Opera Mediaworks today announced a new, user-centric advertising option for publishers that will greatly boost their ad monetization, all while driving user engagement within their apps. The offering, called Rewarded Ad Mediation, is the latest addition to AdMarvel, the company’s ad-serving and programmatic marketplace solution for mobile publishers, which is used by 18 of the top 25 global media companies.

Better monetization through value exchange

To further deepen monetization possibilities for publishers, Rewarded Ad Mediation is enabling publishers to present ads in a rewarded or “value exchange” format, where the user opts in to watch an advertisement — ideally a short, 15-second video or native display ad — in exchange for unlocking access to premium content within the app.

This is if they are using apps that contains paywall-gated content or in-app currency such as points, goods or coins. The user can choose to watch the targeted ad to earn access to this premium content or virtual reward in lieu of in-app payment.

Here are some examples: https://vimeo.com/128184290

“We’ve started using AdMarvel’s in-game rewarded ad solution across our free-to-play games, and we are already seeing huge returns,” remarks Elena Solovyeva, Director of Digital at ZeptoLab. “They are high-quality, brand-safe and transparent, and the extra monetization we are getting from dozens of demand partners globally has been astounding.”

HD video, native, and more

Publishers have a broad choice of formats for rewarded ads, from HD video and native to other types of mobile display and rich media, including full-page interstitials. They also maintain significant amount of control over the experience, selecting exactly when and where the ad can be shown within their user flow.

More user control and interaction

Since Rewarded Ad Mediation is based on user opt-in entirely, the result is a non-intrusive, native mobile ad experience where the user is very much in control. Moreover, this experience encourages continued interaction with the app users to continue interacting with the app, garnering a higher retention rate for that publisher. Ultimately, it results in longer session times, deeper engagement with the app and valued interactions with ads, which drives higher earnings.

“Rewarded Ad Mediation opens up a whole, new world of mobile monetization,” says Mark Fruehan, ‎President, Publisher Services Global Supply for Opera Mediaworks. “First, it improves overall fill and eCPM as a result of publishers easily integrating and managing multiple demand sources. But, there is also the extra business benefit they get from the way it keeps users in app and encourages interaction, thus increasing the average lifetime value of each user.”

Opera Mediaworks already has some of the top demand partners most used by app developers certified and integrated into its Rewarded Ad Mediation platform, including Opera Mediaworks-owned AdColony Instant-Play™ video technology.

Opera Mediaworks has been steadily enhancing its supply-side platform, having added two new components to its mobile marketplace in the past few months, a global native ad exchange (January) and a premium programmatic offering (March) — both aimed at helping publishers offer high-value ad units to high-quality advertisers, all within an exclusive, private environment. This latest unique offering for publishers utilizes AdMarvel’s full stack of programmatic marketplace solutions including mediation and exchange tools to manage their demand sources.

For more information and support for Rewarded Ad Mediation, please reach out to opera-supply@opera.com.