Case Study

Publisher Scales with Quality Zemanta Traffic

Vertical

Publisher / Entertainment

Goal

Acquire a high volume of profitable, quality traffic

Challenge & Goals

After running successful media campaigns via Outbrain‘s feed for over a year, a major media publisher was exploring programmatic buying solutions to maximize native-driven RPM. The publisher created a self-managed campaign through Zemanta, Outbrain’s native DSP.

Running on a standard CPC-focused buying approach, the publisher identified the CPC target needed for an ROI-positive outcome based on historical bids aligning with cost per page view needed. They ran and tested their Zemanta campaigns using that maximum CPC threshold ($0.04).

Due to their low CPC optimization parameters, the publisher had difficulty scaling, found themselves placed on lower quality publishers, and struggled to leverage the benefits of Zemanta’s platform.

Solution

Outbrain account management stepped in, educating the publisher on Zemanta’s unique capabilities, including Google and Adobe Analytics integration and post-click optimization tools.

Outbrain recommended optimizing campaigns on page views per visit using Google Analytics (GA) to allow the publisher to meet their ROI goals. GA tracking allows for measurement across all page views as opposed to a pixel, which captures linear traffic and is typically placed on select pages versus an entire site. The publisher can accurately capture all page views with minimal effort.

Results

The publisher quickly realized that average cost per page view (CPPV) is a more exact predictor of ROI. While CPCs are higher than their initial goal, when optimized, cost per page view is cheaper or in line with ROI goals.

Focusing on CPPV allows this publisher to obtain high quality traffic from premium sites. 80% of total spend now comes from Outbrain’s highly engaged, premium network. This is a 116% increase in the proportion of spend with Outbrain compared to the publisher’s previous experience.

The publisher is now empowered to launch self serve campaigns and is seeing continued success. They recognize the value of their investments and scale smarter and more efficiently, by optimizing on the right metrics and leveraging Zemanta’s unique features.

%

increase in daily spend

%

of ROI goals met / exceeded

%

of spend from Outbrain’s network

Optimizing on the right metrics allows for scale

Zemanta‘s system learns and optimizes over time, increasing PVs and lowering/stabilizing costs

You can superpower your programmatic strategies as well!

More than 800 brands across the globe rely on Zemanta to scale their programmatic campaigns.

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