Do you have an idea for a free mobile application but you doubt whether it's worth investing? How do free apps make money?

This earn-money gaming app is India’s first free app where you can play money-earning games in your preferred language – Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali – and win money. There are a lot of money-making games on Android and iOS that you can play and earn money online.

Your doubts are quite clear: the development of a top-notch mobile app requires a lot of time (typically, several months) and, more importantly, money. Before kicking off the development process, you should clearly understand how you’ll recoup your investments and how to make money with apps in 2020.

We’ve decided to help you get your idea off the ground and show how exactly you can make money on free apps.

All those gamers and wannabe gamers out there can take advantage of playing the games and earn money. This doesn’t mean you will quit your job or dedicate plenty of hours playing games. About WINR Games WINR Games is a fun vibrant dev shop where everyone is motivated for perfection. We aim to change the way you play games and yes we finally found a way to reward our players for their love of gaming. We build fun social and mobile games that make people feel awesome for free and at the same time make money. Roz Dhan is the Best Money Earning App in India. You will get ₹50 for free just for logging in to the app for the very first time. Do some simple new user tasks in the app and get further ₹30 Withdraw Wallet Cash to your Paytm account after checking-in for 2 consecutive days through India's best money Earning app and after completing 'Instant Cash Tasks' in the app. At the moment the maximum one can earn per phone is 500 points – this is in case the user has the phone running the app 24 / 7, the user is from the top country(USA, Canada, UK, etc) and has the rooted phone. 500 points is $0, 5 making it $15 a month.We strive to bring more advertisers to allow us to raise this limit.

Free Apps Grossing Big Bucks

According to Sensotower, the App Store and Google Play users spent a total of $39.7 billion on mobile apps and games during the first half of 2019. This is a huge market you don’t want to miss out on

If you think that it’s the paid apps that bring the lion’s share of this huge revenue, you’re wrong. In fact, if you check the list of the top grossing mobile applications (including games) in the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, you’ll notice they’re all free.

The vast majority of users on all continents prefer free mobile applications. In fact, the number of free app downloads is constantly rising. Statistics provided by Sensotower show that in the first half of 2019, free mobile apps downloads in Google Play increased by 16,4 percent and made up $41,9 billion. Whilst the App Store lost 1,4 percent in downloads. However, the overall tendency remains positive.

Developing a free mobile app is definitely the right business strategy.

Best apps to earn money

Before shedding light on how to make money with apps, we’d like to draw your attention to another matter: correct app presentation. Remember that users must be able to quickly find your app and understand what it’s designed for.

Incite User Interest Through Accurate App Packaging

As of the second quarter of 2019, there were 2.46 million apps (of all types) in the Google Play Store and 1.96 million in the Apple App Store. The competition is really strong!

How many users will find your free mobile app? How many of them will download it? No matter how good your app is and what monetization methods you use, you may still fail to attract customers without a clear app packaging.

Potential users of your app should be able to quickly find it through search in the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. To make your mobile app visible and easy to find, you should provide it with an attention-grabbing name, an informative description, and screenshots

Want to get the first ranks on mobile app stores? Check these effective pre-launch marketing strategies.

Here are tips that will help you create a top-class app description:

Choose a Clear and Catchy App Name

Your mobile app should have a snappy name that reflects its major functions. Though many applications have names that convey nothing about their functionality, your app is likely to attract a lot more users if it has a name that hints at what it does. It’s particularly useful to include keywords in the app name.

For example, let’s look at LINE, one of the most popular non-gaming Android apps on the Google Play Store. As you can see, the full title contains an explanation of what this app does (i.e. it offers free calls and messages):

Here’s another example: Hulu for iOS. The full name of this app is “Hulu: Watch TV Shows & Stream the Latest Movies.” With this title, any user can easily see what Hulu is for, namely for watching TV shows and movies:

In general, the name of your app shouldn’t be too long – 100 characters at most. Think carefully about the name, as it’s the first thing people see and pay attention to when they’re considering whether your application is worth downloading.

