You can think of in-app purchases as a gift shop meant to keep you engaged. If you consume all your lives when playing a game, you can purchase more to continue playing. Fortunately, you are not alone. Many app users face the same challenge as yours. In fact, in-app purchases are estimated to be the leading source of revenue. It is estimated that each year, smartphone users use over 20% more money than they did the previous year on in-app purchases. Therefore, if you are a mobile marketer, you ought to capitalize on the growth.
With an in-app purchase, users ought to pay for the extra features or the added functionality when using apps. Maybe you have been playing a game, but you are stuck at a given level, and you want some special features to help you. In fact, you can find them in e-commerce services, mobile retail platforms, and mobile games that allow you to purchase things within your app.
Types of In-App Purchases
Consumables
These are widely used in-game currency. They are common with free games and do not cost anything for the users but feature in-app purchases for special features and extended gameplay. You should note that the purchases are perfect for app users who are not patient enough.
Non-Consumables
These give you the option of unlocking important features that are permanent to the app. For instance, if your dating app has limited connections, by getting a premium version, you can enjoy unlimited connections.
Auto-Renewable Subscriptions
These are provided to offer access to services or updated content such as streaming platforms or news media. They automatically renew upon expiry unless canceled by a user.
Non-Renewable Subscriptions
These offer access to the restricted content and ought to be renewed manually by the users. They are quite similar to the consumables and can be used across various devices.
How to Entice In-App Purchases
You can easily encourage app users to use your in-app purchases. These are some of the ways to use:
Triggered Campaigns
This is a perfect way of engaging users and incentivizing them to purchase. Usually, the messages get to the app users in real-time. In this way, they enjoy high engagement and conversion.
In-App Messages
You should note that push notifications have their exciting open-rates. Since they are delivered within the app, their open rate is quite high. However, this does not mean that all in-app messages will result in an in-app purchase. However, when you engage users at the right time, you get to increase the conversion rate.
Push Notifications
If you want to convert customers that use your app freely, you should consider using push notifications. That is because recent studies have shown that they are quite effective at increasing engagement with mobile apps. You can also utilize personalization to push your messages. In this way, you can increase the click-through rate.
No matter the strategy you use to push your in-app purchases, you ought to understand your goals and what the customers require. Also, you need to be careful to avoid annoying your customers with repeat messages and over-messaging.
