How to using ads in your Windows Phone apps

Windows Phone developers have three basic ways to make money from their apps: paid app sales, mobile advertising, and in-app purchases (coming in Windows Phone 8).
Advertising 101

If you’re new to the world of mobile ads, here’s a quick recap of how they work and a summary of the most common ad-related terms you’ll encounter.
On Windows Phone, mobile ad revenue is driven by the number of ads shown (“ad impressions”) and number of ads acted upon (“clicks”), as well as availability of ads to be served into the app at any given time (“fill rate”). Ultimately app developers are paid a certain “eCPM” (cost per mille, or thousand) for ads shown within their apps. To drive revenue, you want to create experiences that will add value to your customers while also driving ad impressions that garner the highest eCPM possible.


Driving more impressions
How do you do that? My first recommendation is an obvious one: create apps that are interesting and that drive engagement with lots of people. The more time customers spend in your app, the more ad impressions that are generated and the greater opportunity to solicit clicks.
By appealing to a broad audience, I’ve tried to make my own apps as “sticky” as possible. Here are some tricks I’ve learned:

1. Make sure your app is intuitive to learn (clear instructions, visual examples) and easy to use (consistent, straight-forward navigation).
2. Have an attractive UI, with compelling graphics and fluid animations.
3. Adequately design and thoroughly test your apps to ensure it almost never crashes or stops, so users don’t get frustrated and continue to come back for more.
4. Ensure the app caters to beginners and experts alike (for games, offer a super easy level for beginners to get them into the game with progressively more difficult levels for experts).
5. Add social elements (global score tracking, sharing through social networks).
6. Add online gameplay (allow users to keep playing or play each other whether on their phone or at a PC).
7. Update the app frequently to keep it fresh and rekindle interest over time.

In addition to making my apps appealing, I also pay special attention to how ads are positioned on screen within my apps to help drive impression and clicks (without interfering with the experience):

Layout your apps such that ads shown integrate seamlessly with the user experience of your app.

Be selective about how and when ads appear. Too many or distracting ads will burn out users and will likely result in poor ratings and reviews.

Select the ad category in pubCenter that fits best with the type of users you expect to get.