Succeeding with Mobile App Sponsorships: Guide for App Owners

Sponsorships are a great way to grow your app. With sponsorships you can fund your app or increase its visibility.

Sponsorships provide a fairly steady and predictable revenue stream for the app owners. Sponsorship also involves lots of freedom in pricing and defining the sponsored packages.

On the other hand, sponsors can greatly benefit from the direct access to their core audience.

In this blog post we’ll talk about app sponsorships and how app owners can successfully monetize their app with sponsorships.

The main sections of the post include:

• What is sponsorship in apps
• What are the benefits of In-App Sponsorships for app owners
• What are the benefits of app sponsorships for the sponsors
• Ideas and examples of sponsored app content
• Estimating app sponsorship revenue and profitability
• Build your app with Choicely & get started with app sponsorships

Let’s dig in.

What is sponsorship in apps?

App sponsorship is a way for a brand (the sponsor) to advertise their products and services in another brand’s app in a way that’s integrated with the content of the app.

How does app sponsorship work?

The sponsor aims to have their products, services, or messaging integrated into the app's content, features, or user experience, often in a way that aligns with the app's audience and enhances brand visibility.

Sponsorships are exclusive and hand-picked compared to other forms of digital advertising like banner ads. The sponsor pays the brand that owns the app directly.

Sponsored app content is the most effective when the sponsor targets the same core audience as the brand that’s being sponsored. Because of this, sponsors can be interested in paying for a prominent placement in the app in order to promote their business.

Sponsored content options among other app monetization methods

What is considered sponsored content in apps?

Sponsored content in apps is promotional material paid for by the sponsor or advertiser, and shared by another brand, influencer, or publisher in their app.

The content is typically created in partnership between the sponsor and the brand. It is designed to seamlessly blend with the app's original content.

What are the benefits of In-App Sponsorships for app owners?

For app owners, in-app sponsorships can:

1. Provide a lucrative income in relation to the ad space
2. Bring a steady and predictable revenue stream
3. Give a lot of flexibility in pricing and offering sponsored spaces
4. Strengthen partnerships with brands and help in networking with them
5. Improve user experience through sponsored content that’s relevant to the users, increasing retention and usage

All in all, app sponsorships are a straightforward and flexible way for app owners to generate revenue.

What are the benefits of app sponsorships for the sponsors?

The benefits of in-app sponsorships for sponsored brands include

1. increased brand visibility
2. targeted audience engagement
3. the ability to seamlessly integrate promotional content into a relevant context, enhancing brand perception

App sponsorship provides the sponsor users that are relevant and engaged: users spend more time on apps than websites. When they access your app, it provides a lot of exposure for the sponsor’s brand and content.

Mobile sponsorship is also highly measurable as every impression and click can be tracked. This way your sponsor can really see the impact their sponsored content has. Calculating the ROI is easier than with traditional sponsorship methods.

As app sponsorships are digital, there are very little material costs involved and the deployment is very flexible and quick.

Sponsored app content mockup.

How do app sponsors make money?

Sponsors can make money from in-app sponsorships in a number of ways:

1. by increasing brand awareness and preference
2. driving user engagement
3. boosting sales or conversions

By placing their products, services, or messaging within an app that targets their desired audience, sponsors can encourage users to take specific actions, such as making a purchase, signing up for a service, or visiting a website.

To drive direct engagement, sponsors can drive app users to unique landing pages, drive them to direct sales, or provide tailored offers or coupons. If your sponsors use landing pages, recommend them to provide you with UTM tags or unique URLs as they can use them to measure the success of the investment.

App sponsorships are also strong in generating brand awareness. In an earlier interview from 2017, Ryan Griffin, Vice President and Group Director of Media and Mobile at Digitas highlighted: “For sponsorships, we generally see lifts in brand impact measures, such as awareness, brand favorability, and purchase intent, that are 1.5–2 times higher than general mobile advertising inclusive of mobile Web and 30–50% percent higher than standard in-app ads” 

“The obvious upside of an app sponsorship is the greater degree of integrated brand presence”, Griffin added.

How to find and get sponsorships for your app

Finding sponsorships for your mobile app requires a strategic approach.

1. Identify brands that align with your app’s target audience. These brands should share similar values and interests with your users.
2. Research potential sponsors within your niche. Look for companies that are already sponsoring similar apps, events, or activities.
3. To find sponsors, you can use online directories, sponsorship platforms like LookingForSponsor.com and SponsorPitch.com, social media, search engines, and industry events. Networking and referrals can also be powerful tools for finding the right sponsors.
4. Once you have identified potential sponsors, target the marketing departments within these companies. Craft personalized, professional outreach messages  – whether through email, calls, or social media – that introduce your business, your app, and your sponsorship proposal. Highlight how your app can benefit them, what kind of exposure they can expect, and the mutual value the sponsorship will bring.

Visibility for sponsors on the splash screen.

How to sell app sponsorships

Selling app sponsorships involves a clear understanding of both your app's value and the potential sponsor's goals.

1. Define your sponsorship goals, which could range from securing specific revenue targets to increasing app downloads through a high-profile sponsor.
2. Identify brands that resonate with your audience, considering what assets you can offer. These assets might include ad spaces within your app, brand activations, or larger sponsorship packages that provide extensive exposure.
3. Price these assets appropriately – look at what other companies have charged for similar offerings to help set competitive prices.
4. Compile this information into a well-crafted sponsorship proposal that outlines your app, its audience, and what you offer to sponsors. Include a detailed list of sponsorship packages to choose from, tailored to meet the needs of different sponsors.
5. When approaching potential sponsors, aim to set up discovery sessions where you can learn about their goals and challenges. Use this information to tailor your proposals and negotiate the terms of the sponsorship deal.

