Rewarded traffic platforms: a paradigm shift for games, players, and advertisers

To thrive, games need three main things: to acquire players, retain those players, and generate revenue. Meanwhile, modern gamers need three main things: fun challenges, meaningful rewards, and active communities. Rewarded traffic platforms perfectly harmonize these two sets of needs through incentivized engagement that brings players, game developers, publishers, and advertisers together. For players, the allure of rewards is strongest if incentives have real or perceived value. With rewarded traffic platforms such rewards can be found and harvested in two main places; firstly within individual games themselves and secondly via the rewards platform to which those games are connected. This article takes a look at both.

How incentivized traffic works

Incentivized traffic simply means that users are properly rewarded for their engagement and activities. Rewarded traffic platforms serve as intermediaries connecting advertisers with users willing to participate in these engagements. Done well, rewarded traffic platforms combine the best of two worlds by providing players with enjoyable experiences and the opportunity to earn rewards like in-game currency, power-ups, or exclusive content whilst significantly increasing UA levels for games.

Advantages of rewarded traffic

Firstly, cost-effectiveness. Rewarded traffic often delivers a significantly lower cost-per-install (CPI) compared to non-rewarded traffic. Although the average user lifetime value (LTV) of a non-incentivized install may be higher, the sheer volume of users attracted by rewarded traffic can result in a positive ROI, with the increased quantity of users improving the chances of greater downstream engagement. Secondly, publishers find incentivized campaigns appealing because they allow UA teams to scale incrementally. Plus, the opt-in and user-initiated nature of the rewards mechanism ensures the flow of the game isn’t disrupted, a factor that makes them far more acceptable to users.

A dip into some data

An in-depth report from Unity Ads, which pooled feedback from mobile players and developers, found that “71% of players surveyed cite watching in-game video ads as their preferred way to ‘pay’ for a mobile game, trumping in-app purchases (IAP) and premium pricing”. The same report states from its findings that “62% of mobile game players regularly choose to engage with a video ad for an in-game reward.” Adding to this robust picture, it also found that less than 10% of developers saw a drop in retention after introducing rewarded video ads with 62% saying that “introducing rewarded video ads to an existing game saw retention stabilize, or even climb. 86% added that in-app purchases were unaffected after rewarded ads were integrated.

Combine all of the above with yet more rewards passed on to players by the wider rewarded traffic platform, and it’s easy to see why they’re increasingly drawn to places like the BlockGames Player Network where they can compound those rewards.

BlockGames: tying everything together

BlockGames is at the center of a new drive into the rewarded traffic space providing gamers with easy access to a suite of games with added incentives to play. Through its new app, players can explore games and, in addition to earning rewards for their engagement and reaching in-game milestones, create and develop their unique player profile (more on this in a minute), earning further credits that appear inside their BlockGames player vault.

Credit where it’s due

Players earn in-game credits by completing various tasks and challenges within the BlockGames app and can easily monitor their progress and view accumulated assets at any time. So, in addition to rewards gathered within games, players earn further rewards from BlockGames for achievements, which can include reaching specific levels within a game, conquering worlds, defeating bosses, and more.

In short, credits are valuable. They can be exchanged by players for tickets that open doors to contests, or can be redeemed in the Goodies store (also within the app) for real rewards such as gift cards, digital collectibles, tokens, and cash. What’s the catch? Funnily enough, there isn’t one. It’s just a simple value exchange. BlockGames recognizes how valuable player data is and how difficult it’s become for games to track and use that data due to recent changes to IDFA (identifier for advertisers) rules and decided to do something about it.

Personalization problems?

Since the changes, an advertiser’s ability to target individuals with personalized content has been hampered by placing a tracking opt-out prompt at the forefront of every app install. Since the introduction of this improved privacy measure for users in iOS 14.5, according to data from Flurry 95% of worldwide mobile app users can no longer be tracked by default, with just 24% opting in when they see the prompt. Of course, most businesses won’t sit still and watch their revenues dwindle away without a fight. In the gaming industry, rewarded traffic platforms pose a genuine solution that benefits all engaged parties.

Rewards for sharing data

Within the BlockGames Player Network, players choose to freely share their data, and in return for doing so, are rewarded. Moreover, unlike other rewarded traffic platforms, BlockGames is built using Web3 technology. This means that players authentically and exclusively own their data. This data is generated by an individual player’s actions and activities across the network which combine to form their unique player profile (UPP).

This facet alone distinguishes BlockGames from other rewarded traffic platforms. And, by virtue of being a mobile app, opens wide the incredible UA possibilities for both Web2 and Web3 games — a market that currently sits at around 3 billion gamers worldwide. In short, by combining the best of traditional gameplay with real accessibility, access to valuable on-chain data (other platforms are typically off-chain) plus the alternative revenue streams and aforementioned player privacy capabilities that only Web3 technology can deliver, BlockGames has achieved what no other rewarded traffic platform has so far — it has Web2 covered and, as traditional mobile games make moves to integrate blockchain capabilities and explore potential new revenue streams, it’s also got a foothold in the Web3 mobile gaming arena.