Analysis of mobile Internet monetization methods: application distribution (Part 1)

For all developers or companies working on mobile apps, monetization is definitely the most core and urgent matter at the moment. In the first half of the mobile Internet , everyone was talking about how to acquire users and how to improve user experience . At that time, you could raise one or two million just by releasing a DEMO. If there are 18 million users, you will definitely reach the peak of your life and win the heart of a rich and beautiful VC.

But since the year before last, the wind direction has clearly changed. What everyone is talking about is whether your product can be monetized? What is the monetization capability? Many developers who entered the market recently but failed to catch up, holding a large number of purchased users, found that they could not raise money and began to panic, so various monetization methods came into being. This article will disclose some of the things you know and don’t know. Just sit back and let the experienced driver take the wheel.

Mobile APP monetization can be divided into two parts: application distribution and advertising .

By the way, do you know what are the main ways to monetize the Internet? Advertising, e-commerce and games . In addition to e-commerce, the main monetization methods for mobile apps are almost the same as those of the Internet.

This article is the first part of the analysis of mobile Internet monetization methods. The second part will focus on advertising monetization.

What is app distribution?

Application distribution refers to the act of a party with traffic importing its own platform users to the partner's APP through advertising display and other forms. In simple terms, it means promoting APP.

What are the carriers for application distribution?

1. Application Market

Similar to 360 Mobile Assistant , App Store , Baidu Mobile Assistant, Hardcore Store (OPPO, vivo , Coolpad, Gionee , Lenovo, Huawei, Meizu), etc.

As a natural application distribution tool , the LTV of a single user in the application market is about 5 to 10 times higher than that of tools. What this means is that there are two similar apps, one is an application market, and the other is a tool app, such as a cleaning app. Then the market revenue of an app with 10,000 daily active users is equivalent to that of a tool app with 50,000 to 100,000 daily active users. Comparing from this perspective, it is much more cost-effective to buy the same product from the app market than from the tool market. But the problem is that all app markets are full of competitors, and it is impossible to buy volume online.

Currently, the application markets with stronger strength (in terms of volume) are: App Store, 360, Hardcore, etc. What you must hold tightly is the hard-core thighs. I predicted the rise of hardcore in 2014, but many people disagreed at the time. 360 was at its peak, and the hardcore channel was just starting out, and some account systems were not even perfect. But you have to know that whoever controls the terminal will have the final say, like Apple. As a manufacturer, they can make a certain application market unusable by just using some tricks. This is also the reason why the Red-robed Leader insisted on making the Qihoo mobile phone.

If we must illustrate it with numbers, currently in terms of channel coordination, relationships account for about 25%, and products account for more than 50%, which means that the current era is still one in which products are king. Why is it so? Because channel resource adjustment is the responsibility of operations , and operations are assessed based on KPIs , and the completion of KPIs depends on the recommendation of high-quality games. Completing KPI not only earns you bonuses, but also allows you to reach the pinnacle of life and win a beautiful, rich woman. Do you understand? Moreover, most channels are not open to the public and can only focus on recommending good (high-profit) products.

Therefore, at this time, the relationship is not very important, and the quality of the product is the core.

2. APP Application

Let’s take a few simple examples, such as Toutiao , Baidu, 360 Security Guard, Youku Video, Alipay , WeChat and other APP applications. These apps have resource locations or built-in app markets, game centers, etc., and can also be used for app distribution. For example, as shown in the picture below, the iQiyi video website has an app store and a game center. Doesn’t it feel a bit unprofessional?

However, some apps with a sense of morality do not distribute apps. According to my observation, service apps generally do not distribute apps. Apps like Taobao , Meituan , Mobike (the game center may not be available yet), and Vipshop monetize through services, so there is no application distribution. There is only one purpose for app distribution: monetization!

I remember that a game center was launched in Didi Taxi a long time ago, but it was removed later for unknown reasons. The reason is simple. The user usage scenario is wrong, the distribution effect is poor, and it may even affect the user experience and lead to loss. However, many apps have recently found a lifeline: information flow advertising . This is a powerful monetization method that has been fully verified. As for how powerful it is, let me give you an example. You can see that the first-level columns in the 360 ​​mobile assistant have become hot spots ( information flow ), and there are continuous pushes every day. When you click in, in addition to browsing news and information, you will inadvertently trigger ads for app downloads in it. They are in native form and you won’t even know that they are ads.

