Just put ads
When you hear people talk about monetization for their products, you always hear them talking about ads. It is the easiest way to “solve” monetization problems. But let’s be honest, when was the last time you saw an ad that you liked or even clicked on? I mean, ads can sometimes show you something that you might be interested in, but in most cases that is because they tracked you all over the web and served you something that you already visited.
Mobile apps
Smartphones today have big screens, but screen space is still really valuable. Whether you put static ad banners, interstitials or other types of static ads that take up space, distract you and don’t give you any value, you are wasting that space and making bad user experience. It is important (in all products but in mobile apps the most) to give value to users as soon as possible and in the best way possible. Just put yourself into users skin and think how would you feel if you saw that ad for n-th time?
If you use Instagram or Facebook you can see how they are oversaturated with ads. They focus more on ad part of their products than other parts. I feel like every day I get more and more ads on Instagram, and they are not even about things I like or want. I know that they need to get money somehow, but it would be great if they were not so bullish with all those ads.
Native ads
There are always new ways of making ads and advertisement more friendly, so it doesn’t look like an advertisement. If you can do that, that is great. In some cases, a product or a service that you recommend inside your own product might be something that your users really want. If you have a great profile of your customers you might even give them real value with recommending something. But you should also think about how much in detail do you want to track your users and their data (people don’t like that a lot).
Give real value
Think about what is the real value that you give to users. What is the thing that differentiates you from other products? Why should somebody use your product? People will always pay for something that entertains them, saves them time and money, etc. Also, don’t makeup problems and try to solve them, there are lots of small and big problems that we all have every single day and if you can solve them people will pay for that.
No other way
If there is really no other way of monetization and your ads are not distracting, feel free to put them and use them. But be sure that they are not standing in the way. Money in MDD stands for money, so it would be great to get some money from your products. 🙂
