Rewarded video ads are a popular method for enhancing app engagement and improving user retention. They are also the most favoured advertising format for gamers who want to make in-game progress. But along with improving gamers’ in-app experiences, rewarded video ads are powerful for advertisers and publishers. So they are a win-win-win option for all.
Top Rewarded Video Ads Platforms
If you’re a developer, publisher, or advertiser, this comprehensive review of rewarded video ads is for you. With the benefits of better retention and engagement on offer, you will want to understand how this format works before considering how it could benefit you and your campaigns. Additionally, conclude by reviewing our comprehensive list of dynamic companies that you could approach for support in this area.
What are rewarded video ads?
Rewarded video ads are a type of incentivised advertising that rewards users for watching a promotional video. Rewards can include virtual currency, in-app discounts, extra lives, or the chance to unlock new gaming levels.
Since 50% of gamers prefer rewarded video ads to paid and freemium mobile ads, they remain a popular format for mobile video. This is likely because rewards help users to make in-game progress and stay engaged on apps. And when they do, it benefits both advertisers and publishers, leading to better engagement, retention, and higher revenues.
For developers and advertisers, rewarded video ads present a mutually beneficial opportunity. Users engage with the content willingly, resulting in higher completion rates compared to traditional advertisements. This user engagement translates to improved ad performance and higher revenue for developers, while advertisers gain access to a more engaged audience.
From the user’s perspective, rewarded video ads can be a welcome addition. Instead of being interrupted by ads, users have the control to watch them at their convenience, knowing they will gain something valuable in return. This dynamic not only improves user satisfaction but also encourages a positive interaction with the advertised brands and products.
The best rewarded video ads platforms
Rewarded video ad platforms are ad solutions that allow app developers to integrate short, opt-in video ads into their apps or games. Users voluntarily watch these videos in exchange for in-app rewards such as coins, extra lives, or premium content.
For advertisers, rewarded video ads provide highly engaged audiences and stronger brand recall compared to standard ad formats. Since the ads are completed voluntarily, completion rates are typically very high, resulting in improved campaign performance.
For publishers, these platforms help monetise users who don’t make in-app purchases, creating an additional revenue stream.
We’ve listed the best rewarded video ads platforms below.
1. Remerge
Remerge is a Berlin-based mobile ad company specialising in programmatic app retargeting. Unlike user acquisition platforms, which bring in new users, Remerge helps app developers and brands re-engage existing users who may have stopped using their app or who need an extra push to convert.
This makes Remerge especially valuable for industries such as mobile gaming, eCommerce, and on-demand services, where retention is just as necessary as growth. In short: it’s not about acquiring users, but about ensuring the users you already have stay engaged and active.
Overview
Remerge was founded in 2014 in Berlin, Germany. The company was established to address the growing need for mobile app retargeting solutions, a time when the industry was still primarily focused on user acquisition.
The company was co-founded by Pan Katsukis, Benjamin Beivers, and Martin Karlsch. Each founder brought experience from the mobile ad and tech space, which helped shape Remerge’s data-driven, performance-oriented approach.
Services
Remerge provides its customers with the following services:
- App retargeting to re-engage existing or lapsed users with personalised ads
- Programmatic user acquisition campaigns for high-quality new users
- Creative production, incrementality testing, and privacy-first performance analytics
2. Smadex
Smadex is a mobile-first programmatic DSP that helps advertisers and agencies run performance-driven and brand campaigns across mobile apps and mobile web.
The platform emphasises transparency, privacy, and control, giving advertisers complete visibility into their campaigns and inventory. Smadex also provides creative tools for building engaging ad experiences, robust reporting dashboards with detailed analytics, and support for privacy frameworks such as Apple’s SKAdNetwork.
Overview
Smadex was founded in 2011 in Barcelona, Spain, by Jordi de los Pinos, José Ramón Gómez, and VÃctor Ruiz. The founders set out to create a programmatic ad platform explicitly designed for the growing mobile market at a time when traditional ad tech solutions were not yet optimised.
Under the leadership of Jordi de los Pinos as CEO, Smadex has grown into an internationally recognised DSP.
