What are the best monetization options? (my reviews included, but I want your thoughts!)

General (non-technical) Marketing and Monetization
#1

Hi All, 

This is my first post, so apologies up front for any transgressions.

I am basically wondering what monetization options people have found effective and easy to use  in corona SDK.  I have been using the software for about 2 years and I have tried a bunch of different tactics but nothing seems to work particularly well.  My sales figures FAR outweigh my ad revenue.  I am interested in specifics of what you have tried, what kind of revenues you are generating, and how you implemented the solution.

Here is my experience thus far:

Revmob - I have used both banner and full page ads 

Implementation:

The full page ads had a built in exit button, so this seemed to be one of the better services from an implementations standpoint.  The banners also worked well enough; I used them both as part of an ‘ad-wall’ and as an ever-present bottom banner.  

Revenue:

CPM, reveneues and fill rate were all pretty lousy, resulting in me changing providers.

Inner-active - banner, full page, and link ads

Implementation:

I have never been able to get the full page ads to work correctly, so that was a major strike for inner active.  I have used the banner ads extensively through.

Revenue:

Fill rate seems to be pretty good, although click rate is abysmal for my app suite.  Given the number of impressions, I was lucky to get an eCPM of more than 4 cents.  The customer service for these guys is also horrible and they have yet to answer a single one of my emails.  Payment is net 60, but they are not very propmt.  This is my go to service right now, but I would definitely like to switch it up.

TapIt - banner, full page, alert, 'survey’

Implementation:

The full page implementation here does work consistently and has a pretty decent fill rate, but they do not have a built in ‘exit’ button and I have yet to find an elegant solution to allow users to close the ad without clicking on it.  Unfortunately, I have not been able to use TapIts unique ‘survey’ style ads either, which it boasts has the highest eCPM. (around $6)

Revenue:

I have just started moving some of my apps to TapIt, so I don’t have a great feel for what the revenue is like.  My major complaint is that tapit is a single ad network, so by definition it should have a lower fill rate than services the use multiple ad networks like Inner-active.

TLDR;

What are the best ad monetization options you have found?  What are the specifics?  How did you implement them, and did you need to create custom code?

Ideally I would like to use a single service across android, kindle, nook and iOS, but I can be flexible with that.  Help!

Thanks for reading, and your comments are appreciated!

Erik

#2

Hey, Erik @screenusername, thanks for sharing your experience in such an organized fashion.

I am only interested in full screen interstitial ads too, and my experience with inner-active a while back mirrors what you noted above.  I’ve hoped that the issue has been fixed by now, but it sounds like it’s still there.  And if so, it’s not worth my time to integrate it back in again.  

Anyhow, you might consider looking into Chartboost.  It depends on where your target markets are, but it might work for you.  Here’s a forum thread about it:  http://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/36949-chartboost-integration/

And here’s Chartboost-Corona SDK:  https://github.com/ChartBoost/corona-sdk

I just integrated Chartboost (for both iOS & Android), and it’s pretty straight forward and nicely done.  With mine, it’s working on Android devices.  I haven’t looked at it on iOS yet, but I’m not too worried.

About iOS, for iPad, I’ll be releasing an update with Chartboost, iAds, AdMob, and for iPhone/iPod, just Chartboost.  

In addition, for both Android and iOS, I include my house-ads and AppRever (cross-promotion) to mix things up a bit and give a little more flavor.

Naomi

#3

Hi Naomi,

How do you implement multiple ad networks to your app? You say you will be releasing an update with Chartboost, iAds, and AdMob. Is there a way to switch between ad networks when one isn’t filling?

#4

@fatchicken007, here’s how I structure it:

  1.  Initialize each ad network just once after the launch of the app.

  2.  I pick and choose (by rotation) which ad I want to show each time.  And, say, if I want to show iAds, prior to showing the ad, I call ads:setCurrentProvider(“iads”) – and if I want to switch to, say, InMobi, you’d call ads:setCurrentProvider(“inmobi”).  With Chartboost and Admob, we do not need to use ads:setCurrentProvider.  (Since I don’t use inneractive or inmobi, I guess I don’t really need to call ads:setCurrentProvider(“iads”) each time I want to display iAds, but I figure it won’t hurt to keep the code there.)

