The Ultimate Guide

to Creating an App
Contents

What Kind of App Building a Mobile App: Understanding the

Are You Building? What Goes on Basics of Mobile App
page 03 Behind the Scenes Development
page 09 page 13

Building a Secure User Experience Designing Your

Mobile App and User Research Mobile App
page 19 page 25 page 33

Getting People Understanding How Much Does it

to Use Your App Mobile App Analytics Cost to Build & How
page 39 page 45 Do You Monetize?
page 51
What Kind of App
Are You Building?

01
What Kind Of App
Are You Building?
Do you have a promising idea for an app?
Great! A good idea is just the first step. We
need to give that idea some legs so that
your app building efforts yield the best
possible results.

What Kind of App Are You Building? 4

Step 1
Create the story for your app
Start by writing down the main problem or problems
that your app is going to solve and then list out all
of the steps that a person would need to take on their
journey to overcoming those problems.

Step 2
Find your target audience
Your target audience is the group of people that your
app is built for. Generally speaking, your mobile app
target audience can be split into segments across
four categories.

What Kind of App Are You Building? 5

1 Geography
Is your target audience specific to a city,
region, or even more specifically, a closed
community? (e.g. parents from your children’s
school, or people at your gym)

2 Demography
What does the age range look like for your
target audience? You may also want to
consider their gender, and marital status
if those criteria are relevant.

3 Social metrics
What type of background would your target
audience come from in terms of education,
income level, or profession?

4 Behavioral metrics
What are their values? What habits do they
have, and why? What are their preferences?

Step 3
Create a List of All Possible Features
A feature set is a list or a high-level description of
what you want people to be able to do, and how
you’d like them to interact with your app so it can
actually solve the problem that it’s aiming to solve.

What Kind of App Are You Building? 6

Before you choose the features you want to launch
with, list out all the possible features you can think
of that will help your app accomplish its goal.

Step 4
Mark the Mission Critical Features
Now that you’ve got a full set of features (or as
complete as possible without getting your app in the
hands of your audience) start by marking the ones
that are mission critical. Is this feature 100% necessary
for completing a step along the journey?

List out the features that are essential – those will be

part of your MVP! The overall idea of an MVP is that
you should build the smallest amount of your product
that people get value out of and then you add addi-
tional features to it.

Step 5
Do a quick scan of the competition
Are there other apps like yours in the market already?
What are they doing right? What could you be doing
better? This will help you differentiate your app from
the competition.

Use Google Trends and type in ‘Best [insert your app

idea here] app’, or ‘App for [your app idea here]’
and see what shows up. You can customize this by

What Kind of App Are You Building? 7

geography in case you’re looking for something
a little more local.

Step 6
Figure out where to launch your app
The general consensus is that getting an app ap-
proved by the Apple App Store can be harder than
on the Google PlayStore. While Google is home to
a bigger market than Apple globally, the Apple App
Store brings more monetization opportunities for
app developers. Or you could build a web app that
can live on people’s home screen without needing to
be downloaded.

What Kind of App Are You Building? 8

Building a Mobile
App: What Goes on
Behind the Scenes

02
Building a Mobile App:
What Goes on
Behind the Scenes

The basics of mobile app databases

Databases are made up of rows and columns used
to relate information. Across a row, you might find
various data points that describe one thing. Down
a column, you’re likely to find multiple answers that
relate back to the row’s data point. A database is
responsible for storing all the information of a user
when they register, their interactions with the app,
and any transactions.

Building a Mobile App: What Goes on Behind the Scenes 10

What kind of database do you need?

How is your data structured?

The data structure plays a crucial role in how it can
be stored and retrieved when needed. Structure refers
to how you need to store and access your data. Apps
that need to be online to function, like eCommerce
apps, are called online apps. They need access to a
server to retrieve the stored data. Apps that function
offline store their data on a mobile device.

How much storage do you think you’ll need?

Data size is the quantity of data you need to store
and retrieve for your app to function correctly. Most
databases charge monthly based on the quantity
of data stored in GB.

