Back to Blog
OfferwallAffiliateIncentivizedROAS

Offerwall, Both Sides: An Offer Source for Affiliates, an Incentivized Channel for Brands

Offerwall networks like OGAds, AdGate Media and AdGem are a two-sided market. Affiliates run them as Offer sources settled by postback; brands run them as an incentivized channel with its own ROAS — AdPilot wires up both.

AdPilot TeamPublished on June 23, 20264 min read
Share this articleTwitter / X

People keep asking us: "Can a brand advertiser pick offerwall products like OGAds, AdGate or AdGem?" The answer hides a fact that's easy to miss — offerwall is a two-sided business, and which side you're on decides what it means for you.

#Both sides in one breath

  • The publisher / affiliate side: you take offers from the network and drive traffic to them. Users complete a task (install an app, finish a survey, sign up), you earn a payout. Settlement happens by postback.
  • The advertiser / brand side: you put "install my app + finish the tutorial" onto the offerwall, and users install your product to claim a reward inside someone else's app. This is an incentivized install channel.

Same network, two completely different goals. Mixing them into one report is the first trap most teams fall into.

#The affiliate side: offerwall is an Offer source

For affiliates, OGAds / AdGate / AdGem are offer sources — they belong in your Offer library right alongside ClickBank, MaxBounty and CJ. The difference: most of these networks settle by postback, not a pull API.

AdPilot generates a ready-to-use postback template for each network — paste it into the network dashboard:

Code
https://your-domain/api/v1/postback/offerwall
  ?network=ogads&script_key=...&secret=...
  &click_id={subid}&value={payout}&offer_id={offer_id}

When a conversion fires, the network calls that URL and AdPilot does three things:

  1. Maps each network's wildly different param names (AdGate's s2, AdGem's s1, amount fields like amount / payout…) onto canonical fields;
  2. Matches click_id back to the originating click, scores quality, and stitches the user journey;
  3. If it resolves to a known Offer, writes a commission row straight into your real-time P&L.

OGAds also has an offers pull API, so its catalogue syncs automatically; AdGate and AdGem are more publisher-side, so they run "enter the offer by hand + settle by postback." Either way, profit is a live number while the campaign is still running — not something you reconcile three days later.

#The brand side: offerwall is an incentivized channel — but keep it separate

If you promote your own product, offerwall can give you install volume — useful for chart rank and hitting volume targets. But there's a fact you have to face honestly:

Incentivized traffic is reward-driven. Users don't come because they want your product; they come for the reward. Intent is low, retention is poor, and most attribution models exclude it on purpose.

So AdPilot's approach isn't "don't use it" — it's "use it with your eyes open":

  • Flag the offerwall channel as Incentivized — instantly recognizable in the account list;
  • The dashboard ROAS excludes incentivized traffic by default, so cheap rewarded installs never dilute your brand-campaign blended ROAS;
  • And it surfaces a separate natural-vs-incentivized split, with spend / installs / ROAS side by side.
Channel typeSpendInstallsROASIn blended ROAS
Natural (brand)$48,20031,4003.7×
Incentivized (offerwall)$6,10022,8000.9×❌ (separate)

One glance tells the story: the incentivized channel drives lots of installs at low ROAS. Whether to run it, and how hard, is a decision you make on real quality — not one a polluted total makes for you.

#Why doing both sides is what "done right" means

Do only the affiliate side and brands can't use it; do only the brand side and affiliates lose a big chunk of their offer sources. AdPilot wires up both on the same self-hosted platform:

  • Affiliates get: offerwalls in the Offer library, postback settlement, live Offer-level profit;
  • Brands get: offerwall as a channel you can label, isolate, and ROAS-separate.

And every conversion, every payout and every incentivized install stays on infrastructure you own.

Want to see it run? Start a free trial, or explore the platform first.

Related Articles