How to Earn Up to $300 per Day Monetizing APK? [Case Study]
During the last years, the number of online resources for APK distribution grew. And no wonder – apps are gaining more and more popularity these days. Thus, publishers owning such resources have always been in good stead, namely those who decided to go far beyond websites and scale to APK, like one of our partners.
Owning a website for APK distribution + having your own application is a sure way to engage more users and scale for an additional marketing channel. According to Oberlo research, in 2023 the amount of mobile traffic will reach 60% of all Internet traffic. Talking about application users, well, Google reports that 90% of smartphone owners prefer downloading and using apps! The more channels you have, the more active and potentially-converting users you will engage.
As the global tendency grows, in-app advertising becomes more and more attractive for publishers. The head-spinning success story of our publisher shows how profitable scaling to in-app can be. Read and see for yourself.
Some background
So, the hero of today’s case study is our Premium Publisher, the one who owns a couple of entertaining websites and applications. His project is really large, as our partner says, their history record reached 15,000 US dollars on a daily basis with over 5 million web users per day.
Currently, he uses Monetag for monetization, and things are going brilliantly.
Before he came to us, he tried working with other platforms, like Adsense, but due to some issues with performance and advertising conditions, our partner put these platforms aside.
By the way, regarding the advertising conditions that may cause obstacles, our publisher recommends:
“It’s suggested to negotiate with account managers before adding new tags and ask their tech team to check whether the ads work out or not. Yes, at the very beginning.”
Work with website and in-app traffic: strategy, tools + statistics
- Traffic source: Organic
- Preferred ad format: Direct Link (SmartLink) for websites + Push for apps
- Current audience: more than 5 MLN users
As our partner says, he chose Direct Link because “this format generates the highest eCPM normally”.
So, let’s move to the strategy. As we said before, our publisher has entertaining websites as well as websites to create and distribute his applications (also entertaining). The strategy with Direct Link is as follows: the publisher locates the link right under the CTA button on the APK distribution website and whenever users make a desired action (download, click, register, etc.) they are redirected to the ad page.
As for the applications, this type of monetization is a pretty much new thing for our partner, but he has already reached high results. All of his websites and apps monetized with Monetag have over 5 MLN users, with up to $300 per day of additional income since they started rolling push campaigns last year.
Indeed, most users react to push notifications they receive from applications readily, because they perceive such messages as trustworthy and valuable. The value entails more attention, since users choose and download exactly the applications they need. What is more, for most verticals, in-app advertising messages are a great way to deliver exclusive content, limited offers, discounts, and other benefits, which also ensures positive user attitude.
But let’s get back to our case study. Our partner kindly shared his statistics, namely – only in-app monetization with Monetag. The first application statistics for 12/03/2023 – 21/03/2023 show that all the parameters are stable and remain high:
| Day | Impressions | Profit | CPM |
| 2023-03-21 | 954 370 | $105.23 | 0.22 |
| 2023-03-20 | 942 196 | $104.95 | 0.222 |
| 2023-03-19 | 947 759 | $108.00 | 0.227 |
| 2023-03-18 | 941 180 | $115.17 | 0.244 |
| 2023-03-17 | 941 694 | $117.67 | 0.249 |
| 2023-03-16 | 939 271 | $111.54 | 0.237 |
| 2023-03-15 | 945 088 | $126.28 | 0.267 |
| 2023-03-14 | 932 496 | $112.83 | 0.241 |
| 2023-03-13 | 930 240 | $132.21 | 0.284 |
| 2023-03-12 | 949 716 | $126.85 | 0.266 |
And now, we will show the second application stats for 10/03/2023 – 21/03/2023. This app is “younger” than the previous one, that is why it is getting steam gradually. Still, income and CPM are stable. Check the numbers:
| Day | Impressions | Profit | CPM |
| 2023-03-21 | 275 006 | $29.34 | 0.213 |
| 2023-03-20 | 274 441 | $29.94 | 0.217 |
| 2023-03-19 | 274 524 | $27.91 | 0.202 |
| 2023-03-18 | 277 098 | $33.24 | 0.239 |
| 2023-03-17 | 280 250 | $40.65 | 0.289 |
| 2023-03-16 | 277 996 | $34.86 | 0.25 |
| 2023-03-15 | 278 918 | $31.31 | 0.224 |
| 2023-03-14 | 276 008 | $29.81 | 0.215 |
| 2023-03-13 | 276 512 | $34.01 | 0.245 |
| 2023-03-12 | 278 729 | $36.90 | 0.264 |
| 2023-03-11 | 278 634 | $30.47 | 0.218 |
| 2023-03-10 | 276 155 | $30.17 | 0.218 |
Regarding the CPM results, namely on push notifications, our publisher shared his statistics (for all of his projects), so take a look:
The publisher’s CPM for apps makes $0.2-0.3. To compare, his average CPM on websites makes about 0.05. This way, applications bring 4-6 times higher CPM, which puts them ahead of websites. What a result!
As our publisher claims, in addition to Monetag’s monetization tools and efficient formats, he also benefited from the account manager’s advice. They solved the following common problems:
- eCPM boost by means of dealing with issues caused by traffic fluctuations and unstable advertisers’ budget;
- Problem with ad displaying caused by VPN and Proxy.
Stable profit of our partner is ensured by Monetag’s instruments, efficient formats, and personalized help from account managers. What is more, our publisher pursues the latest marketing trends and has a correct approach – scaling to in-app and distributing his apps on his website.
Takeaways
- Scaling to APK will help you reach more visitors because the amount of mobile users grows globally;
- Directing a part of your visitors to the application, you avoid risks connected with Google policy updates able to cause the organic traffic drop. Scaling to more channels is your chance to preserve your audience much more efficiently. For example, even if something happens to your website, you will still have an app, and it’s audience;
- Push notifications become your additional communication channel to reach your in-app audience;
- You obtain more income opportunities by means of monetization tools. And today’s case study proves it.
By the way, as our publisher secretly told us, he wants to monetize one more application, the biggest one, with us, when the development is completed. We’re looking forward to expanding our cooperation and also – we encourage you to join Monetag, too!
And if you already have a website and want a mobile application to scale your earning opportunities – Monetag already has technologies to turn your website into an app. Just contact us, and we will help!
