Key Points

  • Ads are among the most important ways to generate revenue within an app.
  • But generating in-app ad revenue isn't easy for many publishers.
  • These 6 ad monetization strategies will help you drive app ad revenue at scale.

In 2016, global app revenue was around $43.5 billion. By 2022, it had more than quadrupled, reaching approximately $167 billion. This growth trend has continued into 2023 and beyond, with projections estimating global app revenue to exceed $360 billion in 2024. There's no sign that these increases - driven largely by huge jumps in-app ad revenue and in-app purchases - are going to slow down in the foreseeable future.

What does that tell us? It tells us that the potential is there - app developers stand to make a lot of money through advertising. But we also know that not all developers have an easy time bringing in mobile app ad revenue.

That's because they're not doing it right. If you think you might be that app developer, this article is for you. Read on to learn how to drive app ad revenue and calculate ad revenue effectively.

One of the best ways to increase app ad revenue is to pick the right mobile app revenue partner. You're in the right place to make that happen. Contact Playwire to start your journey to higher app ad revenue today.

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Ad Revenue Resource Center

The Complete Ad Revenue Resource Center

Experiment with Different App Ad Units

If your mobile app revenue is stuck in a rut, you might have some stale ad units on your hand. There's nothing wrong with standard banner ads and mobile video ads, but there's so much more to try.

For example, rewarded video ads work particularly well for mobile games and puts the onus of initiating the ad onto the app user. The result is incredibly high engagement, a more positive user experience, and 100% viewability. Meanwhile, in-app interstitial ads are high-value premium units that are minimally interruptive to the user experience but highly viewable and engaging.

Here's a list of some of the more common mobile app ads to try out:

  • Banner ads
  • Native ads
  • Interstitial ads
  • Gamified ads
  • Rewarded video ads

If you haven't tried each of these ad units in your app yet, you may be leaving ad revenue on the table.

Incorporate Quality Demand Sources

We get it - integrating new software development kits (SDKs) is a pain point of mobile advertising. But you can't have just one SDK that taps into a single source of demand. Well technically, you can do that, but not necessarily the smartest approach for maximizing your revenue.

In the past, the simplest way to drive more revenue for your mobile app was truthfully to incorporate more sources of ad demand. However, in 2024, not only has this mindset of “more is more” shifted but it’s leading to more failure than success. 

As a result, the already complex problem of “how do I incorporate more demand sources” has upgraded to “how do I incorporate more high-quality demand sources?”

And, integrating multiple SDKs for demand is not only a huge pain point but also a technical challenge, where mistakes can result in a whole new set of revenue problems. 

The good news is that there are alternatives to the multi-SDK approach. You can work with a partner like Playwire - we have developed a lightweight SDK of SDKs. In other words, our SDK incorporates only high-quality sources of demand, all within one single integration, making it easier for app developers to maximize their in-app advertising revenue.

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Ad Revenue Guide

Read the publishers' guide to ad revenue.

Don't Forget Your User Base

This is a common mistake app developers make when they start trying to bring in more app ad revenue: They forget that the user base is the strongest indicator of ad revenue. They begin to focus too much on the technical parts of revenue optimization and forget that, to earn ad revenue, they have to have eyeballs on ads inside their mobile apps. And more eyeballs on those ads means more revenue generated.

What does this mean for you? It means you can never let the ad tech side of your ad revenue strategy take away from your efforts to create great apps that build a huge audience. The bigger the audience, the higher the potential ad revenue.

If you take your focus too far off from the content of your app, your revenue will suffer. Choosing to work with a partner that can help you focus your efforts where they should be while maximizing your ad revenue is one solution to this problem.

Constantly Optimize Your Ad Strategy

If you want to be comfortable, in-app advertising is not the best source of revenue for you. That's because you can't just find a model that works, plug it in, and move on. You have to tweak it over time - testing different ad units, adjusting ad frequency, and incorporating different sources of demand.

If you don't continually optimize your app ad revenue strategy, it will eventually become stale. And when that happens, you start to lose revenue. This is where understanding how ad revenue works comes into play, allowing you to make informed decisions about your monetization strategy.

Scale Up Steadily

This applies to a lot of things but is particularly important in driving in-app ad revenue: Don't try to do everything all at once. And that's not just because you will become overwhelmed. It's also because it can actually chip away at your audience and user engagement.

Think about it: If you have no mobile ads or only minimal ads in your app right now, your users will be upset if they log on tomorrow and get bombarded with 10 times the ads they were used to. Some of those users may leave and never come back.

You can't have that, and that's why you need to scale up steadily. Be ambitious in your long-term strategy, but your strategy for this week can be as simple as tweaking your ad frequency and seeing what happens.

That way, you can respond and make changes to address particular things you have tried. Over time, this will lead to higher overall app ad revenue - even if it takes a little longer.

Work With The Right App Ad Revenue Partner

You don't have to look for long to find a dozen or more ad tech companies claiming they have the "proven formula" for driving your app ad revenue through the roof. And you don't have to work with them long to see that their formula is more like a guess, and it's anything but proven.

That's most app monetization partners, but not all of them. A few standout partners are breaking new ground in the industry and helping app publishers rise to new revenue heights.

Playwire is one of them.

With our proprietary revenue amplification platform, built-in data management platform (DMP), and a team of ad revenue experts including one of the largest global direct sales teams in the ad tech industry, we're the mobile app monetization partner who will actually drive app ad revenue for you. 

Whether you're looking to boost your mobile app ad revenue or optimize your in-app advertising, we've got you covered. Ready to get started?

Reach out to our team today and learn how we can help you maximize your app advertising revenue and take your mobile apps to the next level.

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