Before Freestar, DeepAI was monetizing through AdSense. AdSense provided what they needed to get started, but they wanted to grow beyond what it offered. DeepAI was looking for a web monetization partner that could:

• Improve Revenue – Having made limited revenue with AdSense, DeepAI wanted to see how far they could grow their revenue.
• Provide Industry Expertise – They were new to ad monetization and needed a solution that guided them through the ins and outs of programmatic advertising.
• Offer Hands-On Customer Support – They were looking for a true partner that could provide technical support.

The Approach

Freestar was confident they could help surpass AdSense revenue, so DeepAI decided to move forward with our web monetization solution. The onboarding process was easy for DeepAI as Freestar's Onboarding team handled the implementation from the start. There was an optimization ramp-up period, and after a few days, Freestar's proprietary Ideal Ad Stack technology was beating what DeepAI was previously earning through AdSense.

DeepAI's Customer Success team also lowered ad refresh to 25 seconds, which helped increase impressions and revenue by implementing high-viewability ad units like video, adhesion, and sticky sidewalls.

The Results

Programmatic ad revenue has become DeepAI's most significant revenue stream for their business. Since working with Freestar, DeepAI has seen an increase of about 698% in revenue.

DeepAI can focus on growing its business while letting Freestar handle its ad operations. They were initially worried when making the switch but are thankful they took the leap of faith!

Farrelly Atkinson was an existing  publisher with Triple13 – utilizing their header bidding and AMP monetization solution. Farrelly Atkinson knew that Triple13 was the class leader in AMP monetizationtechnology, so it was no surprise when Triple13 was acquired by Freestar in late 2021.

With this acquisition, Farrelly Atkinson was looking at Freestar to:

• Improve Their Tech Stack – Farrelly Atkinson was looking for a tech stack that could provide more optimizations for their monetization strategy.
• Provide Receptive Customer Support – They enjoyed their working relationship at Triple13 and were hoping to continue their true monetization partnership with Freestar.
• Improve Revenue Lift – Farrelly Atkinson was looking for additional revenue lift.

The Approach

Farrelly Atkinson was one of the last Triple13 publishers to migrate to Freestar’s header bidding wrapper. Their setup was complicated with multiple websites so the Freestar team worked diligently behind the scenes to ensure a smooth transition. Freestar started by onboarding their smallest website to be able to work through any particular glitches and specific ad sizes. 

After the migration of their final site, Farrelly Atkinson immediately saw a revenue uplift in just one day, especially for their header bidding monetization. To make that possible, Freestar implemented:

• Demand Stack Optimization – Freestar removed demand partners that weren’t performing which contributed to an uplift in RPM. For example, ebiketips.road.cc saw an RPM uplift from an average of $8.18 to $8.70 as a result of the optimized demand.
• Ad Refresh – Freestar reduced ad refresh on one of Farrelly Atkinson’s sites which significantly improved RPM.
• Additional Ad Units – After reviewing their sites, Freestar added new ad units to provide additional revenue lift such as Superflex and video adhesion.
• Dynamic Flooring Technology – Freestar’s dynamic flooring was implemented throughout Farrelly Atkinson’s websites to determine the best flooring solution and maximize ad revenue.

The Results

Farrelly Atkinson’s Customer Success Team implemented a variety of tactics that made a significant positive impact across their websites. When migrating to Freestar, Farrelly Atkinson saw a 26.45% revenue lift across its portfolio. Comparing Q4 2022 and Q1 2023, after the migration was complete, here are the results across their portfolio:

• Road.cc saw a 33% increase in daily average impressions and a 35% increase in daily average net revenue.
• Off-road.cc saw a 192% increase in daily average impressions and a 165% increase in daily average net revenue.
• Ebiketips.road.cc saw a 381% increase in daily average impressions and a 284% increase in daily average net revenue.

By completely outsourcing their ad operations to Freestar, Farrelly Atkinson was able to utilize their limited  resources better and more effectively. 

Upon onboarding in 2021, SignUp was still monetizing email with their previous email monetization partner. SignUp’s priority was to implement web and mobile successfully, so changing their email solution was put on hold.

