After release my first iPhone application I had a fairly decent turnover in turns of sales considering it was a pretty niche application in the health and fitness category. However, I decided to make the application free until the next update and in the first 3 days downloads of my app have increased by 1433% - which is quite staggering.
So it got me thinking maybe the option of a free application, with ads would be a better option. With that said, what are the available options for integrating ads into an iPhone app and which is the most profitable?
iAD is the most profitable as it pays lot per impression, but they don't always fill the slot. The best thing you can do is to implement some service like AdWhirl which will fill the empty slot with another service such as JumpTap or Admob when the iAd slot does not come through. You can adjust the frequency of each ad network to your liking as well, so if later, you decide that JumpTap should be shown always, you can adjust it from the web interface instead of pushing a new version of your app.
The best solution is to use iAds now that Apple has prevented other ad networks from device-tracking.
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So I just released my app to the app store last friday. Realized it's going to be extremely difficult to get paid sales (but a good amount were downloading my app for free), so I decided to go with the model of releasing a full free version of my app with ads, and a paid version without ads.
My app has to do with adding captions to photos, so in two of my main screens, the app takes up the full screen of the phone. So I'm going to use full screen ads that pop up each time a user makes a view controller navigation transition.
I'm pretty clueless about how to go about choosing the right ad network. Right now I've installed Greystripe SDK and am playing around with it and it seems fine, but my one concern is that (I believe) they only serve Europe and North America. As an experiment, I made my app free and only half of the 150 or so downloads were from Europe and North America.
Was wondering if anyone could share some knowledge or link me to any beginner tutorials on how to choose an ad network. I've done google searches and haven't had much come up (maybe I'm using the wrong terms).
What I've found in doing research on this, is that I'm shocked about how little information there is on this subject as compared to anything else in iPhone development. Not sure why this is, maybe because there aren't many developers using ads in their apps or maybe because the ones that do don't want to give away their secrets.
I think a good strategy for a newcomer for implementing ads is to start by using a mediation network. A mediation network is software that allows you to use multiple ad networks to serve ads to your app. So for instance, the mediation network will check to see if there is an ad to serve from Admob, and if there isn't it'll move onto the next network on your list. Doing this will give you high fill rates (i.e. making sure an ad is served the majority of the time when you call for an ad) and will also allow you to compare and contrast different networks. You can make adjustments in the mediation control panel without having to upload a new version of your app.
I also recommend starting out with some of the larger networks like Admob, iAds, Millennial, InMobi, etc. and then from there maybe branching out to other networks that do a good job in targeting specific things like video ads / interstitials, or certain countries.
So what I've done is gone with Admob Mediation for now, and am serving ads from Admob, Millennial, InMobi, and Adfonic.
Hope this helps.
Try iAds
how-to-add-iad-banner-in-iphoneipad-app
I am a member of a gliding club with 150 members, and we want to have our own iPhone app. Requiring a member login, the app would be usable only by members of the club, and it would be used by an estimated 20-30 people.
Is it even possible to disribute such an app to non-jailbroken iPhones? According to my research:
It wouldn't be accepted on the App Store due to "limited audience".
Even if we were able and willing to pay $300 for the enterprise distribution model, Apple would likely not accept us as a company.
Ad hoc distribution would be fine for us except for the expiration time associated with apps distributed in the manner.
Are we at a dead end?
Thanks.
Edit: In case anyone is wondering why I didn't just ask Apple directly: I did, and their answer was, "We are unable to advise you with respect to the Apple Developer Program that best fits your needs."
I'm not 100% on your question.
But depending on your requirement, pretty much everything you need can be achieved as a web app, with the correct coding behind it i.e. CACHE MANIFEST you could make the app function similar to the a native app, available offline and can be saved to any iOS device through the browser.
Give me a shout if you need more information.
Hope it helps
Gary
You could always try to make the app a little more "global"? Perhaps offer some free stuff for Joe Bloggs to use, but tucked away you have your real motive... that way you can get it released legitimately.
I've seen some real disasters in the app store that shouldn't have made it, and I'm sure Apples screening isn't as intense as we might think. (example: that flash light application, when pressing a sequence of buttons it would enable free tethering).
Best of luck!
Yup. You seem to have all the options laid out pretty clearly, and there's no other way to do it. Except developing for android, and just distributing the application freely and without arbitrary restrictions.
Sorry.
Ad-hoc distribution would give you about 90 days expiration time, i think, whereas enterprise would give you a year. Though gaining enterprise status in the eyes of apple is easier said than done.
Even if we were able and willing to pay $300 for the enterprise distribution model, Apple would likely not accept us as a company.
You don't have to be a company to apply for the enterprise account, you just need to be an organisation with a DUNS number.
What you recommend for advertising platform not in the USA.
iAd is ot seding ads outside the USA.
I'v tried AdMob, ad it also seems not to work. Most of the time it fails to show up an and, ad when showing it shows only one ad again and again (some hotel booking)
Any Idea?
Have you tried Google Mobile Ads?
