What makes rewards convert
1. Show and explain how rewards work
Players won’t claim what they don’t understand. Use every surface you have, not just one:- Native game elements do the most work, because they’re always present: a persistent balance counter alongside your other currencies, reward toasts at the moment of earning, and a progress bar toward the next reward. Build these into your own UI — don’t rely on the ZBD modal to carry the message.
- Creatives handle the set-piece moments: the reveal after the first reward lands, and milestone nudges. Dashboard-configured, in your art style, changeable without an app release.
- Local notifications (or your own push stack) bring players back when they have something unclaimed.
GetGiftCards gives you the percentage for exactly that.
2. Reward enough to be worth it
Nobody changes their behavior for a few cents. If a player’s realistic earnings are trivial, no amount of good UX will produce engagement — and they’ll tell other players it isn’t worth it. The way to fund meaningful rewards without hurting your margin is to size them off actual revenue rather than a flat guess:- Connect your MMP. When an ad impression or completed view is confirmed, raise that player’s withdrawal limit so players who generate more can earn more. This is the highest-leverage change you can make here, and there are options that work without a backend. See Increasing Limits with MMP Data.
- Start from a revenue share, not a fixed amount. 10–20% of ad-generated revenue is the usual starting range. See Reward Economics for recommended values.
3. Know your audience
Acquisition shapes the ceiling on everything else here. UA aimed at players who want to earn — or who’d be interested in earning — will improve your conversion rates: rewarded-play audiences, earning-focused creatives and channels, messaging that mentions real rewards. It’s worth being deliberate about it. Players who arrive with no interest in earning are harder to convert, so the same rewards UX will read very differently depending on who you brought in. The rest of this page is the detail behind point 1: the principle all reward copy follows, then what to say at each moment.The one principle: reveal, don’t offer
Players installed your game to play, not to earn. A rewards pitch they haven’t earned anything from yet is a cold offer — and cold offers trigger suspicion, not desire. An unexplained reward reads as a hidden cost: what’s the catch? So don’t offer rewards. Reveal them. The player should discover they’ve already earned something by doing the thing they came to do. Every screen and sentence should reinforce: this is part of the game you already like, it’s already working, and here’s why it’s real. Two rules follow from this:- Never show a zero balance as the player’s first exposure. Fire the first reward within the first minutes of normal play, so by the time the player notices the counter, something is already in it. “You’ve already earned 240 coins” converts; “Start earning!” doesn’t.
- Always pair the reward with the honest reason. An unexplained reward feels like a scam. One sentence kills the suspicion:
The reason line — the single highest-leverage sentence in your rewards copy:“Game studios share their ad revenue with players. The more you play, the more you earn.”The modal’s built-in first-time screen doesn’t carry this line, so ship it yourself: a first-open creative is the ideal vehicle — it shows in your game’s art style and you can update it without an app release. Never present the reward without the reason.
Core principles
Speak in your game’s voice, and keep ZBD invisible until it adds credibility. The player trusts the game they chose to install; the rewards layer should inherit that trust, not spend it. Your fonts, your art, your currency, your tone. ZBD appears at the payout step, where a real payment processor makes the money credible — never in headers or gameplay copy. Pair your currency with its real-money value. Lead with your themed currency — it keeps rewards native to your game and lets you be generous with the numbers — and show the dollar value alongside it: players are ultimately motivated by real money. “You earned 2,500 coins ($0.25)” gives them both. Concrete dollar milestones remain your strongest motivator: “Next reward: $5 gift card — 80% there.” Show progress to the next milestone, never a far summit. A close goal accelerates play; a distant one demotivates.GetGiftCards gives you unlockedPercent for exactly this — bind it to a progress bar toward a named, concrete reward.
Say “claim”, not banking verbs, at first touch. “Claim your reward” feels like winning; “withdraw” and “cash out” feel like banking, and banking feels like risk. Reserve cash-out vocabulary for the payout flow itself. (The modal’s built-in CTA currently reads “Cash Out” — that copy is fixed product UI inside the claim flow; the vocabulary you control on the way there should say claim.)
Send players to the modal when there’s something worth claiming. The modal opens on their balance and cashout options, so it lands best once there’s a balance worth acting on — a player sent there with nothing to claim just sees an empty wallet. Never gate the value reveal behind sign-up: players don’t need any account to see what they’ve earned.
The journey, in five moments
Communication touchpoints
Withdrawal limit messaging
The daily earning allowance is your most powerful retention mechanic — use it that way. When a player has withdrawn everything their limit currently allows, the message is: “Come back tomorrow to earn more.” Not “You’ve reached your limit.” Not “Withdrawal limit: $0.20.” Their allowance to unlock more resets every 24 hours — frame that as tomorrow’s opportunity, not today’s restriction.Push notifications
Same copy model as local notifications — concrete goal over bare number, claim over cash out:
No urgency theater (“Limited time! Act now!”) — urgency reads as manipulation to someone who didn’t come to shop.
In-app messages
Avoid full-screen takeovers at launch — a pitch before play is a cold offer. Let the first reward land, then reveal.
Say this, not that
Tone throughout: the voice of the game, not of a fintech. Short, warm, second person, zero exclamation-mark salesmanship. One idea per screen.