It wasn’t until 2022, after seeing minimal performance improvement through an alternate email monetization partner, that SignUp was ready for a new email monetization solution. They were looking for a solution that could provide the following:

• High-Level of Ad Quality – SignUp was concerned with the quality of ads served on their emails. They wanted a solution that wouldn't negatively impact their UX.
• Additional Revenue Source – SignUp saw ad revenue from email monetization as a bonus from their existing ad ops efforts.
• Ops Management – They were looking for a solution that could handle the day-to-day management so they can focus on their key objectives.

The Approach

Freestar is a one-stop shop for publishers looking for programmatic monetization including email monetization. We took over SignUp’s email monetization and switched their partnership to LiveIntent in 2022.

For SignUp, this saved them the time and energy of looking for a new email monetization solution. Through Freestar’s partnership with LiveIntent, SignUp was hands-off and let Freestar take care of it for them. Freestar handles email monetization from end-to-end including contracts to managing all ad quality and setting up the LiveConnect tag and ads.txt for publishers.

For email monetization, Freestar implemented:

• Ad Layout – Freestar replicated the ad layout that was previously running on their emails but enabled multiple sizes using a single tag which opened up additional demand and resulted in higher revenue.
• Ad Placement – SignUp wanted a seamless UX and used top and bottom banners.
• LiveConnect Tag – Freestar enabled LiveIntent’s LiveConnect tag, which improves campaign performance, uses people-based marketing to increase conversion from your own emails, offers advanced reporting, and allows you to dynamically retarget various audiences.

The Results

SignUp.com was thrilled with Freestar and its partnership with LiveIntent to improve their email monetization performance. Since launching email in October 2022, SignUp.com has seen a 114% revenue lift in the first six months.

Our partnership with LiveIntent gives Freestar publishers all email reporting metrics within the Freestar dashboard, so publishers have full transparency into their ad operations. With the data in our dashboard, our team can analyze the data and manage any ad quality issues more efficiently. With LiveIntent, publishers can expect an average of 10-15% revenue increase. For SignUp, they were able to achieve double that minimum.

SignUp was headed into its busiest season in the fall of 2021 and was looking to upgrade their ad management system, but not at that time. They were also skeptical of ad management solutions promising to increase revenue astronomically. Freestar derisked the move and motivated them to deploy our ad monetization solution.

SignUp was looking for an ad management solution that could address:

• Transparency – Their previous vendor provided limited transparency and control. They were looking for a true partner to work with.
• Publisher Support – They needed access to more resources and best practices to help support their ad monetization.
• Mobile Monetization – SignUp had difficulty monetizing on mobile, and were looking for a solution to address that as well.
• Email Monetization – They were looking to increase their email ad performance after seeing minimal improvement with their email monetization partner.

The Approach

Unlike other solutions that overpromise, Freestar over-delivered by becoming a true partner to SignUp instead of acting as a classic ‘vendor’. Their implementation went smoothly, and the SignUp team felt supported in making the transition to Freestar. With their best interest in mind, Freestar worked closely with SignUp to exceed their previous vendor’s performance at every level.

For SignUp, Freestar implemented the following:

• Key Ad Units – On desktop, we added video, sticky footer, leaderboard ATF, and right rail banners to increase CPMs.
• Demand Partners – We manage demand partner relationships on behalf of SignUp. We’ve implemented various SSPs, including Pubmatic and Index Exchange.
• Dynamic Flooring – Freestar’s dynamic flooring was enabled in June 2022, which led to a 20% increase in CPMs and a 15% increase in RPMs.
• Mobile Monetization – On mobile, we added units like leaderboard and sticky footer, which was new to SignUp through our partnership. We also added banner ads throughout their site to maximize revenue for mobile users.
• Email Monetization – To learn more about how we helped improve email, check out our case study on SignUp’s email monetization.

The Results

From day one, Freestar doubled the revenue SignUp was earning with their previous ad management setup. SignUp saw a significant lift through optimizing ad unit types, the demand partners they have been onboarding, and utilizing our dynamic flooring technology.

Since launching in 2021, SignUp has seen a 45% lift in revenue, a 30% lift in RPM, and a 20% lift in CPM on desktop and mobile.

