Thinking about advertising or monetizing with offerwalls?
Lately, offerwalls are getting rediscovered as a valuable tool for monetizing non-paying users and profitable user acquisition at scale.
Around for a long time in the app marketing ecosystem, offerwalls are now entering a golden era in their evolution.
To help you make up your mind about this rising ad format, we’re bringing everything you need to know about it in one place.
Let’s dive right in!
What Are Offerwalls?
Offerwalls are a form of advertising where users complete goal engagements in exchange for rewards.
How do they work?
Just like their name suggests, offerwalls appear as “walls” made up of “offers”. This unique ad unit lives inside a mother app or website. Upon opening an offerwall, users can find a list of different actions they can take to earn a reward. Some common tasks that appear in offerwalls include:
- Filling out a survey
- Reaching X level in another game
- Registering in another app
- Installing an app
Right next to each offer, users can see the reward they will earn by completing it. This is usually the currency of the mother app or website where the offerwall lives. For example, coins, gems, or power-ups. The more time and effort required for the goal action, the higher the reward for users.
Then and Now
Offerwalls have been around since the early days of mobile advertising when they were wildly different from today. There are still many misconceptions about offerwalls based on how they used to look and feel.
Let’s debunk these myths once and for all.
Initial offerwall solutions provided transactional experiences for users which led to transactional behavior for advertisers. They would usually consist of offers saying things like “Install an app to earn a reward”. As a result, users would often reap rewards and vanish for good.
Back then, this was an effective method for climbing the top charts. However, app stores have come a long way since, and so have offerwalls.
Modern offerwalls are focused on meaningful engagement while prioritizing profitability.
Thanks to this shift, offerwalls now deliver completely different user experiences and attract high-quality, loyal users at scale.
Offerwalls have also become much more aesthetically pleasing than before. Ten years ago, many of them felt intrusive and sketchy. Today, they are carefully designed to blend in seamlessly with the UI of any app or website.
Offerwall User Flow
Offerwalls provide a non-intrusive ad experience by allowing users to choose when and if they want to interact with promotional content.
Here’s an illustration of an offerwall user flow in a mobile game.
- A player has been playing a game for a while and starts running out of diamonds, but they don’t want to buy them as IAPs.
- To meet the player’s needs, the developer presents them with a pop-up or banner with a sign “free currency” leading them to an offerwall.
- Intrigued, the player decides to explore the offers, discovering a new game in the offerwall that they decide to try out. As they play the promoted game, they realize that they like it and continue to play it even after the goal action is completed.
- Returning to the first game, the player receives the promised amount of diamonds and continues playing it feeling good about the exchange.
Types of Offers
To understand the diversity and potential of modern offerwalls, it’s essential to be aware of the different types of offers they can contain. In offerwalls, players can come across two general types of offerings:
- Classic single-action offers where users need to complete only one task to receive a reward (e.g. complete level 2)
- Multi-reward offers where users need to complete a set of tasks to earn rewards, getting a part of it for each completed step (e.g. install a game → complete level 3 → destroy level 5 boss)
Offerwall Monetization and Offerwall Advertising
Just like there are two sides of a wall, there are two sides of an offerwall – developers and advertisers.
Developers place offerwalls in their apps to reward user engagement and create new revenue streams. On the other hand, advertisers place their offers on the “wall” hoping to attract high-quality users who will like their app.
Now that you understand the process behind offerwalls, let’s get into more details.
First, let’s go over the main benefits of offerwalls for both sides – developers and advertisers.
Top Benefits of Offerwall Monetization
Here’s why app offerwalls represent an invaluable revenue stream for many app developers.
Improving Retention Rates
Users who engage with offerwalls have strong reasons to return to the app where they found it.
Offerwall users return to apps not only to claim their rewards but also to make good use of them. These rewards provide them with a taste of a premium app experience, allowing them to enjoy the app more and increasing their desire to continue using it.
With all this in mind, it’s no surprise that offerwall users have 5-7x higher retention rates than non-offerwall users (ironSource).
