El Comercio was previously using an AMP monetization solution that wasn’t hitting their revenue targets and there was a language barrier between their team and customer support. El Comercio was ready to move to a better AMP monetization solution that could provide: 

• Higher Revenue – El Comercio wanted to increase revenue by at least 20% through its AMP environment.
• Dedicated Customer Success Team – They were looking for a hands-on responsive team to address any issues and respond to any questions in a timely fashion.
• Spanish-Speaking Support  – El Comercio wanted to work with a team that can speak and support them in Spanish to reduce confusion and expedite issues.

The Approach

After meeting with Freestar, El Comercio was ready to try a new AMP solution that offered new technologies and better performance. The implementation process for AMP was simple and efficient with Freestar’s QA process and ability to converse in Spanish.

To improve El Comercio’s AMP performance, Freestar implemented the following:

• Key Ad Units – Freestar added new ad units like flying carpet, sticky footer and multi-sizes.
• Ad Refresh – Freestar added a 30-second ad refresh to their website.
• Dynamic Flooring – El Comercio’s Customer Success team formulated and implemented Freestar’s proprietary dynamic flooring algorithm to balance fill rates and CPMs to get the best page RPM.

The Results

In the first year, El Comercio saw an increase of 47% in RPM from H1 2022 (previous solution) to H2 2022 (Freestar). By replacing ad units with a unit like flying carpet, El Comercio saw a 20-30% increase in daily revenue. Their dedicated Customer Success team regularly looks for new opportunities for additional lift. El Comercio is currently in the process of testing video to provide even more undiscovered revenue.

Overall, El Comercio’s RPM increased by 52% and AMP revenue increased by about 70% across all websites with Freestar in comparison to their previous solution. With this improved performance, AMP monetization has grown to be El Comercio’s main source of programmatic revenue. El Comercio is now testing web monetization with Freestar to see how much more revenue they’re leaving on the table. 

Boing Boing has been monetizing their website for the last 20 years. With the changes occurring in the industry, they knew they had to move towards monetizing their website programmatically. Direct sales was not as popular as it previously was and not something that could be easily scaled. They needed a monetization solution that had the demand partners and technology to successfully execute programmatic advertising and maximize ad revenue.

For Boing Boing, Freestar was looking to create a programmatic revenue stream that would include:

• New Ad Products – Our proprietary algorithms, extensive ad products, access to unique demand partners and viewability tools allows them to get the most out of each impression.
• Premium Demand Partners – We have relationships with over 30 advertising partners and our own server-to-server demand ensures top advertising partners are bidding on their inventory.
• Industry Expertise – With Freestar, they have a reliable partner that adapts to industry changes and is ready to address any risks or issues.

Publisher

The Approach

After a recommendation to meet with Freestar, Boing Boing decided to move forward with our web ad monetization solution. The implementation process was a smooth transition from testing on their staging site to launching on their live site. There were no surprises for Boing Boing as Freestar provided detailed forecasting on what they should expect their revenue to be.

Web monetization has been extremely successful for Boing Boing. The most impactful change that has really made a difference for Boing Boing was the implementation of AMP in the last 12 months. To maximize AMP for Boing Boing, Freestar implemented:

• Key Ad Units – Freestar added key ad units like standard ad unit, sticky footer, and flying carpet across Boing Boing’s AMP.
• Flooring Optimization –Our Freestar Customer Success team formulated and implemented a new flooring strategy to maximize yield while balancing revenue, CPMs, and user experience.
   

The Results

Boing Boing immediately saw results after implementing our AMP solution. In the first month, Boing Boing saw a 69% revenue increase and a 46% increase in CPMs across their ad performance. AMP performance has seen steady growth aside from the expected seasonality throughout the year. In the last 12 months, Boing Boing saw a 362% increase in AMP revenue and 46% increase in CPMs for AMP ad units. This year, AMP accounts for approximately 25% of Boing Boing’s overall ad revenue.

 Boing Boing continues to work closely with their Freestar Customer Success team to strategize new ways to increase yield. Boing Boing shares that their partnership with Freestar is “a relationship that you want to have with your ad server provider.” Freestar focuses on being Publisher First and our team is available when Boing Boing needs us. 

Reader’s Digest was already performing well at generating a good amount of ad revenue from web. However, more of their traffic was going towards mobile and although they had AMP-powered pages they were never optimized for AMP Ads.

• Optimization of AMP pages
• Implement AMP monetization strategy
• Increase display ad revenue
• Increase eCPM

The Approach

Reader’s Digest was already doing well, and they had amp-enabled pages however none of them were configured and optimized for monetization. Our aim was to drive instant results for a site that had a lot of traffic but AMP was being underutilized.

Our solution also needed to focus on a great user experience with our ads placements and delivering higher viewability with a focus on improving eCPM.

• A Clean Slate – Reader’s Digest was a clean slate for us to work on since they never had AMP Ads installed on their site. It meant we could start fresh from the start without having to do in-depth analysis on their data.
• AMP Code –We double-checked all their AMP code to ensure that there were no validation issues.
• User Experience – We focused on improving their user experience as this has a direct impact on their speed, rankings and helps overall engagement.
• Best Practices – We used our best practices in our AMP monetization set up so that we could get the best possible results in improving viewability and increasing eCPM.

We built Reader’s Digest AMP monetization to deliver immediate results based on their current setup. We then consult and help implement these recommendations with the development team over at Reader’s Digest to ensure everything is installed correctly.

The Results

• 32% Increase in AMP CPM vs Web
• 35% Increase in eCPM vs Web
• Optimized Ad Placements
• Traffic Increase from Higher Rankings in Google
• AMP Revenue Surpassed Web Revenue

F1i was already generating a good amount of ad revenue from the Web but needed to improve on mobile experience. Mobile wasn’t performing as well compared to Web. F1i wanted to see if it was possible to improve on their revenue from AMP and get more out of their ad inventory so they asked Freestar to help.

• Optimization of AMP pages
• Implement AMP monetization strategy
• Increase display ad revenue
• Increase eCPM

The Approach

The Results

• 2.5X Higher eCPM
• 492% Revenue Increase
• Optimized ad placements
• Traffic Increase from Higher Rankings in Google
• AMP Revenue Surpassed Web Revenue