We can learn so much from the way gaming apps monetize themselves.
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Physical therapy profits have been an obsession of mine for nearly 20 years. As a physical therapist and private practice owner I have been exploring business models and profits from
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Freemium Revenue Models
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Pokemon Go is free to play and generated over $5 Billion dollars in 5 years.
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The game is monetized with in-app purchases and ads.
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Physical Therapy Profit Models
Rewarded Ads
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All ads don’t have to be intrusive.
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I come from a family of poker players. My kids love the WSOP poker app and the app uses “rewarded ads” as one of several monetization strategies.
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What is a rewarded ad?
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A rewarded ad is an ad that the player engages with and choose to watch for an in-game reward. In the case of WSOP, if I choose to watch so many seconds of an add I can gain 100,000 chips to keep playing.
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If I don’t want to watch the ad I can choose to just buy my chips to continue playing.
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Game Theory and Monetization
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There are also lots of other incentives taken directly from game theory that keep my hooked and keep the dopamine pumping.
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Some games use timing the ad/offer as part of the strategy to close a sale. If I have been winning and progressing through a certain game, I might be offered an upgrade to buy that saves my progress. This plays on my “loss aversion” trigger.
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Telehealth Physical Therapy Services
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Imagine a free to consumer telehealth service that was monetized with targeted ads and product sales.
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Ads could run before the session begins much like a movie theater runs ads before the movie begins. Then display ads could be positioned on the sides and bottom of the telehealth window. There could be a time trigger that runs an ad every 10-minutes during the session. Think of the way YouTube currently runs ads. You see that 5 second warning for an ad that is about to start.
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Product Companies Using Therapy to Expand Their Reach
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Imagine a company that sells office furniture hiring a full-time therapist who spends all of his/her time either performing ergonomic evaluations and recommendations or producing content on the topic.
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Imagine a mattress company doing something similar.
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The companies own ads would pay for the content generation and profits from product sales would likely more than pay for the therapists full-time salary.
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We could get into the ethics in a separate post, but exploring the idea, pros and cons, is what is important here.
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Closing Thoughts
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I would love to see a business model in which a person could choose to skip ads and simply pay directly for therapy services or receive therapist services free to the consumer that has been paid for by ads and affiliate links.
Anthony Maritato, PT
Private Practice Owner / Physical Therapist
After starting a private practice physical therapy clinic in 2022 with his wife Kathy Maritato, PT, Tony and Kathy grew their practice to five locations across two states.
Now, Tony and Kathy enjoy spending time treating patients in the morning, coaching therapists in the evening, and being home to play with their dog Tucker and 4 boys.