Monetize Without Compromise

Episode 3. Monetize it.

 

What are the different ways to monetize your app in 2025, and how exactly do they work? How do you know which strategy to choose and follow?

Moderator: Neha Dawar

Speakers: Lucas Calixto, Alex Khoroshilov

TRAILER

Neha

What app categories are really taking off right now?

Lucas

Ads will not go away, guys. We have to be aware of this as well.

Alex

You should just love what you do and care about your users.

Neha

Our listeners actually want to know what type of an app they should be making if they want to get rich.

Lucas

Give him away five to ten ads, and he will be very happy to watch it and to get a sombrero for free!

Alex

Monetize easily, but monetize it wisely.

Neha

Oh man, that sounds like a lot of work…

EPISODE

Neha: Hello, hello. My name is Neha and you're listening to Points of Growth by Yango Ads. Together with our experts, we're diving into the world of AdTech. We explore tools and innovations that make life easier for advertisers and publishers, while we also give them the right momentum to grow their businesses. In this episode, we're going to be talking about app monetization. What are the ways to monetize apps in 2025? What are the current breakthroughs and challenges you should be aware of? And how to pick the best strategy and get the most out of your app?

So today's guests are Lucas Calixto, business development manager at Yango Ads.

Lucas: Hello guys. Hi everyone.

Neha: And Alex Khoroshilov, technical customer success manager at Yango Ads.

Alex: Hello everyone.

Neha: So the most important part, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourselves? What is your major focus in app monetization?

Alex: The app monetization is growing year by year, the market's changing. But the main task for us as experts is always the same. How do we grow the monetization revenue for us, for our publishers, etc? So yeah, the focus right now is to understand what's the best strategy for each and every app of our publishers and just to grow the revenue using different strategies. Obviously, I work a lot with mobile mediations and this is my bread and butter. Let's say, everything that I do on a daily basis for several apps, different categories. So my goal solely concentrates on how to choose the right strategy to grow the revenue with the monetization.

Lucas: So my part in the company is to find apps or publishers that do not have a very good experience with ads or have problems setting up their mediation. Or, they don't know that there are solutions like ours that could be very beneficial for them in terms of increasing their revenue.

Neha: So I'm going to ask you a question. What app categories are really taking off right now? Does monetization potential even depend on the app itself or not really? Our listeners actually want to know what type of an app they should be making if they want to get rich… Actually, I'm just kidding. I want to know what type of app I should be making if I want to get rich!

Lucas: Actually, that's a very good question because there are some cases of apps that we do not expect that they would be created. And then in the end, they make huge success

Alex: Yeah, to be honest the app category doesn't really matter because as a publisher you should just love what you do and care about your users — that's the first thing. An app normally is used for different purposes. It could be joy that you receive when you're playing a game, it could be something like a tool that is essential for your daily business etc and. And based on the category, obviously, yeah, it depends which strategy you take. If I'm using too many ads, for example, then obviously people will stop using my app, because they just bother them a lot. But at the same time, yeah, you should pick your strategy based on the app category. But there is no real connection that this year we have this category, for example, flying or vpn or something else — everything depends on the market, everything depends on the geographical location of your users, there are so many factors.

Lucas: Since you want to get rich with apps, there are a few cases that you can use. For instance, simulation or simulators — right now they are really hyped in terms of getting new users and getting wild traffic from pretty much everywhere. So, simulations can be of any type — for instance, you are inside an airplane and you're driving it, or you are inside a car driving it, or, you are the owner of a shop and people come in to buy food and then in the simulation process you sell something. So it's actually just simulators for any type of things that we'd like to do. And this is something that people are really enjoying and playing a lot. So we can see that this is a very, very good case for gaming right now.

Puzzles — it's another category in gaming that it's highly adopted now. Casual games, of course, everybody knows, RPG, etc. And being specific, like for instance, in my market — in Latam, Brazil, they tend to create an app in which the player is the delivery person. So basically, you are a guy on a bicycle delivering some food to another person. And there is the kind of GTA strategy that you have to follow.

But you can create an app where players have to develop different ways of farting. And then you're going to get like one million users per day and then you're going to get rich for a few months. So it really depends.

Neha: Oh man, that sounds like a lot of work. Just for a short time get rich period.

So I'm also a business development manager and I'm very curious, how do we kind of balance business goals with customer needs when it comes to monetizing an app? Businesses need to make money and grow, right? But customers also want enjoyable and preferably ad-free experiences with an app. So how do you kind of find the balance?

Alex: The balance, you mean not to destroy the experience of the user by getting the revenue from them? Is that what you mean?