Building a Mobile App: What Goes on Behind the Scenes 11

What are your security requirements?
Safety and security are one of the biggest concerns,
particularly for apps owned by businesses. There can
be vulnerabilities when storing your data on a server
that isn’t secure. It’s important to check the authenti-
cation, encryption, data access, how it’s transmitted,
and stored.

How much flexibility do you need?

Mobile app databases need flexibility because as
requirements change over time, a database that all-
ows for these changes to be made will prove to be
a huge advantage. App scalability is something to
keep in mind too, so your database can match up
with all the additional features you plan to introduce
to the app in later stages.

Building a Mobile App: What Goes on Behind the Scenes 12

Understanding the
Basics of Mobile
App Development

03
Understanding the
Basics of Mobile
App Development

Front-end and back-

end development
Front-end development is all the stuff on the app that
communicates with YOU. It covers everything that
users see first on their mobile app. The ‘front end’ of
an app includes all the elements and content that
a user interacts with, from dropdown menus, to slides,
navigation bars, and lists. It’s like the interior design
of an app, and involves analyzing code, design, and
a lot of debugging.

Understanding the Basics of Mobile App Development 14

The back-end of a mobile app is what communi-
cates with Internet programs and protocols. It’s part
of a mobile app that stores, secures, and process-
es the data needed to run an app. Appropriately
named, it runs behind the scenes when you perform
a task on an app.

The basics of front-

end development
Typically, a front-end developer creates apps using
frameworks that use HTML, CSS, or JavaScript as
a programming language. Here’s a quick overview of
these languages:

HTML
Describes what’s on a page
This forms the backbone of the web development
process. It stands for HyperText Markup Language.
Hypertext is text with links (you can click on it, and
it takes you to another page) Markup means text
can be converted into images, tables, or links.

Understanding the Basics of Mobile App Development 15

CSS
Describes how the page looks
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. CSS deals
with the presentation of your app or site, meaning it
specifies how HTML components should appear on
a webpage in terms of style, layout, and changes for
different devices and screen sizes.

Think of HTML as the columns and concrete that form

a house, and CSS as the painting and interior finish-
ings of the house.

DOM
Structures web pages
The structure of a web page is called the Document
Object Model (DOM). It’s a programming interface
that interprets the page so that programs can change
the structure, content, and style of a document
using JavaScript.

Understanding the Basics of Mobile App Development 16

JavaScript
Describes how web pages behave
JavaScript is a widely used programming language
that transforms an HTML page into a dynamic, int-
eractive interface. You can use it to build websites,
mobile apps, web apps, games, and web servers.

The basics of back-end

development
To build a cohesive and organized mobile app
architecture, you need to pay attention to four
key aspects.

Device type and dimensions

The device type, screen size, and compatibility has
an impact on data architecture. Whether it’s to be
used on a mobile device or a tablet.

Network bandwidth
Another thing to consider is the compatibility of your
mobile app with different types of Internet connec-
tion. Your application architecture will have to be built
with various network conditions in mind.

Understanding the Basics of Mobile App Development 17

The user interface
A great UI is always a must for a mobile app. By ensur-
ing that your UI is designed intentionally, it can keep
users engaged and provide an uncluttered journey.

Navigation between elements on the app

Navigation on a mobile app is a key part of the user
experience. It’s the flow between screens, features,
buttons, and transactions. Navigation is what deter-
mines how easy or confusing your user experience
is. Think of walking into an organized grocery store
where everything is stacked logically, vs. a depart-
ment store that feels overwhelming. When choosing
a navigation strategy, you should bear in mind both
your preferences and the needs of the app.

Understanding the Basics of Mobile App Development 18

Building a Secure
Mobile App

04
Building a Secure
Mobile App

What is mobile app security?

Mobile app security is a measure to secure applica-
tions from external threats like malware or any action
that puts critical personal and financial information
at risk. A breach in mobile security can not only give
unauthorized people access to personal or sensitive
information, but also data like their current location,
banking information, and much more.

Building a Secure Mobile App 20

How do you secure
your mobile app?

Make privacy information easy to understand

Important information like this should be comm-
unicated in a way that’s easily understood by
the reader.

Rather than an endless flow of small print and

paragraphs of technical or legal sounding jargon,
make it clear for your user to understand the
purpose for collecting data and how it will be
stored and maintained.

