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Nicholas Lovell
Home   >   Self-Publishing   >   Sales   >   Is $4.00 a realistic amount of ad revenue per use on the iPhone?

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Is $4.00 a realistic amount of ad revenue per use on the iPhone?

By on February 15, 2011

I blogged on Monday about a Mobclix report that suggests a successful advertising-funded game can generate $4.00 per active user (or possibly unique user, there is some confusion here).

Adam Green of Assyria Games Studios had this to say:

"Yeah their definition of an "active user" is skewing things somewhat given that on average a free app is opened 6 times in a life, and usually for less than 5 minuites…

With my stuff I’m looking at around $0.15 per user per month based on my revenue vs ADU, with a far higher than average re-open rate due to the nature of the app… And I get 20% natural growth per month based on drop off rate vs recommendation rate (so essentially per 1 new user I will get 7 new users over the course of the year (based on a 20% increase per month cumulatively multiplied each month)…

Still the numbers turn out quite good/ at a value of $12(ish) per user over the course of the year based on the recommendations they generate each… Not quite the $48 Mobclix are implying, but still not bad…"

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So Adam thinks $0.15 per DAU per month is more realistic. Not that Adam talks about DAUs, not MAUs, and that his app, Daily App Dream, offers users a free iPhone app every day, so has a higher open rate than most.

About Nicholas Lovell

Nicholas is the founder of Gamesbrief, a blog dedicated to the business of games. It aims to be informative, authoritative and above all helpful to developers grappling with business strategy. He is the author of a growing list of books about making money in the games industry and other digital media, including How to Publish a Game and Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games, and Penguin-published title The Curve: thecurveonline.com