Come up With an Informative App Description

The next step is to provide your app with a meaningful and informative description.

Earn Money From Games App Store

The first several sentences (up to the “Read More” or “More” buttons) of an app description should give general information and illustrate the app’s main idea. This part mustn’t be long – up to 225 characters. Few people read further, so make sure to tailor this part of the app description to perfection.

Let’s have a look at a great example of a brief yet informative description for Scrummer, a handy planning poker app for Scrum development teams that’s available in the Apple App Store:

Learn more about Scrummer’s endearing features and its lively interface.

In the main body of the description, you should mention what problems your mobile app helps to solve as well as go over its most important functions. Take a look at the description of Google Drive (in the Google Play Store). As you can see, it effectively explains to users what they can do with the help of Google Drive:

Make Eye-Catching App Screenshots

An app’s name and description are important, but users want to know how your app will look on their mobile devices. That’s why you should include several screenshots – and make sure you pick the best.

We recommend that you add some text to your screenshots, describing some functions of your application. Take a look at a screenshot for the LINE app on Google Play:

As you can see, this screenshot shows that the app can work on smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches.

Here are screenshots for the Uber app for iOS:

Note that Uber uses verbs in their screenshot descriptions, which is the correct approach. Verbs are the parts of speech used to describe actions.

People are more likely to act (i.e. to download your free mobile app) if they see verbs.

How to make money with free apps?

Now that you know how to package a five-star app, we can move on to explaining the strategies you can leverage to make money on free apps.

Strategy #1: In-App Purchases

In-app purchases is an extremely popular strategy used by thousands of apps in both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. In-app purchases allow users to buy something right in the app.

There are three major types of in-app purchases:

  • Consumable. Consumables are products that a user can use only once: for example, virtual money or health points. Such in-app purchases are usually used in mobile games.
  • Non-consumable. Non-consumables are features that users buy for permanent use: for example, additional functions or ad blocking (this is how free apps make money without ads).
  • Subscriptions. Your mobile application may offer subscriptions that unlock some content or functions for a certain period of time. Subscriptions can be either non-renewing or automatically renewing.

Are you considering to implement in-app purchases in your app? We have a great guide on how to build a mobile payment app like Starbucks.

Strategy #2: In-App Ads

Ads are a driving force of the global market. They’re literally everywhere, and mobile apps aren’t an exception. In-app ads are actually tools of affiliate marketing. With in-app ads, you advertise your affiliates’ products (apps, games, etc.) inside your app and get paid if your users interact with those ads.

There are several types of campaigns used in affiliate marketing, so let’s mention the most popular:

  • Cost per click (CPC). This model means that you get paid for each click on ads displayed in your mobile application. Typically, a single click is nearly worthless, so revenue is calculated on a cost per mille basis (mille is Latin for thousand).
  • Cost per view (CPV). These campaigns are usually applied to video ads. The more times users of your app watch video ads, the higher payout you get.
  • Cost per install (CPI). With this model, you get paid whenever a user of your app installs an advertised application.

If you wish to monetize your application through ads, there are many networks to work with, such as AdMob and Flurry. Most ad networks support apps on iOS and Android, as well as on some other mobile platforms. Also, don’t forget to check what kinds of campaigns they offer, since you need to understand what exactly you’ll be paid for.

There are several ways to display ads in your mobile app:

  • Banners. Banner ads usually appear at the top or at the bottom of a screen and have some text and graphics. Banners are considered to be relatively unobtrusive, as users are able to keep using your mobile app even if a banner is active. However, banners have low click-through rates (CTR) and heavily depend on brand recognition (users are far more likely to click if a banner advertises some well-known brand).
  • Native. Most people don’t like ads and try to block them completely. How can you reach out to the users of your mobile application, then? Use native ads that don’t really look like ads. Native ads are seamlessly integrated into mobile applications, making them subtle but quite efficient.
  • Videos. According to an article by Invesp, the CTR of video ads is 1.84%, so they’re quite effective. Typically, video ads appear automatically when users interact with apps.
  • Interstitial. These ads take a whole screen and typically appear when users launch or close an application. However, interstitial ads may also look like pop-ups appearing from time to time.
  • Rich media. If you’re wondering what type of in-app ads is the most efficient, here’s the answer: rich media ads that, according to the previously mentioned eMarketer article, show a CTR of 0.44%. Rich media ads use multiple methods to reach out to users, including audio, video, text, and more.

