Rewarded Survey Monetization and “Quick Questions”
Today’s mobile gaming industry continues to evolve, which is no surprise. Over the last few years we’ve seen privacy changes and industry-shifting mergers & acquisitions; both of which have created a mix of challenges. The next few years, or even 6-12 months for that matter, are also expected to make things more difficult by way of further privacy policies from Google and the eventual end to fingerprinting, among other things.
As is critical in every fast-paced ecosystem, today’s most successful mobile gaming companies are building great products using flexible, diversified strategies and data. Lots of data - both behavioral and active (we’ll get to that in a minute).
And at TapResearch, we’ve taken a simple mechanism and created two powerful tools that are designed to help you withstand the challenges ahead. Our mission is to help developers and mobile game teams 1.) diversify revenue with rewarded surveys and 2.) collect real-time player feedback to improve retention, ARPDAU, and player experience.
Why and when does it make sense to monetize with rewarded surveys?
Well, first let’s quickly expand on what rewarded surveys are. Much like other rewarded formats, TapResearch’s Survey Wall acts as an additional revenue source by enabling users to earn in-game currency in exchange for taking a survey. Users opt-in to provide their honest opinion on a variety of topics and receive gems, coins, ad-free time, or other valuable virtual items - all while staying within the app experience and without eCPM decay.
TapResearch delivers surveys from the world’s leading market researchers and brands within the $90 billion dollar research industry. This net new budget is unavailable through traditional ad channels, which means rewarded surveys truly diversify revenue by growing the overall size of your monetization pie.
Now, to the most common question of “Should we be running rewarded surveys?” In general, games and mobile apps that can benefit from rewarded surveys include those with one or more of the following:
The deeper answer lies within your monetization and overall strategy as a mobile publisher. Apps that generate a meaningful amount of revenue from IAPs and incorporate a strategic approach to rewarded video ads could be missing out on additional revenue by not offering rewarded surveys.
As we all know, over 90% of users never make an in-app purchase and, depending on the app, maybe 30-50% engage with rewarded video. In essence, that leaves between 40-60% of users that are only passively monetized through ad experiences like interstitials or banners.
It’s important to consider that each of these cohorts of users behaves differently. Offering an alternative earning and retention feature like rewarded surveys can encourage engagement from and monetize those 50% of users unwilling to spend and uninterested in rewarded videos. As an opt-in only format, users will choose when to engage and to what degree by selecting surveys based on length or reward amount. This ensures a positive experience and encourages retention and extended session length by rewarding users with larger amounts of currency than typically earned through formats like RV.
Understand how TapResearch's new 'Quick Questions' tool can help you optimize UX and improve retention with real-time, in-game player feedback.
Over the years while helping studios monetize, we also consulted hundreds of game developers and came to realize that nearly everyone knows WHAT is happening in their games, but very few know WHY. This became a clear opportunity to apply our expertise in market research and surveys to build the best player insights tool for collecting real-time feedback.
We call it Quick Questions, and for good reason. Quick Questions allows you to set up, trigger, and deploy a seamless in-game question at any point during the player lifecycle. Responses are instantly collected, providing you with insights into what players want, how they’re engaging with your game, and what you can do to improve their experience… before it’s too late. *Cue dramatic music.*
We envision Quick Questions being used in two primary ways: to help solve a singular, short-term problem or to optimize the player experience and journey throughout the entire user lifecycle. In either case, combining active data from Quick Questions with traditional passive or behavioral data can enrich player understanding to help tailor the game funnel per player.
At the end of the day, whether through monetization, player insights, or both, TapResearch’s goal is to help mobile game developers understand players’ needs, build great games, and drive net new revenue. If you're a studio or publisher and want to learn more about collecting real-time player feedback or monetizing with rewarded surveys, please contact us here.