How To Monetize Software Effectively To Increase Revenue

Monetization platforms monetize your software for you, so you can spend your time focusing on what you love: writing great code. These platforms, such as the industry-leading CodeFuel product suite, serve the dual functions of monetization and promotion.

If you haven’t heard of these toolboxes, it’s not very surprising. Monetization platforms are a relatively recent development in the marketing world. But, given their solid rate of growth and the amount of value they add to the marketing industry, they are clearly on their way to becoming global standards.  

Pick a Platform

There aren’t many high-quality platforms to choose from. Most of those that do exist are only following in the footsteps of CodeFuel.

When you evaluate potential contenders, however, examine these factors to find out which one leads the pack:

Features and Benefits – The first thing you’ll want to check is certainly the features and benefits that the product suite offers…if it even is a product suite. In many cases, monetization platforms aren’t actually platforms at all: they’re simple advertising tools.

A full-service platform should include:

  • Monetization Solutions
  • Promotion Solutions
  • Multiple Advertising Options
  • Analytics
  • Fast Integration
  • Advanced API
  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
  • And So On

Company History – Take a look at the company’s track record, size, valuation, and so on. Some companies have just started up, while others have a history of growth and expansion. Visit third-party websites to view the company’s reputation.

Quality Partners and Users – High-quality users are the kind that converts, and high-quality partners are those whose judgment you would trust. Do they develop apps that you would feel comfortable advertising? If so, great, because these are the types of apps you can use to help monetize your installs.

Choose the Right Tools for the Job

Naturally, you won’t need every tool in the monetization chest, but you may be able to use more than one. Examine what the platform has to offer and see if it fits your needs.

Here are a few examples of the types of tools that will help you monetize your app, browser extension, or website:

Smart Installer – A pay-per-install program advertises third-party offers during the installation process, and each time someone converts on an offer, you earn money. The installation can be customized to fit your brand and optimized to boost conversions.

Search Monetization – Search monetization is an innovative monetization method that includes both a search function and a monetization function. This ingenious strategy adds value to the app and the user, without overtly marketing to them. Each search earns you money.

Targeted Advertising – The most effective ad networks are often the most specialized. CodeFuel’s DisplayFuel, for instance, cultivates a select inventory that is specifically designed for software developers.

Analytics – The analytics hub will be your window into your monetization campaign. You will want analytics data that is both easy to understand and easy to customize if the need arises.

This set of tools offers something for just about every developer. You may only use one tool or you may use them all. But once you’ve started, it’s time to track your campaign.

Analyze and Improve

After you’ve chosen your network, picked your tools, and started your campaign, you’ll need to analyze and improve your marketing funnel.

Don’t worry, monetization platforms make this a piece of cake.

Pay attention to the most important information first, such as the number of conversions, downloads, and abandonment rates. As time goes on, you’ll be able to make use of more advanced analytics features, real-time reporting, and custom functions.

Monetization Platforms and Conversion Funnels

Don’t be scared by marketing terminology. “Conversion funnel” is the only one you should be concerned about. The conversion funnel is simply another name for the sales funnel.

The sales funnel is the old idea that customers go through four stages on their way to the final purchase: awareness, interest, desire, and conversion.

Monetization platforms allow you to develop the entire funnel simultaneously, from conversion to promotion.

Promote

The final step to monetizing your software with monetization platforms is promotion. After all, without growth, you won’t be able to get the traffic you need to earn money.

Fortunately, you’ll find that monetization solutions, such as specialized ad networks and pay-per-install networks, are ideal solutions for software promotion. The very same monetization platform can also serve you as a promotion platform. 

 

As you can probably see, monetization platforms are complete solutions for developers, software publishers, and advertisers. From ad-powered monetization to search monetization and analytics, the right monetization platform will take you from zero to 60 in the amount of time it takes you to insert some code. 

Data Monetization: A Few Quick Tips for Making More From Your App or Software

Data is the new currency of the information age, which means that if you’re a developer, you can use data monetization to earn more from your app. Advertisers, marketers, and data analytics companies are prime customers for any developer who has data to offer.

And if you don’t have any to offer, simply integrate some tracking tools into your app or add some code to monitor and collect data.

Data Monetization: What to Collect and Monetize

For best results, collect as much as you can: the more connections you can make between data and customers, the better.

Here are just a few types of data you can collect and then sell to third parties.

Demographic Data – Age, economic status, educational background, ethnic background, gender, and location are some examples of demographic data that is critical to effective marketing and advertising. The more you can collect, the more valuable it will be for your marketing efforts.

Interests – With the rise of social networks such as Facebook, it has become easier and easier to find out what interests individuals and groups of people. Previously, much of this information was gleaned through controlled studies, surveys, and indirect inferences. Today, “likes,” search behavior, surfing behavior, and app usage behavior can provide detailed information that is very useful to marketers.

