Build in Public
AdMob With 12 New Apps: The Numbers Nobody Talks About
April 20, 2026 · 7 min read
When people talk about AdMob, the conversation usually goes one of two ways: “I make $X,000 per month on autopilot” or “AdMob pays pennies, don't bother.” Both are true for different people — and understanding why is the only thing that matters.
I launched 12 iOS apps over 2 months. All free, all AdMob-monetized. Here's the actual revenue data, broken down in a way that might change how you think about what to build.
The Raw Numbers
Month 1 (February 2026, apps starting to go live mid-month): $0.91.
By early March, the daily run rate had climbed to around $0.19/day — projecting to roughly $5–6/month across 7 apps.
Yes, that's less than a coffee. But the trajectory matters more than the absolute number at this stage — and the breakdown by app reveals something important.
| App | Downloads | 7-day Revenue | Daily Active Users | Ad Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TypeBlitz | 94 | $0.88 | 8 | ~91% |
| SnapPDF | 371 | $0.27 | 1 | ~1% |
| Score Counter | 95 | $0.12 | 1 | low |
| Signo | 84 | $0.05 | 2 | low |
| Paletta | 39 | $0.00 | — | — |
| Profito | 21 | $0.00 | 0 | — |
| Mycora | 10 | $0.00 | — | — |
SnapPDF had 4x more downloads than TypeBlitz. TypeBlitz earned 3x more revenue. That gap is the entire story.
The Metric That Actually Predicts AdMob Revenue
Most indie developers think about AdMob like this:
revenue ≈ downloads × eCPM
That model is wrong. The real formula is:
revenue = downloads × sessions_per_user × ad_rate × eCPM
The two middle terms — sessions per user and ad rate — are where everything is won or lost. Downloads are just the starting point. What happens after the download is what determines whether AdMob works.
TypeBlitz had 66 sessions generating 60 ad impressions. That's a 91% ad rate — almost every session monetized. SnapPDF had 4x the downloads but an ad rate under 2%. Users open it, convert a photo, leave in 30 seconds. No second session. No ad impression.
Why Utility Apps Are Structurally Bad for AdMob
This isn't about bad implementation. It's structural.
Utility apps succeed by being fast and frictionless. A great PDF converter gets the job done in 20 seconds and gets out of the way. That's exactly what makes it a bad AdMob host. The better your utility app works, the less time users spend in it — and AdMob pays for time.
Look at the retention numbers across my utility apps:
- SnapPDF: 1-day retention ~0%
- Profito: 1-day retention ~0%
- Score Counter: sessions per user of 2.37 (better, but still low)
- TypeBlitz: 1-day retention 33.3%, 8 daily active users
TypeBlitz is the only app in the portfolio where users come back the next day. Everything else is a one-visit tool.
Total DAU across all 7 apps: approximately 12 people. 714 lifetime downloads, 12 people using them on any given day. That's a 1.7% daily retention across the whole portfolio. Almost everyone who downloaded an app never opened it again.
The eCPM Illusion
My blended eCPM was $8.57 — which sounds decent. But eCPM is a trailing average, and it varies enormously by ad format and app type.
Interstitial ads (full-screen between rounds) pay much more than banners. TypeBlitz is almost entirely interstitials, which is why it punches above its weight. Banner-heavy apps like SnapPDF will have a fraction of TypeBlitz's eCPM even at identical session counts.
The practical takeaway: eCPM is not something you control directly. You control it indirectly by choosing app types that support high-value ad formats.
What Actually Works for AdMob
After staring at this data, the pattern is clear. Apps that work well for AdMob share three traits:
- Round-based structure — Natural break points between rounds are where interstitials fit without feeling intrusive. Quiz apps, typing games, casual games, flashcard apps. The round ends; an ad plays; the user starts another round. It feels expected.
- Intrinsic replay motivation — Users want to beat their score, maintain a streak, or unlock something. This creates sessions without you doing anything. TypeBlitz users come back to beat their WPM record. SnapPDF users come back when they have another photo to convert — which might be never.
- Short session length (paradoxically) — A 90-second typing test or quiz round is ideal. Long enough to feel satisfying, short enough that users play 3–4 rounds per session. A 10-minute deep work session in a focus app means 1 ad per session. Three 90-second rounds means 3.
Is $5–6/Month Worth It?
On its own: no. But that's the wrong frame.
These apps are 2 months old with zero marketing. TypeBlitz is at $0.13/day and climbing — and I haven't touched its ad optimization yet. Reducing the interstitial cooldown from 3 minutes to 2 minutes alone should increase ad impressions by 30–50%. Adding a daily streak system should double DAU.
The compounding math: if TypeBlitz gets to $1/day through optimization, that's $30/month from one app. Build 10 TypeBlitz-equivalents and you're at $300/month. That's still not life-changing, but it's a real number — and it doesn't require ongoing work once the app is built.
The mistake I made was assuming that more downloads = more revenue. SnapPDF getting 371 downloads while earning $0.27 is a lesson I won't forget. The next game I build, I'll think about session structure before I write a single line of code.
The Honest Summary
- Month 1 AdMob revenue: $0.91
- Month 2 daily run rate: ~$0.19/day (~$5–6/month)
- SnapPDF (371 downloads): $0.027/week per 10 users
- TypeBlitz (94 downloads): $0.88/week — 3x better despite fewer downloads
- Total DAU across 7 apps: ~12
- The formula that matters: sessions × ad rate × eCPM, not downloads
AdMob isn't a scam and it isn't easy money. It's a business model that rewards apps designed for retention. Build for sessions, not installs.