Hey tunepunk, on a completely unrelated topic for a second, did you notice our user names are similar? All we need is to find a guy called 'codepunk' and we could team up together and make a game studio called 'GamePunk' Ill do art, you do tunes, codepunk does the code.
Maybe we'd need 'marketingpunk' too.
Haha not a bad idea, would be a funny setup. Sorry for late reply to this topic.
Anyway, regarding monetization there's also other factors to consider.
Personally I'm greatly opposed to using ads in game. I don't like ads, they look ugly, and ruin the game experience, and makes the game look cheap, BUT I understand it allows you to earn a bit of profit on a free game.
IAP's are handy BUT forces you to design the game around this monetization model to earn some money on your game. U can restrict the game for those who don't pay. Like Candy Crush U can play for free but you have to wait for new lives, unless you buy more. I don't know how games like crossy road did so well with IAP, I never saw any ingame ads, and no restrictions, other than characters you didn't unlock yet, but I really like this model. Other characters have no advantage/disadvantage. Pure cosmetics, and people seem to buy it.