I would recommend not sticking to one platform as such. You have a particular service fill in ads but if that doesn't have ads for you then, query some other platform, if that doesn't the next one.
# Pseudo-code
if GoogleMobileAds:
# Code to use Google Mobile Ads
else if iAd:
# Code to use iAd
else if AdMob:
# Code to use AdMob
else:
# Your own promotion or whatever is your last option
Edit: You may have to handle transitions and animations on your own. You may also have to create a new AdMobView for every ad request you make. Following is a quote from this Google Groups discussion.
If you require feedback from the SDK for every ad request, we suggest
that you create a new AdMobView for every ad request you make. If
using this particular method, you will have to handle view transitions
(and animations) between the two ads yourself, as well as cleaning up
each AdMobView object when you no longer need it. If you require feedback from the SDK for every ad request, we suggest
that you create a new AdMobView for every ad request you make. If
using this particular method, you will have to handle view transitions
(and animations) between the two ads yourself, as well as cleaning up
each AdMobView object when you no longer need it.
I would recommend Smart AdServer, because in my opinion, this is the best all-in-one mobile adserving tool.
It's both an adserver (where you can program your own ads on inventory you have sell by your own) and a mobile advertising platform ( it's connected to main global adnetworks through backfills. And most of the are compliant with backfills, this is not the case for every ad server, I'd recommend that you check.
It is just an SDK (compatible i0S 5 and less), also compatible with iPad.
Programming is really easy, and formats are really cool, innovative, so you can get high CPM from them (you can check by your own downloading the iPhone app, or on this gallery.
You can monitor campaigns in real time, directly in an iPhone app.
I need to implement trail period in my app. How to do it? Store day count in NSDefault? or some other?
You could store a counter in the preferences as you mention, although that counter would disappear if the user reset their phone.
However, I think it's all slightly besides the point. In general, Apple frowns upon apps that have this kind of functionality, so don't be surprised if your app gets rejected. Consider launching two different versions of your app instead, a "Lite" app and a "Full" app. The Lite app should have a reduced feature set, but it should never stop working.
Apple is against the idea of you disabling features to prompt people to pay money for something. Your app needs to be fully functional and a 'lite' version and a paid version seems to be how things work at the moment.
That being said - if you implemented it properly you could add in app purchase items to enhance your app. Your original 'lite' app could be $0 and additional features can be added for a fee.
The most bullet-proof method would be to send and maintain a copy of the iPhone's UUID in a database.
Then if the App is not "unlocked" it requires a "key" form the database every time it launches. You can then implement the trial period on the server side.
However, if you decide to use some type of encryption to store or transmit keys etc you will need a licence to distribute the App.
You make a light version of your app. There is no official way to have a trial version at this time. Hopefully Apple will eventually address the need, but I can't say I would hold my breath...
I finished building an app that allows beaming of photos, contacts and text clips over Wi-Fi
IPhone to IPhone and IPhone to desktop.
I want to decide on the feature set of the lite version of my IPhone app. I also want to come up with a pricing model. So the question is, which of these components should be free, and for which I should be charging for ?
For example, the lite version could have all features except the ability to interact with the desktop version - that is, it would work IPhone to IPhone, but not IPhone to desktop. The paid version would be able to beam to the desktop. In addition, the desktop version would be free, so you could share it with family and friends.
Alternatively, there would be a single free IPhone version and I would charge for the desktop app. The only thing here is that I would have to setup server side code for managing registration codes.
One reason to make your desktop app free and the iPhone app a paid product would be to take advantage of Apple's app store and their payment processing, hosting, etc. While I know 30% seems steep for what Apple provides, it is nice to have that part of the business be handled by someone else. For example, you will never have to deal with credit card processing or have to issue refunds - Apple does all that for you.
I like the mechanism that is more suited to viral distribution and giving people a good taste of all the features, before they are sort of convinced to go for the paid version. The marketing value of an app that can be freely tried out once one user recommends it to another, is invaluable. If someone recommends a product to me and I have to pay for it, then I probably would put off trying it till alter when I have learned more about it. However, if it is free, I can download and try it without feeling like I need to do more research prior. Once I like, and am hooked on it, then I will want locked functionality that I would have to pay to unlock.
I'd stay away from selling, payment processing, and reg code management, if your expertise is in coding - you'd make yourself more money writing more code than writing reg code management utilities...
Good luck.
I'm not sure charging for either is the best idea. If you keep both tools free, you get people trying (and liking) both apps. Viral distribution will ensure a decent user base. Once people use both tools, they're more likely to pay for the next part, which is the connector software.
I like your idea of three parts: a free iPhone app (Let people share photos on their iPhone), free PC app (There are hundreds of photo viewing apps, free... Don't try to charge for them, that way lies pain) and paid connection between 'em.
That way:
You get people using your iPhone app virally (To share with each other's phones & try out the application)
You get people using your PC app virally (Because the cost to try is nearly null)
The connection can be sold through Apple's iStore, so you don't need to do the money handling side
You could even make the connection component a subscription, but as an end user I hate that idea unless I get some additional functionality from it being a subscription (Like free hosting).