In-app ads allow you to make money off free apps, but this monetization strategy works well only for applications with big audiences. If your app is a startup, don’t expect it to bring big bucks this way.

Strategy #3: Freemium

To benefit from the freemium monetization strategy, you need a second, paid version of your application. If users like a free version, they’re likely to opt for a paid one that has some extra functions.

With a freemium model, users are typically offered to upgrade an app to a paid version, and if they agree, they’re directed to an app store.

For example, have a look at MX Player, a popular video player available on Google Play. This mobile app has a free version, but it contains ads:

Users are offered a paid version of this app, called MX Player Pro. It’s the same in terms of functionality, but comes without advertising:

This monetization option is quite efficient, but you shouldn’t provide too many functions in your free app; otherwise, few users will shell out for the paid one.

Strategy #4: Sponsorship

From

Finding a sponsor is a really lucrative monetization model. Usually, it works this way: you create a mobile app that gains quite a lot of users, after which you contact a sponsor company and offer to update the design of your app to match the sponsor’s brand.

There are two types of sponsorship deals: you can either split the revenue with your sponsor or receive a monthly sponsorship fee.

The main difficulty of sponsorship is finding a sponsor. Needless to say, your mobile app should be good enough to be interesting to potential funders.

Strategy #5: Email Marketing

Email marketing has always been and still is a powerful money-making strategy. You can leverage this method and ask the users of your mobile app to provide their emails and, later, send them messages.

Adding a Facebook login option to your free app is a great way to subtly collect user emails. However, give users a chance to cancel email notifications, as this will make your app more credible and people will know they won’t be receiving loads of spam.

Tips for Choosing the Best App Monetization Methods

As you can see, there are many ways you can make money from free apps. You can pick one or opt for several strategies at once. However, there are several handy tips that will help you monetize your free app in the most effective way possible.

Consider the Business Goals of Your Free App

Any application has a business goal, which means it helps its users solve their problems. Therefore, you should select a monetization strategy based on your app’s business purpose.

For example, let’s say you wish to create a cool audio player with lots of sound adjustments. Can in-app purchases be an effective profit generating method? Probably not. Instead, you can opt for ads or offer an ad-free version with a subscription.

Or imagine that you launch an educational app. It can offer in-app purchases, such as access to additional functions or paid tips. Needless to say, such apps can contain ads as well.

Define Your Target Audience

You should clearly realize who you’re creating a mobile app for. Draw a user portrait and decide what functionality users need, how much time they’re likely to spend using your app, and so on. A clear picture of your target users allows you to create an app tailored to their needs.

Though your free app may boast large download numbers, the truth is that only a small part of your users (you may call them the money-spending core) will actually bring you profit by clicking on ads or making in-app purchases. The majority of users won’t spend a cent in your app. You may not like it, but that’s how it is in reality. Therefore, set a goal of attracting as many users as possible and do your best to succeed.

Research Your Competitors

If you’re thinking of launching a mobile application, you should carry out a competitor analysis. Explore the app stores you’re going to offer your free app in and search for similar apps. Next, find out what your competitors offer, what kind of designs they have and, more importantly, what monetization methods they use.

This information will help you learn from your competitors’ experiences and see what mistakes they’ve made so you can make your free app better and more helpful to customers. In the end, a better app means higher profits for you as its creator.

Don't Overuse App Monetization Methods

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You shouldn’t make your free app inconvenient for users. If it’s full of ads or in-app purchases, your audience may stop using your app and install a similar one. App creators should always remember that their apps bring profits only as long as people use them.

