Why Users Start Offers but Don't Finish (and How to Fix It)

Why do users start offers but not finish them?

Users abandon offers for a handful of predictable reasons: the offer does not fit their device or country, the requirements were not clear, the funnel was longer than they expected, the tracking broke because they switched devices or used a VPN or private browsing, or they gave up waiting for a credit that was simply pending. Most of these can be reduced by the publisher: an honest entry point, a short explanation of how offers work, clear pending times, a link to the offer history, and fast support.

A low offerwall conversion rate is rarely about the offers alone. It is usually about what users expected when they clicked, and what happened between the click and the credit. This guide starts where a user has already opened the wall and picked an offer, and goes through each cause and what you can do about it. Getting more users to open the wall in the first place is a placement question, covered in Offerwall placement.

First, measure where users drop off

“Conversion rate” can mean several things on an offerwall, so pick the ones you track:

• Open to start: users who started at least one offer divided by users who opened the wall.
• Start to credit: users with at least one credited result divided by users who started an offer. This is where unfinished offers show up.
• Revenue per active user: credited payouts minus reversals, divided by your active users. This is the number that decides.

On Moonetix, Reports, Conversions lists every result with its status, and the Reporting API returns clicks and conversions grouped by day, country, offer, or sub ID. If you add a sub ID for each entry point to the wall link, you can see which placement brings users who finish. eCPM and EPC explained shows how to turn these into comparable numbers.

The seven reasons users do not finish

1. The offer does not fit the device or country

Offers are bought for specific countries and devices. A mobile game offer opened on a desktop leads nowhere useful, and an offer for one country does not pay a user who is somewhere else. The Moonetix wall only shows the offers available for the user’s country and device, which removes most mismatches, but problems remain when a user starts on one device and finishes on another.

Fix: say near the entry point that offers depend on the device. If your property is mostly desktop, make it easy for users to open the same wall on their phone after signing in there. One user ID for the same person on every device keeps the history in one place.

2. The requirements were not clear

Many unfinished offers are offers the user thought they had finished. They installed the app but did not reach the required level, or created an account without confirming the email. On multi-step offers, users sometimes miss that each step pays separately.

Fix: a short “How to complete offers” note on your earn page goes a long way: read every step before starting, finish them on the same device, and check the time limit. Earn page: how to write one that converts shows where that note and your credit times fit on the page.

3. The funnel is longer than expected

A game offer that pays well often asks for days of play. That is fine for players who enjoy the game and painful for those who only wanted the reward. Long offers have the largest drop-off, and that is partly by design: advertisers pay for users who stay.

Fix: set expectations. A line such as “Bigger rewards take longer, some games take several days” filters out users who want quick wins and sends them to shorter offers. Offers with several steps help too, because users earn along the way instead of only at the end.

4. Ad blockers, VPNs, and privacy tools

Ad blockers and privacy extensions can block the redirects and pages that offers rely on, so the offer page may not load or the start may not be recorded. VPNs and proxies are a different matter: they hide the user’s real location, which is not allowed on Moonetix, and the wall can show “Access blocked” when offers are not available from the user’s network. Traffic that disguises its location can also lead to reversed results later.

Fix: state your rules plainly: no VPN or proxy, and if an offer does not open, try with the ad blocker paused for that page. Traffic quality rules for publishers lists what is never allowed.

5. The tracking broke along the way

Between the click and the result, many offers depend on the advertiser’s own tracking, which often relies on the same browser or device. It can break when the user:

• starts in a private or incognito window and finishes in a normal one (Google’s Chrome Incognito help page says Chrome keeps no site data once all Incognito windows are closed),
• clears cookies or app data before finishing, or uses a browser that limits them: WebKit’s tracking prevention documentation explains how Safari blocks third-party cookies and caps the lifetime of some cookies set by scripts or after a tracked link,
• switches from phone to laptop, or from one browser to another, halfway through,
• installs an app from a link other than the one the offer opened (on Android, attribution often relies on the referrer that the Google Play Install Referrer API passes from the store link the user clicked),
• had already used the app or service before, which many offers exclude.

Fix: add these to your “How to complete offers” note. They are the most common reasons behind a ticket that says “I did everything and got nothing”. Handling missing reward tickets walks through how to answer those tickets.

6. Unrealistic expectations

If your entry point says “Earn $50 today”, every user who earns less feels cheated, and many leave halfway through their first offer. Overselling also brings in users who never planned to finish anything.

Fix: label the wall by what users do and get: “Earn coins by playing games and completing tasks”. Only show reward ranges you actually see for their country, and never promise an income. In the US, the FTC has warned businesses that false money-making claims can lead to civil penalties.

7. Slow or invisible credits

A user who finishes an offer and sees nothing in their balance often concludes that the wall does not work, and never starts another one. Usually the result is simply pending. On Moonetix, an offer step is credited as soon as the advertiser’s server confirms it, and until then it shows as Confirming in My offers.

Fix: show every reward in your own balance history as soon as its status 1 postback arrives, and point users to My offers for offers that are still Confirming. Tell users roughly how long each kind of offer takes. And refresh the visible balance when users come back from the wall.

Point users to My offers

The single best tool against silent drop-offs is a place where users can see where every offer stands. The Moonetix wall has a My offers page that lists every offer a user started and has not finished, each with its state: In progress, Confirming, or Expired, and a Reversed mark when a reward was taken back. The offer page shows the time left to finish, and every credited reward is listed in My rewards. If a reward is missing, users can use the Report link next to the offer to send a missing reward report, and our team checks it with the advertiser.

Link to My offers from your balance page and from your support page: “Missing a reward? Check My offers on the offerwall first.” Users who can see an offer is still In progress, with two days left, come back to finish, and users who see “Confirming” stop worrying.

What you control: a checklist

• An honest label on every entry point, with no promises of fixed earnings.
• A short “How to complete offers” note: read the steps, same device and browser, no private window, no VPN.
• Credited rewards shown in your balance history, with typical review times.
• A link to My offers from your balance and support pages.
• A support form that asks for the user ID, offer name, and date.
• Offers that fit your audience. On Moonetix you can hide any single offer that does not fit; see how to choose which offers your users see.
• A sub ID per entry point, so you can see which placement brings users who finish.

How to add Moonetix to your site or app

If you want a wall that already shows users where every offer stands, this is how to set up Moonetix.

1. Apply as a publisher at moonetix.com. Every application is reviewed by hand, and once you are approved, apps you add are live right away.
2. Add your site or app in the dashboard and set the currency name, icon, conversion rate and wall design, so the wall looks like part of your product.
3. Open the wall the way that fits your property: a signed link or iframe built on your server, the floating Earn button for websites, or the Android, iOS, Unity, Flutter or React Native SDK listed in the Moonetix integration docs. Add a sub ID per entry point so you can compare placements.
4. Credit users only on your server from the signed postback, and refresh the visible balance when users return from the wall.
5. Use Open as a test user and Send a test postback in Integration status, as shown in test your app before launch.

For the full picture, with the rules that apply and an earnings estimate, see Moonetix for rewards sites.

Frequently asked questions