Opinion Our Insights
Post 5 mins Dave Thorpe

App Monetization Part 1 – When and where you can still use offerwalls

Until recently, up to 25% of the top 100 grossing game apps used offerwalls to drive monetisation. These are ad units that incentivise users to unlock in-app rewards by completing a task such as watching an ad, downloading another game or completing a survey. But Apple has now placed an outright ban on offerwalls in iOS apps. They have also changed the rules to prevent developers from deep linking to web content. 

While offerwalls are a major means of monetisation, they are seen by Apple as a means of manipulating the App Store chart by incentivising users to download apps rather than relying on genuine downloads from users who have downloaded the app by choice. As a result of the ban, developers are challenged with finding new ways to secure monetisation and spread awareness of the app.

Using Offerwalls

There are still opportunities to use “offerwalls” and they can still add plenty of value in spite of the recent changes made by Apple. The ban is obviously only for iOS so therefore the value within Android has not changed. This means 75% of the smartphone market has not been restricted by Apple’s announcement. Offerwalls are a great way to boost revenue within an app and are not detrimental to User Experience as they are fully opt in.

Even though offerwalls have been banned in iOS we suggest instead running rewarded video ads. These are only slightly out performed by offerwalls in ROAS. The difference between offerwalls and rewarded video ads is it is only a single opt in for a user,  they are presented with a highly targeted Ad rather than having to choose one to engage with. Apple believes this will not affect the App Store in an adverse way. This is probably the most effective way of continuing to drive revenue from your app’s and at the same time not expect to upset your user base.

In fact, more than half of app users are happy with the choice to receive some form of reward in return for an Ad and some have gone as far to day this actually increased their engagement and removing this feature would lead to them being less engaged or leaving altogether. This means as app developers we can generate our revenue with ads like offerwalls and rewarded video ads and actually increase user retention. 

If you are planning to use offerwalls as a revenue generator in your app there are some key things to do:

  • Offerwalls are customisable to make sure yours fit with the UI of your app. Matching this up makes the ad’s feel like part of the app experience and leads to better engagement rates. 
  • Prompt users when they need something in the app to engage at this point of their user journey such as time or currency.
  • Customise your offerings to user types, making your messaging within your offerwalls more meaningful to individuals and does not dilute your messaging between these groups.

Hopefully this has given you some clarity on where you can still use offerwalls to your advantage and how best to monetise them. If you need anymore support please get in touch.

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