Through the efforts of unscrupulous webmasters, “incent traffic” has become synonymous with “fraud” among advertisers, which is a misconception. Just as choosing the right tools leads to an accurate solution, using incent traffic is appropriate for achieving a strictly defined goal.

What is incent traffic?

Incent traffic (IT) is a lead generation model where users are offered rewards for completing specific actions. Agencies often use this model to quickly engage real users based on the advertiser’s target audience parameters (gender, age etc.) or without them. This approach is especially popular in CPA and CPI models, where payment is made only for the number of user-performed actions or for each app download.

Incent traffic has both advantages and disadvantages. Let’s start with the drawbacks to illustrate the risks associated with using IT.

Disadvantages

Firstly, attempting to attract an audience by incentivizing users inevitably leads to the “freeloader effect,” where some users are engaged not so much out of a need for the product but out of simple curiosity. This subsequently leads to difficulties in retaining customers.

Secondly, due to the manipulative nature of such practices, app marketplaces view them with scepticism. Apple explicitly prohibits them in accordance with its Terms of Service, imposing sanctions.

Penalties imposed on developers include:

  • Decreased app relevance in search results or by keywords
  • Loss of store ranking
  • App banning

Advantages

As usual, the advantage arises from the disadvantages. Thanks to IT, a new app can quickly rise to the top of search results by keywords and, consequently, receive more organic installs. Thus, the client hopes to ultimately increase the product’s recognition/rating by increasing app downloads.

App Store Optimization

As we mentioned earlier, the App Store imposes sanctions when IT is detected. To avoid this, the webmaster needs to undertake another important task: App Store Optimization (ASO). This process is similar to SEO (search engine optimization) but within the app marketplace. ASO includes a range of activities aimed directly at increasing the app’s indexing in the store’s search results.

When a webmaster uses IT, abnormal activity occurs, leading to an increase in the number of app downloads and ratings. The store may deem this suspicious.

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Therefore, the webmaster should:

  • Important to keep an eye on the nature and tone of reviews
  • Monitor the app’s rating
  • Avoid overusing high-frequency keywords for app promotion
  • Adhere to the timeline for increasing positive reviews

Conclusion

Despite the drawbacks, IT is in demand in the market among both agencies and publishers. By exercising caution and following the algorithm outlined above, market participants can effectively achieve the goal of their advertising campaign using IT.