Neha: Yeah, so a nice balance where the business gets to make money, but also we're not just throwing constant ads in like a user's face being like, here you go, watch this, watch this, watch this.

Alex: Yeah, that's true. That's a very important question. And this is the most difficult task, maybe, just to find the right balance between revenue and user satisfaction.

First strategy could be that you have a free version of your app that will contain the ads. And then, obviously, if the users get annoyed with the ads, they can buy an ads-free subscription. This model is quite prolific in terms of results because it brings you revenue both from ads and from subscriptions. When a user gets a paid subscription, you obviously can get this user as a loyal one. You can send him some personalized push notifications, etc.

Another thing when combining in-app purchases with ads experience, another thing is to imagine you're playing the game. You just completed the level. You're happy. You're over the moon with the results that you achieved. And then you see the ad and then you see another one and then you see another one and it gets annoying. Oh my god, that sounds like a nightmare. Yeah, so you just watch the ad and then you jump to the next level.

Another thing which is good for gaming is having some merchandise that players can buy — a wand, a sword, currency inside the app. But normally, a player needs to spend their own money to get this. Another good way to integrate this into your app is a situations when the palyer want to buy a very nice hat for their character in the game, but don't want to spend money — you can offer the player to watch five ads and then get it the hat for free. In this case, the publisher gets the revenue, the user balances between spending money in the game or not spending money in the game. I think the most prolific strategy is when app publishers combine app subscription, in-app purchases, and the ads experience.

Lucas: The idea behind it is to offer all the possibilities for your users. If you have a player that wants to spend $10 just to get a sombrero, give it to them because they will be buying the sombrero for $10. If you have players from Brazil, Indonesia, or India who do not want to spend $10 or cannot spend $10, give them an opportunity to watch five to ten ads and he they will be very happy to watch the ads and to get the sombrero for free. So the idea is to balance everything and offer all the possible options.

Neha: So it looks like we're kind of after you have to get used to apps constantly showing ads and interrupting our experience. I kind of find it annoying. I'm going to tell you a little story about the kind of stuff that I have to deal with. So I use this app to kind of track my investments. And for a long time it was free. And now all of a sudden they're like, pay money or watch an ad. I was like, okay, one ad I can live with. But then they started putting two ads and they're like video ads. And I'm just like, nah, these ads don't come up immediately. Right. They give you a minute buffer time. So I quickly open it up, check off everything that I need to. And then when the ad comes, I just close it. So I'm doing that. I'm not really giving them any money. I mean, to our listeners, please don't be like me. You know, people need money.

Lucas: They need to monetize.

Neha: Coming back to my question, what are the more sophisticated ways to actually monetize nowadays?

Alex: Yeah, this one depends on what you would like to achieve. And again, your example is horrifying. This is what I was talking about. When you're using the tool, you need to pick the strategy because people are using your tool on a daily basis and this is something essential for them and then when you start to disrupt this experience with too many ads, obviously people's gets a little bit harder — they get annoyed and they might even delete your app and use the app of your competitor which offers the most balanced way.

So a couple of pieces of advice: first, be honest with your users — tell them, hey, in order to keep the balance blah blah blah just put the message there that we will be using the ads so for example when they install the ad. Just put a small notification there, like, hey for the first 7 to 14 days you have this app for free with no ads etc, just to get your experience, and if you like it the subscription for you will be costing this amount of money or you need to see the ads when the user see it right from the start that. It draws his attention to — aha okay, so I have some time to play with it and if I like it maybe I will pay for it or if it's just a couple of ads per day then it's all right, and obviously then you need to follow what you said. There is no other way. So you need to push the users like in a couple of days — your free version is expiring, so please do something about that. Being honest is the best strategy that you can ever apply well to anything in your life, but then to app monetization for sure. And then obviously you see some metrics on how much time users spend in your app. Do they interact with the ads if they delete the app? If you're just starting, please first of all please use analytics and please allow some time, at least some weeks to see how users behave. And then you can adjust your strategy to your users because at the end of the day, if users don't install the app, don't use your app, you can put as many ads as you want. But if there's just two users, you will not get rich overnight.

Neha: Probably not the best way for me to be making money then. because I probably just have two users on my app.

Lucas: To be honest, the app that you're using, they are probably trying to convert you as a subscriber or as someone that would like to watch the ads just to use it every day in daily time.

Neha: So the subscription needs to be kind of worth it…

Lucas: Yes.

