Offerwalls explained: A proven monetization model for mobile apps

The mobile app landscape is constantly evolving, and increased costs and competition are causing publishers to seek additional ways to monetize their users. For years, they have relied on tried-and-true methods like in-app advertising (IAA), in-app purchases (IAP), and subscriptions. Yet one method that has been around for over a decade is beginning to resurge: Offerwalls.

Historically, offerwalls have been used in mobile gaming as a form of rewarded advertising, allowing users to complete sponsored tasks to earn in-app rewards. Their initial growth was slow, largely due to clunky integration, concerns over safety and legitimacy, and little perceived benefits for both publishers and users. In recent years, offerwalls have slowly grown in popularity thanks to fine-tuning of reward economies, interest from trusted advertisers, and more freedom for experimentation. 

Now, publishers across app categories are seeing the potential of offerwalls as a viable form of monetization and are beginning to integrate them into their overall strategies.

This article will dive into the history of offerwalls, how they work, and how they’ve grown to become a trusted and effective strategy for monetizing mobile users. Additionally, we’ll look at some of the best practices for effectively implementing an offerwall into your app.

What are offerwalls?

Offerwalls are a form of rewarded advertising in which users complete specific tasks set by third-party advertisers to earn in-app rewards. When a user selects a task from the available list, they will have a limited amount of time to complete it in order to secure their reward. Tasks can range from simple actions, like watching an ad, to more complex challenges, like downloading a new app and reaching a certain checkpoint or level.

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How offerwalls work

For users: A user chooses to engage with the offerwall, selects a task, and completes it to earn an in-app reward. These rewards will often enhance the in-app experience by providing value that is proportional to the effort needed to obtain them.

For app publishers: An app publisher integrates the offerwall into their app, selects the placement, and sets rewards for each task. When a user completes the task, they are rewarded by the publisher, who is in return paid by the advertiser.

For advertisers: Advertisers define the tasks, their requirements for completion, and set a fixed price per action (CPA) in the offerwall. Then, they pay the publishers via the offerwall network once a task is completed.

Although often seen in mobile gaming, offerwalls can be used across any app category. As they become more mainstream, publishers across various verticals – from ecommerce to fitness – are beginning to implement this monetization solution into their apps.

👀 Related reading: Clicks to coins: Your guide to in-app advertising for mobile game monetization

History of offerwall ads in apps

Offerwalls were first introduced on browser and Facebook games in the late 2000s as a way to monetize non-paying users. Around 2010, publishers on iOS and Android began implementing offerwalls into their mobile games for the same reason. Although Apple has often held stricter regulations surrounding rewarded incentives for downloading apps, which impacted the progress of offerwalls on iOS, they have since relaxed these constraints and allowed offerwalls to grow.

In the early years of their development, offerwalls often failed to provide a positive experience for users, advertisers, and publishers. This was often due to poor design, little optimization, and intrusive placement. As many offers directed users out of the core app ecosystem, many publishers even feared that offerwalls could negatively impact UX and cause unintentional user churn. 

As the mobile app landscape has evolved, publishers have refined offerwalls by implementing various design changes to improve the user experience, build legitimacy, and make rewards more valuable and consistent. 

These changes include:

• Cleaner UX: Writing clear task descriptions, adding step checklists, and increasing transparency have made offerwalls easier to engage with.

• Better support: An increase in support capabilities – including contact forms, live chat tools, and dedicated FAQs – have reduced user frustration and made earning rewards easier.

• Higher-quality offers: By partnering with trusted, well-established advertisers, publishers have made offerwalls more legitimate, safe, and relevant.

• Fraud support: Better fraud detection, reporting, and provider-side tools have helped make offerwalls safer and more legitimate for users, improving their reputation.

• Better economy and reward structuring: Continuous balancing and fine-tuning to offerwall economies have made sure that rewards and tasks are proportional in terms of effort needed and value added.

These changes brought many benefits for users, publishers, and advertisers alike, helping offerwalls evolve to become a more trustworthy and viable source of app monetization. 

“The shift from skepticism to trust has been huge and is only accelerating. As users began to understand that offerwalls are optional, safe, and genuinely rewarding, publishers became more comfortable featuring them front and center.” – Anthony Ortolan, Senior Manager of Business Development & Partnerships

Thanks to the improvements in how offerwalls are built and implemented, they have gone from a somewhat controversial monetization strategy to a strategic and worthwhile tool for diversifying app monetization. 

How offerwalls are implemented

Implementing an offerwall into a mobile app requires collaboration between publishers, advertisers, and an offerwall network. Each of these three parties has their own role in creating a mutually beneficial outcome for all those involved.

• Publisher: The publisher integrates the offerwall ads into their app in order to monetize their users. They determine the key aspects, including rewards, advertiser partnerships, offer types, and the placement and promotion of the offerwall. 

• Advertiser: The advertiser defines the desired user task, outlines the steps required for completion, and sets the cost per action (CPA) for each completed event.

• Offerwall network: The offerwall network provides the SDK framework to host the offerwall tasks. On the backend, it optimizes task ranking, performs fraud checks, and manages the payment flow by acting as an intermediary. The network receives payment from the advertisers, pays it out to publishers, and retains a small commission.

• Mobile measurement partner (MMP): MMPs work primarily with the advertisers to validate, attribute, and regulate task completion. When a user completes an offerwall task, the MMP will verify and generate postbacks to notify the offerwall network, after which the user can be properly rewarded.