Services
Smadex provides its customers with the following services:
- Programmatic user acquisition campaigns across mobile, web, and CTV
- App retargeting to re-engage and retain existing users
- Creative and analytics solutions, including dynamic ad creation and real-time performance reporting
3. JamppÂ
Jampp is a DSP built for performance marketing, helping app businesses acquire new users and re-engage existing ones through programmatic advertising.
The platform provides a suite of creative and measurement tools to maximise campaign impact. Through automated creative testing, dynamic ad optimisation, and catalogue-based ad variations, Jampp enables the easy personalisation and scaling of creatives.
Advanced reporting features, including incrementality measurement, also allow marketers to see the actual additional value generated by campaigns.
Overview
Jampp was founded in 2011 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, by Diego Meller, Martin Anazco, and Gabriel Oyarzabal. Their vision was to develop a programmatic ad solution specifically designed for mobile, leveraging data and automation to acquire high-value users at scale.
From its beginnings in Latin America, Jampp expanded globally and established itself as a recognised player in the mobile ad tech ecosystem.
Services
Jampp provides its customers with the following services:
- Programmatic user acquisition to attract high-value new app users
- App retargeting campaigns to re-engage and retain existing users
- Creative and analytics solutions, including dynamic ad optimisation and incrementality measurement
4. ASTRAD
ASTRAD is a cloud-based demand-side platform designed to help advertisers run multi-channel programmatic campaigns with scale and precision. It offers solutions for brand awareness, user acquisition, retargeting, and even location-based campaigns, all managed within a single platform.
Advertisers can target audiences with demographic, geographic, and behavioural filters, while delivering ads across a wide range of formats, including display, video, native, audio, mobile, desktop, connected TV, and digital out-of-home.
Overview
ASTRAD was founded by Daniel (Dan) Macia, who serves as both the founder and CEO of the company. Based in Estonia (Tallinn), the platform was created to address the growing need for a flexible, transparent, and powerful DSP that could serve dynamic, multi-channel ad strategies with precision and scale.
ASTRAD has evolved into a global programmatic platform, built on high-throughput infrastructure, that offers advanced targeting, creative tools, fraud protection, and real-time analytics.
Services
ASTRAD provides its customers with the following services:
- Creative Studio for building and optimising ad creatives at scale
- Real-time fraud detection and brand safety tools
- Advanced analytics and transparent reporting with hundreds of performance metrics
What are the benefits of rewarded video ads?
Rewarded video ads provide significant benefits for both users and app developers. For users, these ads offer a straightforward and engaging way to earn in-app rewards, enhancing their overall experience without feeling intrusive. This model of advertising respects the user’s time and choice, making interactions with ads more positive and less disruptive.
For app developers, in-game rewarded video ads generate 40% of revenue, therefore presenting a lucrative revenue stream. These ads typically result in higher engagement and completion rates because users willingly choose to watch them. As a result, developers can monetise their apps more effectively while maintaining a satisfied user base, fostering both user retention and increased app profitability.
Featured Rewarded Video Ads Platforms
Users prefer the format
According to the IAB, over 80% of users prefer this advertising format. It’s also the most popular advertising format for game developers. To stand out from the competition, marketers should consider building user experience into their rewarded video strategy. This should start with a focus on audience identification. Then, targeted advertising is used to ensure ads are well-placed as part of the user experience.
Better engagement
Because users can only claim their rewards when they watch an entire ad until the end, advertisers can glean many benefits from rewarded video ads. Users must watch the entire ad to the end to receive their rewards. For example, Sydney-based game developers Not Doppler maximised engagement through well-placed ‘double-rewards’ variable ads in their game – ‘Earn to Die 2’. This resulted in a 38% higher-than-average engagement rate following implementation.
Higher retention
Rewarded video ads have the power to increase mobile app retention by four times, according to a study by IronSource. Gamers who watched a Full-Screen Interstitial (FSI) rewarded ad in the first week of app use had a 53% retention rate, which is more than 300% higher than the average.
Increased conversion rates
Users who engage with rewarded video ads are 4X more likely to make an in-app purchase than those who don’t. And since the ad format is user-initiated, CTRs tend to be significantly higher as well.
Focused UA (User Acquisition)
Users are more likely to watch videos in their entirety when they know they’ll receive a reward for doing so. And since they’re a user-initiated format, video rewards are non-skippable. This offers significant value for advertisers seeking to enhance their visibility and attract new users.