Neha: But there's nothing in addition, like an additional value for me that I subscribe to. Like, you know, major OTT platforms. I subscribe to workout apps to get yoga classes or whatever. So those are still okay. Cause I don't want to be like watching an ad in the middle of doing yoga or something, right?

Alex: Yeah, yeah.

Neha: So those are still okay. But this one needs to be able to provide value for me, which I'm not able to find.

Lucas: I think right now, when it comes to ads, we’re at a point where everything is shifting — everything will have ads. So we either accept it, or we pay for every subscription possible from now on. For instance, as you can see, YouTube is full of ads. Even Netflix has some paid plans where you still need to watch ads. Instagram, Facebook, HBO, Spotify — everything has ads now. We’re reaching a moment where we’re basically paying and watching ads at the same time. For example, in Brazil there are apps that let you pay for half of your internet data just by watching ads. They’re creating this kind of business model now. There’s also a digital bank — actually one of our clients — that offers users a way to learn how to save money. Neha, you’re also using this app for free, but in order to watch these mini-courses, you have to view interstitial ads. For those who don’t know, interstitials are the ad format where you have to watch five to ten seconds before you can unlock some content. So I think what Alex said at the beginning is important: be transparent with users. Tell them clearly — “This app is ad-free for seven days, and after that, it will include ads.” Try to engage and convert users by showing them the most interesting and relevant ads possible. Ads are not going away, guys. We have to be aware of this.

Alex: Yeah, that’s a good point about adding some value beyond just removing ads. I mean, simply removing the ads is one thing. But if you also offer another benefit on top of that, I think people will appreciate it more. And Neha, I think you’d like it too. So instead of only paying to get rid of ads, maybe you’d also get some kind of investment tips or personalized advice. That makes the payment feel more worthwhile for the user. And it’s obviously a great way to keep users engaged, not just by removing ads. So I think it’s a good point Lucas brought up.

Neha: I need my value. You have to justify why I should be paying that kind of money. Let’s talk about subscriptions. Everything is subscription now — literally, every waking moment, someone is asking for your money. So what do you think are the advantages and challenges of the subscription model?

Alex: Yeah, the biggest thing, which we’ve already discussed, is the value the user gets. It should meet their expectations. User expectations are critical for your app — users are everything. Keeping them satisfied is essential and really good practice. You could have different levels of subscription. For example, the cheapest one could just remove the ads, because it doesn’t add any extra value, as we just said. Then you can offer higher tiers with more benefits, depending on your app category. For gaming apps, maybe you give a monthly bonus — like crystals or in-game currency. If you only have the basic subscription, you get nothing extra, but with higher tiers, you get something new every month, so you can plan to spend it on, I don’t know, a nice sombrero or something. Offering subscription levels is a good approach for gaming, and not just gaming. If you have tools, it can be more challenging to come up with subscription tiers, so you need to think carefully about how to introduce them to keep users satisfied.

Lucas: Just to add, Alex — when you talk about subscriptions, one of the challenges is regional differences. A user from the US can probably spend more than someone from Pakistan or Vietnam. So offering different subscription options and understanding where your users are from helps you create a model that doesn’t drive them away but instead gives them choices about how much they want to pay — if they want to pay at all. And you know, sometimes a loyal user starts paying, enters their bank details — like Neha — and goes for the $10 plan. And then what happens? You forget to cancel, and you keep paying for six months. The app owner is thrilled because you forgot to unsubscribe. This happens a lot. You only realize it after the fifth month and think, “Oh my God, I’ve been paying all this time and I don’t even use the app.”

Neha: If they had just put up a simple banner that stayed there in the app while I was using it, I could have lived with that. But instead, they went full throttle, showing me two videos, seven seconds each, and I’m stuck there thinking, okay… They’ve lost out on my engagement because of that. This is just my personal opinion — not fact or science — but as a user, if they had just used a banner, I would still be using the app a lot more. Now that they’re shoving videos in my face, I’m not so enthusiastic.

Alex: Again, user satisfaction is everything. You made a good point — the banner wouldn’t have annoyed you as much, but the publisher also knows that banners generate less revenue. That’s why they use interstitials — full-screen ads where you have to watch one or two videos without skipping. Sometimes they even have sound, which is pretty annoying. Then there are rewarded ads — another format where you get a full-screen interactive experience, like a mini-game. So it’s always about balancing revenue with user experience, which comes at a cost. Be careful with that trade-off.

Lucas: I have a question for our host. In the example you shared—the finance app—would you rather watch an ad right when you open the app, or when you’re already using it? So imagine you’re doing something in the app, you click a feature, and then an ad pops up.