Geo-Location Data – While a person’s address, region, and city of residence may be considered demographic data, smartphones and GPS allow apps to track specific movements. Apps such as Foursquare, for instance, can provide detailed information about people’s movements and physical locations, which can also be used to inform advertising and marketing programs.

Health Data – Smartwatches such as the Apple Watch are invaluable tools for advertisers, because many are being designed with the capability to track physical movement, such as the amount of time spent sitting, walking, or working out. Fitness apps, therefore, can potentially earn a steady stream of income by providing this data to marketers and advertisers.

App Usage Data – How people use your app can also be useful for marketers. The type of data, how useful it is, and who you sell it to, though, would depend greatly on the nature of the app.

Turning Data into Information

What’s the difference between data and information?

Data is discrete, disconnected numbers or facts, while information forms the connections between those numbers that allows us to act.

For instance, we can receive data that tells us individual test scores for a group of students. We can turn that data into information by averaging test results to find out how well the class does as a whole. And we can take that further and generate actionable results from that information, by evaluating the students’ progress, the study materials, or the teacher’s methods.

When you look at it this way, you should be able to figure out which data your potential customers would find useful.

Figure out what your customers are looking for in order to provide them with the right data. Data, by itself, is useless. By finding out the information and results that you target customers want to glean from their data, you’ll know what data you should be gathering and providing.

Provide information instead of raw data. If you do your customer’s job for them, you can make yourself that much more valuable. For instance, let’s say that you have designed a diet app: if your customer is a marketing company that wants to find out how many people over a certain age are eating certain types of popular diets, you could provide them with raw data about the foods they eat, or you could do the legwork for them and provide them with information about eating habits.

Design your product around a data monetization strategy. If you decide to use data monetization as your primary monetization strategy for a product, you may benefit from designing your product with this strategy in mind. In other words, take a look at your niche industry, your target customers, and the target audience, then design an app that collects data and solves the end user’s problem.

 

We live in an information economy. And despite all the hype around big data, it’s really the information that’s important. Data technology and big data are simply tools we use to help us generate that information.

While advertising is certainly one of the most popular monetization strategies – because it works – data monetization is also a good way to add another income stream. With a little creativity and research, you’ll be able to find the right customers for your data. 

11 Simple Software Advertising Tips to Improve Monetization and Distribution

Software advertising is a useful tool for developers who want to both promote and monetize their software. Software marketing isn’t rocket science, but it does take a bit of planning, a bit of finesse, and a bit of common sense.

Here are 11 software advertising tips that can help you improve your bottom line and extend your reach.

1. Map Your Niche, Then Your Conversion Funnel

Every niche is unique, and has its own proclivities towards certain online media channels, social media networks, websites, and so forth. A decent map of your niche will give you the ability to construct a conversion funnel that isn’t just based on guesswork – it will be based on solid data.

2. Trust the Numbers, Not Your Team

Everyone on the team has an opinion and a bias. What you or anyone else on your team thinks may work for an ad campaign isn’t necessarily the best solution, yet political struggles can often divide a company. Often, when these opinions are stacked against the numbers, it appears that no one is right.

Whether you’re making decisions about advertising, marketing, or user interface design, use analytics and user testing to help find out the real answer. This way you can move on to more important things.

3. Test Something New Every Few Months

The curve is always changing, so keeping up with the curve requires constant evolution on your part. Always research the latest advertising trends, <a “=”” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>monetization platforms, and marketing news.

Stay up-to-date with the latest trends and test them out. Even if a trend turns out to be a fad, a side test on a side product never hurt anyone. Everything you learn can help you make smarter decisions down the road.

4. Personalize Based on User Data

Whether you’re developing an app, an extension, or a desktop program, you have the potential to gather user data. This data keeps you up-to-speed on what users want, which allows you to personalize, among other things, two important aspects of your monetization strategy: your app and your advertising.

The more personal you make it, the more value you can deliver, and the more conversions you’ll make.

5. Get Familiar with the Advertising World

Learn what’s up and who’s who. Stay up to date with the latest news so you don’t get left behind when big changes take place. Keep up with monetization news and have relevant headlines delivered to your inbox every day.

6. Display Is on the Rise, So Use It

Display advertising is increasing year by year, and is set to overtake search ads in 2024. Highly specialized software advertising solutions such as DisplayFuel offer the best choice for developers: they bring in high quality, targeted users who convert and stick around.

