Rewarded engagement materials include a variety of ads that app owners can include to reward users, keep them engaged, and ultimately help boost rankings on app stores such as Apple App Store and Google Play. The key is knowing how to properly develop and implement these campaigns to continually engage users after acquiring them.
In this post, we’ll discuss what rewarded ads are, how they work, and the many benefits they offer to users, advertisers, and publishers.
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What Are Rewarded Ads?
Rewarded ads, also known as incentivized ads, are certain types of ads that enable users to choose whether to view them. After viewing these ads, users can receive certain in-app rewards, which could include in-app currency or virtual items.
Generally, publishers may use one of two different types of rewarded ads: offer walls and video ads. Each offers a variety of benefits, including the ability to increase rankings in app stores.
How Do Offer Walls Work?
Offer walls consist of a series of ads that ad networks put together. Through the integration of an SDK in their app, owners can offer rewarded engagement materials to users. Users can then choose to engage with the offer wall, which will enable them to view ads and receive rewards after interacting with them. Normally, users can see the offer wall in an in-app shop.
The ads on offer walls require users to complete specific tasks and provide instructions for how to complete them. Users will then need to follow these instructions to receive their reward.
Some of the potential rewarded tasks on offer walls include:
- Installing a new app
- Installing an app followed by a specific in-app task
- Subscribing to a newsletter
- Enrolling in a contest
- Taking a survey
- Buying a particular product
These and other options give users plenty of choices when it comes to viewing rewarded ads. Some users may simply want to install an app for free to receive a reward, while others may be willing to spend money on certain tasks. By offering a number of tasks to your audiences, you’ll be able to appeal to different segments based on what they’re willing to do to reap in-app rewards. At the same time, you’ll increase app engagement.
Increase App Purchase
How Do Rewarded Video Ads Work?
These rewarded video ads are a type of video ad that users can choose to watch to receive an in-app reward. Unlike offer walls that require users to visit an in-app shop, rewarded video ads typically send users contextual prompts during the user journey that offer a reward in exchange for viewing an ad. However, some apps may include them within the in-app shop. Regardless, these ads are often ideal to push when the user is in need of them.
For example, a user may opt to watch a rewarded video ad when they run out of life while playing a mobile game, in which case the ad would grant them an extra life to continue playing. Other apps may include these when a user wants to perform an action that enables them to access premium content.
The Different Types of Potential Rewards for Users
Whether you choose to use an offer wall or rewarded video ads, or a combination of both, there are a number of rewards you could offer. Whenever people complete an offer wall task or view a video, they can receive a minor to major digital reward, such as:
- In-app currency, such as currency used in a mobile gaming app or points to use toward items in shopping apps
- Premium content like tips and tricks for lifestyle apps, collections of content, or various types of items or levels in a mobile game
- Free subscriptions or other types of account upgrades
- In-app items such as social media stickers and emojis
The rewards in offer walls are often potentially greater than the ones received through video ads. Video ad rewards are often minor due to the lack of commitment required, as users simply view a short video to completion. Meanwhile, offer wall rewards will depend on the extent of the task. For instance, a reward may be relatively small if the user merely needs to install an app and perform a free action within it. On the other hand, users may be able to recover a larger reward if they complete a large purchase using their own money.
The Advantages of Rewarded Ads
If you’re wondering whether it’s worth it to use rewarded ads to connect with your app’s audiences, these materials offer a list of advantages, including:
Higher rankings in app stores
While encouraging people to initially install your app is a huge step, you need to do what you can to keep users engaged. If your app offers a premium experience or other content that users don’t want to have to pay directly to access, offering rewards through offer walls or video ads can encourage users to continue using your app and enjoying the experience. In the process, app stores are more likely to favor your app due to its higher levels of engagement compared to other apps in the same category.
Users only receive rewards after viewing ads to completion
Unlike other types of ads, users usually need to watch entire video ads or complete tasks before receiving their rewards. This helps significantly reduce the risk of ad skipping and maximizes completion rates, which is excellent for advertisers. Advertisers also benefit from increased brand recall and recognition.
Drive more in-app purchases
Once users have purchased in-app items and content with rewarded currency or points, they’ll be more likely to spend real money on in-app items in the future. In fact, rewarded ads are up to 4.5 times more likely to lead to in-app purchases.
Increase user retention with accumulating rewards
If you offer rewards in your app such as points systems that accumulate over time, user retention will increase as users repeatedly use the app to both increase their rewards and spend their current points.
Improve ad targeting
Through offer wall ads, users can select which ads they view, which naturally enhances targeting. Users only see what they want without being forced to see ads that are irrelevant to them.
Improve user satisfaction
Another advantage of using rewarded ads is the ability to keep users more satisfied with their experience. This is because of people’s ability to choose whether they want to view them, making them purely optional.
Reduce ad fatigue
The non-intrusive nature of rewarded ads helps minimize the risk of ad fatigue, which is a common problem among many app users. People don’t want to see hundreds of pop-up ads that interrupt the user experience, and they’ll often disengage if this is their experience. Today’s app users see all types of ads and tend to ignore them, but rewarded ads will more effectively grab and hold people’s attention because of the anticipation of a reward upon completion.
Increase session duration
The value that rewarded ads bring is also likely to make users look at both the app and ads in a positive light, keeping them consistently happy with the user experience. In turn, they’ll be more inclined to keep using the app for longer periods if they can expect more of the same value.
How to Correctly Implement Rewarded Ads
Keeping the benefits of rewarded engagement materials in mind, there are some critical steps you need to take to get the most from these ads. The following are some best practices for implementing rewarded ads in your app.
Secure the best placement for ads
When introducing rewarded ads to your app, you need to make sure they won’t hinder the user experience. To determine which ad placements will work best, think about what your users care about and what they want in their experience. For instance, placing rewarded video ads right before a crucial moment within your app could frustrate users, whereas prompting users to view ads at the right time, such as after completing a large task, can make those ads more seamless.
If you want to make rewarded video ads freely available to users, you may also want to include them in an offer wall, or even on your homepage, where they’ll be even more visible.
Test different rewards to see which yield the best results
Before settling on ads and their respective rewards, determine which incentives drive the most engagement. You can use A/B split testing to pair a set of ads with different incentives, or even test the same incentive with two different ads. Depending on which combinations work best, you can optimize rewarded ads to drive better results.
Make sure ads are relevant
To further satisfy users and get them to engage with ads, ensure they fit within your app’s category. For example, you might want to include ads for travel apps if your app is for learning a new language.
How App Samurai Can Help with Rewarded Engagement Materials
By taking the right approach to rewarded ads, you’ll be able to significantly boost engagement that keeps users happy and helps new users find you in app stores. However, you’ll need the right tools to help you with rewarded material development and placement, which is where App Samurai can help.
App Samurai is an AI-powered mobile growth platform that can help you develop rewarded ad campaigns that keep you above competitors and build user loyalty. Using this platform, you’ll also be able to generally improve your app’s performance, build brand awareness, and successfully monetize your app. App Samurai will ultimately fuel your app’s long-term success with plenty of resources in a complete solution.