The market for mobile fitness apps is growing faster and faster every day. This huge industry is expanding every day and is not going to stop. The army of developers of mobile applications has grown dramatically, breaking the number of applications themselves.
Hybrid monetization models (for example, embedded advertising and in-app purchases) are quickly gaining popularity in the business world. Most studies suggest that embedded advertising will be a major factor in the growth of the mobile market in the coming years.
From that moment begins the long, hilly road of monetization of the fitness application:
- Trial-to-Paid (try and pay)
Such a model implies that the application has some limited functionality and, if desired, the user can purchase the full version.
As a rule, the first money is enough for a couple of months for startup. The fact is that users very rarely look in the “Pay” section – namely, applications with the Trial-to-Paid model get there.
At this stage, you can attract about a thousand active users. After a while, you`ll realize that even if the application has a powerful value proposition, without active advertising and infusion of funds into marketing with such a monetization model, success is very slim.
- Free (free application)
The name speaks for itself – everything is completely free. You can use this model in order to increase the number of users and increase visibility in the application store, it is worth making it free.
Making the app free can be the right decision. The user base will grow, and feedback flow too. This can allow you to maximize the functionality of the application and get rid of a number of illusions about your audience.
On the other hand, this path, in addition to the complete lack of funds, has other disadvantages. The more users – the more different requirements. And you cannot please everyone`s needs.
However, thanks to this model, you can be able to focus on the detailed study of the application, significantly increase the active users base and get to the top positions in App Store or Google Play.
- In-App Purchases (in-app purchases)
On the next step, you can switch to the in-app purchases model. It consists in wrapping any content or functionality in a digital product with its price and time of action, access to which is provided separately through the app store.
You can embed in the application one paid digital product and put there some of the functions associated with the recommendations and training diary. This product had an indefinite term of validity, that is, the user paid for it once and could use it as much as necessary.
Under this monetization model, the total number of active users can increase by another 6 thousand in eight months.
The only drawback is the difficulty of understanding the monetization model on the part of many users, since the application is in the “Free” section, and you still have to pay.
- Subscription
In fact, a subscription is almost the same as in-app purchases, with the only difference that they are valid for a limited time.
An additional plus is a possibility of holding various promotions with discounts on subscriptions. This technique is well proven during the Christmas and New Year holidays.
We believe that so far this is the most effective monetization model for fitness applications, which ensures a relatively small loss of users due to the fact that they practice three to five times a week.
Monetization of fitness mobile applications and the possibility of their promotion are wider than ever. And every day there are more and more new resources, groups, pages, websites, services and other forms of organizing content in the network, dedicated to fitness apps and advertising in them.
Your task is not easy, but feasible – to determine what your goal is (to make money from advertising or to place this very advertisement), target audience, where your audience lives and how to catch it. And go! Experiment and earn money!