Perform a basic risk analysis

Data leaks: Applications with insufficient security
are at constant risk of being breached, which
can result in data like payment credentials, sys-
tem passwords, and PINs being leaked

Scams: Any mobile application developed to

carry out financial transactions will always be
under the radar of fraudulent activity

Building a Secure Mobile App 21

Minimal Application Permissions
Permissions give applications the freedom and
power to operate more effectively. But, at the
same time, they make apps vulnerable to hack-
ers’ attacks. Mobile apps should stay away from
seeking permission requests beyond their func-
tional area.

Enhance Data Security

Data security policy and guidelines should be
established to ensure users can easily avoid gett-
ing caught in the trap of hackers.

This can include having well-implemented data

encryption when the information is transferred
between devices and using firewalls and security
tools whenever necessary.

Test Your App Often

Securing a mobile app is not a one-time activity.
Make sure you prioritize regular testing to keep
your app security and data safe for users. This
ongoing process will help you identify any pot-
ential threats that might emerge.

Building a Secure Mobile App 22

Five Common Types Of App Testing

Functional Testing
This helps make sure that your app functions like it’s
supposed to, and does what is intended for it to do.
Keep a list of all the different functions your app per-
forms, and use that as a checklist to get started with
your functional testing.

Usability Testing
Mobile app usability testing helps make sure your
application is easy to use and understandable for your
target audience. Surveys, focus groups, and A/B
testing are great ways to test usability for your mobile
app, but keep in mind that your findings may be
quite subjective.

Performance Testing
Testing your app’s performance allows you to make
sure the app is performing well on different devices
and under different conditions. Performance testing
of mobile applications includes checking your mobile
app on different devices, servers, battery levels,
and networks.

Building a Secure Mobile App 23

Security Testing
Since almost every mobile app requires some kind
of personal data to solve its purpose, it’s important to
do regular testing to ensure that this data remains
secure and confidential. This type of testing is usually
performed by security specialists – it helps make
sure that sensitive data is kept secure and away from
the possibility of fraudulent activity.

Compatibility Testing
Software compatibility testing allows mobile develop-
ers to make sure your app performs well on different
platforms and device configurations. The goal of this
testing is to assess hardware dimensions on mobile
devices – GPS and navigation capabilities, camera
(resolution and type), processing speed, screen (size,
resolution, or rotation), main memory, etc.

Building a Secure Mobile App 24

User Experience
and User Research

05
User Experience
and User Research

What is user research?

User research helps you understand your target
audience – their behaviors, needs, and motivations.
You can use these insights to build a product that
fits their expectations and solves their problem.

User Experience and User Research 26

Questions that user research answers

Do people need this mobile app?

What problem does this app solve?

How does it make people’s day-to-day lives easier?

What are the current solutions to this problem?

How will this app solve the problem better than other solutions?

How do you answer these questions?

1 Create user personas

Build a few profiles of your ideal users: What
do they do for fun, what are their goals, how
do they use their phone. This helps put a
name, face, and personality to your users.

2 Focus groups
Get a few people that fit your user personas
together and ask them what they think of your
app, prototype, or app idea. Get detailed
feedback on what they like and what they’d
like changed.

User Experience and User Research 27

3 Conduct surveys
Set up a simple survey that gets insights from
many people at once. You can conduct
surveys at different stages of the development
cycle to get perspective while building.

4 Research your competitors

Learn from your competition, find out what
they do well and what you could improve on.

5 A/B testing
Compare one feature or idea with another
using a simple A/B test that helps you choose
features by popular demand.

Toolkit for User Research

Scheduling Surveying Feedback Transcriptions

Calendly Typeform Maze Rev
Doodle Google Forms UserReport Otter.ai
SurveyMonkey Pendo
UserPilot

User Experience and User Research 28

 User Research Checklist

What problem does your app If you are conducting a focus

help solve? group discussion, what
questions do you want to
be answered?
How many methods of user
research are you conducting?
Are you looking at doing A/B
testing? Which features would
If you are creating user perso- you like to A/B test?
nas, how many do you have?
Which apps are your compet-
If you are conducting a survey, itors? What did they do well,
how many respondents are you and what do you think you can
aiming at? improve on?