Your users should feel comfortable when using your app, so be prudent and make all ads and offers in your app as subtle as possible.

Now that you know how free apps make money, you can give your idea a go and turn it into a real-life application.

Can’t handle the development process? Reach RubyGarage and our experts will help you build a successful and competitive mobile application.

Get money from your Android phone. We pay for every minute of that time when you do nothing
2 350 pts
44 860 pts

Sign up to start working:

We have the largest payments, because CashMagnet unites all the best reward programs in one place.
You do not need to perform tasks, watch ads or play games. Earnings will come in an absolutely autonomous and passive mode.
Prepare to earn several times more! Only 2 months of working with CashMagnet - and you can buy another phone, that works for you around the clock. That is how thousands of our satisfied users do it.
Earn now by simply running the app!
It's absolutely safe, we guarantee that your data and personal settings will not be used in any way.
It is Android app that will allow you to earn extra income while you are not using the phone.
CashMagnet is completely free to use, and always will be.
For now, CashMagnet is only available for Android phones with 4.2 version and later.
Are there any additional requirements for the phone?
Minimum requirement for CashMagnet to run smoothly is to have Android 4.4.4 and higher. We also recommend to have at least 1 Gb of RAM memory and 8 GB of storge.
Accumulation of points takes place every 5 minutes, the longer your program will work on your phone, the more money you will receive.
Yes, the program will consume a certain amount of traffic, so the desired condition is an active wi-fi connection.
You can redeem your points at any time for PayPal cash, Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, Playstation, Steam Gift Cards or replenish a mobile phone account by going to the Rewards page.
Most users can easily earn enough points to redeem for two days, but it depends on how much time your CashMagnet will work.
Points are the virtual currency used on CashMagnet. 10 Point is worth $ 0.01, so $ 1 is worth 1000 Points.
Your payment will be sent within 1 month after you have requested it. If you have not received your payment after 1 month, please let us know so that we can look into it as soon as possible.
Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, Playstation, Xbox will be delivered to your account email address. PayPal payments will be sent according to set in My Account > Settings.
You can see the status of your rewards by going to My Account> Payments. Payments can either be Pending, Canceled or Paid. Have not received your reward, even though it shows as paid on our site? Please let us know as soon as possible.
There is a two-level referral system in our project. You receive 5% of the earnings for the person you invited and 5% of the earnings for the person whom your referral invited.
We do indeed experiencing some delay with payments, around 1-2 weeks at the moment... due to sponsors paying us slightly later than expected... Please accept our sincere apologies for that. We have an operational time gap as we get money from sponsors around 1 - 1, 5 month after, and with the growing army of users who might request pay - outs 1 - 2 weeks after working with the app, that results in later payouts.We try our best to close this gap ASAP. Thank you for your understanding and patience.
What your application is doing ? How can I earn free money?
CashMagnet is Android app that allows to earn extra income while you are not using your phone. The program works only while you are not using your phone – as the app is browsing sites and installs games. We pledge to install only trusted games(apps) and visit only safe sites.The only purpose of the app is to view advertising, click on banners, install games and watch advertising.By doing so we earn money from sponsors, that we share with our users. To start earning you will need to launch the application and press Start Earning button.If you need to use your phone, you can stop the program and use it again when the phone is not needed. Ideally, single users can use the app during the night when they sleep.Accumulation of points takes place every 5 minutes, the longer program works on your phone, the more money you will receive.
I signed up and logged in. What am I supposed to do now to earn?
Now all you will need to do is to press Start button to start earning points. You can install games, that will extend the time that the app can run in passive mode. There are instructions in the app to follow, perhaps they are not very clear – we will try improving this point. Right after installing CashMagnet just press Start and the app will run in passive mode for 6 hours.Then it will stop until you install games, with each install extending the time you can run the app.By installing 6 - 7 games you can run the app for 24 hours. We are planning to introduce a new feature in new releases when gams installations will be done automatically, without need for any actions from the user.We expect to introduce this feature around mid - summer 2018.
Is it normal to sometimes earn 0.0 points or is this error ?