Time.is tried different ad management solutions from Google AdSense to BuySellAds. They weren’t proactive in optimizing performance, and their level of customer service was lacking. 

Time.is was looking for a better ad management solution that could provide:

• Higher Revenue – Time.is was still reasonably new to monetizing so they were looking to see how much they could monetize their website.
• Publisher Support – They were looking for a responsive team to address any issues and respond to any questions.

The Approach

After meeting with Freestar, Time.is was on-boarded by the next month, and their ad management changed very quickly. They worked closely with our team to update ad unit locations and onboard new demand partners. Throughout our partnership, we’ve implemented various optimization strategies.

In the past quarter, Freestar implemented the following:

• Key Ad Units – Freestar added new ad units like Interstitials and switched ATF side-by-side leaderboard to 3 medium rectangles. We also moved AdSense from link to backfill.
• Video Ad Units – Time.is is now utilizing the video adhesion unit on rotation with a standard sticky footer ad. In addition to the video adhesion, it cohesively uses instream video, which maximizes the overall video CPMs.
• Dynamic Flooring – Time.is’ Customer Success team formulated and implemented our proprietary dynamic flooring algorithm to balance fill rates and CPMs to get the best page RPM.

The Results

Time.is’ monthly RPM tripled when they switched to Freestar. Since 2018, Freestar has helped Time.is to increase revenue by 10X monthly with our optimizations and guidance.

Time.is has seen positive results from our recent optimizations. From switching ATF side-by-side leaderboard to 3 medium rectangles, Time.is experienced a 21% page RPM lift. We’re achieving 22% more daily revenue by moving from AdSense linked to the demand stack to AdSense as backfill. Adding the video adhesion results has resulted in a 30% revenue lift and a 10% overall page RPM lift. By enabling our dynamic flooring, Time.is’ page RPM increased by 19%. Their YOY revenue has increased by 69%, and they’re only continuing to improve!

Sports Reference was using a solution that wasn't putting their best foot forward for their business and discovered they were underperforming substantially. 

They were looking for an ad monetization solution that could:

• Prioritize User Experience – Sports Reference prides itself on providing a good user experience, and they wanted a partner that would match their values.
• Maximized Ad Revenue – Sports Reference wanted to maximize their ad revenue potential after their previous solution underperformed.
• Provide Responsive Publisher Support – They were also looking for a partner that would be attentive to their needs and address issues.

The Approach

After meeting with Freestar, Sports Reference moved forward with our fully-managed web monetization solution. It's been a successful partnership for the past five years, and Freestar works with Sports Reference to continually look for ways to maximize their ad revenue.

In 2022, Freestar optimized Sports Reference's ad monetization by implementing the following:

• Video Ad Units – With the industry moving towards video, we added video units to Sports Reference's websites with a strong focus on maximizing user experience.
• Bottom Adhesion –We added bottom ad units on desktop and mobile and made customizations to the ad unit to prioritize user experience.
• Flex Sizes – Freestar added flex sizes to all Sports Reference's websites. Flex sizes allow multiple ad sizes to bid for the same ad slot, depending on which one gets the higher bid. 
   

The Results

In September 2022, Sports Reference implemented video; on the first day, video ad revenue was $11K. By October 2022, video ad revenue reached $360K+ globally and by the end of Q4 2022, video ad revenue surpassed $1M. We’ve generated over $1M with bottom adhesion units since August 2022. For flex sizes, the results have been positive across the board: 

• Baseball-Reference: 30% lift in RPM and 25% lift in RPS
• Basketball-Reference: 30% lift in RPM and 23% lift in RPS
• Pro-Football-Reference: 26% lift in RPM and 19% lift in RPS
• Hockey-Reference: 22% lift in RPM and 27% lift in RPS

These optimizations contributed to Sports Reference's ad revenue increasing by 33.6% in 2022. Not to mention, working with Freestar has made ad management and operations for Sports Reference much easier. They have a Customer Success Manager who is always responsive and receptive to their goals and values. Sports Reference can leave the ad management in Freestar's trusted hands. Before Freestar, Sports Reference would have to chase down issues and many days were lost trying to solve them.

