Digital media has a strange relationship with advertising.
According to a report by Insider Intelligence, there is a probability that digital ads spending might exceed $700B in 2024, representing around 11% of the year-over-year increase.
On one side, advertisements influence customers' buying decisions, but on the other side, people feel bothered and irritated by the continuous ads. Research by HubSpot claims that "91% of the users agree that ads are more intrusive today compared to the past 3-4 years, and 87% agree that there are more ads in general.
However, rewarded ads have become a popular alternative in the last decade. Nowadays, users have autonomy over the ad experience and can benefit by participating. In rewarded advertising, the users get rewards for watching an ad, such as power-ups, extra life, or in-game currency. They are trendy among all the participants in the ad monetization channel, i.e., players, advertisers, and developers.
Are you curious about rewarded ads and how to incorporate them effectively? Well, you're in the right place. In the following blog, we'll provide the answers you seek!
What are rewarded video ads
Reward video ads are videos a user can watch in exchange for some sort of incentive, such as an extended free trial, free virtual currency, or a puzzle hint.
If the user clicks on the ad, the platform directs them to a website or a custom landing page.
In every rewarded ads channel, events occur in four ways:-
- Ad Prompt: the user can view the ad in exchange for any incentive, such as virtual currency or game points.
- Opt-in: When the user decides to interact with the ad.
- Ad Reward: the user views the entire ad and receives a reward.
- Item used: When the user gets a new life in the form of a reward and continues to play from where he left the game.
For example: In games like Subway Surfers, rewarded video ads are key in improving user experience. Users can voluntarily engage with the rewarded ads shown during the game for valuable in-game rewards, such as extra lives, power-ups, game tokens, or virtual currency.
Suppose you are about to hit the high score but are caught mistakenly. The platform will allow you to continue the game from the same point by watching the rewarded video ads. The opt-in nature of rewarded video ads in this game creates a positive interaction, promoting user satisfaction while effectively contributing to the game's revenue model.
Why Use Rewarded Ads?
The competition is increasing day-by-day in the mobile gaming space, and the developers need to pay significant attention to the retention and engagement of the users. It became crucial to find the proper balance between the user experience and monetization for the success of an app.
So, in such a scenario, reward advertising came out as the best approach to achieve this balance. According to Unity's Ads Study, Rewarded Ads for apps have impressive success rates:
- 54% of the users claim that video ads they get are relatable to them. As per the data, 62% of users prefer to engage in reward-based advertising voluntarily.
- 71% of the users prefer in-game video ads over in-app purchases or paid apps.
- 62% of the app developers have observed high user retention or increased audience interest after video reward advertising.
- 52% of mobile app developers claim that such ads serve as the most profitable type of in-app advertising.
Free incentives enable users to progress in the app for free, which contributes to the high success rate of the rewarded ads. Instead of paying real money in any form, users can "pay" their attention and time to avail of the benefits that enable them to progress faster, receive advantages, or continue playing that could otherwise be paid for. These ads enable the user to control their user experience while interacting with rewarded ads or not.
The Benefits of Rewarded Advertising
The collection of revenue with excellent user experience is one of the key matrices determining whether the app has achieved its goal or not. However, the rewarded video ads benefit all involved parties, i.e., users, publishers & developers, and advertisers.
User
- Flexibility in choosing when to interact with Ads: These ads never play automatically.
- Rewards for watching Ads: You are always incentivized to interact with ads.
- Fewer money needs or lower price purchases: Users get resources and benefits for their attention and time.
Developers and Publishers
- High user retention rates: If interacting with the ad will provide users extra lives, game tips, or other rewards, there is very little possibility that users will get frustrated and close the app.
- More than 80% of users opt for advertising: Users prefer to spend time interacting with ads instead of making direct in-app purchases.
- Increase Download: If the application is free for the user then the developer or publisher gets money through the rewarded ads as more users might download the application.
Advertisers
- Better Potential Audience: Here, the user picks the ads they are interested in.
- Higher Return on Investment (ROI): The user is only rewarded after watching the entire ad, so it eliminates the possibility of ignoring or skipping ads.
- Higher user satisfaction: These rewarded ads are non-intrusive and optimal, preferring user views concerning the advertiser.
Best Practices for Developers
Various factors like design, positioning, and implementation impact the performance of reward-based advertising. So, here in this section, we have provided you with a list of tips that can help you:-
Position of Ads
Proper implementation of reward Ads decides the negative or positive impact on user experience. For the proper positioning of the ads, consider the factor that is most crucial for the user while exploring the app. Hence:
- Shows the Ads in high-user traffic places
- Use pop-up activation prompts to boost ad discovery.
- Place ads between the levels allow users to progress in the application
User Experience
Rewarded Video Ads benefit both the user and advertiser simultaneously. Hence, value the quality of the user experience and use a good format to make the people spend their time enjoying the app. Always remember that Rewarded Ads' success always depends on retention, engagement, and daily active users (DAU). So, to grow and for long-term results, always use a format that contributes to the positive user experience.
Focus on Users Need
If any user is not interested in interacting with rewarded ads, he will be willing to watch the entire video ad for the rewards.
The best way to do this is to enable the user to activate the video ads themselves. You can give the user an option to watch the ad for an extra life or any incentive as per their will. It might enhance the user experience and help advertisers get quality impressions and conversion rates.
Unexpected Rewards
Offering mysterious gifts can motivate the user to interact with the rewarded ads. Unexpected rewards can be a special token, gameplay tips, extra coins, or direct entry to the next level. You can customize the rewards as per the nature of the game.
What PubScale Offer You?
The Team at PubScale is quite aware of the fact that reward-based advertising is one of the prominent ad formats available for publishers and developers of all shapes and sizes. Our team works with various ad networks to implement high-revenue opportunities for mobile game developers.
By integrating the offerwall plugin powered by PubScale, users can get instant results without impacting the application's performance. We provide custom ad creatives as per your need to enhance user experience and maximize ROI.
You can integrate our platform of reward-based advertising into your existing application in three simple steps.
- Step 1: Sign up at dashboard.pubscale.com
- Step 2: Integrate our Offerwall SDK
- Step 3: Add your game to our dashboard
- Step 4: Watch your game generate revenue & excel in user retention!
Final Thoughts on Rewarded Video Ads
Reward advertising is one of the significant advertainment strategies for developers to monitor their apps while providing valuable service to the users. Developers can enhance retention rates, improve user engagement, and diversify revenue streams by offering players valuable incentives for engaging with rewarded ads.
