Anyone tried Offerwall?

[ChanandlerBong]

This now appears under "Privacy and Messaging"

it's a sort of soft paywall where users get blocked from your site after X pageviews (configurable) unless they watch a video ad.

[support.google.com ]

Haven't tried yet but I suspect there will be a slight uptick in revenue and a massive boost in annoying your users. Google's MO in the last five years seems to be: "Yes, your revenue is getting worse but allow us to do X, Y and Z on your site and you can tread water and keep it the same."

[CommandDork]

Just got the msg about this myself.

While I love the idea of more revenue, I hate the idea of hurting the ones I love - so I don't think I'll by trying it.

[ClosedForLunch]

From what I can tell, by setting up a draft Offerwall, the user has to agree to see / watch an ad... but in what way is the Offerwall ad any different to an Adsense vignette ad?

I already run Adsense vignette ads... Google hasn't convinced me that running an Offerwall would be of particular benefit, financial or otherwise.

[Bako]

To block your users if they don't do something sounds like a bad idea.

[ChanandlerBong]

It seems to be getting sold as a sort of soft paywall. I guess with CPM the new model, someone who goes to your site, even if they click an ad, will be earning you pennies or fractions thereof.

With this, you're holding the threat of withdrawing your content unless they watch a much more lucrative video ad, although how much would you earn from a 30s video? It will obviously depend on your users' location and the sector your site is in. I can see some site owners going for it if the pay off is worth it, but you better have a great site with unique content or they'll just go elsewhere and won't be back.

[Senechal]

I just got this email and my first thought was "Nah. I'll pass".

There's something very aggressive about this. I think we all decided as an industry 20 years ago that "pop-ups" were awful. How is this any better?

It seems worse by a factor of 10.

I don't even like full screen vignette ads, but at least they're closable. This is a vignette ad with teeth. No thanks.

[Senechal]

Unlike every other ad network, Google avoids ad-rotation (which is 100% proven to increase ad impressions and revenues) because it's "invasive" and "annoying".

And then they introduce THIS?

Good lord, Google. How about a little consistency in your decision-making.

[not2easy]

Offerwall is not really new, they started running it last year, but I believe it was in beta at the time. It might fit some sites but not most, imho.

[ClosedForLunch]

With this, you're holding the threat of withdrawing your content unless they watch a much more lucrative video ad, although how much would you earn from a 30s video?

Adsense already serves video ads via standard display ad units... The CTR on these video ads is almost 0%, and the Impression RPM is lower than text ads and animated image ads, for my sites at least.

However... Despite that, and what I wrote here earlier, I may try Offerwall out of curiosity

[rafraf]

Sometimes i feel you guys complain too much and dont test things.. I already tested offerwall and it has great RPM which you can use for most loyal users (jus set big threshold for 5>views activation). Offerwall raised my earning 10 to 15% and I didnt lost engagement metrics. You think wrong when you think that offerwall will make bigger bounce rate, because if your content is great people will be happy to use offerwall.

Just test, dont complain. Basically I shouldnt even write tis because now I will lose some yield to you if you turn it on.

[londrum]

This sounds like what they do in free-to-play apps - you play a game and watch a video, play a game and watch a video

[Bako]

Okay @rafraf sold me and I was going to try it out but it's been 24 hours since I got the email and I have lost my asses for beta! haha, It's saying access denied!

[ClosedForLunch]

@Bako

Have a look in 'Privacy and messaging' in the Adsense dashboard

[myamar]

Just run a quick test, from 213 messages shown only 20 were successful, more than 90% of the visitors preferred to just leave my website. It's not worth it.

[dolcevita]

I support the idea. All our efforts in creating a website, maintaining it, paying for servers and costs, updating with fresh content should be appreciated. Is 30 seconds of someone's time a lot in exchange for hours and hours invested in a website?

Who finds it difficult to spend 30 seconds on something where most of us have invested our heart and soul and nerves and money in, then he shouldn't be there.
Personally, I offer a lot on the website for free and demand very little, actually nothing in return.

I pay an anual fee of $2,000 for the server itself. And that's without CF costs, which are also not small, so I think the annual costs are more than $3.500.

[rafraf]

What you must undestand is the fact, that people who use your site regularly, for more than 5 views, they don't click ads at all. Losing them to offerwall deny is losing nothing at all (only slight worsening engament metics). That is why offerwall is great tool for getting money from people that know your ad layout and dont click ads. User who denies offerwall would leave anyway because is alredy bored after x views.

[CommandDork]

So what do you do when working on your own site and are prompted by Offerwall?

Do you view the ad? Does this count as clicking on your own ad?

I was just prompted on a site I'm using to test Offerwall now.

[dolcevita]

I don't take any risk, but turn on the block and look at the page. It's a little harder to do on a mobile phone.

[CommandDork]

@dolcevita

By "turning on the block" do you mean disabling it while I work on the site?

[Bako]

@CommandDork Turn on the ad blocker on your browser! or write a PHP code to not show you ads. Like
IF (ip == my ip) { don't show me ads!; }

Looking at your ads or watching an offerwall ad can get you banned on Adsense! I am sure.

[dolcevita]

@CommandDork

Yes, exactly. Block Ads via browser. extensions if you test. And the advice from @Bako is good if you plan to test via mobile with php or use a mobile browser that blocks Ads.

[CommandDork]

Wish we could get some deeper reporting with OfferWall. Right now it looks to just be the Excel spreadsheet you have to download and then run your own formulas on.

If it's accurate, I'm getting about a 27% clickthrough of the prompt after one full day of data.

[dolcevita]

With offerwall, my websites have returned to the level of 2023. RPM and CPC are significantly higher.

[Sissi]

I m trying this with 8 websites together with the ad block recovery

[CommandDork]

Managing about 20% acceptance of OfferWall (one site being tested, international traffic).

Cant spot any noticeable benefit yet.

[Sissi]

I ll keep it one week for testing

[CommandDork]

I'm pausing it for this week to compare to last week - since there isn't much in the way of reporting available, you sort of have to do the comparison yourself.

[CommandDork]

Ok, seems there ARE reports related specifically to OfferWall.

Reports >> Ad Formats

Then change "Placement Method" to "Ad Format" in the Breakdown path above the report (the second dropdown following "Requested Format").

"Display" - "Rewarded" are apparently the numbers we're to be looking at.

That RPM is $20 so that explains why people see a rise in RPM after switching it on. Other than that it added less than $1.50 to daily earnings over the week of testing with 9.8% engagement : /

[Sissi]

@CommandDork
Thanks veryuseful
It is still a Beta version let s see how it goes

[dolcevita]

I haven't looked at the statistics, but from the moment I turned it on, I see an enormous increase in earnings.