Don’t forget about market research

When you launch your app, you’ll want to promote

and market it effectively to get new users. By doing
even a little bit of market research, you’ll have a
more focused promotion strategy.

User Experience and User Research 29

User interface (UI)
The look and layout of a product or the aesthetic
elements that you see when using the product is
called the user interface. Typography, colors, des-
igning of elements, using icons and graphics, back-
ground images, the hierarchy of information on the
screen – all of that makes up your user interface.

User experience (UX)

The journey or experience of a user as they go
through a product to achieve their goal is the user
experience. This focuses on the structure of the
app and the ease of finding solutions. Things like
the order of screens, text, prompts, options for
actions you can take – all of these things make
it possible to do what you need to on an app.

User Experience and User Research 30

Skim-friendly Content
People don’t often ‘read’ content. If you want to
improve readability, the best way to do it is to keep
the content brief, concise, and clear!

Easy Tap Targets

Make interface elements large and well-spaced so
that people don’t accidentally hit the wrong target.
Apple’s iPhone Guidelines recommend a minimum
target size of 44 pixels wide x 44 pixels tall.

Prioritize Accessibility
By making designs ‘accessible’, we can create the
same experience for everyone, regardless of any
visual, speech, auditory, or physical differences.

Writing UX Copy

What is UX copy?
The pieces of text on buttons, headings, prompts,
and app screens to guide users through your app.

User Experience and User Research 31

 It lets your users know what to do next

It explains errors

It sets expectations

It makes people smile

Tips to write good copy

Keep instructions brief and simple

Avoid jargon or technical terms

Pair your visuals with words

Be consistent with title case and sentence case

User Experience and User Research 32

Designing Your
Mobile App

06
Designing Your
Mobile App

Choosing Brand Colors

What are they?

A palette or a set of colors used on your logo, creat-
ives, social media, business cards, or app design.
A consistent and thought-through use of brand colors
can help improve brand awareness and recognition.

Designing Your Mobile App 34

 a signature color boosts brand recognition
by up to 80%

95% of all purchasing decisions are made

subconsciously, and color plays a big role
in this response

How to pick out brand colors?

Pick brand personality traits

What do you want your app to be associated with?
Is it a particular mood, feeling, or expression?

Choose colors to communicate

Red Indulgence, love, passion

Orange Bold, playful, fun

Yellow Cheerful, bright, uplifting

Green Freshness, peace, abundance

Blue Calm, stability, trust

Purple Power, wealth, mystery

Designing Your Mobile App 35

White Light, purity, modernness

Black Elegance, power, sophistication

Color Schemes on the Color Wheel

Analogous Monochromatic Triadic

Complementary Compound

App Color Toolkit

Colr.org Canva’s color blog

Check My Colors Adobe Color

Designspiration Colormind

Coolors Colordot

Designing Your Mobile App 36

Rules for Choosing App Fonts

1 Limit app design to no more than 2 fonts

In fact, even one font is fine! Lots of apps just
have one and they use different weights to
create hierarchy.

2 Maintain legibility while styling

Header fonts can be decorative, serif or sans
serif. Make body copy, buttons, and overline
a sans serif with low contrast. Keep it clean,
accessible, and simple.

3 Consider hierarchy of information

List headings should usually be bold and larger
than the body font. Experiment with capital-
ization to distinguish hierarchy between head-
ings, subheadings, body copy, and captions.

4 Keep font sizes consistent

Body copy font size should be 14-18pt, with 5-9
words per line of body copy. Headlines should
be 3-4 lines max with 1-2 words per line.

Designing Your Mobile App 37

App Design Toolkit

Undraw Illustrations Subtle Patterns By Toptal

Humaaans Lottiefiles

Canva The Noun Project

What Kind of App Are You Building? 38

Getting People
to Use Your App

07
Getting People
to Use Your App

Your mobile app isn’t going to sell itself

regardless of how well designed and creative
it is. This is why mobile app marketing is
key to your app’s success.

Mobile app marketing helps get people to

install your app, keep using it, and engage
with the key offerings – e.g. content sub-
scriptions, eCommerce, premium features, etc.