Together, these parties create the core engagement loop and keep the offerwall running smoothly with additional tasks, technical support, and exciting new rewards.

Offerwall task and reward examples

Offerwall tasks can vary depending on the app category, although some tasks are commonly used across verticals. 

Some tasks that are typically given in offerwalls of any category include:

• Installing and opening app

• Watching a video ad

• Taking a survey

• Making an in-app purchase

• Joining a new subscription

There are also many tasks that are suited more specifically for gaming-based offerwalls, namely:

• Reach a specific level or checkpoint

• Download and play a new game for X minutes

• Reach an X-day long streak

• Earn X amount of points

• Reach level X in a battlepass

After selecting the tasks for your offerwall, you need to set the rewards that are proportional to the effort required. This balance is critical: if users perceive that a reward isn’t worth the time or difficulty, they will not engage with the offerwall.

Some common rewards are:

• In-app currency

• Extra lives or attempts

• Consumable items

• Streak extension

• Temporary access to premium features

• Sweepstakes entries

• Real-world rewards (gift cards, discounts/coupons, cashback)

⭐ Best practice: Select rewards that can be directly reinvested into your app to boost repeated engagement and build user loyalty – in-app currency, consumable items, and extra lives are all great options.

👀 Related reading: The gaming opportunity: How mobile apps can capture untapped revenue potential

3 pros and cons of offerwall app monetization

Building a strong monetization strategy for your app requires a lot of careful consideration and each method has a number of advantages. Consider the following pros and cons of offerwalls when choosing to implement them into your strategy. 

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Pros

1. Monetizing non-spenders: By providing optional free-to-do tasks, offerwalls give users who aren’t willing to spend on IAP a better way to engage with their favorite apps – resulting in higher eCPMs than other forms of monetization, such as video ads. And with more choice on how to engage, they can have a broader appeal and result in longer session times.

2. Non-intrusive: Thanks to their opt-in nature, a well-implemented offerwall gives users a non-intrusive way to engage with an app and earn rewards for their time and spend. Branded design and natural placement of the offerwall in its own dedicated space on the app can ensure that offers feel native and don’t distract from the core engagement loop.

3. Increasing retention: Users who engage with offerwalls are more likely to show higher retention thanks to the opt-in nature of completing tasks and the ability to reinvest their rewards in your app – especially with the right advertisers and a strong rewards economy. In fact, mobile gamers who engage with offerwalls have been shown to drive significantly stronger D90 retention than those who don’t engage.

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Cons

1. Requires ongoing optimization: Maintaining an effective offerwall requires ongoing optimization and support, which is often provided in part by the offerwall network. Without adequate support, users may experience difficulties being rewarded on time, or can become disinterested if new tasks are not made available – negatively impacting both publisher revenue and advertiser ROAS.

2. Potential disruption of app economy: Offers with poorly tuned rewards can offset the established app economy. If users earn rewards that are greater in value to your in-app purchases, they may be less willing to spend.

3. Can negatively impact user experience: Poorly implemented offerwalls can negatively impact the user experience by being intrusive, popping up at inopportune times, or not providing adequate value to users. This can cause churn if users don’t feel as though there is a sufficient reward loop to keep them engaged.

“If implemented well, [offerwalls] enhance the experience by giving users more ways to progress without spending money. Done well, they create a “win-win”: users feel rewarded, and publishers gain loyal, engaged players.” – Anthony Ortolan, Senior Manager of Business Development & Partnerships

Best practices for implementing offerwalls in your app

Nailing your offerwall strategy isn’t easy. As offerwalls grow in popularity and publishers try new approaches, many new best practices are emerging. Consider the following examples of how you can make sure your offerwall strategy runs smoothly:

• Make sure your offerwall ads fit your core engagement loop and integrate seamlessly into your app.

• Put in the effort to build trust and establish legitimacy with your offerwall – having a clean, transparent, and branded design goes a long way.

• Segment your users to target those who will be most likely to engage with your offers.

• Find the right entry points to present your offerwall so that it doesn’t distract from the core experience.

• Get the right balance of effort vs. reward – make sure users feel like completing tasks is always worth the effort.

• Don’t rely on just offerwall ads alone – they tend to be most effective when used with other forms of monetization like IAA and IAP.

Modern offerwalls shouldn’t just focus on driving revenue, but also increasing retention, fostering loyalty, and boosting user LTV. 

👀 Related reading: Customer loyalty programs: The complete publisher’s guide to fostering LTV through loyalty

The future of offerwall monetization for apps

The future of offerwalls is looking promising, with more and more publishers choosing to make them a part of their monetization strategies. And as offerwall providers continue to optimize frameworks and make offerwall ads more appealing, public perception continues to improve. With this, publishers can focus on personalizing their offers to maximize loyalty potential and cement offerwalls as a viable monetization strategy.

If you’re looking for a game-based monetization solution for your app, then check out LoyaltyPlay. Our new gaming reward hub puts the power of play-and-earn directly in your hands.

For mobile game publishers looking to build long-term loyalty, Mistplay’s loyalty platform has got you covered. By partnering with our leading UA and engagement solution, you can unlock the full potential of player loyalty on both Android and iOS. 

Check out how publishers like 37Games increased D30 ROAS by 30% with the help of Mistplay’s AI-driven campaigns and contact us today to unlock the true power of loyalty.

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Sources:

1. Unity, Mobile Growth and Monetization 2023