7. Bundle

Bundling your software offers several promotional benefits:

  • You can earn revenue from smaller code packages, such as extensions and plugins
  • You gain exposure to your partners’ audience pools
  • You can meet new people in your industry and form new alliances
  • Newer developers can gain experience and a foothold in their target niche

8. Promote with Software Advertising Platforms

Software advertising platforms, monetization platforms, and promotion platforms such as those offered by CodeFuel, allow you to manage your marketing efforts from a single place. This reduces your marketing expenditure, allows you to calculate your marketing ROI, and gives you the knowledge you need to optimize effectively.

9. Automate as Much as Reasonable

Automation is useful for the repetitive tasks that take up too much of your time, as well as the tasks that are just impossible for you to handle. Keeping up with the ever-changing marketing industry, for instance, is becoming more and more difficult as the advertising world continues to fragment and evolve.

Here are examples of tasks to automate:

  • Cross-posting the same content on your social media and blogs
  • Gathering data from the web or news outlets that is relevant to your industry
  • Real-time bidding
  • Campaign optimization

Avoid automating human interactions and over-automating customer service, which can appear artificial.

10. Monitor the Competition

If you’re a large business, then you may want to consider investing in competitive intelligence tools. But even if you’re a freelance developer or a small company, it pays to track your competition day in and day out.

Use automated data collection tools to track their movement online, so you can adapt your marketing and monetization strategy when they evolve theirs.

11. Try Out New Tech

Not only should you try out new advertising strategies and tools, you should also try out new technology. Every learning experience is an investment, which can always pay off in dividends.

Study new devices, experiment with the analytics and data they offer advertisers, and test your software advertising strategies in these new mediums.

 

Whether you’re just starting out in the software advertising world or whether you have years of experience, these simple tips will help keep you on top of your game so the competition doesn’t get ahead. 

Ways to Boost Your Pay-Per-Install Strategy & Full Definition

What is pay-per-install? Pay-per-install is a software monetization solution utilized by developers all around the world. And it’s popular because it works.

Here’s how:

Why Pay-Per-Install is Big Money for Developers

Pay-per-install programs work by presenting third-party offers and advertisements during the installation process. Users are given the option to install – or not to install – these programs. If a user chooses to install the third-party program, the developer earns money.

Each download represents an opportunity, and each conversion means money. It’s no wonder this monetization method has become so common: big downloads means big money. If you earn just $1 (and you can earn more) per conversion, then imagine how many downloads and conversions you need to bring in a decent stream of income each month.

How to Use Pay-Per-Install Software to Promote

Developers don’t just use the pay-per-install programs to monetize their software, they also use them to promote. The reason is simple: these pay-per-install networks offer up a qualified, targeted user base that gives developers a rich supply of conversions.

When you sign up as an advertiser, you give other developers the option to promote your software for you. This way, you pay the advertising costs, your software earns more exposure, and your business grows.

How to Grow with Pay-Per-Install Programs

When people convert on ads during the download and installation of your software, you earn money. But pay-per-install programs that are top-of-the-line – such as CodeFuel’s InstallFuel – give you full control over the installation process.

You have the ability to customize the installation funnel as you see fit. You can change everything from the advertisements to your logo to the text and the color scheme.

And a robust analytics platform gives you the ability to monitor your changes. What works stays, and what doesn’t goes. Optimizing your installation process as a conversion funnel allows you not only to boost your bottom line, but gives you insight into your customers’ minds.

The more you know about them and what they want, the better the user experience you can create for them, and the more money you can make.

Also, each time your program runs an upgrade, you have the option of requesting that users download the newest version. This, of course, means that they will go through the installation process again, which gives you more opportunity to monetize.

But why stop there?

One Income Stream among Many

Pay-per-install software is an excellent way to monetize a download and installation, but it doesn’t have to be your only monetization strategy. You probably want a way to capture and monetize users who don’t convert during the installation or upgrade process.

There are a few other monetization strategies that can be combined with pay-per-install programs.

To monetize users who are engaged with your software, consider in-app advertisements. These are ads that appear while people use your app. Banner ads, display ads, text ads, interstitial ads, and video ads are examples of in-app advertisements. The more relevant they are and the better they blend with your app’s environment, the better they’ll convert. You want users to stay engaged with your app, however, so strike a balance between an engaging app and engaging ads.

In-app purchases work…sometimes. Not all monetization methods work as well as others, and in-app purchases don’t have the greatest track record. Also called the freemium model, in-app purchases have a low conversion rate. But when they do work, they can work well, since you can dictate the prices of the in-app purchases.

Charging for your app. This method isn’t very popular, and it probably won’t go over very well if you charge people for your app and then present them with pay-per-install offers. Then again, rules are made to be broken, and there is a first time for everything.

Which brings us to the last point…

Test and Optimize

The analytics mentioned earlier are the best source of information you have on how you can improve your conversion funnel.

Here is what you should test and optimize in your conversion funnel:

Offers – The offers you present to your users are important. Switch out one offer at a time and see how the results fare.