You need to market your app when you launch

to get your first users, but you also need
to keep marketing so that you get new users,
and can keep your current users active
and engaged.

Getting People to Use Your App 40

Step 1
Find Your Target Audience
It’s likely that your mobile app will suit a specific group
of people, and not the general population. Getting
to know your target audience, where to find them, and
how to appeal to them is the first stop in the mobile
marketing journey.

Step 2
Assess Your App’s Existing Market
While you’re in the process of building an app, res-
earch the app landscape by reading about your
competitors and the industry. You can also subscribe
to blogs that talk about the problem your app is
aiming to solve.

Step 3
Create A Landing Page Or A Website
To help build some excitement before your app launch,
and to make your app stand out, you should have
a dynamic, well-designed website that drives people
to the app store. There are plenty of no-code tools
to build a landing page or a website in just an hour
or two; check out Carrd, Webflow, or Wix.

Getting People to Use Your App 41

Step 4
App Store Optimization (ASO)
With so many apps on the market, it can be hard to
get the right visibility for your app. But just like maxi-
mizing your SEO efforts to improve organic traffic to
your app’s website, you can do the same for your app.

Step 5
Work Out A Content Marketing Strategy
Content should exist to create awareness and en-
gagement around your app. It can be as simple as
discussing related subjects to what your app’s focus
is, or figuring out what problems your target users
may have, and attempting to solve it for them.

Here are some content types to choose from: Social

media content, blogs, demo videos, influencer posts,
reviews and testimonials, interviews, talks, promo-
tions and contests, giveaways, quizzes etc.

Getting People to Use Your App 42

Step 6
Paid Campaigns
In-app ads
Promote your app with ads that appear on other
apps. It’s one of the most popular forms of mobile
advertising, likely due to the ability to target people
that already use mobile apps rather than the
mobile internet.

Ads on social media

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and
Linkedin provide pretty advanced targeting options
for sponsored or paid ads.

Search ads
You can have your app listed at the top of search
engine results pages by paying for advertising on
search engines. For niche markets, it can be a very
efficient way to get your app on the front page.

Step 7
Post Your App To Product Hunt
The Product Hunt community is an exciting bunch
of product developers, founders, makers, and tech
enthusiasts, who vote everyday on the best new apps
and websites. A high ranking on Product Hunt usually

Getting People to Use Your App 43

gets you plenty of attention, feedback, and lots
of traffic – either in the form of website visits or
app downloads.

Step 8
Use Slack, Discord, Or Reddit
To Join Relevant Conversations
Forums, subreddits, and other groups give people the
ability to talk about a shared interest. It may seem
like a lot of work, but these are actually a great place
to find new tools and apps (which means it’s a great
place to promote your app too!)

Getting People to Use Your App 44

Understanding
Mobile App Analytics

08
Understanding
Mobile App Analytics

Mobile app analytics are your best friend – it

tells you whether your app is performing well,
what your users like about it, and what you
need to improve or optimize. You can trans-
form this data into valuable insights that help
you build a better product.

Mobile app analytics answer two important

questions! WHO is using your app? And HOW
are they using it?

Understanding Mobile App Analytics 46

Key Performance
Indicators to Track

Downloads
the number of times that an app gets downloaded
to a device is the easiest and most obvious way to
track its uptake.

Installs
Actual app installations may differ from the number
of downloads, so this is another way to track the
popularity of your app.

Uninstalls
While you may not know the reason why someone
uninstalled an app, you can corroborate the informa-
tion with an event like an update or a feature change.

Registrations
Deciding whether or not to register (and enter your
personal data) is an indication of whether users are
committed to buying into your app idea.

Understanding Mobile App Analytics 47

Subscriptions
The number of subscribers that your app has can be
especially helpful, especially to track how long it
takes people to subscribe once they have installed
the app and the average length of subscription.

Retention Rate
This is the number of returning users after a fixed time
period. Retaining users is generally an indicator of
creating a “sticky” app, because it tells you how many
people consistently use your app. Many businesses
commonly analyze 7-day, 30-day, 60-day, and 90-
day retention.

Retention Rate = (# Users on day z / # Users on day a) x 100

(‘z’ and ‘a’ are the time periods of your choice)

Active Users
This is the number of engaged users, usually tracked
in terms of daily or monthly numbers.

