Upping the Monetization Ante for Financial Apps

By Tim Cronin

According to Varolli Corporation’s “Can You Bank on Your Banking App?” study, financial institutions just aren’t following through (monetizing) on the high rates of consumer use of financial apps. The study found that 44 percent of consumers used a banking app, 8 percent had downloaded an app but not used it, and the remaining 48 percent had never downloaded a mobile banking app. One of the more telling findings of the report is that consumers want to be able to conduct sophisticated functions such as depositing checks and receiving real-time notifications from banking apps.

But the good news is that some financial institutions are doing mobile well and right. Take Wells Fargo, for example. With more than 9,000 stores and 12,000 ATMS nationwide, Wells Fargo has smartphone apps for Android, BlackBerry, iPhone and Palm devices as well as a mobile site and a text banking program, followed by its iPad app that was released in December 2012. It has also rolled out its Send & Receive Money feature, which lets Wells Fargo and Bank of America clients receive and send money to each other. The service works by using an email address or mobile phone number. As Brian Pearce, Senior Vice President and Head of the Retail Mobile Channel for Wells Fargo, stated: “The key for us it to not [let mobile] compete with other channels. We know that people have adopted this mobile lifestyle, and we want to make sure we are doing everything we can do to manage their finances while on the go and serve all customers in that manner.”

In addition to apps released by major financial institutions, there are plenty of other financial apps that are both useful for consumers and monetize for app developers. Here are three financial apps that are doing a good job of monetizing (or are well on their way to doing so).

Mint

Many financial apps allow users to track their personal expenditures, but the Mint app for iOS and Android goes beyond the basic math of mobile banking and lets users create and monitor their budgets. In today’s economy, consumers are especially concerned about keeping their finances in check. To monetize an app of this kind, it’s important that your monetization strategy takes that into account. What the Mint app does that makes it so cool (and easy to monetize) is that it suggests similar financial services/products, e.g. credit cards, in the form of sponsored ads. What really makes this work for Mint is that these suggestions don’t feel or look like ads to users (and thus, are less likely to irritate/turn them away). In fact, the Mint app will even recommend non-sponsored services if they will save users more money, as opposed to a sponsored product. Not only does this practice provide users with a more relevant and useful user experience, but it adds a layer of trust which will likely get users to click on in-app ads, but also recommend and share the app with other users.

Pageonce

Paying bills can get complicated, and Pageonce works with consumers to make that easier. Available on all mobile platforms, Pageonce provides its users with reminders and the ability to pay their bills through its app. Pageonce charges a small transaction fee when users pay bills via a credit or debit card, but they are currently looking to expand their monetization strategy and are possibly looking at ad platforms. It will be interesting to see how Pageonce incorporates advertisements or another strategy and how that will translate to consistent ROI and revenue for app developers.

Expense Manager

One of the advantages of Expense Manager, an Android app, is that it lets users track their expenses in multiple currencies and take photos of receipts. Expense Manager utilizes relevant ads as its monetization strategy, but in deference to its professional audience, allows users to upgrade to an ad-free Pro version for $4.99. The important thing to note with Expense Manager’s monetization strategy here is that ads only appear on the bottom of the account summary page, so that they are not disturbing or cluttering the app experience. Even more important is that when ads are served in the free app, the ads are targeted and relevant, thereby driving an increase in click-through rates.