Monetizing a Windows Phone Application with Ads

    Almost every developer involved in the creation and distribution of their programs or games, sooner or later has the idea that it would be nice to make a profit from them. There are many ways to monetize: app sales, in-app purchases, advertising, etc. Each method has the right to life, some are more suitable for a particular application, some less.

    In this article I want to talk about advertising, as the simplest and most effective way to monetize applications.

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    Barrel of honey


    Advertising - this is exactly where to start monetizing the application, it is quite simple to integrate it into the application and make a profit. Profits are accrued for impressions and / or clicks for different providers in different ways. The last time is just clicks.

    Profit from advertising can be predicted, for this you need to know the number of sessions per day and the average time of one session, this is of course an approximate calculation, but at least the order of the numbers allows you to predict it.
    Calculation Example
    We have 10,000 sessions per day and 10 minutes per session. The average banner display time is 30 seconds, those in one session will display 20 banners. 10,000 * 20 = 200,000 banner impressions per day. Although the payment is for clicks, the CTR, as a rule, does not change much (CTR is the ratio of clicks to impressions). The price for 1000 impressions in the region of 6-10 rubles (this is translated into clicks, in the current realities among Russian advertising providers on Windows Phone). 200,000 impressions per day / 1000 * (6-10 rubles.) = 1200-2000 rubles per day.


    A spoon of tar


    The daily earnings figure stated above is very idealistic. I’ll try to explain why.

    All FillRate advertising providers (the number of responses with ads to the total number of advertising requests) is less than 100%.
    Good advertising providers, within themselves, keep statistics on the effectiveness after the transition and, depending on this, give expensive or cheaper advertising.

    As a rule, advertising customers can choose the application category where it will be displayed. Such ads are effective for applications and poorly suited for games.

    Advertising can be different and there is little that can be done, this is 18+ content (it can be turned off), window advertising, etc.
    Adding ads to the application generates a number of dissatisfied users and sometimes negative reviews appear. If the user interfaces are not obstructed, there will not be many.

    Some reviews draw the attention of users to the presence of advertising. Very well recommended scenario is to disable ads for money or disconnect after shopping in the application.

    WP Advertising


    There are fewer advertising providers on Windows Phone than on other platforms, but there are still a lot of them. The situation is changing for the better every year. More and more providers are starting to support Windows Phone and the content of the advertising network is increasing every year. I have been using

    Begun , Plus1 , Adduplex for several years, because my main application is focused on Russia. Last year I looked at other advertising providers, but for Russia, the indicators were, to put it mildly, not very, and there was no choice at all.

    A year passed and before launching my new application, I decided to conduct a little research, from the end of August to the beginning of September, which consisted in testing the most popular 10 advertising providers for Windows Phone.

    Advertising should be divided into two large categories:
    A small banner ad, it is usually 480 * 80, and sometimes less
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    Large full screen banner, inserted in the transitions between screens
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    As advertising, small advertising banners were used.

    The list shows the advertising providers that I used for testing.

    1. AdMob - Global
    2. Smaato - Global
    3. Begun - Russia and CIS
    4. Plus1 - Russia and CIS
    5. Adduplex - Global
    6. Mobfox - Global
    7. Inmobi - Global
    8. Vserv - india
    9. Leadbolt - Global
    10. Mmedia - USA

    I won’t bother you with numbers, but I can say that the first 5 providers showed the best result - FillRate and income, with a very wide margin from the rest. I recommend that they be inserted into your application one at a time, and preferably all together.

    A few words about these 5 providers


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    Popular in Russia and the CIS. It has established itself as a Russian advertising provider.
    Of the benefits, not a bad CTR, the most expensive clicks I've ever seen.
    Of the minuses, not explicit registration, the old SDK for WP7.5. Average Fill Rate for applications and low for games.
    To connect, you must register as a partner .
    SDK, example and job description can be downloaded here .

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    Popular in Russia and the CIS. Unlike a runner, it’s more stable in terms of cost per click, but in terms of revenue per year, we can say that it comes out roughly the same with Begun.
    From the pros. Simple intuitive control panel. There is access to the API, the image, GIF animation or text acts as advertising. The ability to use ads without using web-browser control 'a.
    Of the minuses. Lack of SDK.

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    Most popular in server and South America. In Russia, it is not common. Has a very good FillRate outside Russia.

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    Coverage is the whole world. Has a very good fillrate.

    Smaato and Admob due to the specifics of their advertising banners have a low CTR, but such banners are effective for advertisers, because exclude accidental clicks.

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    Windows Phone and Windows-based advertising provider allows you to advertise your applications in exchange for displaying ads in your application with a coefficient of 0.8.
    Recently, it’s possible to profit from it again - AdDuplex Direct , by selling your advertising platform, an application that you like, but is not in demand so far. To get into this program you must have at least 10,000 impressions per day.
    Since the last major update, you can use a graphic banner, which greatly improves the content and increases the CTR - well, if the banner is attractive.
    Of the minuses, you cannot set regional targeting for an application, this is only possible for an advertising company. In other words, if your application is only for Russia, then the meaning of using Adduplex will be extremely low, because return traffic will be from around the world.

    Total


    I recommend using more than one banner ad, but as much as possible! I have repeatedly seen how whatever advertising provider FillRate sags to zero for a couple of days, and this is simple if you use only it. Depending on the region, thematic advertising providers provide more income, although they are less full.
    For advertising rotation, various advertising rotators are used. AdrotatorV2 seemed to me the most attractive .
    Some advertising providers suggest using rotation of advertisements from other providers within themselves, by adding an ID, unfortunately, I have not tested this functionality yet.

    Conclusion


    Advertising is a pretty simple and effective way to monetize your apps. The answer to the question of interest to everyone is whether it is possible to live on the money received - yes it is.
    My friend has already added Admob and Smaato to my application on my recommendation, and his ad revenue has increased 2.5 times. I decided to release my new application without ads, focusing on micropayments.

    useful links


    Begun
    Plus1
    Smaato
    AdMob
    Adduplex
    AdRotator V2

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