Increased ad revenues
With a boost to In-App Purchases, higher usage, and better retention, rewarded video ads have the potential to boost revenues by over a third. For example, when Avid.ly introduced rewarded video ads into one of its games, users bought in-app items almost 20% more often. Plus, total revenues grew by 40%.
Why should you partner with rewarded video ads platforms?
As you’ve seen in the guide so far, rewarded video ads have a long list of benefits that result in win-win-win scenarios for developers, advertisers, and users. So why would you need to engage with a rewarded video ad company then?
Whether you’re a publisher or advertiser, you’ll gain enormous benefits by working with a company. Some of the more vital aspects you may want to look out for when reviewing our list of some of the best-rewarded video ads companies include:
- Broad expertise in the effective placement of rewarded video ads
- Scalability, providing advertisers with appropriate access to developers and vice versa
- Integration with in-app stores, boosting IAPs in the process
- Audience targeting and segmenting strategies that gain appropriate engagement
- Innovative ads designed to enhance creative execution
- Higher retention and engagement levels
- Increased revenues of between 20%-40%
How can you increase the revenue of rewarded video ads?
By offering users a reward in return for watching a full-screen video ad, marketers create a value exchange that enables the monetisation of rewarded video ads. When users know the reward they’ll receive, for instance, in-app currency to progress in their game, they’ll need to agree to the outlined terms. After they’ve completed watching the video for the allotted time, they’ll need to then pick up their reward.
As you might expect, given the high number of clicks on this ad format, the average eCPM for this exchange is also high. So, we’ve outlined more below:
How much do these types of ads pay?
In a recent report, IronSource suggested advertisers could expect eCPM rates to come in at somewhere between $10 $50 per 1,000 impressions. They also suggest that, out of all the different types of mobile video ads, rewarded video ads offer the highest eCPMs.
The US holds the largest market share for rewarded video ads. To help illustrate current rates, we’ve split out some average eCPMs you could expect to pay across Android and iOS.
Average eCPMs on Android and iOS (US)
| Android - eCPMs on Rewarded video ads | iOS - Average eCPMs on Rewarded video ads |
|---|---|
| Average Android eCPM - $10.16 | Average iOS eCPM - $16.33 |
| Facebook - $22.62 | Facebook - £32.32 |
| AdMob - $13.46 | AdMob - $15.12 |
| BidMachine - $13.57 | BidMachine - $13.57 |
Source: Udonis
What are the best practices of rewarded video ads?
Successful video ads tend to show some of the following attributes during high-performance campaigns:
- Prioritise ad placement: Successful ads will enhance gameplay through strategic placement and avoid distracting users or interfering with their experience.
- Reward gamers with in-game tips: Gamers want to find ways to progress through a game or enhance their experience. Great ads offer helpful gameplay tips, encouraging users to stay around for longer.
- Mediate ads from third-party users: Users get put off if they see too many ads flying around. Successful marketers often include ads from third parties, but ensure they don’t interfere with gameplay or activity.
- Offer users a surprise or unexpected reward: Users who didn’t expect to get a chance to claim a reward during gameplay are more likely to come back and stay for longer.
- Use advertising filters: As an integral part of their in-game playability, users also expect to receive relevant offers. So advertisers often use filters to understand their target audience before designing their rewards.
How can you run successful rewarded video ads?
Therefore, it’s clear that incorporating rewarded video ads into your app can yield benefits. But how can you run a successful ad campaign that generates the results you want?
To give you more detail, we’ll explain how rewarded video ads work and show you the best ways to engage with them.
How do rewarded video ads work?
Users must agree to the rules of engagement before initiating rewarded video ads. But they must also agree to view the whole video without skipping. Once initiated, ads usually appear as unskippable, full-screen interstitials in both video ads and interactive or playable ad formats.
With this opt-in and user-friendly approach, users experience less intrusion than in other forms. For developers and advertisers, rewarded videos can be applied to almost any type of app. In general, they’re most often used in free-to-play mobile games with rewards appearing at strategic points in gameplay.