  3.  Once a choice of network is made, call ads.show function to display the selected ad.

  4.  adListener would then check if there’s any event response.  I don’t remember exactly what events each ad network would return, but you’ll figure out what to do depending on the response.  If you need to show another ad (because it failed to fill the ad), you can do that.  If you just want to skip it and move on, you can do that too.  With Chartboost, you use delegate to handle what you want to do if the ad is not filled.  With mine, I simply show my house-ads when ad network fails to fill the spot.  (I don’t want the ad screen to take forever to load, and house-ads are already built in.)

I played with what I get in response and how each ad network worked with Corona, and implemented what made sense for my app.  I’m sure once you get going, you’ll sort out what would make most sense for your app.

I hope this helps.

Naomi

#5

Hi guys,

I am starting off a service that will help you monetize your app without showing any ads. I am looking for beta users and if you’re interested, you can check out Apppulp

Apologies if that counts as blatant self promotion. But I thought its perfectly relevant and would be a great resource (hopefully) to bring to your attention because its free and its designed for helping out people with low/no marketing budgets.

Regards.

#6

Hey, Erik @screenusername, thanks for sharing your experience in such an organized fashion.

I am only interested in full screen interstitial ads too, and my experience with inner-active a while back mirrors what you noted above.  I’ve hoped that the issue has been fixed by now, but it sounds like it’s still there.  And if so, it’s not worth my time to integrate it back in again.  

Anyhow, you might consider looking into Chartboost.  It depends on where your target markets are, but it might work for you.  Here’s a forum thread about it:  http://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/36949-chartboost-integration/

And here’s Chartboost-Corona SDK:  https://github.com/ChartBoost/corona-sdk

I just integrated Chartboost (for both iOS & Android), and it’s pretty straight forward and nicely done.  With mine, it’s working on Android devices.  I haven’t looked at it on iOS yet, but I’m not too worried.

About iOS, for iPad, I’ll be releasing an update with Chartboost, iAds, AdMob, and for iPhone/iPod, just Chartboost.  

In addition, for both Android and iOS, I include my house-ads and AppRever (cross-promotion) to mix things up a bit and give a little more flavor.

Naomi

#7

Hi Naomi,

How do you implement multiple ad networks to your app? You say you will be releasing an update with Chartboost, iAds, and AdMob. Is there a way to switch between ad networks when one isn’t filling?

#8

@fatchicken007, here’s how I structure it:

  1.  Initialize each ad network just once after the launch of the app.

  2.  I pick and choose (by rotation) which ad I want to show each time.  And, say, if I want to show iAds, prior to showing the ad, I call ads:setCurrentProvider(“iads”) – and if I want to switch to, say, InMobi, you’d call ads:setCurrentProvider(“inmobi”).  With Chartboost and Admob, we do not need to use ads:setCurrentProvider.  (Since I don’t use inneractive or inmobi, I guess I don’t really need to call ads:setCurrentProvider(“iads”) each time I want to display iAds, but I figure it won’t hurt to keep the code there.)

  3.  Once a choice of network is made, call ads.show function to display the selected ad.

  4.  adListener would then check if there’s any event response.  I don’t remember exactly what events each ad network would return, but you’ll figure out what to do depending on the response.  If you need to show another ad (because it failed to fill the ad), you can do that.  If you just want to skip it and move on, you can do that too.  With Chartboost, you use delegate to handle what you want to do if the ad is not filled.  With mine, I simply show my house-ads when ad network fails to fill the spot.  (I don’t want the ad screen to take forever to load, and house-ads are already built in.)

I played with what I get in response and how each ad network worked with Corona, and implemented what made sense for my app.  I’m sure once you get going, you’ll sort out what would make most sense for your app.

I hope this helps.

Naomi

#9

Hi guys,

I am starting off a service that will help you monetize your app without showing any ads. I am looking for beta users and if you’re interested, you can check out Apppulp

Apologies if that counts as blatant self promotion. But I thought its perfectly relevant and would be a great resource (hopefully) to bring to your attention because its free and its designed for helping out people with low/no marketing budgets.

Regards.

#10

Hi Naomi - just looking into ads now - would be interested to note what you’re using now (seeing it’s been a whilst since your post) - I see another post with some negative stuff re chartboost for example.   (what would be good in particular is to find an ad network I could use on IOS and Android for a “watch this short video ad to unlock XXX”)

#11

Hi Naomi - just looking into ads now - would be interested to note what you’re using now (seeing it’s been a whilst since your post) - I see another post with some negative stuff re chartboost for example.   (what would be good in particular is to find an ad network I could use on IOS and Android for a “watch this short video ad to unlock XXX”)