If sometimes then this is possible, but it would be helpful to know how often this happens. Couple of times a day, or several times an hour… and please also send us your account email so that we could check for the problems.
Well, it actually depends on many things, namely from what country you are from, what version of Android you use, how many games you installed, how long runs CashMagnet on your phone, whether you phone is rooted or not. So, there is no universal answer. Our best performing users earn around $15 a month, but this is only possible if you meet all factors mentioned above. At the moment the maximum one can earn per phone is 500 points – this is in case the user has the phone running the app 24 / 7, the user is from the top country(USA, Canada, UK, etc) and has the rooted phone. 500 points is $0, 5 making it $15 a month.We strive to bring more advertisers to allow us to raise this limit. Starting from the Level 3 user can install games by himself, and from Level 6 this will be happening in automatic mode. For each game installed the user gets extra 100 points, you can install as many games as you want (even 5 a day, that will make extra 500 points). All this means that the higher level you reached the more bonus points you can get.
I leveled up twice from level 1 to level 2 and in both cases I got sent back to level 1.Is this normal ?
To reach second level one has to install at least three games. If one of the games is uninstalled then you are sent back to level 1. Even if you are on the Level 6 but have less than 3 games installed on your phone you will be rolled back to Level 1. To get your level back just install games so that you have at least three of them on your phone.
You can have as many phones on your account as you would like, but the limit at the moment is 4 phones running simultaneously per IP address and no more than 4 unique devices per day. For example, if you have 2 Wi-FI spots with different IPs then you can have 8 phones running at the same time… and so on. We have plans to remove the limit for rooted devices, but this involves a serious programming and technical solutions that will take some time to implement.This won’t happen earlier than Aug - Sep if all goes smooth. Until then we have to keep the current limit of 4 phones per IP address and no more than 4 unique devices a day. You can use the same login information on all your phones.Just make sure you only have a maximum of 4 phones per IP address.
You can remove the device from your account through the website in easy 3 step procedure: 1. Go to CM website, 2. Login to your personal cabinet, 3. Choose statistics section and remove the device from there Also, bear in mind, that you can remove the same device from any account only once. Also, there is another limit of removing only 1 device from account within 24 hours. The limit is only to prevent any kind of machinations. If for some reason you need to remove the device for a second time just write to support and we’ll do it manually.
I am trying to login but receive an error saying that my devices is linked to someone’s else email?
If, for some reason you don’t recognize the email that is linked to your device then this is a very rare case when you have a phone with identical IMEI, serial number and MAC address as another user of the app. This happens extremely rare with limited models of phones (and more often with tablets) whose manufacturers used the same data for all the phones of the same series.., We can’t really do anything about that, as the only way we can distinguish devices is through IMEI, serial number and MAC address of the device. IF these are identical, there is nothing we can do.
One of my rooted phones says that it has no work to do and to contact you.
Most likely you don’t have Chrome browser and no Google Play. If you do have them then it seems that there is some problem with them. Please send us your email account for us to check it in more detail.
It is better to have rooted phone only because this allows us to automate some actions without the need for the user to do extra work (like manually install games, make clicks, etc). You can have non-rooted phone, though this will earn you slightly less points. Other than that, there is no limitations on non-rooted phones.
How long I can use the app during the day? How long is the cooldown for Passive Timer?
How long you can use the app during the day depends on several factors including what country you are from, how many games you installed… for example, if you are from USA and have games installed then the total time the app can work is 24 hours. Cool down period is 6 - 8 hours(but this varies from user to user), then you can log -in back and start earning points again.Right after installing CashMagnet just press Start and the app will run in passive mode for 6 hours.Then it will stop until you install games, with each install extending the time you can run the app.By installing 5 - 6 games you can run the app for 24 hours. We are planning to introduce a new feature in new releases when gams installations will be done automatically, without need for any actions from the user.We expect to introduce this feature around mid - summer 2018.
We have not introduced this feature yet. If you no longer wish to use the app, just forget about it. If you plan to have several other accounts but have worries to be banned for having multiple accounts, then be aware that we have no banning policy for this. You can have as many accounts as you would like.
