Mobile advertising is growing at an incredible pace. Numerous mobile ad companies have been formed in the last couple of years, and quite a few of those have grown into huge corporations at this point. Mobile development is huge these days, we simply live in such a day and age. The mobile app stores (no matter which platform we talk about) are full of applications, and especially the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Many people actually make a living out of programming, their applications are a great source of revenue. Well, if you’re determined enough, and have a great idea for an application, or have already programmed one, you’ll also need to know quite a bit about advertising. In order to make some cash out of all this, there are various things you should consider, and we’re here to help you with that at least a little bit. Below this paragraph you’ll find a list of 6 mobile ad monetization models which can be easily integrated into your app, as well as a number of app monetization companies which handle certain types of these models. Let’s get started, shall we.
Banner Ads
These are the most common ads you’ll see in apps. The banner ads are usually placed on the top or bottom of the display, and they show all kinds of ads. If you tap it, you’ll probably be taken to a certain website containing the advertised product / service. These links can lead you pretty much anywhere, of course, it is possible that you’ll be redirected to an another app listing or perhaps some sort of a video. The most common banner ads on Android are coming from Google’s AdMob platform which you’ve probably heard about by now.
Rewards Ads
Rewards ads are really interesting because pretty much everyone wins. After you achieve something within an app, reach a certain goal, a reward will be triggered, and both the user and the owner of the app will be compensated. Let me give you an example, if you’re using a fitness app which contains rewards ads, you’ll be rewarded after you achieve a certain goal layed out in front of you. These apps are actually really popular, because as I’ve mentioned, both sides win. There are a number of companies which offer rewards ads, like Avocarrot for example.
Interstitial Ads
These types of ads pop up before an app starts, or in between menus within an app. For example, after you setup your game and click play, these types of ads will pop up, and you’ll most likely have to hit an ‘x’ or something like that in order to remove them. There are various kinds of interstitial ads, it’s also possible that you’ll get a video instead of an image, but the most common interstitial ads are the full-screen ones containing a certain image and, of course, a link to the advertised product / service. TapJoy, RevMob and Flurry are very popular advertising platforms for such ads.
Notification Ads
Notification ads are more or less self-explanatory. These are the ads you get as notifications from certain apps, when those apps are not running. Users don’t really like these types of ads, mostly because they’re quite obtrusive. Gaming apps are using such apps most frequently, and AirPush and LeadBolt are the providers of such advertising opportunities, in case you’re interested. Proceed with caution though, and if you intend on using such advertising model, make sure not push ads too frequently because you’ll quickly manage to irritate your users.
Offer Wall
Offer Walls are a very interesting type of advertising. These types of ads are mostly used in games where you can buy virtual goods for real money. The Offer Wall will give you a chance of earning virtual goods (which cost real cash) if you perform a certain action that is offered to you. You can, for example, visit a certain Facebook page (if that action is offered) and like it in order to earn some in-game currency. There are usually all sorts of actions offered to the user, and it’s up to you to choose which ones you want to perform. TypJoy, StartApp and Fisku all support this type of advertising.
Native Ads
Native advertising is most popular in apps which offer some sort of a news feed, and social networks are the best example of this. Facebook has adopted this advertising model and is striving in that area, as most of you probably know. The biggest social network in the world is definitely the perfect example though many other companies use this advertising model. There are a number of mobile advertisers which offer such advertising model, like AdRoll, PubNative and Sharethrough, for example.