It’s the  same dream you’ve had before.. You’re looking at the dashboard, but nothing is making  sense. Everyone on the team is asking you questions, but you can  just stare at the puzzling numbers on the screen, scratching your head in bafflement. What are  these metrics trying to say? 

Then, suddenly, you wake up. 

Good morning, dear App Monetization Manager! Another crazy day has just started, so buckle up and get ready, because it’s going to be a bumpy ride (and we don’t mean the commute to your office). Your day begins with the usual  blizzard of industry updates from blogs and newsletters; the latest performance reports from partners, clients, and colleagues; and coffee. Lots of coffee.   

9:00 AM – The appropriate time for your 2nd team meeting 

This meeting’s hot topic is last night’s report, and the usual questions arise. What’s wrong with the fill rate? How can we extend the user LTV? Everyone’s looking at you, and  you’re looking at your BFFs, the analytics dashboards. Yes, there are many of them.  

Data is your oxygen. You live and breathe metrics, inhaling real-time mobile attribution and exhaling user-engagement rates. You can never dig too deep or spend too much time analyzing results vs. goals. This morning, the special, premium feature promotion campaign you’ve recently launched is causing problems, and you don’t love the trends you’re seeing for this new initiative. You wonder if someone made product changes without running them by you first. Maybe somebody is conducting  a test that you aren’t  aware of in the user-acquisition campaigns? Better check.  

11:00 AM – Right on time for the Product Team meeting

With all these meetings, it’s a miracle you manage to get any work done at all. 

Turns out, someone did make some changes to the premium feature without your approval, and this update has polluted your recent experiment. Off with their heads! The Product Manager doesn’t think it should make much of a difference, but you go by the numbers, and they tell a different story. 

The team discusses adding a new revenue layer, but, despite the need for a new revenue stream, no one is eager to add yet another SDK to the mix. By the end of the meeting, the team decides to release another version fully approved by you (hopefully) and start a pilot for the new monetization layer solution you suggested, one that doesn’t interfere with the product. The team doesn’t go for a production pilot though. You’ll just have to settle for a beta testing version with your added layer…. Well, it’s something, isn’t it? 

12:00 PM Lunchtime + meeting with the Acquisition Team 

The report to management is due today and guess what? You still have some work to do on it. Looks like another lunch in front of your computer, surrounded by the Acquisition Team, whose members you need  to complete the report but who are  less than thrilled to attend  this last-minute meeting.

You reached the LTV benchmarks. Ugh, you hate the  phrase LTV. it’s such a tricky metric that always seems to be working against you. Besides, identifying  the key events that would predict (and hence acquire) those  app users that would  improve the LTV is no easy task. In addition, some events were not coded to the campaign decks and you, therefore, have no historical data to rely on. Once again, solving these issues from this point forward  is doable , but this  means implementing advanced tools that will add still another SDK to the blend, which… yes, you guessed it … the Product and R&D Teams are unlikely to approve.

Well, you are going to continue living with limited data for the moment .  

1:00PM –  An urgent meeting with the Retention Team

Setting this meeting shouldn’t be a problem, since the Retention Manager is…also you. CRO and retention go hand in hand, and so, when the previous manager left, you took on this added responsibility until someone new arrived. Turns out this isn’t changing anytime soon, however. On today’s agenda is coming up with a single strategy that can boost both retention and monetization but that will not add any extra work on the Product Team’s workload, override your current efforts, or increase user frustration, leading to bad reviews and a low app ranking? Best of luck with that. 

What time is it? What year is it? 

You were so busy diving into data that it is now officially too late to visit the gym. Your direct manager stops you at the door, noooo….  But wait…she is happy! The last experiment you ran went well, and she is excited to be sharing  insights with you and the team tomorrow. You have until then to figure out why it worked in the first place, because, honestly, you have no idea.    

Summary

All jokes aside, the challenges App Revenue Managers face are serious and evolve minute by minute. Users become more demanding, the competition fiercer, and acquisition costs are constantly rising as new, sophisticated tools and tactics join the game. 

We at Audioburst Publishers are continually attempting to connect to the inner world of app professionals and to offer a unique value proposition tailored to address the challenges there. How can a new monetization layer be added without impacting the user experience, or, preferably, improving it also? We established Audioburst Publishers in order to offer mobile app revenue managers and marketers a unique value proposition: adding monetization in a completely new dimension of the app, without product changes/pollution and without the need to coordinate with marketing or wait for the analytics guys to add to the dashboard. In other words, this is an out-of-the-box extension of the app that incorporates monetization, analytics, and work and that runs outside the tiring cycle of collaboration and internal communication

Please feel free to contact us to learn more.