Presentation – Though the offers are important, the presentation is equally as important. Change the wording of each offer, what images you use, and whether or not you use the opt-in or opt-out method.

Brand – Your brand also impacts conversion rates and the customers’ feelings about your company. A simple color change or logo switch can have a big impact on your results.

Keep track not only of your total revenue and your total completed downloads, but watch where people abandon your funnel so you can see what you did wrong.

Pay-per-install software presents a fantastic monetization opportunity for any developer. And since programs such as InstallFuel are so easy to use, you can get started making money in just a few hours. 

Software Monetization in 2024: A Summary Outlook

Software monetization in 2024 has evolved considerably from years previous. In this summary of the year’s developments, we’ll highlight some of the major trends as well as key developments that indicate the direction monetization will take next year and beyond.

Major Monetization Changes in 2024

Every time a new technology is introduced into the internet ecosystem, new monetization opportunities arise. And with those new opportunities come floods of new marketers, developers, and publishers who want to capitalize on the new market.

This has been the case with desktop operating systems, smartphone platforms, browser extensions, and other extendable platforms. Of course, with these new marketplaces comes new challenges…what’s here one day could be gone the next.

Browser Extension Monetization

Software monetization has always been a thorny problem for many developers, but browser extensions are even worse. It is quite difficult to monetize browser extensions while maintaining the user experience. Some of the best examples are cases where the developer has found a way to align the extension’s monetization solution with the user experience.

StumbleUpon’s browser extension, for instance, is a perfect “extension” of the company’s business model. Yet the monetization method is so well disguised that many users don’t know how the company earns money.

Search monetization is another example of a monetization solution that integrates functionality with revenue generation. Browser extensions or software programs that integrate this functionality into their browsers, for instance, earn money when users perform searches.

At the other end of the spectrum, however, we have developers who don’t integrate monetization and functionality. In some cases, developers have actually covertly hidden their monetization method in the code. In one case, for example, a developer used an extension to turn regular links into affiliate links without telling users.

This is one instance of a browser extension gone wrong. This extension may have been one of the factors that caused Google to update its terms of service in an attempt to force Chrome extension developers to keep extensions “simple and single-purpose in nature.” The result is a strict terms of service that makes monetization that much harder.

Pay-Per-Install and Bundling

Though extension monetization has hit a couple roadblocks in 2024, pay-per-install and software bundling are still two reliable monetization methods. A few years ago, Apple was throwing some wrenches into the works by rejecting some pay-per-install apps. However, this response on Apple’s part was a reaction to incentivized installs that were designed to manipulate user reviews or chart rankings.

For apps that don’t attempt to manipulate App Store rankings – or for software programs that don’t use app stores at all – pay-per-install and bundling are still one of the best ways to monetize the download.

Bundling can refer to rolling up several programs into a pay-per-install program. Or it can refer to bundling as a pricing strategy.

This strategy received some attention in 2024 when Thom Yorke, the lead singer for Radiohead, offered his music for sale as a BitTorrent Bundle. Though bundling itself is nothing new, it has taken some time for traditional industries – and even the software industry – to catch on and catch up.

As we move into 2024, it is likely that more software developers will realize the potential for bundling as a monetization solution.

Display and Video Advertising

New monetization solutions are emerging with new technology. Display advertising and video advertising, for instance, have begun to show promise even as other forms of advertising begin to decline. In the past, video ads were once too unwieldy to transmit over wireless networks or across multiple platforms.

But technology has helped advertisers overcome this hurdle. Major social networks, from Facebook to Twitter and Instagram, began introducing video ads into their content.

As wireless bandwidth increases, as technology itself becomes more robust, and as the cost of video production decreases, video ads themselves will become more widely available to more modest budgets…not just major brands on major social networks. Several video advertising companies already offer video ads to developers as a way to monetize apps. In fact, a 2014 study found that 3 out of 4 mobile video ads happen in-app.

Mobile Monetization

As the crowds of consumer eyeballs move from desktop to mobile, so too do the marketers, software developers, and advertisers. Though freemium has been the most popular monetization strategy for most developers, in-app advertising produces nearly the same amount of revenue, despite being less popular.

Given the competitive nature of the app markets, it is only natural that consumers would avoid spending money as much as possible – after all, everything digital is free. Why should customers have to pay for anything?

For software developers, the above-mentioned monetization methods, such as pay-per-install, in-app display ads, and so forth, will be the way to go in 2024.

This year, we have seen several monetization milestones come and go. While the occasional misuse of browser extensions has thrown up some roadblocks for the rest of the development community, mainstream app and software monetization continues to plow forward successfully with installation advertising, bundling, and in-app advertising. If this year’s developments are any indication, the mobile-first future will also be display-first and maybe even video-first.