Configuring Adscend Solutions for Websites

Overview of Available Adscend Solutions:

Offer Wall

• Reward your users for engaging with a select variety of offers that fit different interests.
• Categories: Surveys, videos, mobile apps, sign ups/registrations, free trials, shopping
• Offers available in 100+ countries
• Top performing countries are: US, UK, CA, AU, DE, FR
• Learn More

 Video - Smores.tv

• Reward your users for watching varying available videos
• Expansive video categories and unique content only found on Smores.tv
• How is Smores.tv different than EngageMe.tv? Smores will be more expansive with video content in that content creators can come directly to Smores to upload and monetize their videos.
• Videos are available in the following countries: US, UK, CA, AU, NZ, NL, DE, NO, IE, DK, SE
• Top performing countries are: US, UK, AU, DE, NZ
• Learn More

Video - EngageMe.tv

• Reward your users for watching varying available videos
• Expansive video categories including thousands of videos.
• How is EngageMe.tv different than Smores.tv? ETV also has expansive video content and lists thousands of videos, however content contributors cannot directly monetize or load up videos similar to Smores.
• Videos are available in the following countries: US, UK, CA, AU, NZ, NL, DE, NO, IE, DK, SE 
• Top performing countries are: US, UK, AU, DE, NZ
• Learn More

Market Research Surveys

• Reward your users for completing tailored market research surveys based on their interests and behaviors.
• Users can complete multiple different surveys on a daily basis, ranging in length from short (lower paying) to long (higher paying) opportunities.
• Surveys are available globally (fill/availability can fluctuate and be unique to individual users)
• Top performing regions are: North America & Western EU Countries.
• Learn More

What Does it Take to Launch a User Rewards Website with Adscend for the First Time?

Learn more details about some of the required steps to get started with our system in our Getting Started guide.

Overview of User Rewards Promotional Model for Websites

Adscend Media supplies offers and videos that users can engage with to earn credit toward rewards on your website (learn more from the links below). This ad-based and content-based model delivers a rich rewarding environment for users to remain engaged on your website. The model further supports long-term revenue stability, as it increases user retention and active user rates.

For more information on key concepts of the rewards-based promotional model, please refer to these articles:

• Learn more about our offer types HERE
• Learn more about virtual rewards HERE
• Learn more about what points are HERE

Points System

Users should be rewarded based on a points system. As users accrue points for completing offers, they can redeem the points for rewards on your website. Available rewards and the amount of points required to earn the reward should be displayed for users on your platform. Users are allowed to redeem earned points for rewards of cash value (i.e. when a user completes an offer, and receives X amount of ‘Fun Points,’ the user can exchange their ‘Fun Points’ for rewards of cash value such as a PayPal payment, check, gift cards, and more). Users should not be initially assigned cash value for completing offers and should be assigned points first.

Rewards Inventory

It is your responsibility to supply rewards options for your users. Adscend Media does not supply the rewards that users can redeem points for. Your users will be unique and will come from different backgrounds - so it’s important to supply different rewards options for your users to help with retention. Just for example - If you supply gift cards, consider expanding your gift card inventory to include free ‘Game Time’ cards or game network gift cards. This can help target and retain users interested in gaming. If users are looking for something in particular, and don’t see it on your site, they may go elsewhere to seek it out.

Placement Labeling

Clearly labeling the different options users have on your website will help get users active more quickly and maximize engagement on your site. There are two central funnel points that are important to clearly highlight for users:

1. Rewards - this is where you will have rewards options displayed for users. The following are a few strong examples that will make it clear to your users: “Redeem,” “Rewards,” “Gift Cards,” “Store,” “Cash Out,” and “Exchange Points.”
   
   
2. Earning Options - this is where our solutions will be placed and where users can engage in order to accrue points. The following are a few strong examples that will make it clear to your users: “Earn,” “Get Points,” “Watch Videos,” “Watch and Earn,” “Complete Offers,” “Sponsored Offers,” and “Earn Fun Points.”

