As far as I can tell, all adnetworks are at the worst they’ve ever been,
All ofer less than 1$ cpm and revenue if always getting worse.
I think that after the policy change by google, reality have changed and its now way harder to make decent money out of apps.
There are billion apps and advertisers willing to pay less and less every month.
Ad-network “steal” lot of income from developer to be profitable, and you must have very successful apps with millions of users to see real money, and I don’t see it getting any better.
Do you think we will get to a time when all this will be not profitable enough to work?
I think the pace things are moving might make all this ad-network scene irrelevant in about a year or two,
What do you think?
Any ppl doing this for years and can compare todays networks and cpms/revenue to the years before?
I don’t Think so. Android future is secure. As apps are increasing devices(users) are also increasing. I am earning double or triple every month from previous month. I have tried many ad networks in my apps and at-last found two best networks. 1) StartApp 2) appOptim i am not including admob because they don’t allow ads for my apps.
Hello @Mizizi, I have been developing apps for years in both Android and iOS platform, initially started with J2ME apps. Monetization is quite difficult in both platforms and yes I personally believe that ad platforms will slowly fade out, at least most of them and only 2-3 major key players will stay in the field and will attract most of the inventory that now is divided among different publishers. Having seen that early on, we started something different to fill a gap in a different market, not looking for ad clients for the inventory but market research companies. Finding there an actual need a new innovative monetization unit was introduced, Pollfish that proved that the platforms that will survive are those that will find inventories in new markets while innovating in the units suggested.
I second what emmastacey said - no need to worry. With over 10 million new android devices getting activated every week we are OK, for the near future at least.
It really all comes down to the hardware manufacturers, and what flavor OS they decide to ship with in the future. The elephant in the room is what’s going to happen when hardware giant Samsung gets their Tizen OS refined and ready to deploy…There are quite a few articles out there right now about the future of Android when the relationship between it and Samsung eventually breaks down. Android will be a dominant platform for at least a while, but I have plenty of faith in the future of Java development for mobile applications in general. It’s looking like Java SDK’s over Linux platforms will be relevant for quite a while and people will always need to sell stuff (maybe even more so in the future), so ad networks will be around for as long as there is a way to get ads in front of eyeballs.
Making more than I ever have and have done so at a stable and growing rate. Started on Android in 2011.
The shear success of the platform, combined with Google’s ownership will continue to fuel the fire for the foreseeable future.
If things do become nonviable for smaller devs then it will be time to re-adapt.
Android is not only the future, it is the present. Platform, soon to be serving 2B people around the world, personal device with dozens of interactions every day, is an economy driver. You, as a developer, is the one that provides the most important part of the Android experience, the content, the apps.
The ecosystem for developers is still shaping up, it started picking up when PPD model was introduced but suffered from the regulator change of rules with Sep13 out-of-app policy change. But that is a TEMPORARY drop, in my opinion.
The ecosystem models in Android are developing to the same place where the pc software industry developed from 2006 onward. Software brands and best selling (monetizing) apps are spending their marketing budgets by paying the rest of 99.5% of software developers for introducing users to their software (and search). Google, AVG and the rest are spending $0.5 - $2 per user install on pc and that is EXACTLY the same that develops in the mobile apps business.
Monetization platforms and ad networks will have to keep developing tools for the developers to introduce their users to new apps (brands / best selling) in the most effective way. The promotion tools (SDK, APIs, etc) will have to be smarter, less intrusive and provide a good value to the user while still convincing him to try the new app introduced.
If 5c per user is the current sweetspot of user value that every android developer wishes to reach, I believe we would see that becoming higher and higher as we continue. I, personally, see in our network, developers who are reaching 5c and even 10c per user install over time. And we are working day in and day out on making sure these discovery tools are created so we bridge the gap between the apps who make $2 per user and all the rest of 99.5% of apps that are struggling to earn 5c.
I’m optimistic. Build your app business for the long run and work with the networks who give you value you expect.
@Mizizi do you have any sources or findings to your thoughts on this topic? The reason I ask is because these next few years Ad Spend on mobile is expected to increase from $18 Billion this year to almost $42 billion by 2017 according to some reports.
I’m a little confused by what you mean by “… and you must have very successful apps with millions of users to see real money, and I don’t see it getting any better.” Think of it from an Brand or advertiser’s perspective; wouldn’t you spend the majority of your money on apps and sites that have many people using the app/site? There’s more of a chance to have your brand seen; more opportunity for clicks, installs, and brand awareness.
The app world is changing because advertisers are learning that just serving impressions on any app/site isn’t going to get the job done. Developers know apps and advertisers know what people want; the tricky part is (and hopefully this is where your account managers at the respective ad networks/platforms help guide you) connecting the two and having them understand each other on how apps work and how a user uses them and how advertising can be integrated.
As i said before - the near future is bright. No real treats for Android in sight, IOS share is getting smaller and smaller due to the limitations of their “one store-one device” model, Windows is not a real competitor as of now, BlackBerry is dead, or almost dead - what phone will people buy you think? ANDROID:) Relax and make more and better apps.
As to the money part - it depends on what you want to achieve and the country you live in - in a lot of countries $2-300 a month is a lot of money and that is doable with 3-4 not so successful apps. You can make a decent living with Android but if you want to buy a new Lambo every month, that’s a different story:)
Android gives you house car clothes. Everything is Android. With internet of things upon us, soon we may see many more gadgets (watches, cars, shoes) powered by Android and hence the need for more apps for those gadgets.
