Rewarded Video to Unlock Subscription App Opportunities

The primary monetization goal of subscription apps is to convert users into paying subscribers. Of course, not every user who installs will convert. That’s where Rewarded Video comes in.

Rewarded Video for subscription apps is great new opportunity to monetize non-subscribers, while nudging them one step closer to subscribing.

In this article, we’re going to discuss:

• What is Rewarded Video?
• How Rewarded ads can be used in subscriptions apps
• How to get started with Rewarded access

What is Rewarded Video

Rewarded Video is a type of mobile ad unit where the user watches a full-screen video advertisement in exchange for a reward. Commonly the ads are promoting other apps and providing the user a simple call-to-action to download that app.

Rewarded Video ad units are non-skippable, so users need to stay engaged for the duration to receive the reward. According to Business of Apps, this ad format often commands higher eCPMs. The format is compelling for publishers and advertisers, but also for users who receive a tangible value exchange.

For example, many games use Rewarded ad units. Users are rewarded extra lives, points, and other virtual goods.

Using Rewarded Video in a Subscription App

Rewarded Video can be a useful compliment to your subscription app, especially if you offer a freemium experience. Here are a few ways you can integrate Rewarded Video into your conversion funnel:

1. Offer time limited premium access to users who decline your onboarding paywall. This is a great opportunity to expose them to your premium experience while they are most interested in your app.
2. Offer time limited premium access to users who encounter & decline a paywall when trying to access premium content. This is a great opportunity to give users who want to see what a premium content or feature is about a taste even if they aren’t ready to pay.
3. Prompt or surface the Rewarded opportunity to (certain) non-subscribers. If a user is using your freemium app a lot, but continues to decline your premium offers maybe it’s time to offer them a different route to (limited) premium access.
4. Send an Email or Push campaign to deep link target users to the Rewarded offer. This use case is a bit aspirational. The Email or Push marketing system would need to know that the Rewarded ad inventory will exist for the user if they engage with the message and deep-link into the app.

Rewarded Access for your Subscription App

Adding Rewarded Video to your subscription app requires some product decisions as well as the right infrastructure.

For product, consider the following:

• Which users should get a Rewarded offer? For example non-subscribers who don’t convert from a subscription paywall.
• When and how should those users receive the offer? For example, do you prompt them or surface the rewarded opportunity contextually in the app? reminder, even if you want to offer a Rewarded Video to a user, there has to be inventory via the ad partner. You experience needs to only offer the Reward if one is truly available from the ad SDK.
• How much premium access (duration) should a reward be worth? For example, is the successful completion of a 15-30 Rewarded Video an hour of access? 3 minutes of access? 1 day of access? Think about how much is enough to give them some exposure but not too much that they will never become a paying subscriber.

For infrastructure, you need two components to deliver this experience:

• An Ad Partner with Rewarded Video ad unit. All the large mobile ad players including AppLovin and ironSource support the Rewarded Video ad unit via their mobile SDKs. Additionally, if you’re using either for mediation, you can improve the ad unit fill rate and eCPM.
• An Entitlement Engine. Premium access is granted based upon a successful subscription in-app purchase. To unlock premium access using another mechanism, such as watching a Rewarded Video, your app needs to abstract access control beyond the IAP product.

Rewarded Access Made Easy with Nami

This sounds like a lot, but fortunately we provide an out-of-the-box solution to make this super easy. Nami provides the Entitlement Engine. Nami also provides integrations with Rewarded Video ad solutions.

Integrations with AppLovin and ironSource offer a Rewarded premium access experience that is easy. It requires minimal setup, limited client-side implementation steps, and no additional backend server-side. You even control how many minutes of premium access a reward is worth from the Nami Control Center.

Final Thoughts

Monetization in the app economy is not easy. Rewarded Video offers app publishers another opportunity to monetize users. For subscription apps in particular, this is a powerful way to nurture freemium users towards your premium experience while also generating some incremental revenue.

To experience Rewarded access in a subscription app, check out Serenity Sounds. To be offered Rewarded access, first try to access a premium sound (anything but the first row). You will be prompted to subscribe via the paywall sheet.

If you dismiss the paywall without subscribing, you may be prompted if a Rewarded Video is available. Alternatively, navigate to Settings (the gear icon) to see if a Rewarded promotional unit shows up. In either case, watch the reward to completion to receive 1 hour of access to the premium sounds.

Do you have a subscription app and are interested in adding a Rewarded experience? If so, we’d be happy to show you how it works and talk about how Nami can help.