Also consider adding a ‘video’ section under earning options. Video is an extremely popular category among users and making ‘video’ prominent on your site for users to clearly find will boost activity.

Lastly, label the Offer Wall with the title: “Adscend Media” – if the placement lacks space for the title, “Adscend” works great as well. Make sure to also label stand-alone video placements as “Smores.tv” or “EngageMe.tv” as the title.

Placement Positioning

Users interested in engaging with offers or content to earn rewards will quickly seek out their options on your website. Similar to the above points about placement labeling, it’s important users can quickly find the earnings options and understand where to go. If it’s not clear to a user, or if it takes them too long to find the options, they may leave your website to seek out other options. Make sure that you link users to the ‘Rewards’ and ‘Earning’ options with clear labels on the main home page users first see as they log in. Ensure that the placement of the labels/links to the Rewards and Earning options are not hidden and are prominently displayed. Consider placing our logos on your home page as a way to link users to our Offer Wall and videos, instead of using text links.

Example 1:

If your platform is a traditional GPT/user rewards website (i.e. earning and rewards options are the central content on your site), then both the Rewards options and Earning options should be clearly available for users to click or tap into right from the homepage of your site. Place our logo on your homepage to link users to the Offer Wall and videos.

Example 2:

If your site does not focus primarily on user rewards, and you offer other content that serves as the central content for your audience, it is even more important to make a very clear funnel for users to discover their options. Just for example - if you have a website that focuses on gaming news or eSports, and you have a ‘marketplace’ with items or game swag for sale where you are using our solutions, the rewards options should be displayed directly under the ‘marketplace’ tab (or any other pages where a user might visit directly before making purchases on your site). Funneling users to our solutions with the following labels can help entice users to learn more, or attract users who may already be familiar: “FREE,” “Earn Your Next Purchase,” “Save On Your Next Purchase,” “Get This Item Free.”

Maximize Revenue and User Engagement with Multiple Placements

When users visit your platform, they will quickly look for their favorite earnings options - “Videos” and “Surveys” are some of the hot categories that will stand out to users. Based on the success we see with our current partners, we recommend that you consider placing our full offer wall with all categories included, as well as stand-alone categories - place a “videos” only wall under a ‘video’ section on your site, or place category-based video links. Place a “Surveys” only wall under your ‘survey’ section, and so on. This can help users find their favorite option and begin earning. Including a second placement on your site in this way will increase your daily revenue significantly.

Linked Partnership (video)

You can further boost revenue by becoming a linked partner on our video platforms (i.e. get listed directly on Smores.tv and EngageMe.tv). Publishers typically earn up to 150% more revenue on video activity after becoming a linked partner. Becoming a linked partner allows Adscend to deliver new, unique user signups to you from this new placement, and users who prefer to use a mobile app to earn on your platform can use the Smores.tv Android app (coming soon). Ask your account manager for more details about the value of a linked partnership and for next steps to become a linked partner. Submit a request to become a linked partner here: https://goo.gl/sAnR6X

User Targeting

We recommend to align your user acquisition efforts to top-performing offer and video locations. This will result in more revenue and a more optimal user experience. Also consider what users you make the placement available to. For example, if you have a heavy user base from a country where our videos are not available, and non-video offers are limited, it would be best to hide our placement from that country to avoid a poor user experience. Top performing countries/regions are listed above at the top of this article.

User Support

An important aspect of retaining users and enhancing the UX is sustaining a strong user support approach. This should be accomplished with multiple different methods:

• Make sure your users can easily find a way to contact you directly. This is important for a few key reasons:
  
  
  • Users may like to ensure the platform is legitimate and will pay them when the time comes. Clear options to contact you directly will help build trust with users, as they know they can get support if there is a problem.
    
    
  • You can receive important inquiries this way, but you can also receive feedback that can help you make strategic decisions, or make enhancements, for your platform. Always encourage your users not to hesitate to contact you if they have any feedback.

