many times – and this is the majority of apps – then free is probably the best option for you. And of course, free trials and freemium options are also great avenues for getting users hooked on your services.  After that happens, there is a much higher chance that they’ll actually spend money on your app. A recent piece by Infoworld does a good job of discussing this user engagement model.

5. Don’t play favorites with money

Too many app developers get caught up in the decision of whether to use advertising or virtual currency to monetize their free apps. Stop fretting about which is better. When it comes to money, all money is good.  Try both options – many of the top app developers use both of these channels and more. Fortunately, implementing advertising in your app can be self-serve and almost instantaneous. The risk is incredibly low to try it out and see if it works for you.

6. Don’t play favorites with partners, either

Ease of setup is not a license to skip due diligence in monetization partners. You should do your research, select a number of potential monetization partners — and try out all of them.  Consider this app monetization speed dating. Test out several partners until you find the one or ones that monetize best for you.

7. It takes two to tango

Don’t expect your monetization partner to do all of the work. You know your app better than anyone. Think critically about logical places and transition times for advertising. If you develop a game, consider placing ads at natural transition points between levels and/or at the end of a game. Think about when your users may be most willing to engage with ads, and place advertising accordingly. The result will be both a better experience for your users AND increased revenue for you.

8. Analytics reign supreme

It’s absolutely worthwhile to spend the time and resources required to invest in solid analytics. Invest in internal analytics in order to truly understand user values, customer attribution models, and monetization payouts, and use the myriad of external tools available, from App Annie to Distimo, to help you make smart decisions about markets to pursue, platforms to prioritize, and other critical strategic decisions to make.

Given the explosion of smartphone adoption rates and app usage trends, it’s an exciting time to be a mobile app developer.  Make the most of it!（Source：techcrunch）