Neha: I’d prefer the second option. At least then I’m mentally prepared for an ad to appear, so I’m not so irritated. If it happens immediately when I open the app, it just feels intrusive.

Lucas: That’s exactly the job of this wonderful guy speaking to us now. He has to understand user experience. He needs to go into Appmetrica — one of our Yango products — and check the data. Do users close the app when ads pop up? Do they leave when ads appear on launch? You need to analyze all these patterns to figure out where to place which ad formats. There isn’t one recipe for every app — it has to be customized by app category, audience, and purpose. And Neha, now I understand — I’ll ask you later which app it was so I can tell the CEO, “Hey, move the interstitials to the middle, not the opening.”

Neha: If you want me as a user, you’d better stop showing me all these videos.

Alex: True. And to add to that, there’s an ad format called “App Open,” which is a full-screen ad that pops up right when you launch the app. For example, VPN apps often use this, because they only have one button inside — so when the user opens the app, that’s the only moment you have their attention. After connecting to the VPN, they won’t come back to the app, and they don’t need to see any more ads. So for VPN apps, App Open is often the only option. Again, it all depends on the category of your app.

Neha: Since we’ve started discussing formats, I’d love to dig deeper for our listeners. What’s the essential monetization toolbox for 2025, in your opinion? And do you think AI is helping or harming?

Alex: Well, you have an app and you want to monetize it — where do you start? First, you or your development partner needs to handle the integration, which takes time. You’ll need an SDK — what we call a software development kit — from any mobile mediation platform or ad network. Ad networks are your friends — they make monetization possible. They use different technologies, and AI also plays a role here by personalizing experiences based on the user data you share. Be careful with that, because there’s some data you can share and some you can’t. You can work with a single ad network or, for example, use Yango’s mobile mediation, which connects you to 14 different networks and thousands of partners worldwide. You just integrate a single line of code, and we handle the rest. Next, you have to choose your ad formats. You can start with banners — less intrusive, though less lucrative — and then test other options. Use metrics to track user behavior. For example, show a notification to your loyal users letting them know you’ll be testing something. Show them one ad and see if their usage changes. Banner ads are small images or videos that sit on the screen. Interstitials are full-screen ads with a call to action. Rewarded ads are similar but give users something in return for watching. For instance, if you’re on your last free day of the app, you can watch ten rewarded ads to get three more days of access. That’s a great model for users who never want to pay. Those are the most popular formats: banner, interstitial, rewarded, and app open. Lucas, did I miss anything?

Lucas: Native.

Alex: Right. Let’s explain that.

Lucas: No, go ahead — I want to talk about AI after.

Neha: And we have to get into AI — the elephant in the room.

Lucas: AI is really simple, guys. It’s here to help us, not to get us fired. We have to control the machine. If you use AI to analyze native ads, user data, behavior, ad engagement, screen optimization, and so on, why not leverage it? It’s an incredible tool. AI will keep improving and help us customize everything faster and better.

Alex: So, about native ads — in simple terms, they look like part of the app’s content, but they’re actually ads. They’re not obvious like banners. If you’re scrolling through a feed and see something that looks like a friend’s post — “Buy this nice house in Miami!” — it might be a native ad. It should say “sponsored” or “ad” somewhere. This format works really well in news feeds, photo apps, dating apps — anything where users scroll a lot. But be careful. If you put too many native ads — like ten ads and one piece of real content — that could violate policies. Don’t overwhelm your users. But yes, it’s a very popular format, so feel free to use it responsibly.

Lucas: And native ads usually pay double what banners pay. That’s a great tip we share with our partners — if you can replace an ugly banner with a native ad, you’ll earn twice as much. That’s the expertise Alex brings to our partners.

Neha: Lucas gave one tip — Alex, do you have one for our listeners?

Alex: Experiment. But first and foremost, know your audience. That’s the most important thing. When you understand who they are, it’s much easier to decide how to monetize, offer the best experience, and keep them satisfied.

Neha: Well, if I ever decide to build an app as part of my get-rich-quick scheme, I know who I’m calling. Lucas, Alex — thank you so much for this conversation.

Lucas: Thank you, thank you — it was great talking to you.

Alex: Yeah, thank you. It was nice speaking with you. And remember — monetize easily, but monetize wisely.

Neha: And to our listeners — monetizing an app can be a challenge, but also an adventure. Yango Ads has solutions to help your apps work for you, not the other way around. Try our app monetization tools and let our experts handle the hassles while you enjoy seamless revenue growth. The link is in the episode description below. Have a wonderful day wherever you are, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss upcoming episodes. That was Points of Growth by Yango Ads. See you later.