Monetization Best Practices: 4 Ways to Make More Money from Rewarded Video

Tapjoy’s recent Modern Mobile Gamer report confirmed what most publishers generally know to be true: that gamers overwhelmingly prefer opt-in, rewarded ads to mandatory formats, such as pre-roll. In fact, the findings indicated that gamers prefer rewarded ads by a 4-to-1 margin over mandatory formats. The research also found that videos are far and away gamers’ favorite rewarded ad format — preferred by at least 6x over playable ads, app installs, surveys and other types of offers. Furthermore, players are willing to repeatedly engage with video ads: 51% said they are willing to watch at least 4 videos per day in exchange for rewards, while 37% said they’d watch 6 or more videos per day.

So what can publishers do to make the most of this highly engaging and profitable ad format? Here are four best practices every app developer should keep in mind to maximize engagement and revenue from rewarded video:

1. Make Rewarded Videos Easy to Find
   Don’t make your users have to search to find rewarded videos. Include Tapjoy’s Native-to-Earn button in your app’s home screen or storefront, and use the Message-to-Earn and Push-to-Earn features to promote rewarded videos through in-app messages.
2. Rely on Context
   When a player fails a level, loses a challenge, or needs more energy, it’s the a perfect time to invite them to watch a video in exchange for a reward. Insert these offers into contextually relevant in-app moments to catch players at the right time.
3. Fine-tune Your Exchange Rate
   Offer too little currency in exchange for watching videos, and your users won’t feel it’s worth their time. Offer too much currency and you’ll flood your in-game economy. Experiment with different payouts to find the right exchange ratio that works for your app.
4. Conduct Currency Sales
   Try running limited-time offers in which your players earn more currency than usual for every video they watch. These currency sales can drive serious spikes in revenue. With Tapjoy, it’s easy to personalize your currency sale with custom branding and to control the payout ratios.

Don’t just monetize, maximize! To explore how Tapjoy’s high impact Interplay Video can help you better monetize your app, contact our team to get started.