How rewarded UA will evolve in 2026: shifts every marketer should prepare for

Rewarded user acquisition has quietly become a vital part of mobile growth. Apps, games, and products that want growth now have to utilise this key lever, lest they get left behind. It’s a far cry from the experimental strategy of a few years ago, now outperforming some traditional channels on long-term value.

This shift is visible in market-level data. Over the past several quarters, rewarded platforms have been ranked among the fastest-growing UA channels on Singular, with Almedia consistently leading overall growth. Thus, rewarded UA has moved from a capped testing phase to core spend.

With the backdrop of this rapidly-growing and shifting sector, Almedia’s experts have collated predictions on the direction of rewarded UA based on industry-leading, hands-on experience across rewarded UA, gaming, and non-gaming.

Rewarded UA is becoming a LTV-first growth engine, and KPIs must catch up

For many teams, rewarded UA has already proven its ability to deliver more engaged, higher-value users. In 2026, though, we expect to see a change in how this performance is evaluated.

Historically, rewarded campaigns have been optimized around CPI or early ROAS windows, which given recent growth, is becoming unsustainable. As rewarded proves its long-tail value, often outperforming traditional UA at D180 and beyond, marketers will need to expand their measurement horizons.

What’s driving the shift:

• ROAS curves for rewarded users extend far longer than for most paid channels
• Studios are increasingly comfortable with longer payback periods as long as user quality is consistent
• Rewarded platforms are adopting more advanced bidding logic, where value signals matter more than simple cost efficiency

How you should prepare:

• Rework internal KPIs to focus on retention-adjusted lifetime value, rather than just CPI or D7 ROAS
• Align finance, UA, and product teams on acceptable recovery windows. Depending on the campaign, the optimal window could be D360 or beyond
• Strengthen pipelines for deeper data sharing with rewarded partners, enabling better value-based optimization

Rewarded UA used to be just another traffic source, but now, it’s an LTV engine. Continuing measuring rewarded through a CPI-first lens will miss out on its real, long-term potential. 

Privacy constraints are reshaping UA, and rewarded’s first-party data advantage is widening

In a post-IDFA world, user-level targeting has become harder and harder for traditional advertisers. With Android’s Privacy Sandbox, we’re seeing a similar trajectory being followed. Combine this with stricter platform policies on app stores and other areas, and advertisers are struggling to reach the audiences they’re looking for.

Rewarded UA is one of the few channels that becomes more resilient under these conditions, because it is opt-in by its very nature. Therefore, rewarded flows naturally generate stable, privacy-safe, first-party data.

This means:

• Targeting precision in many traditional channels will continue to erode
• Rewarded will maintain stronger audience signals because opt-in is integrated into the user experience
• Acquisition costs tied to highly-targeted traffic will remain volatile, while rewarded tends to show more stable pricing
• Categories with tight ad restrictions like fintech and iGaming will shift budget into rewarded

How to prepare:

• Build workflows for privacy-safe data collaboration
• Test reward-driven onboarding flows to capture early intent signals that are otherwise difficult to observe post-IDFA
• Use first-party signals to refine segmentation, rather than relying purely on device-level identifiers

Vertical expansion will accelerate, so product teams must redesign around rewardable moments

Rewarded UA has historically been synonymous with mobile gaming, but this is changing in 2026. More and more non-gaming categories are scaling rewarded user acquisition, especially those with structured customer journeys or behaviour-based value moments.

Fast-growing adopters include:

• Fintech
• Education
• Retail
• Fitness
• Subscription apps
• Gamified utilities

This shift is linked to the broader trend of industries adopting gamification principles throughout, and reward-driven tasks naturally align with these experiences.

2026 is the inflection point because:

• The global gamification market is accelerating, bringing rewardable behaviours into non-gaming contexts
• Fintech apps are using rewards to drive milestone completion and habit formation
• Product teams are no longer treating rewards as an add-on. They’re integrating them into the onboarding and engagement journey by design

How to prepare:

• Audit your app for natural rewardable moments like onboarding steps, habit loops, and high-value milestones
• Ensure rewarded events serve both acquisition and retention goals
• Start small if you haven’t tried this already. Test one or two reward-based milestones, and expand as you learn which incentives actually drive long-term value
• Once you’re more comfortable with it, explore automated, post-reward engagement flows to extend user activity

The apps that do the best under the new rewarded UA system are the ones that design with rewardable behaviour in mind from the very beginning.

AI models will personalize both creatives and entire reward paths

Creatives have always been a major driver of UA performance, and AI is accelerating this evolution. However, consumer sentiment towards AI-generated visuals varies by region, meaning fully automated creative pipelines are rarely optimal.

Instead, 2026 will be dominated by a hybrid model. AI will be used for rapid variation and micro-testing, and human creative oversight will supplement this for authenticity, cultural nuance, and quality.

Beyond creatives, AI will increasingly personalize the reward experience itself. With behavioural and contextual signals measured, 2026 will see rewarded shift from static flows to dynamic, personalized reward paths.

How to prepare:

• Share structured post-install data so your rewarded partners can better understand which creative/reward combinations drive high-value behaviours
• Identify key user segments and milestones to help guide personalized reward paths, e.g. onboarding steps, early revenue signals, and habit-forming actions
• Ensure product and lifecycle teams are aligned so personalized rewards can be integrated smoothly into onboarding and engagement flows

AI won’t replace creative strategy or reward design, but it will reshape both. Advertisers that prepare their workflows early will benefit most.

Final takeaway: What this means for 2026

Rewarded UA is entering a new phase. Budgets are larger, expectations are higher, and performance gaps between platforms are widening.

This is an opportunity, but only for the marketers and platforms prepared to take advantage.

We’ll see success in 2026 from teams that:

• Evaluate rewarded partners based on long-term value, not just CPI
• Invest in cohort-level measurement and transparency
• Align rewarded UA with product design and lifecycle strategy

Read the full 2026 rewarded UA predictions on our website to see how top mobile publishers are planning for the year ahead, and where the true value of rewarded UA lies in 2026.