40 Secrets to Making Money with In-App Purchases
Learn 40 battle-proven secrets that will help you earn more money with in-app purchases in your apps! By Riccardo D'Antoni.
9. Offer an Immersive Experience
Here’s a neat little trick that’s incredibly effective, but only takes two seconds to implement.
Have you ever played in the casinos in Las Vegas or Monaco? Look around — you won’t find any clocks, which dulls peoples’ perception of time and entices them to stay and gamble more.
Removing the status bar from your game will increase the average time per gaming session. The more time people spend in your app, the more opportunity you have to convince them to make a purchase.
10. Provide a “Remove Ads” Option
Although it seems like everyone and their dog uses this strategy, don’t underestimate it! It’s incredibly simple, but many users really want to enjoy your app without the distraction of ads.
As an experiment, head to the App Store and scroll through the reviews of apps that don’t offer this feature. You’ll be surprised at how many people request this functionality when it isn’t available to them!
11. If in Doubt, Go With Consumables
Recent research from Flurry — a provider of mobile analytics services and ad networks — indicates that out of all of the possible IAP models, consumables are generally bigger revenue generators compared to other types of contents.
The infographic from Flurry below shows the breakdown of the various IAP models and how they stack up against each other:
If you only choose to use one strategy to monetize your app, pick consumable items. It’s your best bet in terms of conversion rates and perceived value.
11. Give Your Players the Statistics They Love
Gamers love the nitty-gritty details on how stack up against other players in the game. Give your users the option of an IAP that provides them the ability to see how they measure up against other players around the world!
Ruzzle is a great example of an app that offers this option through an IAP:
13. Treat Time as Priceless
Most people perceive time as a really precious gift — and gamers are no exception. People are generally an impatient lot, and they want to satisfy their needs as soon as possible.
Mobile games are an extreme case of how valuable time can be. A huge portion of mobile gaming happens while users are spending time waiting in situations where at any moment they might have to end their game.
Gamers want to squeeze the maximum amount of gameplay out of every session. You can capitalize on this by selling them the gift of time.
If you browse the App Store you will find many games that implement this strategy in very effective ways. Clash of Clans is an extremely successful game which has a monetization strategy based mainly on this approach.
Clash of Clans allows you to speed up construction activities or army building by spending the game’s virtual currency. It’s an incredibly successful strategy, but you can take it a step further and gather some metrics around what encourages people to trade money for time.
A great way to measure and adjust the effectiveness of your IAP strategy is to setup a server where you can monitor and change the length of the timed events in your game. In this manner, you can tweak the timings to find the best combination between event duration and IAP content sold!
14. Bundle Your IAP Content
If you have a stock of game items that could be linked and sold together as a group, do it! People love to buy in quantity — just take a look at the crowds at Sam’s Club on any given Saturday.
Draw Something does this rather well by offering color and color theme groups for their app, as shows in the screenshot below:
15. Help Users to Feel Good
People form strong associations between emotions and experiences they’ve had when visiting places. Your app is no exception to this rule. You can use a simple strategy to help your users associate a warm, fuzzy feeling with your app.
On first launch of your game, lead people to your store and give them a gift just for visiting. They’ll recognize your kind gesture and associate your store with feeling good. Users who associate pleasant feelings with your app are more likely to spend money later down the road.
17. Offer a Relic
Create some extra-special in-game content that is really expensive compared to other content. Cover it with diamonds; gold-plate it; do whatever you need to do to make it stand out from your other items. This will be your “Relic” — the one piece among your in-app content that is just beyond the reach of normal players.
Take a look at the in-app content offered in Noble Nutlings, shown in the screenshot below:
As you can see, the golden wheel is the most expensive option — more than 12 times more expensive than the next item in the list! Relics like these are excellent hooks for whales and hard-core gamers. Whales will spend the money to get the relic right now, while hard-core gamers will spend hours in order to unlock the relic without paying — and you’ll earn revenue from both styles of players.
17. Make Your Users Laugh!
Come on — who wouldn’t want to buy a flying red fridge?
This example is from the wildly successful game Mega Jump. What began as an in-joke at the development studio morphed into a playable red fridge character that thousands of players have spent their hard-earned money on.
18. Provide Limited-Time Offers
Create some urgency with your in-app purchases by offering limited-time deals. Offering key items for 50% off — or more — raises the “buy” instinct in your users.
The following screenshot is taken from Contract Killer Zombies:
The countdown timer showing how much time is left on the deal is particularly effective, as it creates a sense of urgency and leads to snap buying decisions.
If you can remotely set up and control your IAP offerings, play with the settings of “time left” and “cost” to see which combination leads to the highest amount of sales.