But, long-term retention is where offerwalls really shine.
According to Unity, offerwalls users have up to 5x higher retention rates, with the biggest difference seen in later stages such as day 60 and day 90.
Monetizing Non-Paying Users
A lot of people don’t want to spend any of their hard-earned money on apps.
But, many of them are willing to spend their time instead – and this is where rewarded advertising comes into play. Just like rewarded video ads, offerwalls reward users for the time they voluntarily spend engaging with ads.
As a result, the developer gets to monetize a wider range of engaged users – not just the payers.
Encouraging In-App Purchases
There is a common misconception that offerwalls cannibalize in-app purchases. It is based on the premise that “if you give out such generous rewards, no one will want to pay anymore”.
In reality, things aren’t so black and white.
Offerwall rewards actually have the same effect as free samples. When users receive these rewards, they get to try out premium content that they would normally miss out on. This gives them a better understanding of in-app purchase value.
As they continue playing the game, many of these users will decide to take a shortcut and ultimately make an in-app purchase.
Because of all this, offerwall users are 10-14x more likely to make in-app purchases (Kongregate).
Superb Ad Revenue
Offerwalls deliver extremely high eCPMs (effective cost per mille) for developers. This makes them much more lucrative than all other in-app ad formats.
According to ironSource, offerwall eCPMs for Android users in the US average at $530. To compare, in the same category, rewarded video ads generate a “slim” $17.2 while the average for interstitial ads is $14.62 (Appodeal).
Why is that?
It’s actually pretty simple. Advertisers are aware that offerwalls bring in high-quality users and they don’t mind paying a premium price for them.
No Need to Change Your Ad Stack
When adding new interstitials or rewarded video ads to your app, you need to balance your ad placements to avoid overwhelming users.
With offerwalls, there’s no need to worry about this.
This ad format doesn’t interfere with the app flow or the UX, so there is no need to change the existing ad stack. They seamlessly blend into the app, and users launch them because they want to.
Great Fit for Hybrid Monetization
You’re a game dev who embraced the trend of hybrid monetization (combining ads and in-app purchases)?
Good news – offerwalls perform exceptionally well in such circumstances.
According to Unity, offerwalls account for an average of 33% of ad revenue in games that use a hybrid model.
Top Benefits of Offerwall Advertising
Now, let’s take a look at what offerwall ads can do for app advertisers.
Only Pay What You Get
With classic video ads, advertisers pay thousands of dollars to have their ads seen by a huge online audience, only a small portion of which will end up downloading the app.
Offerwalls don’t work on the same principle.
They are based on a CPE (cost per engagement) or a CPA (cost per action) pricing model. In both cases, the advertisers pay only for completed actions, without any money wasted on impressions or clicks.
Important note: CPE campaigns are restricted on iOS, so offerwalls advertising is more effective on Android.
High-Quality Users
Users acquired through offerwalls are people willing to dedicate their time to the things they like. Because they were already engaged in the app where they discovered the offerwall, there is a good chance they will spend more time using the advertised app.
Equally important, offerwalls provide superb targeting options that allow advertisers to show their ads to the most relevant users, considering their behavior and interests.
The quality of these users is best reflected in metrics like retention rate, ROAS, and session length.
A great example of this is how a mobile gaming studio, Midnite Games, struggled to acquire quality users via standard video UA channels. Looking for alternative solutions, they tested MAF’s MyChips offerwall which helped their game reach a remarkable 170% global ROAS and 3.5x higher retention rates.
Protection Against Ad Fraud
Ad fraud is a serious problem in mobile advertising, where scammers fabricate clicks, impressions, or even installs.
Because of how offerwalls work, the level of ad fraud is exceptionally low.
Since offerwalls focus on engagement and in-app progression, pretending to be a real user becomes almost impossible. At MyChips, we completely eliminate this risk by working with trusted measurement partners only.
Offerwalls: 7 Best Practices
Now that you know all the ins and outs of offerwalls, here are some tips to help you get the most out of them.