Prior to Freestar, Doodle was monetizing their platform with Google Ad Manager and Index Exchange. Doodle was looking to restructure their internal ad ops team and prioritize their Engineering teams’ attention on their products. They knew their current ad ops solution couldn’t provide the level of support they needed to continue to scale their ad revenue while focusing their teams on the premium subscription business.

Doodle was looking for an ad management solution that included:

• Technical Resources – Doodle’s Engineering team has other priorities and doesn’t have fully scaled ad ops capabilities. Doodle was looking for an ad ops solution that could provide technical support whenever required.
• Industry Expertise – It was important to Doodle to have a partner that could help navigate the industry and strategize for changes or trends.
• Increased Ad Revenue – Doodle underwent a rebrand that focused on user experience which reduced the number of ad slots on their website. They were looking for a solution that maximized ad revenue with reduced ad space.
• Consolidated Billing and Reporting – Doodle’s Head of Ad Ops wanted to easily see their billing and pull reports without having to find them across different platforms and files.

The Approach

After meeting with Freestar, Doodle moved forward with our web monetization solution. They were attracted to our full-service approach. The implementation process was much easier than what they had experienced with their previous solution. Our team was able to integrate their existing partners at a much quicker rate than their Engineering team could have.

Despite reducing inventory to prioritize UX, web monetization has been successful for Doodle. To maximize ad revenue and improve their ad operations, Freestar provided Doodle with:

• Additional Demand Partners – A majority of Doodle’s user base is based in Western countries so they needed better demand geared towards the US and T1 countries in general.
• More Ad Products – Freestar introduced new products such as our video player, Superflex and sticky pushdown (on mobile), and ad refresh.
• Streamlined Billing – Doodle has access to our Dashboard where they can review payment details and payment history, and this includes adjustments made to their account and where their revenue is coming from (ex. video, PMP, programmatic, etc.).
• Robust, Real-Time Reporting –Our Dashboard also provides Doodle the ability to monitor how well their ads are performing and create their own custom reports.
• Yield Insights – Doodle works with a dedicated Yield Manager who analyzes their reports to provide key optimizations.

The Results

Since partnering with Freestar, Doodle has achieved an increase of 123.20% RPM YoY. This increase can be attributed to the implementation of new ad products, additional demand partners and changes made to the ads to optimize for performance. In one quarter, we were able to increase session RPM by 30% and CPM by $0.20.

Doodle works closely with their dedicated Account Manager and Yield Manager to strategize new ways to improve revenue and yield. One of Doodle’s favorite parts of our partnership is the speed they can get their ad ops issues/questions resolved. Previously, their Ad Ops team would have to submit a ticket to the Engineering team to add a new partner. With Freestar, it happens much quicker than before. Doodle also has the ability to easily communicate with us via Slack. Despite our time differences, our team is able to provide responses in a timely manner. If their team has a technical or industry-related question, our team of ad ops experts has an answer for them.

We asked Doodle what their advice would be for publishers looking into switching to Freestar. They said “Trust Freestar and get to know them more.” That’s exactly what Doodle did and now, Doodle knows we’re here if they need us.

Meetup was looking at the member-side of their business and seeing what revenue opportunities were available. At the top of their list was in-app and web monetization – something Meetup had never attempted before.

Freestar set out to:

Create a New Revenue Stream with Minimal Impact to UX – Since in-app and web monetization were new to Meetup they didn’t have any particular revenue goals, but it was extremely important that they protected their user experience. They wanted to explore the maximum revenue that they could achieve through ad monetization while integrating ads in a clean, high-quality manner that did not impact their critical ecosystem metrics such as Group Joins and RSVPs.

The Approach

After hearing about Freestar from a happy customer, Meetup decided to move forward with our in-app and web monetization solution. The implementation process was a custom integration to meet their needs which moved right along schedule. Meetup appreciated Freestar’s responsiveness to any questions they had, the ability to communicate through our Slack Channel and most importantly, making Meetup’s conservative approach to ads a priority. User experience is important to Meetup so this involved Freestar testing our ads to gradual traffic increments and implementing a sensitive blocklist.

