It’s no secret that publishers work day in and day out optimizing their ad-serving options to monetize their content. However, as the industry sees advancements in technologies for publishers, the tedious process of ad-stack optimization may not be necessary in order to maximize revenue.
First, let’s set the stage by taking a look at how traditional ad-stack monetization works.
Optimizing a traditional waterfall
A traditional waterfall display setup is all about organizing your ad stack so it will generate the most revenue. Whether you’re an up-and-coming blogger or a ComScore 1000 publisher, the same concept of organizing your ad stack can be applied.
The first step is identifying each partner’s strengths. Which partners offer high CPMs with low fill rates or vice versa? Once you have gauged the CPM and fill rates from each ad network, we recommend organizing your stack based on CPM first, then backfill, with a catch-all solution that offers 100% fill with lower CPMs like Google AdSense.
Seems like quite the process, right? Here’s where new ad-serving options come into play.
Sovrn Signal
Instead of focusing so heavily on playing to the strengths of each partner in your stack, we suggest that publishers focus on the engagement levels of their readers. Every user will see some ads, but Sovrn Signal provides more revenue per engaged visit by selling inventory differently based on user engagement, instead of impressions alone.
The Signal ad unit reloads new creatives in existing placements. Here’s an example to get a better idea of how it works.
Let’s say you have a reader on your site super engaged with your content. In fact, they are so engaged that stay on one section of the page for two minutes; slowly scrolling down the page. With a traditional ad setup, that reader would see the same ad for those entire two minutes. However, with Signal, that ad would refresh to new creatives every 20 seconds. By the time the reader has been on the page for two minutes, they’ve already seen six ads impressions, all from the same placement.
Thus, publishers that implement Signal serve 20%+ more impressions, resulting in a revenue lift of 15-25%.
Say goodbye to the days of traditional ad stack monetization. Amiright?
