Google is launching Offerwall, which is designed to help publishers monetize by letting them offer their customers options as to how they would like to pay for content. “People might decide to watch a short ad, complete a quick survey or pay in micropayments,” Google explains, adding that “publishers can even add their own options, like newsletter sign-ups.” The choices aim to both empower audiences while supporting publishers to help ensure diverse content remains available to everyone. After testing Offerwall with more than 1,000 publishers, it is now available in Google Ad Manager.

Google is also debuting a feature called Optimize that uses AI to determine when to show the Offerwall to each visitor, Google says in an Ads & Commerce blog post.

“Publishers can set their own thresholds before the Offerwall is displayed, if they prefer,” TechCrunch points out, citing instructions on how to use the feature supplied by Google Ad Manager.

“Offerwall provides these tools with minimal setup, integrated directly into Google Ad Manager,” reports Search Engine Journal.

“Offerwall messages allow your site visitors to choose alternative ways to support your site and gain access to your content, such as viewing a rewarded ad or paying a fee,” Google explains on a support page that says it will allow publishers to boost revenue from their most engaged users and efficiently monetize frequent visitors.

While Offerwall is available to publishers of all sizes, it stands to mostly benefit smaller businesses that might not have the resources or infrastructure to set up diverse revenue streams, according to Google.

TechCrunch argues that micropayments have been tried by publishers and failed, saying “the economics don’t tend to work, and there’s additional friction in having to pay per article.”

Google is offering publishers the opportunity to offload logistics through a third party, Supertab, “which allows site visitors to pay a small amount to access the online content for a period of time — like 24 hours, a few days, a week, etc,” reports TechCrunch, noting that the Supertab option, which is “currently in beta, also supports subscription sign-ups and integrates with Google Ad Manager.”

Social Media Today suggests Offerwall is a response to Google’s AI Overviews cutting search referral traffic: “Google’s looking to help publishers continue to generate income, via a new promotional offering that will enable them to effectively gate their content, in order to drive more subscriptions and showcase more ads.”