1. Choose a Reliable Partner
If you’re thinking about entering the offerwall arena, the key decision you’ll need to make is to pick out a trusted, expert partner. There is a lot of know-how and technicalities behind offerwalls, and that means you’ll need all the help you can get. Here is a list of the most important traits to look for in an offerwall partner:
- Expertise and good reputation
- Quality and user experience
- Ease of integration and strong technical support
- Multiple pricing models (CPE, CPA)
- Multiple offer types (single-reward, multi-reward)
Another thing that proves the worth of an offerwall company is its ability to maintain long-term partnerships. At MAF, we take pride in our extensive list of long-term partners, all of which we have helped grow and continue to do so.
2. Place Offerwalls in High-Traffic Areas
Offerwalls shouldn’t be buried in hidden corners of your app. On the contrary – they should be placed in high-traffic locations where users can easily discover them. Some of the most popular offerwall locations in apps and games include:
- The home screen for the highest exposure
- In-app store for users looking for currency
- Pop-ups for tactical timing (e.g. game over screen)
3. Check for Offer Quality
Many developers worry about the quality of advertisers’ offers that appear in offerwalls.
But, as long as you decide on an established offerwall monetization provider, there is no need to stress over this.
Even a quick glance at the MyChips offerwall eliminates this concern – in it, you can find a wide range of offers from premium advertisers. Thanks to a variety of options, users can choose the apps they like best, as well as the offer types they prefer.
4. Utilize Multi-Reward Offers
If you’re an advertiser who wants to attract high-quality users, then multi-reward offers are a better choice than single-action offers.
Multi-reward offers encourage users to complete tasks for better rewards and continue using the advertised app for longer. This gives advertisers more time to show them the best features of their app.
Data shows that multi-reward offers work especially well for mobile games. According to Unity, they account for 60% to 82% of all offerwall conversions across all mobile game genres.
To really get the best out of multi-reward offers, try out different multi-reward ad formats. On top of the standard multi-reward ad format, MAF also offers Play2Earn, a unique ad format that rewards users for their engagement performance.
5. Ensure Attractive Offers
When users interact with offerwalls, 34% of them will open them again the following month (Unity).
Don’t let them come back to the same stale offerings.
To make sure this doesn’t happen, choose offerwalls where the lists of tasks get regularly updated. This helps in keeping things interesting and gives returning users something new to explore.
To make things even more tempting, it’s recommended to run offerwall promotions with increased exchange rates (e.g. 2x more rewards). This is usually done on weekends or during holiday seasons like Christmas or Thanksgiving. Offerwall promotions are especially popular in mobile gaming, where announcing “boosted weekends” helps keep users motivated and engaged.
6. Segment Users
Once you’ve established a basic offerwall setup, it’s time to take things a step further – split your users into groups based on different characteristics such as:
- Demographics (age, gender, education)
- Location (region, country)
- Behavior (active vs. passive)
- Spending habits (spenders vs. non-spenders)
By doing this, you can tailor their offerwall experiences and deliver them the most suitable offers. In order to get the most out of segmentation, you should also A/B test different incentives to find out what works for different user groups.
7. Watch out for Customer Support
When choosing an offerwall partner to work with, check if they have reliable customer support.
Never underestimate the importance of good customer service.
Even the best, world-renown offerwalls occasionally face technical difficulties. For example, it can happen that users don’t receive their reward, or have questions on how to complete a task.
Having support to turn to leaves users with a positive attitude towards both parties and ensures they can confidently move forward and successfully complete the offer.
For this reason, the MyChips offerwall has a button that allows users to easily contact our support team to resolve any issues. The team is also in regular contact with developers and advertisers to ensure that things run smoothly for all sides involved.
Ready to Unlock the Full Potential of Offerwalls?
Whether you want to advertise or monetize your app via offerwalls, MAF can help you out. Check out how our unique ad formats can help you reach new high-quality users, resulting in the highest ROAS.
If you’re interested in implementing an offerwall to your app and maximizing your eCPMs, explore our variety of monetization solutions.
For any extra information, don’t hesitate to reach out!
