Zogby Analytics recently completed a survey of over 1000 adults regarding their preferences when it comes to how companies monetize their apps. Among other things, the survey asked whether the person being surveyed preferred paid apps, freemium apps or apps that are free but display ads. They also looked into whether or not people would be interested in having options within their apps to choose how they wanted to support the app.
The following are some key data points that were learned from the study. These are pulled directly out of the study itself:
- Of respondents who downloaded apps, 58 percent preferred free, ad-supported apps to those that required some form of payment (either at download or in-app).
- Only 8 percent of users said they would download all of their free apps again if they were required to pay for them; 46 percent said they wouldn’t download any of their free apps again if they were forced to pay.
- By a margin of nearly five-to-one, Americans who expressed an opinion preferred seeing mobile ads that were relevant to their specific interests.
- 71 percent of respondents agreed that tools that provide them transparency and choice regarding relevant ads and data collection should be available wherever and however they access the Internet.
This is just one piece of research that is being done by The Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), which is a group of online advertising trade groups that is looking to launch a program called “AdChoices.” The program would make it easier for apps to allow users to choose different options when it comes to the advertising they see (or provide other options to remove ads).
You can see more information from this survey on the DAA website, HERE.