3. Pre-install or flash

I don’t know if the words “pre-installation” will be censored now. Pre-installation is a very complicated industry. Almost none of us who work in online promotion have access to this area. Pre-installed means that when a user buys a new mobile phone, a certain APP application is already installed in it. Currently, this market has shrunk a lot and is very picky about products. Neither pre-installation nor flashing is suitable for promoting games because the activation cycle of pre-installed APPs is very long. Generally speaking, it takes at least one to three months. For example, for game developers, after three months, when users open their apps, they will find that the update package alone is hundreds of MB. How can they play the game then? Moreover, the game packages are relatively large and the cost of pre-installation is extremely high.

However, flashing the phone still has a large market. For example, after-sales service, after the phone is repaired, there will be one or two extra apps. Or when you buy a new phone, it is natural to ask the store to help install some software. Users are spared the worry of what software to install, and stores earn money from installing the software. It is a win-win situation. This is aimed at novice users in third- and fourth-tier cities. Savvy users like me usually buy the ROM and flash it myself. Although the flashed ROM also has pre-installed APPs, it is really hard to guard against.

What are the cooperation models for application distribution?

Answer: CPA/CPS/CPD/CPT/CPM/CPC, etc.

For a novice who has just started, it would probably take three or four days just to memorize the Chinese meanings of these English words. It was different for me. It took me three months to remember it completely. I will briefly tell you what each of them means. In a simple and easy-to-understand way, it is -

• CPA: By Activation
• CPS: according to the share
• CPD: Download as per. This is the abbreviation of download, not day. Don't remember it as day.
• CPT: by duration, generally refers to by day, T: time
• CPM: Pay per impression, per thousand impressions
• CPC: Pay per click , a few cents per click

Let’s explain in detail the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

1. CPA: by activation

The most mainstream promotion method is simple and direct, with one hand paying the money and the other hand giving it to the user. The most common fee for activating a user is 1 to 3 yuan.

Refer to the picture above, some prices are extremely high, which depends on the type of product. The unit price for financial products is also relatively high, and an effective user can receive more than 100 yuan. We accepted a CPA of 150 yuan from a card-bound user, but the effect was, haha, it didn’t work.

Especially in the first half of the mobile Internet, the money raised was basically used to buy users. CPA generally refers to activation. Since many applications do not have an account system, once a user opens an application, it is considered an activation and you will be paid. For example, Game A requires registration. It is not enough to just open it. You also need to register an account to be qualified. As the saying goes, where there are people, there is the world. Where there is a world, there is always something fishy. For the kids who are responsible for buying traffic, the biggest fear is buying fake users. What is a fake user? One is a robot, which can add thousands of activations to your backend in minutes. Our operations department will happily say that this month's KPI for new users has been achieved. In fact, you are lucky that your boss didn't ask you to pack up and go home. Therefore, whether it is the CP party or the channel party, they will face the issue of assessment when doing CPA. The assessment indicators are similar to the figure below.

The above are just simple examples. Most products will have retention or recharge requirements, such as retention rate of more than 40%. The purpose is to prevent fraudulent activities. I have also seen some pretty stupid CPs where the retention rate of the product itself is less than 30%, but the assessment requires it to be over 40%. There is room for maneuver during the actual settlement, and as long as the data is not too excessive, the revenue will not be reduced.

Another type of low-quality users are non -target users , such as users introduced by points walls and red envelopes. They have extremely poor user quality and terrible retention rates, even uglier than robots that are swiped out. You should know that robots can also simulate user behavior ? It makes you confused. Recently, the budget for CPA advertising has been on a downward trend. I think the reason is that the market share has basically been fixed and the land grabbing has almost been completed. Next comes the crazy harvest period, who the hell is willing to spend money? Currently, the main companies investing in CPA are Tencent, 360 and Baidu.

You see, 90% of the popular recommended software above are promoted with money.

2. CPS: Settlement by profit sharing

This is what I think is a fairer approach. For example, the current game profit sharing ratio is 55, that is, when 100 yuan is recharged in the game, CP and channel each get 50 (excluding various miscellaneous taxes and fees). The advantage is that CP and channels are bundled together. If there is no profit after the product is launched, the CP will have no money and the channel will have no money. But compared with the CPA model, CP does not pay any cost, and once there is profit. CP will receive income immediately. Many small CPs that operate stand-alone machines like this model very much. Buying A has high risks and poor billing. If you encounter fake volume, you will just be wasting money. If you do CPS, you can make money regardless of the weather.