How to set prices for your app sponsorships

There are no universal guidelines to pricing app sponsorships. The key is to understand the real value your app offers to a sponsor. Unlike traditional sponsorships, in-app ads are clickable, editable, and measurable, providing a unique value proposition.

Consider the size and engagement level of your app's user base when setting prices. Sponsorships have been sold for as little as a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands, depending on the app’s reach and the sponsor's objectives.

To increase value for the sponsor and your overall revenue, consider selling sponsorships as part of a complete sponsor package. This might include multiple ad placements, social media promotions, and other forms of brand activation, giving sponsors more extensive exposure and interaction with your audience.

Calculating sponsorship revenue isn't complicated. Read more about app monetization models.

How to communicate the value of the app sponsorships

Tips to communicating the value of your app sponsorships:

1. Focus on how your app aligns with the sponsor’s goals and the benefits they can expect.
2. Highlight the size, engagement, and demographics of your app's audience.
3. Show how these align with the sponsor's target market, emphasizing the potential for increased brand visibility and customer engagement.
4. Your sponsorship proposal should clearly explain how the sponsorship will work, including the type, location, and frequency of the sponsored content within the app.
5. Make sure to showcase past successes, user engagement statistics, and any unique features of your app that make it an attractive platform for sponsorship.

Be prepared to negotiate the terms of the sponsorship agreement, including the duration, payment method, exclusivity, and termination clauses. A well-documented contract that outlines all these details is crucial for maintaining a professional relationship.

How to measure the success of the app sponsorships

Measuring the success of your app sponsorship is essential for maintaining sponsor relationships and securing future deals. Track key metrics such as

• impressions (how often the sponsored content is shown)
• clicks (how often users engage with the sponsored content)
• conversions (actions taken by users after clicking)
• and revenue generated from the sponsorship

Regularly report these results to your sponsor, providing detailed feedback and suggestions for improvement. This transparency not only validates your performance but also helps build trust and opens the door for sponsorship renewals.

At the end of the contract period, evaluate the outcomes and impacts of the sponsorship. 

Consider revenue growth, download rates, user retention, ratings, and social media presence. If the sponsorship was successful, propose a renewal or extension for future projects. Even if the sponsorship ends, maintaining a positive relationship can lead to future opportunities or referrals.

Example of a sponsored banner.

Ideas and examples of sponsored app content

There are several ways you can leverage sponsored content in your app. For example, your app could feature:

1. Sponsors displayed on the splash screen of your app
2. Directory of sponsorships
3. Sponsored articles
4. Sponsored engagements such as polls, ratings, votings, rankings and surveys
5. Sponsored banners among app content, like feeds
6. Sponsored video
7. Sponsored push notifications
8. Home screen visibility for sponsors
9. Sponsored app sections

Examples from Choicely customers

Many of our customers have featured sponsored content in their apps. Here are a couple of examples.

The Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest is the largest live music event in the world, with a world-wide viewership of 163 million watching the contest in 2024.

Bailey’s, the famous Irish cream liqueur brand, was one of the main sponsors of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 and the official app. On top of logo visibility, the Bailey’s brand featured their own sponsored content section: “Listen for a treat”.

This ingenious section featured extra audio content for those with impaired eyesight. Baileys provided spoken descriptions of each Eurovision performance via a dedicated Spotify playlist, providing more accessibility for the fans.

The Eurovision Song Contest app provided major visibility for Bailey’s, as the app was featured in Apple App Store as “#1 in "Free apps”, “Entertainment apps” and “Apps we ❤️right now” categories during the week of the contest.

Helsinki Cup

The Helsinki Cup is one of the largest junior football tournaments in Europe. The tournament hosts over 20 000 junior players and their families and fans each year.

The tournament, and the Helsinki Cup app, was sponsored by a local Intersport store, which is a part of the larger international sporting goods retailer chain.

The Helsinki Cup app is central to the event, as it has been voted as the #1 communications channel by the participants. The app is active around the year, delivering new information about the tournament, accepting registrations, and so on.

Sponsor activations are also happening around the year. In this case (see picture below), there’s a vote in the app regarding the best-looking pair of football boots, involving a random draw to win the boots among everyone taking part.

This Helsinki Cup x Intersport sponsorship is a great example of a case where the profile of the app users and the target audience of the sponsoring brand overlap.

Estimating app sponsorship revenue and profitability

Estimating app sponsorship revenue – or setting targets – is rather straightforward once you have app sponsorship packages in place. Set targets on how many sponsored spaces or packages you can realistically fit and sell into your app, and sum their prices to get the total income.

We have set up a free Google sheet where you can estimate the revenue of your app from sponsorships, and other monetization methods. The sheet also includes an app cost calculator, and sections for forecasting the profit and ROI of your app.

Try it out, just make a copy of the file for yourself first, to make it editable.

Build your app with Choicely & get started with app sponsorships

Are you looking to build an app? Do it with Choicely.

Choicely is a No Code App Builder that has been used to create world-class apps for organizations like the Eurovision Song Contest, ITV Studios, Miss Universe and AFTV.

With Choicely, you can build an app in a fraction of the time and cost compared to traditional app development – and have an app running in a matter of mere weeks.

Try our App Makers Quiz to get personalized guides to your app making process, or simply start building your app right away.

And when it comes to In-App Sponsorships and other monetization methods, we can help.