remove ads IAP. is it worth it?

Hey guys,

I’ve been debating with myself over introducing “remove ads” IAP into my heavily ad supported app. I read a lot of cases where for some people it worked, for some it did not. for example, in this reddit article How effective is “Remove ads” in-app purchase? : gamedev

My app gets 1 thousand downloads a day, makes ok revenue from ads, but I am considering “unlocking” full potential of the app (adding more content and options) + removing ads for $1. $1 is more than I make from each user showing ads to them over their lifetime, so it makes financial sense…

What I can’t estimate is the conversion rate at which people will buy this feature at.

Does anyone have experience in this and what were the outcomes? Should I bother spending dev time and $$$ to get this out there or am I wasting my breath?

I would (and do) make it $2. I don’t know how it is in your country but in mine from that $1 after Google cut and taxes I would get $0.5.

That makes sense. Do you mind sharing your conversion rate per 100 downloads?

I never had time to calculate it. It’s probably very low though.

I think you are making a logical mistake here. You are comparing how much you make in average per user (lets say $0.03) against $1. But you should only consider users willing to purchase in this comparison , which should give you in average way more than the average user.

I would be afraid to do this since I know how android users are. They will test the free version and if they like it then they will buy the paid then they will hit refund. They keep the apk without paying then post the apk without ADs to a local file sharing website. Don’t get me wrong you will make extra money in the beginning but down the line it might be less.

We are talking about IAPs not Free/Paid versions of the app. As far as i know you can´t do that with IAPs.

Alright I have seen them do it with IAP too. They buy it and then upload the apk to a file sharing site. I am not saying don’t do it , I am just saying the AD free version will be posted online the moment you offer it IAP to unlock it.

Correct me if i am wrong.
IAP is safe. Even if you are providing the option of unlocking ads,it will only work for gmail users who have purchased it. Unlocked APK won’t work against other users. Google IAP implementation take care the registered users. Even in same handset unlocked version won’t work for users who has not purchased the IAP.

For example if you have purchased IAP with your [email protected], you have to always install/download the app with same gmail id in order to enjoy the unlocked version.

I am sure same goes with paid apps as well as Googal wallet is involved in both the cases.

So there is no risk if someone is posting the unlocked APK on other sites.

Coming back to topic:-
I have my main app which was making me $6-7 per day. I experimented with IAP in it and saw good reeults. Out of 1000 users 4-5 users opted for unlocked version. Some time $40 in a week. Out of total revenue Google shares 30% of the revenue. So for me it was $140 per month after google deduction. It reduced to $120 next month. I thought that unlocked version might kill my ads impression for potential users and then i removed the “remove ads” feature from the app for new versions.

Here is my experience over the past 6 months with my “remove the ads” IAP implementation in one of my apps. After more than 30,000 new installs since implementation, 120,000+ current installs, 300,000+ total installs, 4.06 average rating. IAP was a real PITA to implement, and has earned about 30 bucks over 6 months to remove the ads from this app. On the flip side, that app has displayed 367,498 admob interstitials in that same time period. It was worth a shot, but it’s fairly conclusive that it’s simply a waste of time and gives you an insight into how important removing ads really is to users… About 1 in 1000 users pays .99 to remove ads from the free version, and 267 users have paid for the .99 paid app in the same time period…It’s about 9 times more profitable to have a standalone paid version, than to rely on IAP from the free version. Just my honest experience.



I add remove ads only for angry user and i make price high enough: 2.99$. So only angry people will use it, i will get less 1 star rating :slight_smile:

OK like I said IAP is not safe and will cause people to download the AD free version. I didn’t want to post this but since a couple of people swear IAP is safe go look here
Mobilism ? View forum - Game Releases

Fithy pirates will post free IAP and AD free versions of your app. These people don’t give a rat a$$ about us indie developers trying to make a buck. Its horrible but until all apps become streaming apps that require internet connection this is what we have to deal with.

users that see ads or purchase iap are all the same and will use same amount of bandwidth/space/features from me, are they not?

thank you. does your paid version have any extra features to it, or is it simply “same thing without ads”

What I was going to do is authenticate users right after IAP purchase and have a record of their device in my database. on every app launch it would connect to my server to check if the user made any purchases. do you think this would take care of pirating?

@toxic - keep up for privacy though.

They got Modern Combat 5 IAP unlocked. So unless you have a super coding technique better than AAA companies it will be a risk. I don’t think its worth it until you app starts to slow down considerably , that way you lose nothing or very little.

Wait till downloads slowdown from 1,000 a day to 400 a day. If you do go ahead with it make it at least $2.99 to $5.99 so at least it will cover any piracy damage. $0.99 cents or $1.99 is too low that’s how larger developers make up the cost and win!!

Not really, your average calculation includes all type of people: Some people who installed the app and deleted it 30s later, people who used it once and deleted, people who tried it for a while and deleted, and of course, hardcore users. This give you, lets say $0.03 / user.

On the other hand, people willing to spend money on your app is a group composed mostly by hardcore users (that’s why they are willing to pay for it right?). These people will use your app several times more than an average user, hence giving you way more $ than an average user.

So lets say removing ads gives you $0.7 (considering Googles´s cut) while a hardcore user gives you $0.3. So you are making an extra $0.4 per hardcore user. Assume your app has 1MM downloads and $0,1% of your users are hardcore: you make an extra $400. (1.000.000 x 0,4 x 0,001). Does it worth it?

In my opinion, add IAP´s only if you are offering something very attractive to users (not removing ads) and you are able to charge $10, $20 or $100 to hardcore users and continually tempting non hardcore users to spend $1.

FYI… WordHero has a remove ads option. $4.99/month subscription. Yes, some people pay that.