There’s nothing new about incentivized or rewarded advertising. The practice predates mobile gaming and has been a reliable tool in the growth marketer’s arsenal for decades. But for too long, it’s been a taboo subject, something that many advertisers didn’t want to admit that they included in their strategy.

That’s finally changing, and for good reasons. The very nature of incentivized placements and the audiences who engage with them has evolved. As gaming has expanded, so have the opportunities to integrate offerwalls into the broader economics of a game. And because of a changing gamer and advertising ecosystem, developers need to diversify the way they acquire new players.

The Incentivized Gamer isn’t Who it Used to Be

The old incentivized stereotype may have been of someone sitting in their basement, clicking through rewarded experiences for hours on end to accumulate gift cards or redeemable points, never truly engaging with anything advertised their way beyond the bare minimum needed to earn the reward. Incentivized ads were something a company would run to juice their numbers in order to appease investors or meet internal growth goals, with the expectation that the quality of the users would not be up to that of other channels.

Today, thanks to the evolution of gaming and more engaged players, incentivized ads have become a legitimate vehicle for discovery and something that many players look for when they evaluate new games. Many gamers now expect a hybrid model, and often engage with offerwalls and other rewarded ads because they value what they discover through these channels. Another consideration is that many games take advantage of multi-reward offers, generating deeper engagement from their incentivized players. While the incentives may be compelling, this also speaks to a much higher quality of games and game advertisers taking advantage of the rewarded ecosystem. 

Evolving Economies Mean Fresh Offerwall Opportunities

One of the most exciting opportunities for incentivized advertising is actually…in-game stores. We work with a number of publishers to create unique experiences within their D2C shop, because contrary to another stereotype - offerwall actually compliments purchase instead of cannibalizing it. 

This can mean creating unique, incentivized-only items for “purchase” that drive offerwall engagement. It can also mean a greater total cart value per customer, since they will often supplement their spending with redeemed offers. 

What this means for advertisers running incentivized campaigns is an entirely new environment for their ads, and a new context in which to think about how their rewards are being used. Whether it’s for virtual or physical goods associated with the game, those rewards are being actively used in a shopping environment as opposed to a directly in-game environment.

In the land of Ad Blindness, the Offerwall is King

As long as there has been advertising, there’s been a fight for attention. Radio commercial breaks led to changing the station; TV Commercial breaks became bathroom breaks; and when it came to the internet, people didn’t need ad blockers to just ignore banners and interruptive ad placements. Game developers introduced more and more video into their games, and players have been conditioned to ignore those forced interruptions.

Opt-in, value exchange advertising is the alternative that aligns with players’ desired experience. It makes the advertiser the hero by enabling advancement in the game economy, without having to interrupt their gameplay. 

Amidst a changing landscape, Incentivized hasn’t just survived…but thrived

With fewer ad networks, more competition in the app store, and increasing challenges, incentivized advertising has emerged as a reliable and manageable channel within the growth marketer’s arsenal. Incentivized advertising introduces a level of predictability and consistency into a media plan, allowing buyers to mitigate risk within their overall growth strategy.

Offerwalls have also expanded beyond their initial gaming partnerships, providing advertisers access to a broader variety of audiences across categories and platforms. As gaming has moved omnichannel, offerwalls have been extremely effective at driving cross-device installs. And the adoption of offerwalls into rewards and fintech apps has helped growth marketers find incremental growth beyond what was previously achievable. 

Incentivizing Success in Uncertain Times

The landscape for gaming and many other industries remains chaotic, and that impacts players, developers, and advertisers. With so much going on, incentivized advertising provides an even more compelling value proposition for all three of those stakeholders.

For players, rewards always make sense, but the perceived value is even higher when the economy is tight. For developers, offerwalls and other incentivized channels introduce more robust eCPMs and can bring non-endemic demand, creating an effective hedge against forces that may impact any one vertical. Finally, for advertisers, rewarded ads allow them to effectively buy trials of their product, instead of spreading spend on awareness with the hope of conversion.