Survey Walls vs Offerwalls: Which Is Better for Your Users?

Survey wall or offerwall: which is better for your users?

A survey wall lists paid market research surveys: users answer questions and are rewarded for each survey they complete. An offerwall lists offers such as playing a game to a level, trying an app, signing up for a service, or doing a short task. Surveys suit adults who want steady, short sessions and live where research demand is high. Offers suit users with patience for bigger rewards, especially gamers. Most rewards sites end up offering both, because each wall serves a different kind of user.

The choice is less about which wall pays you more and more about which one your users will enjoy and come back to. This guide compares the two from the user’s side, which is where the revenue comes from. To compare individual providers, see Best offerwalls for publishers.

How survey walls work

Survey walls connect your users with market research projects. A typical flow:

1. Profiling. The user answers basic questions about age, location, household, job, or interests, so the wall can match them to surveys.
2. Qualification. Each survey asks its own screening questions to check that the user fits the target group.
3. The survey. If they qualify, they answer the full questionnaire. Its expected length is usually shown up front.
4. The result. A complete is rewarded. A user who does not fit the target group is screened out, and a survey whose target group is already filled closes for them.

Screen-outs are the biggest source of frustration on survey walls. A user can answer questions for a few minutes and then learn they do not qualify, and how screen-outs are handled, with a small consolation reward or nothing, depends on the provider. Research buyers also check answer quality, for example rushing through questions or answering inconsistently, and a complete can be rejected or reversed later when the data does not pass.

How offerwalls work

Offers are paid by advertisers who want a specific result: an app installed and used, a game played to a level, an account created, or a task done and proven. A single offer can take minutes or days, and some pay for several steps along the way, such as installing a game and then reaching level 10 and level 20.

The rewards are often larger than a survey’s, but so is the effort. Offers depend on the user’s country and device, some take days to finish, and results may stay pending while they are checked. A credited result can still be reversed, for example when an advertiser finds duplicate accounts. How the Sharklio offerwall works shows one full lifecycle, from start to postback.

Survey wall vs offerwall side by side

Earnings per minute: the number users feel

Users do not judge a wall by its biggest reward. They judge it by what they earn for the time they spend, including the attempts that pay nothing. On a survey wall, that means counting screen-outs. On an offerwall, it means counting the time in a game and the days of waiting.

The lesson for you: help users see the real trade-off. Show survey length where your provider gives it, explain screen-outs before users meet one, and show offer requirements and waiting times plainly. Users who know what to expect stay longer on both walls.

Why demographics matter more for surveys

Survey supply depends on who the user is. Research buyers look for specific groups, such as parents in one country, people in a certain profession, or a certain age range, so two users on the same wall can see very different numbers of surveys. Some profiles qualify often and others rarely do.

Offers depend on country and device more than on personal profile. A user on Android in one country sees the offers advertisers bought for Android in that country, whatever their job or age. That makes offer supply easier to predict, but it can still be thin in countries with little advertiser demand. Tier 1, 2 and 3 countries explains why location changes what is available.

Look at your own audience. Adults in countries with strong research demand will usually find plenty of surveys. A young, mobile, gaming audience will often get more from offers.

Which wall suits your users

When in doubt, test. Add one wall, measure revenue per 1,000 active users for a few weeks, then add the other and see whether total revenue grows or the two just split the same users. How much can you earn with an offerwall? shows how to estimate before you start.

How to run a survey wall and an offerwall together

• Keep one currency. Users should see the same coins on both walls, at a consistent value. Setting your virtual currency exchange rate explains how to pick a rate that works across partners.
• Separate them clearly. Use tabs or cards named after what users do, such as “Surveys” and “Games and offers”, not after the provider.
• Explain each one. A short line under each entry helps: “Short surveys, you may be screened out” or “Bigger rewards, some take a few days”.
• Prepare support for both. Survey tickets are about screen-outs and rejected answers; offer tickets are about pending results and missing credits. Handling missing reward tickets covers the offer side.
• Watch reversals on both. Poor survey answers and duplicate accounts both cost you, and both come from the same few abusers. Handle them under one set of rules.

Common mistakes

• Promising “earn $X per survey”. Screen-outs make that untrue for most users.
• Hiding the wall that suits your users behind the other one. Give each its own clear entry.
• Counting starts instead of credited results. Judge each wall on revenue after rejections and reversals.
• Adding many walls of the same kind. Three survey walls with the same buyers mostly split your users.

Frequently asked questions