Daily Active Users (DAU)

The number of active users who use the app daily.

Understanding Mobile App Analytics 48

Monthly Active Users (MAU)
The number of active users of the app monthly.

Sessions
The number of times a user opens the app is the
number of sessions. Like retention, this is also an indi-
cator of ‘stickiness’ or popularity.

Stickiness
Stickiness is a metric used to determine engagement
by figuring out how often people return to open
your app. It’s calculated by dividing your daily active
users (DAU) by your monthly active users (MAU) to
get a percentage.

Churn Rate
The rate at which active users unsubscribe from or
uninstall your app. Ideally, you want to target a low
churn rate. A high churn is usually indicative of func-
tionality or performance issues, or a lack of new
content on the app.

Understanding Mobile App Analytics 49

Running Ads for Your Mobile App
Sponsored ads let you promote your app so that it’s
displayed higher on the search page in the app store
and promoted in other apps.

In the US, it costs roughly $2 per install on the iOS

app store, and $1.72 per install on Google Play Store.
It’s important to factor these costs in before you
begin spending!
$
Ads for mobile apps are similar to any other type of
ad, the marketing content principles remain the same!

Write a powerful headline that grabs attention.

Make sure you’re keeping your audience in mind!

Craft a compelling headline. Use this free head-

line analyzer to get some tips!

Draft a clear, engaging summary of your app

and its key benefits.

Use easy-to-understand, conversational, and

welcoming language.

Include keywords and ONE clear call to action.

Select an image that fits your brand and would

stand out to your target audience.

Understanding Mobile App Analytics 50

How Much Does
it Cost to Build a
Mobile App & How
Do You Monetize?

09
How Much Does it Cost
to Build a Mobile App &
How Do You Monetize?
Budget can be a big constraint when it
comes to mobile app development, and can
vary drastically based on the type of app
you’re building, how long it takes, where you’re
building it, and how you’re building it.

How Much Does it Cost to Build a Mobile App & How Do You Monetize? 52
Factors That Influence
Your App Building Costs

Cost of App Developers

App development cost is dependent on the location
and development agency that you choose. You
can choose to work with dev shops, freelancers, large
agencies, or build an app yourself without code.

Features and Complexity

The number of features and complexity of the app
will drive up its cost. Basic features such as login and
subscription take less time to build; more advanced
functionalities, like payment, location tracking, etc.
have a higher cost associated and take more time
to develop.

Mobile Platforms
The cost of development usually varies based on
if your app is developed for iOS, Android, or both.

How Much Does it Cost to Build a Mobile App & How Do You Monetize? 53
Complexity of UI/UX
User interface, design, and visual objects of the app
can influence the cost, especially if your app has cus-
tom elements, buttons, icons, illustrations, and fonts.

Mobile App Maintenance

Mobile apps need regular monitoring, testing, and
maintenance. Without this regular maintenance,
updates, bug fixes, and new features, your app may
run the risk of becoming outdated soon, causing
you to lose users. The average cost of app mainte-
nance is usually around 15% to 20% of the entire
project app development budget.

Cost estimates
for building an app

Simple Apps

Development cost: $10,000 – $50,000

Examples: Calculator apps, clocks, simple games,
to-do applications, weather applications

How Much Does it Cost to Build a Mobile App & How Do You Monetize? 54
These types of apps are the easiest to develop and
take the least amount of time, which means they are
also the cheapest to develop.

Medium Complexity Apps

Development cost: $60,000 – $120,000

Examples: Social network apps

Apps like these have to handle thousands, in fact,

millions of interactions, they usually contain chat
functionality, and let users share information. This
requires a solid backend infrastructure and comes
with a larger price tag.

Complex Apps
Development cost: $100,000+

Examples: Marketplaces, eCommerce, on-demand

service apps

eCommerce apps like Amazon, Alibaba, and other

marketplaces require a long list of features like user
registration, location, catalogs, product pages and
descriptions, and payment options.

