Truth be told, it is no easy feat trying to monetize a website at the moment because of ad blockers and AI-powered searches eating away at your traffic on one hand and the paywall that tends to turn people off at the first sign of it on your site.
Introducing Google Offerwall.
Since it left beta testing, the platform has slowly but surely been revolutionizing how access control is managed by publishers by presenting you with an alternative to the traditional pay wall that offers options to your users.
This post gives you everything a publisher should know about Google Offerwall and how to implement it.
What is Google Offerwall?
Essentially, Google Offerwall is a flexible access gatekeeper system offered via Google Ad Manager and AdSense. In this case, when a visitor tries to reach premium content, they see a message (or the “wall”), which requires the person to perform some particular action to proceed to the desired page. However, Offerwall differs from typical intrusive notifications or paywalls by being highly flexible. In other words, you are free to provide a list of options for your visitor to choose from in order to “pay” for your content.
The 4 Possible Options for Your Users to Gain Access to Premium Content
Currently, Google provides users with four possible ways to bypass the wall:
- Rewarded Video & Display Ad – Users have to watch either a video or display ad (under 30 sec) to get access to the premium content. At the same time, you receive a commission on the ad revenue, equal to 70%.
- Micro-payments & Web Monetization – if your audience dislikes ads but does not wish to sign a subscription agreement yet, Offerwall integration with web monetization platforms like Supertab lets users make small payments to get temporary access (e.g., day or week).
- Interest Surveys – Users answer a quick branded survey or submit their interests. You get valuable audience insights, and the user gets to keep reading.
- Custom Choices – You can plug in your own goals here. Want more email subscribers? Ask them to sign up for your newsletter to unlock the article. Have an existing subscription model? Add a standard “Sign in” button.
Ways Publishers Can Leverage Offerwall
Summary of how smart publishers are currently using Offerwall as part of their overall digital strategy to increase profitability.
- Recover Revenue from Non-Payers – All publishers have a large number of non-paying subscribers in their audience. Offerwall provides a way to generate revenue from those subscribers by utilizing a rewarded ad format for monetization / engaged user. Case studies have shown a 20% increase in publisher programmatic revenues (i.e., India’s Sakal Media Group) just with the addition of a rewarded ad format available to the publisher’s engaged users.
- Harvest First-Party Data – As third-party cookies are phased out, publishers must utilize first-party data to sell high-value ad inventory. Offerwalls allow publishers to use our “interest surveys” as part of the Offerwall to directly collect information on what readers are interested in; this data is of great value to publishers as it will improve their ad targeting capabilities, and help publishers command higher CPMs from their direct advertisers.
- Safely Test the Paywall Water – Food bloggers often fear that a new hard paywall will cause their audience to stop visiting their site. Offerwall is a great way to “push off” the wall before fully launching one because you can offer micro-payments through this service. It is also an easy and low-risk way to test pay-per usage mechanics—before you spend time developing an expensive recurring subscription-based model.
- Let Machine Do the Work of Timing – Another great thing about Offerwall is that it takes the guesswork out of when to display the wall. The app utilizes machine learning capabilities, which allows the app to monitor the user’s behaviour and only display the wall once a user has become very engaged. For example, if a user comes from social media and reads an article for two seconds, that user will not be alerted by the offerwall. However, if that user has already read three articles in a row, the machine will alert the user by displaying the offerwall. This is a great way to increase revenue with very few bounce rates, while at the same time providing value to your best customers.
Monetization methods for the web continue to evolve from a single method used by all sites to a variety of methods. Users want to access your content without any difficulties while publishers have to create revenue in order to remain solvent. Google Offerwall provides a solution that satisfies both of these needs and provides an intermediate solution.
The offerwall feature is not a one-size-fits-all solution that will somehow log you an additional 100% gain in your gross revenue right away, but it does give you added, user-friendly options for generating revenue. If your site is currently being managed by Google Ad Manager or Google AdSense, then activating this feature and testing it with an A/B test should be a no-brainer. You will be giving your users an option; thus, generating revenue will most likely see an increase.
