Forum Con - Winter Wong - Community Monetization with Mobile App

Community Monetization with Mobile App

Case Studies of Apple iAd & Google Admob

on iOS & Android platform

Winter WongFounder

Tapatalk - Quoord Systems

Agenda

Sharing our Idea & ExperiencesYour options to monetize on

mobileReal case studies on iAd and

Admob

Who we areTapatalk Forum AppForum APIForum System

AgnosticFocus in iOS & AndroidBuilt & customized

over 50 community apps on iPhone and Android

4x more posts

4times / day

40 minut

es / day

Mobile forum app benefits…

ChallengesHigh cost to developMultiple device supportCookie cutter apps?May not work with your existing

monetization channels

8ways to

monetize

Sell the splash screen“this app is sponsored by…”

App selling for $1.99 Quick and easy way to generate revenue Royal members to donate money to cover app dev

cost. Change it to free app over X months

Only Premium Members can login Login access (PM, Subscription etc) to only users who

paid. Complement with your existing subscription model

Hiding ads from Premium MembersOnly display ads to regular

members

Show iAd to GuestEncourage registration, drive

membership

Free app + Premium appFree app with AdsensePaid app with customized theme, no ads,

access to special sub-forums (content)

Skimlinks / Viglink integrationConvert all out-bound link to

affiliated links

iAd + In-app purchaseRemove iAd for $2.99

>85%

users on iOS4

5countries

$5eCPM

0.6%Click Rate

Our experience w/ iAd

iAd Fill Rate

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

ImpressionRequestsFill Rate

iAd Performance by Country

Country Revenue eCPM Requests Impressions Fill Rate CTR

United States $3,530.94 $2.03 4,075,490 1,737,384 42.63% 0.60%

UK/GB $653.52 $3.22 762,521 203,008 26.62% 0.76%

France $128.34 $11.09 165,995 11,568 6.97% 1.31%

Canada $24.18 $2.67 1,254,594 9,043 0.72% 1.63%

Germany $22.17 $15.50 174,728 1,431 0.82% 2.87%

iAd AdvantagesHigher eCPM (if filled…)Easy to setup

◦ E.g. keywords are from your app meta-dataLow fill-rate can be resolved

programmatically with secondary inventory◦ Your in-house banners◦ Admob, Greystripe etc

Hidden issue… iAd license agreement indicates that ad cannot be

displayed on user generated content.

AdmobGoogle AcquisitionPositioned as prime ads platform for

mobile appAdmob SDK

House Ads Admob Ads Adsense Ads

Admob HighlightsCovers all major mobile platformsEasier to setup from developer

perspective“House Ads” allow you to mix your

own inventory with Admob / Adsense ads

“Advertise your app” via banner exchange

Decent fill-rate but very low eCPM

Case Study on Forum Foundry

Forum Foundry runs a network of forumsDroidForums.net forum 170,000

membersAdmob enabled

18-Oct

25-Oct

1-Nov

8-Nov

15-Nov

22-Nov

29-Nov

6-Dec

13-Dec

20-Dec

27-Dec

3-Jan

10-Jan

17-Jan

24-Jan

31-Jan

7-Fe

b

14-Feb

00.10.20.30.40.50.60.70.80.91

ecpm

18-Oct

25-Oct

1-Nov

8-Nov

15-Nov

22-Nov

29-Nov

6-Dec

13-Dec

20-Dec

27-Dec

3-Jan

10-Jan

17-Jan

24-Jan

31-Jan

7-Fe

b

14-Feb

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

Request vs. Impression cpc_impressions requests

iAd

$5eCPM

0.6%Click Rate

18%WW Fill Rate

Admob

$0.4eCPM

0.94%Click Rate

54%WW Fill Rate

ConclusionForum app increase users’

stickiness to your forum8 ways to monetize but no “get-

rich-quick” schemeCurrent monetization options can

cover your app development cost but not a main revenue driver of your business

But it will in future…

Thank Youhttp://[email protected]

Talk to our partners and customers today◦ProBoards (Patrick)◦T-shirt Forum (Rodney)◦Skimlinks (Mark)

Forum API Over 100 developers signed up Windows Phone 7, webOS, Windows Mobile 6 app

developed by third-party API allows forum owners to bridge existing forum with

your other online presence (e.g. pulling latest topics from vBulletin)