In the world of mobile apps, getting your monetization strategy right with a strong in-app economy is the alpha and omega of success. This economy typically allows publishers to offer their users paid options. But what about those that do not want to fork out real money for a new feature or an extra life? How to retain them and turn them into future paying users? Rewarded surveys allow publishers to give users the possibility to earn free goodies, without it costing them too much. In fact, publishers stand to earn more with rewarded surveys than other monetization networks. Read on to find out how.

There are several different options available to publishers, with the use of different monetization systems.

Some of the most popular options include:

1. Rewarded videos or skippable/non skippable videos – Users are asked to watch a video in exchange for a reward. This usually ends with the user being prompted to install an app.
2. Rewarded surveys – Users are asked to complete a survey in exchange for a reward.
3. Incentivized App Installs or Offer Walls in general – Users are asked to download an app or perform a specific task in exchange for a reward.

Actions speak louder than words, but pictures do a really good job too, so here are three examples of how publishers have used these formats to earn an income.

Rewarded surveys – Answer & Earn

User is prompted to take a survey, user takes the survey, user earns in-app credit, user is happy, publisher earns more with surveys than other monetization network, publisher is happy, the end.

    Surveys appear as an overlay on the app’s UI and are easy to complete by the user. A survey panel appears, the survey starts, the user completes the survey, receives the reward and continues with the normal use of the app.

Rewarded videos – Watch & Earn

Rewarded videos or in general skippable/non skippable video entries expect users to watch a video to earn free credits. When a user chooses that option, a full screen video loads. The user is taken away from the app, forced to switch to landscape mode to view it. About 30 seconds pass before the video completes and then the user is usually prompted to proceed with an app install.

     At that point the user can choose either to install the app or navigate back. On the first instance, the user will be taken to the relevant app store, leaving the current app further and further behind him.

Incentivized App Installs – Download & Earn

With incentivized app installs or offer walls in general, users are usually taken to an offer wall page where they can choose to complete a specific task like an app install. The rewards offered vary, depending on the app and may be quite high in some cases.

       The images above display how users are first taken to the relevant store to complete the download and then taken to the newly-installed app, which they are required to open at least once, before they are offered their reward.

 

Confused? Fear not, help is here

So what to choose? What does a publisher have available in his arsenal when wanting to offer free credit to users in exchange for completing specific tasks? There is certainly no shortage of options, with different methods providing different user experiences and different payouts. How to refrain from getting swamped by all these options and pick the most profitable option?

Some of the best-kept secrets of app monetization are based on three simple concepts: Speed, Profit and User Retention. Let’s see how surveys stand up against the competition:

Speed

Surveys – even the lengthy ones – outperform the other solutions available, in terms of completion times. They achieve this by returning the user to the initial app once the survey is complete, opposed to users that hang about waiting for videos to complete and then asked to install an app or users that are taken away from the app, far away into the oblivion of app stores, with an array of apps available to install.

User retention

Presenting surveys as an overlay keeps users within the app and then having them “magically” disappear and leave the user to get on with using the app is worth a lot in the app world. Overall, increasing customer retention increases profit.

Profit

When it comes to profiting from your app, surveys seem to be on the top of the list, giving a bigger payout to publishers. Surveys seem to be a surefire way to profit from your app whilst offering users the option to win free credit.
Surveys are becoming a popular solution both among app publishers and users. Publishers prefer them because of the high revenue and user retention. Users, on the other hand, love to share their opinion, as a recent study shows here, complete a simple task and be offered more for it!