How Much Does it Cost to Build a Mobile App & How Do You Monetize? 55
Tips to Build a Mobile App on a Budget

1 Do Your Homework!
By conducting thorough user research, market
research, and carefully choosing the features
and level of complexity that you’ll need, you
can make sure that you build only what you
absolutely need, while avoiding potential ex-
pensive mistakes.

2 Choose the Right Vendor

Picking the right vendor is crucial to staying
within budget. Make sure you look them up,
check their reviews, visit their websites, and
evaluate their previous work.

3 Build an MVP
Start by building an app with the basic, func-
tional features only – your MVP. By starting
with the essential features that are necessary
to solve the users’ needs, you’ll be able to
slowly add on to the features that you need.

4 Keep Your Design Simple

Like with features, it helps to keep the first
draft simple, and stick with basic functional
design elements. Once you’ve got a successful

How Much Does it Cost to Build a Mobile App & How Do You Monetize? 56
 launch, you can then move on to something
more complex.

5 Try No-Code to Build Your App

No-code tools like Adalo let you build an app at
a minimal cost, while housing your database on
their servers. You can use one of many templates
on Adalo to build apps with varying complexity,
and use components to add in the features you
need. Check out some templates here.

How Do You Mobilize

Your Mobile App?
App monetization is the path to converting your app
users into revenue. It’s what turns your app idea into
a business model.

Here’s how you can do it!

Make Your App A Paid App

Paid apps form only 5-7% of apps on the app store.
These usually have some unique offering that’s hard
to find elsewhere. Make sure that the apps you cre-
ate provide enough value or unique functionality
that meets your target users’ needs.

How Much Does it Cost to Build a Mobile App & How Do You Monetize? 57
Free With In-App Purchases
To use this approach, you can restrict certain features
in the free version of the app with a goal to “encour-
age” the free app users to upgrade to the paid version.
This in-app purchases model is one of the most pop-
ular app monetization strategies. Tread carefully so
that you aren’t giving away too many options for
free or offering too few features.

Free With A Subscription Model

Similar to the previous model, you can create a free
app, with a paid subscription model. With this strat-
egy, the app is made free to download with limited
access to gated content or services. For premium
services or content, you will need to purchase a sub-
scription plan. This strategy is more commonly used
for service-oriented apps (many calendar apps,
fitness apps, and meditation apps follow this model).

User Marketplace
This is the model that many eCommerce or service-
linked apps choose. You can charge a small fee on
each transaction made on your app marketplace.
Apps like Uber and AirBnb charge a commission on
each transaction, with the goal to provide maximum
value to both the buyer and seller on the platform.

How Much Does it Cost to Build a Mobile App & How Do You Monetize? 58
In-App Ads
As the name suggests, these are advertisements
that are displayed on an app. However, a big road-
block to hitting success with in-app ads is the fact
that although 90% of consumers are influenced by
advertising, many users consider in-app ads spam-
my, distracting, and intrusive.

The work-around is simple – pick the type of in-app

ad you think your users would be most comfortable
with. Here are a few options:

Banner Ads
While banner ads were initially popular, they are
becoming less frequently used. Banner ads tend to
affect your app UX quite significantly, and rather
than driving people towards purchasing, it drives
them to uninstall.

Interstitial Ads
A good workaround for banner ads is interstitial ads.
These ads show up in full screen at the end of a certain
task flow – this way it doesn’t interfere with completing
a task, making it somewhat less intrusive.

Native Ads
Native ads integrate seamlessly into the look, feel,
and experience of the app they’re in. Think of

How Much Does it Cost to Build a Mobile App & How Do You Monetize? 59
Instagram or a Twitter feed, where an ad shows up
somewhere on the feed or timeline. These ads have
a higher engagement rate and don’t interfere with
the user experience.

Affiliate Ads
Affiliate advertising is a monetization model that
generates commission from other products and ser-
vices by advertising them through your app. You
can monetize your app by partnering with companies
to sell their products. Many companies have affiliate
programs that allow you to insert special links or codes
in your content or ads.

Reward ads
App reward ads are popular for games, particularly
if users spend a lot of time in the app. For example,
you may be offered extra coins if you watch a 10-
second advertisement. Make sure that the reward
is worth the effort that your user will take to watch
the ad.

How Much Does it Cost to Build a Mobile App & How Do You Monetize? 60