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Pablo Cantu shares how app businesses can maximise revenue by balancing subscriptions, ad monetisation, user experience, and experimentation-driven optimisation.
Building sustainable monetisation in mobile apps is no longer about maximising impressions alone. As user acquisition costs rise and competition intensifies, growth increasingly depends on balancing revenue generation with user experience, relevance, and retention.
For app businesses operating at scale, monetisation has become a product strategy challenge as much as a revenue function. Teams must understand user behaviour deeply, identify natural engagement patterns, and design monetisation systems that feel aligned with how people actually use their apps.
“In-app advertisement is maybe not always loved, but it is here to stay. It keeps the internet and a lot of applications free to use,” said Pablo Cantu, Head of Product at Bitsmedia.
Pablo took the stage at Unlocked: Mobile & App Growth Summit Singapore to share how mobile businesses can rethink subscriptions, in-app advertising, experimentation, and optimisation to create healthier and profitable growth systems.
Three things Martechvibe learned from his talk;
1. Effective monetisation starts with understanding user behaviour
Revenue models should align with natural product usage patterns, session frequency, and engagement intensity. Short, utility-driven sessions may benefit from lightweight ad experiences, while high-engagement features create opportunities for subscriptions, premium tiers, and deeper monetisation without disrupting usability.
2. Experimentation matters more than incremental optimisation
A/B testing should not only focus on small efficiency gains. Testing bold scenarios and unconventional monetisation strategies helps uncover unexpected revenue opportunities, generate richer behavioural data, and prevent teams from becoming trapped in conservative optimisation cycles driven solely by historical performance.
3. Better monetisation can improve user experience
Maximising revenue is not about showing more ads. Smarter pricing, inventory optimisation, and relevant ad placements can reduce intrusive experiences while increasing yield. When monetisation aligns with user expectations and brand safety, advertisers, platforms, and customers all benefit simultaneously.
