0 1 00:00:00,840 --> 00:00:06,020 Now the other big monetization strategy is of course through in-app advertisement. 1 2 00:00:06,300 --> 00:00:15,150 And this is becoming more and more predominant in the monetization strategies of apps. As more and more 2 3 00:00:15,150 --> 00:00:21,630 big companies are producing free apps which have great content and great usability 3 4 00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:25,370 users are expecting free apps. 4 5 00:00:25,380 --> 00:00:28,880 You can't really just make a great app and give it away. 5 6 00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:36,660 So instead you have ads. And this is an app that was believe it or not made by Apple in the early days 6 7 00:00:36,690 --> 00:00:44,680 of iAds which is their ad distribution system. And it's hilarious because all it does is it allows you to 7 8 00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:49,220 scroll through all the ads that they're serving across the App Store. 8 9 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:56,580 And you can even like some of these ads and save them or search for them and look at the new ads. 9 10 00:00:56,580 --> 00:01:02,970 Now of course this app was pulled very quickly because of how ridiculous it was and all those people 10 11 00:01:02,970 --> 00:01:07,850 who say that Apple always makes great apps then this is a glaring counter-example. 11 12 00:01:07,950 --> 00:01:12,630 But essentially this illustrates one of the type of ads that we're all very familiar with which is banner 12 13 00:01:12,630 --> 00:01:17,420 ads and you'll see them at the bottom of the screen or at the top of the screen. 13 14 00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:21,430 And the problem with banner ads is that we are virtually blind to them. 14 15 00:01:21,450 --> 00:01:24,570 I can't remember the last time that I clicked on a banner ad, 15 16 00:01:24,630 --> 00:01:25,670 not by accident. 16 17 00:01:25,680 --> 00:01:31,680 And that's a great point actually. A lot of developers are being very cheeky and placing very very small 17 18 00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:37,900 buttons right next to their banner ads in order to force users to accidentally click on them. 18 19 00:01:38,100 --> 00:01:43,590 Now of course this tends to lead to a lot of user animosity which is reflected in the ratings or reviews 19 20 00:01:43,950 --> 00:01:47,370 which means that you'll probably reduce the number of users you'll have. 20 21 00:01:47,370 --> 00:01:53,190 So it's a bit of a balance and you have to think about how willing you are to annoy your users versus 21 22 00:01:53,190 --> 00:01:55,640 how much revenue you want to get from advertisement. 22 23 00:01:55,650 --> 00:02:01,980 Now with these kind of in app advertisements they usually managed by a distribution companies such as AdMob 23 24 00:02:01,980 --> 00:02:07,050 or previously iAd which has been discontinued by Apple and they're the ones who are responsible for 24 25 00:02:07,050 --> 00:02:09,300 serving up these ads in your app. 25 26 00:02:09,480 --> 00:02:12,450 Now you can tell them the specifics of your app. 26 27 00:02:12,450 --> 00:02:17,820 So for example if you have a cooking app that's aimed at people who are middle aged or if you have a 27 28 00:02:17,820 --> 00:02:23,760 children's app and they will respect the age restrictions to advertisements. 28 29 00:02:23,850 --> 00:02:29,970 So say if you have a children's app, they won't show adult content in the adverts but anything beyond 29 30 00:02:29,970 --> 00:02:31,980 that it really is their prerogative 30 31 00:02:32,010 --> 00:02:36,740 as to how related to your niche as to the kind of ads that they serve. 31 32 00:02:36,870 --> 00:02:43,540 So just because you have a cooking app it doesn't mean that they won't show some advert about sports. 32 33 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:48,420 I think a lot of the advertising companies are getting a little bit better at tailoring the ads for 33 34 00:02:48,480 --> 00:02:49,460 the audience. 34 35 00:02:49,650 --> 00:02:54,390 But we're still seeing quite a lot of variability and most the time you're just going to get the big 35 36 00:02:54,390 --> 00:02:56,750 budget advertisers like Clash of Clans. 36 37 00:02:56,880 --> 00:03:02,250 So this is another reason why I don't like ads and traditionally I've not been a big fan of putting 37 38 00:03:02,250 --> 00:03:09,000 in app ads into my iOS apps. And that's because if you've been on the design course if you've heard us talk 38 39 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:15,240 about you know how much thought goes into designing the apps and making the user experience delightful 39 40 00:03:15,690 --> 00:03:21,870 then all of a sudden you know a fifth of the screen is taken up by clash of clans or mobile strike. 