I am experiencing problems logging-in and signing-up. Says 'signup error!Server unavailable.Please try again later.'
This is a problem with the server, that is down for some reason. Most likely we would be aware of the problem and will fix it shortly, so just be patient
Not in the near future. Android version is rather fresh and it will take time to release the stable version. As soon as this is done we will look into making iOS version. But the priority at the moment is Android.
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What does it mean when it says: ‘Can't redeem - try again.. ‘ there are too many bonus points in this account? How can I decrease those bonus points? I have deleted some apps but the requested points to withdraw money kept increasing
We have a system that tries to keep the balance of bonuses received for game installations and for viewing the sites. In your case you have more bonus points than the points received for viewing ads. That's why the more games you install now the more viewing points you need in order to redeem. In your case it is recommended switch your device to view the sites and raise the number of points received for this activity to match the bonus points. As soon as you have got enough points obtained in running the app in passive mode you will be able to redeem all the points on your account balance.
I am trying to use CashMagnet but it keeps saying 'All apps are finished' and there is a notification 'You have no task to work'
It looks like that you use not the mobile device but a tablet, which is at the moment not supported by our app.
If I reinstall CashMagnet will I lose my points on that phone as I need the points to get to the next level?
Everything earned is linked to the hardware it is earned on, you can freely reinstall without risk of losing progression. You can however lose your level on a device by going to the site > statistics > Delete Device
Low rewards are basically due to your country (where your IP comes from) having less rewards from advertisers than from USA, Canada, etc. The higher points that you were getting before were combined with bonus points, now the statistics calculates standard and bonus points separately. For example, if before you were getting 230 points that was including 200 points for install and 30 points for working in passive mode. Generally, nothing changed, it is just bonus and standard points are reflected now separately in your history.
How do I use someone’s referral code. Where do I put it in?
After the registration there would be a separate field in the app where you can enter the referral code. You can also enter it at the profile tab at the very bottom under the filed 'Input referrer'
There is no such info available to users, they can only see how much they get from their referrals, not who they are
Please check the videos here on how to reach Level 3.
You will need to install 5 apps, that will appear when the offer to install them will become acive. This offer is called 'watch and install'. The user will have to view the ads, then click and proceed to Google Play and then install the app.
Can I use emulators to earn points with Cash Magnet?
The use of emulators is not allowed and we can easily detect if you use them. All points accumulated through emulators will be cancelled and all your devices might be blocked altogether. Even though emulator instance might have its own IMEI, android ID, IP address and looks like a real android device it is easily detectable and our sponsors would be unhappy to pay for ads viewed by bots rather than by genuine physical devices. To avoid being penalized we have to stick to strict ‘no emulators’ policy.
Potential compatibility problems of rooted phones with other apps
When CashMagnet runs no other application cannot use root. If you press Stop button to stop CashMagnet running the root will become available to all other applications. If CashMagnet stops running incorrectly for some reason it might be the case that root won’t be available to other applications. To resolve this run CashMagnet again, then press Start button and after that Stop button. This should make the root available again. CashMagnet works correctly with Kingoroot and SuperSU root apps, the work with other apps is not tested and not guaranteed.
When I start the program it stock on 24% but if I remove root it works, pls help I want to use this app on rooted phone.

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It seems you have a conflict of the programs. Most likely you rooted your phone using some specialized software. When CM starts it hides root from all the programs, including the one that you use to have root rights. As the result it causes conflict of programs, resulting in the problem that you experience. Just use the phone without root rights. CashMagnet works correctly with Kingoroot and SuperSU root apps, the work with other apps is not tested and not guaranteed.
I saw that usage of VPN is allowed. My question is that which would be the benefits and the drawbacks of using it? Would I earn less?
It is allowed though not really encouraged. The points are rewarded with 0.5 coefficient for VPNs. – so, you would be getting less than using residential Internet connection.
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