As a channel party, the ultimate goal is to maximize profits, which is the legendary ultimate killing king - Lord Fire Cloud Evil God. Remember that the channel only thinks about one thing every day: how to promote your product to get more money? This is how I operated when I was working on the channel.

Let’s first talk about CPA and attract some volume, about one or two hundred, and then look at the recharge and settlement. Assuming A costs 2 yuan each, the profit from 200 activations is 400 yuan. If these 200 activated users generate a turnover of 2,000 yuan, based on a 35% share (per machine), they can get 700 yuan through CPS cooperation, which is obviously more cost-effective than CPA. Then you will know what to do next. CP will be forced to switch to CPS for joint operation . If they don’t switch, we won’t promote it! Haha, that’s cruel enough! There is no way, I’m forced by the KPI!

I really am a good person.

3. CPD: Download

For example, if the application promoted by CP is downloaded once on the channel side, the channel will be paid a few cents or dollars.

This is very interesting. Do you know what the main tasks are when doing CPD every day? Arguing over data. This has historical reasons. Come and move your stool and sit down. Let me tell you why there is a CPD cooperation model.

Ultimately, the root cause is just one: distrust. CPD cooperation is mainly about application. Why should applications do CPD? It’s because of CPA deduction. We all know that applications listed on the app market will not be connected to the channel's SDK, so the channel cannot obtain the application's activation data. If CPA is used, settlement will be based on the CP's background data. So will CP deduct the quantity? I said no, do you believe me? There will definitely be deductions, and small channels can only bear with it and calculate the activation ratio based on the downloaded data from their own data background and the activation data provided by the other party. As long as it's not too outrageous, I won't care too much about it.

However, remember that there are always exceptions. Big channels like Baidu and 360 will not sit idly by, so they have developed this new cooperation model and settle accounts based on download data. Who provides the download data? Channel, everything is solved perfectly. We have returned to the good old days when channels were in charge.

4. CPT: according to the exposure time, usually one day

It is often seen in well-known and awesome products from big manufacturers. Most of the publication examples we see are CPT cooperation methods.

The application market I was previously responsible for also had CPT resources, which usually took 2 to 3 days, but the price was not as competitive as that of large platforms. You see, the daily price of large platforms is about hundreds of thousands, while that of small platforms is only about a few thousand per day. This is entirely related to the strength of the platform. Just like people are divided into different classes, channels are also divided, and prices are naturally divided as well.

How can students who are engaged in advertising judge whether CPT prices have advantages? Of course there is a way. The advertisements we place are all performance advertisements, and we look at the final activation data. For example, if the cost of investing in CPT is 100,000 yuan, and the activation volume on the day is 20,000, then one A is 5 yuan. If the price seems high, it means that CPT has lost money. Small platforms are more flexible to operate, and if the results do not meet expectations, the volume can be supplemented.

5. CPM: charged by exposure, generally charged per thousand exposures

In actual promotion, there are fewer methods of charging by exposure. Basically, everyone settles according to the price of C and calculates the cost in the form of CPM. For example, we have integrated Baidu Alliance advertisements into our APP. The price for one click is about 1.5 yuan. There is also GuangDianTong , where the price for one click is about 8 cents. However, based on the revenue per thousand impressions, the revenue of eCPM is around 6 to 8 yuan. Why is this so? Because there is also the click-through rate factor involved. Baidu has a high unit price and a low click-through rate, while Guangdiantong has a low unit price and a high click-through rate. In this way, if the ad space is displayed a thousand times, the revenue from the two will be almost the same.

6. CPC: Pay per click

It is also a type of pay-per-performance model, where if a user clicks on your ad, you will be charged, and if there is no click, you will not be charged. Doesn’t it feel like a good deal? If light box advertising can adopt this method, wouldn’t the couple’s mouths be so smiling that they would be crooked? The CPC price is most commonly seen on advertising platforms, usually starting at 40 cents, and the actual click price is around 1 yuan. It only refers to the price of clicking into the landing page , and does not include download conversion .

CPC ads are available on both PC and mobile devices. Baidu Alliance ads are common on the PC side, similar to the following picture:

The water is very deep inside. One is the webmaster's induced clicks or brushing clicks, and the other is the clicks that Buddha said cannot be spoken of. CPC on mobile devices is currently dominated by information flow advertising.

The above is the analysis of application distribution content. The next part is the advertising analysis. Remember to wait for me.

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

The author of this article @老虎 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting! Site Map