To optimize Meetup’s in-app and web, Freestar implemented:

• Key Ad Units – For web, Freestar scaled adding key ad units like medium rectangle and 300×50 banner(s) to high-traffic web pages. For in-app, we activated native ads for a seamless user experience.
• Flooring Optimization – When Apple released iOS 14.5, Meetup saw their CPMs decline to a point where they wondered if they should continue displaying ads on their app. Their Freestar Customer Success team formulated and implemented a new flooring strategy that hit their internal KPIs while balancing revenue, CPMs, and user experience.

The Results

Previously having no ad monetization on web and in-app, Meetup immediately saw results after implementing our in-app and web solutions. After three months, Meetup saw web monetization’s ad revenue increase by 85% and CPMs increase 19% month over month. We implemented our dynamic flooring algorithms to our web monetization to help boost revenue growth.

When we first started monetizing in-app, Meetup launched with only a small percentage of their traffic and after testing and seeing the success, we’re now at 50% for guest traffic and 100% for member traffic. Similar to web, mobile ad revenue saw immediate results, and Meetups iOS revenue grew by 370% and CPMs by 43% within the first three months of going live. Android experienced similar results with revenue growing to 164% within the first three months as well. Meetup continues to work closely with Freestar’s Customer Success team to strategize and optimize their monetization.

The Approach

Online Solitaire was concerned about integrating a new ad monetization strategy. It can be nerve-wracking to make website changes that may have a negative impact on ad revenue. The integration of Freestar with Online Solitaire was quite smooth and Online Solitaire was able to maintain a great deal of control throughout the process.

Freestar identified areas to optimize for Online Solitaire, particularly focusing on SEO, page layout, ad placements and ad refresh. Freestar worked with Online Solitaire to shift the page layout to accommodate new placements and larger ad sizes in an effort to increase revenue. The larger ad sizes opened the door to testing a new video player. Freestar enabled Mantis demand network which generated higher CPMs. Freestar also enabled ad refresh and dynamic floor. The resulting performance data provided actionable insights to strategize further changes.

The Results

Through working with Freestar, Online Solitaire shifted into a great position for long-term growth; the site has seen significant increases to viewability, CPM, and yield. Q1 growth YoY has been notable as optimizations to improve ad products and behaviors have increased video revenue by 200%, daily AdSense revenue by 1000% and CPMs by 177%. 

Online Solitaire was able to target areas to improve ad layout and SEO while Freestar worked simultaneously to add demand density through new strategic relationships, like the Mantis network. Overall, Online Solitaire has grown their ad monetization to a level that delivered significant results. Freestar continues to work closely with Online Solitaire to find new ways to optimize and stay ahead  of industry changes.

ScienceDaily was looking for a partner to manage its ad tech stack that could effectively execute website monetization in their best interests and oversee their partnerships so they can dedicate more time on editorial content.

Previously, ScienceDaily worked with Google Ad Manager and various ad exchanges rather than a header bidding system. This became time-consuming for a team that lacked experience in ad tech. ScienceDaily wanted to find a solution that could address the following issues:

• Demand partners – ScienceDaily wanted the flexibility to create direct and sponsorship deals with advertisers to diversify their revenue.
• Ad quality – ScienceDaily wanted responsive and knowledgeable support from an ad tech provider to combat any issues that could impact their customers and optimize ad units for the best user experience.
• Industry expertise – It was important for ScienceDaily to have a partner that could help navigate the ad tech industry and plan for any changes or trends.

The Approach

We gradually implemented Freestar’s header bidding solution for ScienceDaily to compare ad performance. Working with Freestar, ScienceDaily has seen an improvement of their ad revenue, CPMs, and impressions and continued optimization to their ad stack such as flooring algorithms, unique demand, and ad layouts.

The Results

ScienceDaily has taken this opportunity to focus on long-term wins like combating seasonality and improving user experience. With Freestar’s solution, ScienceDaily has the opportunity to focus on key areas of interest, like ad tech trends, their users, and quality editorial content.

• 19.8% eCPM Increase from the Previous Year