40 41 00:03:21,900 --> 00:03:27,480 And it just hurts a little inside you know just to see how all of your beautiful designs get ruined 41 42 00:03:27,480 --> 00:03:28,140 like that. 42 43 00:03:28,380 --> 00:03:31,520 But as I say more and more so, it is becoming a necessity. 43 44 00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:35,730 So let's look at some of the other options for advertisement. If not banner ads 44 45 00:03:35,760 --> 00:03:36,340 then what? 45 46 00:03:36,390 --> 00:03:42,270 Well one of the best performing ways of putting on advertisements especially in game advertisements 46 47 00:03:42,720 --> 00:03:49,530 is what's called interstitial ads. And these ads take up the entire screen and prevent you from doing 47 48 00:03:49,560 --> 00:03:52,740 any other action or interacting with the app for say five seconds. 48 49 00:03:52,740 --> 00:03:57,890 You have like a five second countdown here before the cross shows up and you can dismiss them. 49 50 00:03:58,050 --> 00:03:59,060 We've all seen those. 50 51 00:03:59,100 --> 00:04:05,130 And the performance of these interstitial ads are as expected better than banner ads because they essentially 51 52 00:04:05,130 --> 00:04:06,660 force you to look at it. 52 53 00:04:06,660 --> 00:04:09,450 Now of course this can be a point of contention. 53 54 00:04:09,450 --> 00:04:11,580 People do get annoyed by them. 54 55 00:04:11,610 --> 00:04:18,300 But the key is the time point at which you serve interstitials that you have to really note. And of course 55 56 00:04:18,300 --> 00:04:23,900 you being the app developer or you having contact with the app developer you can determine when these 56 57 00:04:23,910 --> 00:04:25,420 interstitials will show. 57 58 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:32,430 And the ideal time is a point where the user is in a good mood. Just as you know when I was young and 58 59 00:04:32,460 --> 00:04:38,250 I knew that in order to get a favorable answer from my parents I would have to ask that question at 59 60 00:04:38,280 --> 00:04:39,480 a good time point, 60 61 00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:46,110 this is essentially the same concept. If you present your user with an advertisement at a point where 61 62 00:04:46,110 --> 00:04:52,300 they're pretty chuffed with themselves then you're far more likely to get click through and hence revenue. 62 63 00:04:52,620 --> 00:04:58,800 So what are those time points? If you're a game that means for example beating a particularly hard level 63 64 00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:06,730 or beating up hard boss and if you're an app that means when the user has completed a task within your 64 65 00:05:06,730 --> 00:05:13,540 app. So don't interrupt somebody's flow by serving an ad while they're in the middle of something. That 65 66 00:05:13,540 --> 00:05:15,370 never achieves good results. 66 67 00:05:15,370 --> 00:05:20,200 Instead show those ads when they're at a point where they've completed something and they feel good 67 68 00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:23,370 about themselves and you'll usually see that reflected in your revenue. 68 69 00:05:23,440 --> 00:05:29,200 Now the type of ad that I'm even more fond of than interstitials is actually what's called in-content ads. 69 70 00:05:29,440 --> 00:05:34,180 So advertisements that don't really look like advertisements so they have the same font the same typeface 70 71 00:05:34,270 --> 00:05:39,810 same color scheme as the rest of your content and is essentially mixed in in there. 71 72 00:05:39,850 --> 00:05:45,430 The thing with this is that you do have to declare to the user that these are adverts but it has far 72 73 00:05:45,430 --> 00:05:50,230 higher conversion rates than either interstitials or banners and especially if you can advertise your 73 74 00:05:50,290 --> 00:05:56,380 other apps you can start to distribute and cross-promote your various apps and it usually works quite 74 75 00:05:56,380 --> 00:05:56,780 well. 75 76 00:05:56,800 --> 00:06:02,890 So have a think about whether advertising is suitable for your particular app. So if it's a app that 76 77 00:06:02,890 --> 00:06:09,580 has high repeat usage something that people use on a daily basis or something that people will spend 77 78 00:06:09,580 --> 00:06:15,400 quite a bit of time in, then you have more chance of getting revenue from impressions of the ads or 78 79 00:06:15,400 --> 00:06:16,330 clicks on the ads. 79 80 00:06:16,330 --> 00:06:21,730 So this tends to apply to games or productivity apps etc. like that. And then think about which format 80 81 00:06:21,850 --> 00:06:27,250 is best suited for your app and what is the best time point to present those ads.