Glossary

What is an offerwall?

An offerwall is an in-app ad unit presenting users with a list of tasks or offers they can complete — installing an app, reaching a level, signing up — in exchange for in-app rewards or virtual currency.

Pricing and return

All 220 terms

How the exchange works

The user opens the offerwall, picks an offer, completes it, and receives currency in the host app. The advertiser pays for the completed action, the publisher takes a share and grants the reward.

It is a three-sided transaction in which everyone gets something: the user gets currency without paying, the publisher gets revenue from a non-paying user, and the advertiser gets a completed action rather than an impression.

What it earns and what it costs

Offerwalls monetise the users least likely to pay, which is exactly the population that produces no revenue otherwise. Effective rates per engaged user are high compared with standard ad formats, because the action is deep and the advertiser pays CPA rates for it.

The cost is on the advertiser's side. Incentivised users are motivated by the reward and not by the product, so completion rates look excellent and retention is usually poor. Buying installs through an offerwall and judging them by CPI alone reliably overstates their value.

The workable use is where the desired action is itself the value — a survey response, a trial that genuinely converts — rather than where an install is being counted as a proxy for a user.

Practical constraints

Platform policy. App store rules on incentivisation change, and rewarding certain actions is restricted.
Segregate the cohort. Never blend incentivised installs into your general acquisition metrics; they will pull every average toward a user who does not behave like your others.
Reward economy design. Currency granted through an offerwall competes with currency sold for money, so a badly-priced wall cannibalises in-app purchase revenue.
Fraud exposure. Deep, high-value actions attract automated completion — see mobile ad fraud.

Common questions

Are offerwall users worth acquiring?

Sometimes, and never at the same value as organic. Judge them on their own cohort's retention and revenue, and expect a substantial discount to your normal LTV.

Do offerwalls suit AI products?

Rarely on the advertiser side, since the acquired users are motivated by the reward rather than the product. On the publisher side, an AI app with a credit or usage-based economy has a natural reward to grant.

More in pricing and return

What a campaign costs to run, and what it gives back.

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