So, if you want to start showing rewarded video ads in your next campaign, consider the key points you should consider as part of your efforts:
Target your users
Advertisers should maximise the benefits of rewarded video ads by ensuring ads get in front of the right audiences. Rewarded video advertising companies can help with reviewing existing customer personas and then matching them with appropriate app developers.
Use rewarded video to complement IAP
Studies show that introducing rewarded video ads has little to no detrimental impact on IAPs in 70% of cases. As a result, many more games now use rewarded ads as a way to complement their IAPs. Rewards can also introduce premium features and encourage users to play for longer.
To further increase sales, consider offering discounts for in-app purchases as a reward in your videos.
Integrate ads smoothly
Most rewarded videos will appear in games. Therefore, advertisers and publishers must collaborate to ensure a seamless user experience. Rewards need to be relevant and valuable to gameplay, but also appear at points that won’t intrude on players’ enjoyment and experience of the game.
For example, some good ad positions can include:
- Daily Rewards Multipliers: App owners can increase retention by offering more incentives in return for watching several videos per day. These multiplier ads are often best placed at the start menu or at the end of the game.
- Out-of-Lives Ads: Games in the casual category offer users the opportunity to purchase extra lives when needed. And when users get the chance to ‘watch another video for another life’, they see ads in a more positive light. In turn, this can lead to higher retention scores.
- Out of Action/One More Try Ads: This is a good option if your app game doesn’t require more lives. Ads should give players the chance to reset and try again without losing any progress made up to that point.
- Booster Ads: App developers can increase engagement rates by placing ads at critical points of gameplay or during app interactions where they are most needed.
Use static end cards
Advertisers tend to gain higher engagement rates when they add static end cards to video ads. Users get to see what’s on offer, and URLs are clickable. Make sure any video formats support the use of static end cards.
What are the challenges of working with rewarded video ads?
While rewarded video ads offer numerous benefits for app owners and marketers, several challenges must be addressed to maximise the potential of this advertising model.
Understanding these challenges can help in creating a more effective strategy that maximises the potential of rewarded video ads without compromising user experience or app performance.
Let’s explore some of the key challenges associated with implementing and managing rewarded video ads.
Balancing ad frequency
One common challenge is the balance between ad frequency and user experience. Showing too many ads can frustrate users, leading to app abandonment, while too few ads may not generate enough revenue to be worthwhile.
Ensuring relevance & quality
Another challenge is ensuring the relevance and quality of the ads presented to users. Low-quality or poorly targeted ads can diminish the user experience, making the rewards feel less valuable and potentially driving users away.
Marketers must work closely with ad networks to ensure that the ads served are both high-quality and relevant to their audience.
Technical integration
The integration and technical implementation of rewarded video ads can also pose a hurdle. Ensuring that the ads function seamlessly within the app and do not disrupt the user experience requires careful coding and thorough testing.
This process can be time-consuming and may require ongoing maintenance to address any technical issues that arise.
Measuring effectiveness
Measuring the effectiveness of rewarded video ads is another challenge for app owners and marketers. While it’s clear that these ads can increase engagement and revenue, determining the precise return on investment (ROI) can be complex.
Marketers need to utilise advanced analytics tools to track user behaviour and ad performance accurately, which can be both resource-intensive and technically demanding.
Regulatory compliance
Finally, staying compliant with advertising regulations and user privacy laws is crucial but can be challenging. Different regions have varying regulations regarding user data and advertising practices, and non-compliance can lead to significant legal issues.
App owners and marketers must stay informed about these regulations and ensure that their ad practices are always in line with the latest legal requirements.
Partner with the top rewarded video ads platforms
Rewarded video ads have proven to be an invaluable tool for app owners and marketers, driving higher engagement and user satisfaction. By offering users tangible in-app rewards for their attention, these ads foster a positive experience that can lead to increased user retention and loyalty. This mutually beneficial relationship not only boosts app profitability but also enhances the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
For those considering implementing rewarded video ads, partnering with top rewarded video ads platforms ensures the best results. Leading platforms provide robust solutions for seamlessly integrating these ads into apps.
Working with reputable platforms provides access to extensive networks, advanced analytics, and optimisation tools, maximising the benefits of rewarded video ads for both app owners and marketers.
Have a review of our complete list of rewarded video ad companies and discover for yourself how they could support your app marketing needs.