• Add a FAQ to your site that covers important topics related to your platform, or placements included on your site. If you’re a new website administrator, reviewing the FAQs on current live websites can help provide ideas on the most common types of questions.
  
  
• Include a basic tutorial covering how the user rewards model works and what you can offer users. Don’t force users through the tutorial, however, make it available for first-time users who are just getting their feet wet. Those who are interested will click into it and it will help retain those first-time users.
  
  
• If you have a verified and trusted user, consider making the user a ‘moderator’ on your platform if they agree. You can increase their payouts for their efforts, or come to another understanding on a reward for this extra work. A moderator can be a bridge between yourself and your userbase and can help uncover issues, user complaints, or common barriers your users are facing on your platform.
  
  
• Take full advantage of Adscend Media user support:
  
  
  • Encourage your users to review support topics, or contact our support team from the support tab on the Offer Wall.
    
    
  • If you are listing non-video offers on stand-alone (no Offer Wall), you can encourage users to contact this address: [e-mail].
    
    
  • If you are listing video offers on stand-alone (no Offer Wall), you can encourage users to contact either [e-mail] or [e-mail].

User Engagement (Encouragement, Communications, and Promotions

Sometimes users need a little push or reminder about your rewards earnings options/platform. Stay engaged with users through re-engagement email campaigns and on-site push notifications (we recommend OneSignal. Limit these communications to strong or attractive opportunities to keep these campaigns effective for the long term. Below are some ideas:

• Is our placement new on your site? Make an announcement confirming the new placement.
  
  
• Are you seeing an offer trending and monetizing really well? Send out an announcement to make users aware and drive them to the opportunity!
  
  
• Is Adscend introducing new video channels or running new video promos? Similar to above, make users aware!
  
  
• Re-engage with users who have become inactive (2 weeks, 30 days, 60 days are good timeframes to consider)
  
  
• Re-engage with users who don’t take advantage of certain earning opportunities (i.e. if the user has never generated referral commission, push them to explore more about your referral program).
  
  
• Run extra points promotions occasionally with your users - make an announcement via a banner, text, email, push notification. Users will appreciate the temporary boost and it’s a good way to stay engaged with users who may have become inactive. Don’t hesitate to ask your account manager for temporary increased promotional rates and more details.

Integration Options for Websites 

1. HTML code (iframe) - Include all or select solutions: Offer Wall; Smores.tv/EngageMe.tv; Market Research Surveys
   
   
2. URL-based web view placement - Include all or select solutions: Offer Wall; Smores.tv/EngageMe.tv; Market Research Surveys
   
   
3. API - Take full control and create your own project by feeding offers and videos to your site based on category, solution, performance, payout, user targeting, and more.
   
   
4. Category-based links (video) - Place specified video categories in stand-alone placements using category-

To have the wall load on a specific webpage, you can place the iframe on that page. If you have a more unique consideration for placement (such as listing the wall in a game users have to download), the src URL located in the iframe code can also be used for a URL-based web view placement. The API or category-based links can also be used in this case.

Offer Wall Profile Best Practices

You can place our Offer Wall with varying offers included, or a video-only wall, or a MR Surveys wall only. Placing a wall, or category-based links, will require completing a profile. The purpose of creating a profile is to implement your preferred customized settings based on that profile. After you create a profile, you are provided with an ID for that profile and an embed code (html iframe). See below some best practices related to settings options:

• Currency name - Display a currency name to your users. Choose a name that will be familiar to your users (i.e. if you reward your users with a virtual currency called ‘Fun Points’ - then you can display this same name on the Offer Wall for congruence with your system).
  
  
• Don’t add a minimum payout - Unless you have a unique reason to add a minimum payout, it’s best to avoid adding one. Just as an example why - if you add a minimum payout, it will cut out our videos, and potentially other lower-paying offers that can monetize just as well, or stronger than higher-paying offers.
  
