52% of consumers say that bothersome ads give them ‘a poor opinion’ of the app that hosts them, according to Ogury. This means that users are very discerning with how they give their attention to ads, so just because you can serve an ad doesn't mean you always should. That’s why optimizing user receptivity - or a user’s willingness to receive a message from your brand - is essential to engaging users and increasing both brand recall and favorability.
For many app publishers, the question is not just about should I serve an ad, or shouldn’t I. They need to incorporate ads as the centerpiece to their monetization strategy. Or, perhaps ads are truly the only viable way to monetize at all. So, how do you increase user receptivity? By putting consumers’ emotions first when delivering ads.
Despite the ways advertising has evolved over the years, one thing has remained consistent - emotion is a critical driver of purchasing behavior and decision making. Today, ensuring you're putting user emotion first is especially critical on mobile. With more digital time spent on smartphones than ever before (4.8 hours a day on mobile in 2021 according to data.ai), consumers put a high premium on their time and attention on these devices. This means you want to be thoughtful about your users and their valuable time, encouraging them to appreciate your brand, maintain engagement within your app, and eventually convert them into brand evangelists.
So, if you are ready to turn on or tune up your app monetization engine, here are 3 tips for optimizing user receptivity:
1. Reinforce moments of celebration
Positivity has been shown to increase sharing and engagement with ads. That’s because in moments of pride and accomplishment, no matter how small, endorphins are released and humans are more likely to overlook minor disruptions, such as ads.
The best way to capitalize on users’ positivity is by rewarding them for their accomplishments. 84% of customers say they choose to stay with a brand that surprises them on their Birthday according to Marsello. It makes sense that giving users a small prize for beating a level or unlocking a new character, among other things, is a great way to position your brand as customer-centric from the get-go, taking pride in users’ wins alongside them.
Advertising in mobile crossword puzzle games is a great way to make the most of this strategy. Users experience tons of mini wins when playing these titles, such as every time they answer a question correctly. Oftentimes, the app will vibrate and sound a tone signifying accomplishment for each correct answer. When the user is relishing in their success, this is prime time for your ad, which offers the user a coupon as a ‘reward,’ to play, reinforcing the celebration. Your ad isn’t disrupting the user, rather contributing to the achievement.
To make users more receptive to your ad and ensure brand recollection, it’s important that users associate your brand with positive moments - smiles sell. Reaching users at moments when they’re already in a good mood, you’re leveraging users’ positive emotional state to encourage them to engage.
Ensuring users associate your brand with giving them what they need is another good way to increase receptivity.
2. Give users what they need to succeed with rewarded video
At the core of the most lucrative customer-brand relationships is showing users you have their best interests in mind - they want brands to get to know them better to understand when to approach them and when not to. This means personalizing your communications to users based on their individual needs is critical to ensuring they are open to engaging with your ads.
For apps, moments of need happen when users run out of lives, coins, etc. and can’t progress through the app without assistance. These moments are highly emotional, especially if a user has been invested in the app for a long time, making them a lucrative opportunity for your brand to save the day. Rewarded video ads (ad units that offer rewards in exchange for the user viewing the ad), when presented at these moments of need, are a great way to appeal to user emotion.
For example, let’s say a user is making their way through the levels in an education app seamlessly, but gets stuck at level 10 and has used all of their attempts. This is what makes rewarded video so rewarding. At this moment, if your ad is shown, which offers users enough coins to add another level attempt, users are likely to be receptive to your ad. On top of that, users now associate your brand with having their best interest in mind.
In fact, when presented in the right context, rewarded ads lead to users being 8x more engaged, more than 3x the amount of time spent with the brand, and significantly higher brand recall and positive sentiment than standard video ads, according to Neurons.
Rather than disrupting the user, you’re showing empathy for what the user is experiencing emotionally. By offering a lifeline, the user will feel a personal connection to your brand in the long run.
Now that you’re thinking about the timing of your ads and identifying moments when users are the most emotionally receptive, optimizing the content itself is equally as important.
3. Gamify your ad units
Humans have been drawn to games for centuries, meaning they’re likely to be drawn to a gamified ad. Some of the most notable reasons we have stayed receptive to games, whether it be board games, arcades, or video games, have a lot to do with our emotions - our desire for achievement, competition, socializing, etc.
Rather than disrupting the user, gamified ads give the user something enjoyable to take their mind off the present moment. When users are playing mobile games, gamified ads also flow nicely with the app experience. Ultimately, users view gamified creatives as marginally different from traditional ads, even though they’re still spending considerable time staring at your brand and product. Gamified ads put the user first and are a kinder way to get in front of your relevant audience - the best recipe for optimizing user receptivity.
'Sparkling Ice created two playable ads. One was based on a simple memory game called “Fruit Match,” in which users tap to reveal hidden fruit flavors and make pairs. The second was a two-part tapper called “Whack a Fruit,” in which users tap fruit flavors to score points. The playables had 18.4% engagement rate and 95% game completion rate.
McDonald’s created a playable where users shuffle through the menu, attempting to “catch” food items. Following the playable, they’re taken to an end screen asking them to download the app to start earning rewards. This gamified ad unit attracts attention with a compelling, easy to win activity and performed well.
Game designers and marketers alike spend time analyzing user motivation and emotion to create the most relevant experiences. The difference? Games are always enjoyable. This means gamification is a great way to level up your ad units and encourage users to engage with your brand.
Overall, ensuring users are receptive to your ads has a lot to do with appealing to their emotions. This means reaching users at the right times (in moments of celebration and need) and with the right content (gamified ads). Putting the user first isn’t a novel concept, but it’s more important than ever to master this craft on mobile.
