Title: With or without ads? A question for health apps

Authors: Cláudia Cardoso; Cândida Sofia Machado; Natália Lemos

Addresses: Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, School of Management, Barcelos, Portugal ' Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, School of Management, Barcelos, Portugal ' Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, School of Management and 2Ai, Barcelos, Portugal

Abstract: In-app ads are a popular source of revenue, for apps, but there are other monetisation strategies. Payment-per-download or in-app purchase options may complement or substitute the in-app ads strategy. From a sample of health apps available in the Portuguese Google Play Store and Apple App Store, we use probability models to study how other monetisation strategies influence the likelihood of including in-app ads. We find that in-app ads revenue may substitute revenue from payment-per-download while the in-app purchase option seems to complement ads revenue. Our results also suggest that the monetisation strategies adopted cannot be dissociated from the choice of the app store.

Keywords: in-app ads; monetisation models; health apps; Google Play Store; Apple App Store.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEMR.2026.153122

International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing, 2026 Vol.17 No.3, pp.362 - 375

Received: 12 Apr 2023
Accepted: 09 Sep 2023
Published online: 23 Apr 2026 *

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