What can I learn from my non monetizable Android app?
What can I learn from my non monetizable Android app?
Hi!
4 years ago I built an useful Android app in order to learn Java. During this years I almost did not update the app but it kept raising downloads and users and now it has over 160 installs per week and 50 users per day and it's installed on more than 1,000 devices.
I'm adding some functionalities to the app, but at the end of the day, it won't be profitable.
The app is a tool to calculate the fuel consumption of your vehicle and some other things. I say it's not monetizable because I didn't put ads on it and even if I did, people spend little time in my app.
I have it monitorized with some events thanks to the Firebase SDK.
Should I leave my app and start something "bigger"?
I think you should just simply put some ads and see results without assumptions. Results can be surprising
You need to calculate the lifetime value of your customer. How many ads will they likely view per session? How many sessions per day does each user have on average? Will they click on targeted ads or ignore them? Can you ad more valuable sponsored content? What's your day 1 / day 7, day 30 retention like (use this to calculate how much money you can make per user)?
Have you ever done any ASO? Some simple keyword/icon/screenshot tweaks might get you a lot more installs per day.
Sell it ! what way it will be monetized.
If you want to make money as ur customers what do they want more in the app. Build it and then charge for it.
The problem is that I can't see how to grow my app into something that people is willing to spend money. So this is where the big question comes: would it be worth it to keep investing effort in the app?
You can do some thing like https://www.producthunt.com/posts/sh-t-i-smoke and make people view the app more.
Add things like car service detail with cost
Manage car repair costs.
Make notes of when oil, tire or batteries were changed. (These can then be used to promotions where you can take a cut)
Integrate with a tool like OBD which tells people about the health of the car plus integrate with Map to get where and when was the fuel burned the most.
...... And a lot more.....
With those current numbers I'd imagine you'd get very little for it. Personally I wouldn't feel it's worth selling your hard work for a low amount
What's your options for monetising? Are people likely to buy the app? For ads, how many views are you going to get per day?
You'll have to weigh up how much you think you can make per user and how many users you think you can drive to the app. It's unlikely there's going to be any easy answers. Try something and see what happens.
But my point is that, with such a simple app, I can't see it growing into something bigger and more likely to be purchased