  
• Turn ON ‘Offer Update Emails’ - This will allow your users the option in the support tab on the wall to opt in to receive updates on new offer opportunities.
  
  
• Don’t forget to ‘Customize Your Offer Wall’ to give it a native look/feel/appearance on your website. Use your platform and page colors, and feel free to add a ‘Background Image’
  
  
• 800x600 is a good starting place for setting the size - individual placements/web pages will be unique and it likely will require playing with settings as well if it appears wonky at all. This size is a good starting point, but it may require tweaking or playing with settings to get the appearance right on your page.
  
  
• Don’t hesitate to create multiple profiles for different purposes, as we described earlier in this article
  
  
• Consider what offer categories you want to include for your users. We typically recommend including all available offers and categories for GPT platforms. We generally recommend that you include all offer categories for your users. Your users will come from different backgrounds and will have a mix of interests, so including varying types of offers can help maximize revenue potential and the user experience. You may have a unique reason for excluding certain offer categories, and in that case, you should customize as you see fit. Also ask your account manager about other common reasons why a category should potentially be excluded.
  
  
• *Tip - To list a video-only wall - create an Offer Wall profile with your desired settings and select ‘Video’ as the only category
  
  
• *Tip - To list a Market Research Survey-only wall - create an Offer Wall profile with your desired settings and select ‘Profile Surveys’ as the only category.

Postback

Utilize all available parameters to learn more about your users and their activity with our offers. For example, we can pass the user’s IP address in postbacks as an additional layer of verification. You can also use the secure hash feature for added security. Taking full advantage of the postback options can help contribute to your overall quality and fraud control efforts for long-term revenue success and stability. See a complete list of supported variables on the postback link further below.

Important considerations for crediting users:

[PAY] - This variable represents the totalamount of paid commission you are owed as a lead is completed. If you’re not using CUR (below), then you can use PAY and calculate the user’s owed credit for the completion on your side.

[CUR] - This variable is based on an existing Offer Wall profile, or Smores.tv profile. Our system will automatically calculate the user’s earned credit (based on the exchange rate you have set in the profile) and insert the value here.

Visit this page for more supporting details about postback: https://adscendmedia.com/publishers/dashboard/postbacks

Other Tracking Considerations

We serve some offers that can be completed multiple times on the same campaign ID by an individual user. For example - users can be credited several times in a given day on the same Smores.tv campaign ID for watching several videos. Similarly, a user can be credited several times for completing multiple high-paying surveys on the same campaign ID. You may need to adjust your script to allow users to receive multiple credit for completing these and other similar offers. See the postback documentation in the dashboard for options that signify offers that allow multiple completions (Postback Docs). If you require the specific campaign IDs so they can be whitelisted, see below the common offer names in our system that allow multiple credits and ask your AM for any new/current related offers and a full list of IDs:

• Smores.tv
• Engageme.tv
• Your-Surveys
• Market Research (Dalia Research)
• Market Research (P2 Sample)
• Cint Surveys

You’re now familiar with how you can configure Adscend solutions to boost revenue and user retention. Before you go, we wanted to list below a mock scenario of placement options with the above considerations in mind.

Example Mock Scenario:

Platform: GPT website

Goal: Provide a rich environment of multiple ad options users can choose from and engage with to earn varying rewards options (gift cards, game time, cash, game items, etc.)

Suggested Implementation: List Adscend Offer Wall including all categories. GPT platforms will attract varying unique users who are looking for different earnings options to engage with. There might be some users who prefer MR surveys, and then some users who prefer videos, or mobile apps, etc. *Also consider adding a separate additional wall including our ‘Videos’ only under your ‘video’ section on your site. Video is an extremely popular category among users and making video prominent on your site will boost activity. Adding a second video-only placement can double, or even triple, your video revenue as well. Consider the same for Market Research surveys if you have a ‘surveys’ section on your site.