The Economics of a Growing Rewarded Ads Market
There's an important question about the reason behind the surge in adoption of rewarded ads across the web that sites should be asking about their future revenue opportunities.
Why are publishers earning $100–$500 CPMs on the same inventory that used to bring $20-$30?
While its certainly not always the norm, in fact most sites may start-off with results nowhere close to that kind of improvement, it is a result that can become achievable to almost any site with something valuable to their audience. The key to achieving that kind of performance is in the process of implementation; which surprisingly looks more like SEO than it does implementing an ad unit.
The Answer: Rewarded Ads
There’s a buzz in the digital publishing world, and it centers on a dramatic shift in ad revenue. Publishers are suddenly achieving $100–$500 CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) on inventory that previously generated just $2–$8 CPMs. The secret? Rewarded ads. Here’s why this is happening—and how you can unlock these premium returns.
Interruptions and The Power of Choice
Traditional ads interrupt. They wedge themselves between users and the content they came for, often leading to frustration and banner blindness.
Rewarded ads flip the script. Instead of interruptions, users are given an option—they can choose to watch a brief, often 20-second ad, in exchange for access to something valuable. This voluntary exchange shifts the dynamic entirely. Instead of imposing, rewarded ads are an opportunity, sparking real engagement.
Performance Data: Striking Results
Rewarded ads don’t just feel better for users—they perform better for publishers and advertisers alike. The numbers speak for themselves:
- - 45% higher click-through rates (CTR)** compared to standard video ads
- - 33% better conversion rates
- - 93% video completion rates
- - 10–100× higher CPM multipliers
These aren’t marginal wins.
Why Do Advertisers Pay the Premium?
It’s all about guaranteed engagement. When a user voluntarily chooses to interact with an ad, that engagement is intentional and meaningful. For advertisers, reaching an audience that’s opted in is vastly more valuable than racking up passive impressions on commodity traffic. The result: advertisers are willing to pay eye-popping premiums for this level of guaranteed attention.
Well Beyond Gaming— It's Established For The Web
Rewarded ads aren’t new. Gaming apps cracked this code years ago. In fact, rewarded ad formats now drive more than 40% of total mobile game revenue. But now, web publishers are catching up—and they’re doing it fast.
Versatility: Beyond the Game
Rewarded ads aren’t just for unlocking extra game lives. Publishers across industries are finding creative applications, including:
- - Revealing premium articles
- - Providing premium downloads
- - Unlocking SaaS features
- - Listing real estate opportunities
- - Giving access to exclusive recipes
- - Offering streaming “breaks” for longer video content
- - Granting exclusive member or VIP access
Wherever you have valuable content or features, rewarded ads can work.
The Catch: Strategic Discipline is Essential
Rewarded ads offer huge potential, but they’re not a “set it and forget it” tactic. Success requires ongoing optimization and discipline:
- - Test different placements
- - Refine the disclosure language
- - Adjust the frequency
- - Experiment with reward types
Just like SEO, rewarded ad performance improves with continuous refinement and iteration.
Experimentation Drives Results
Publishers treating rewarded ads as strategic experiments consistently outperform those who implement them as one-off tests. In fact, some see results that are 10× better—or more—thanks to ongoing optimization.
The Opportunity is Massive—But Execution Matters
Rewarded ads are reshaping the economics of digital publishing, offering CPMs once thought impossible. But to seize this opportunity, publishers need to master not just the technical setup, but the art and science of implementation.
Are you ready to level up your ad strategy? Ezoic offers the industries most robust, complete, and easiest solution to implement an enterprise-caliber rewarded ads experience on any website.