NV Case Study

Research problem

More attention should have been paid to advertising on the site, which did not bring results and only repelled visitors. The more ads there were, the lower the traffic and engagement with content on the site. To avoid losing the audience, it was necessary to optimize the display of ads and, at the client's request, reduce the number of banner ads.

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Target audience

The case of the NV media holding will be of interest to large news portals that have faced the problem of advertising optimization. Also, this information will be of interest to the owners of any sites and will help to look at the advertising content from a new angle, as well as monetize their resources.

Due to Russian aggression, the media holding, whose activities are focused on Ukraine, faced the issue of a lack of income from the usual monetization schemes. Since this is the main source of income, as for any other news publisher, the issue of monetization was at the top of the list. In a difficult period, monetization is not perceived as a pleasant addition, but as the only way to keep the site alive. This is not the first time we have faced such a task, and we already had a ready-made solution, which had only to be adapted to the partner.

In short, our task was to determine the optimal ad format with which the maximum number of users would like to interact. We've focused on video content to help keep the site alive and keep the publisher doing their job.

About the client

NV is an independent media holding that was established by a team of journalists in 2014. Today, the media holding includes the occasional NV magazine, the NV.UA news site, the NV nationwide talk radio, discussion panels, and the Russian-language version of the site, New Voice of Ukraine, launched in 2022.

The mission, values, and professional standards include the editorial and top management of the media-holding publications, especially the Editorial Code of NV. The publisher stands for the normal formation of perception in the conditions of individual and economic freedom, legal status, and sociocultural diversity.

The goal of all publications included in the NV media holding is effective, balanced and prompt information about news about everything that is worth knowing in Ukraine and in the world in the broad sense of politics, business, technology, health, and sports.

Workflow

Working on each project, our team starts by examining a few pages of the website and A/B testing. This allowed us to quickly determine the type of content that would deliver the best results. We started with the introduction of a video player, and later on we added banner ads. So we got a good result in the first month.

We conducted a number of experiments in order to finally come to the optimal number of ads shown. We added video content and reduced the number of banner ads shown to a minimum. As part of a client's request to reduce the number of banner ads, we ran some tests in this direction and came up with the following result:

1. Set up disabling of sticky ads impressions if there is a video ad impression. So we've added a video banner with content playing on the page to build a longer engagement with the audience and provide a 100% visibility score.
2. Changed the frequency of the top sticky ads and picked up a more optimal format. We abandoned the 320x100 size for users with small screens, in addition, as a result of experiments, we were able to choose the optimal price floors, which led to a decrease in the number of ad impressions without loss in income.
3. The experiment with price floors continued on other blocks, which also made it possible to reduce the amount of advertising. At the same time, we have increased the number of interactions and set up a new price floor for advertisers.
4. Removed blocks with low visibility and profitability. Tests have shown that such blocks only worsen the overall performance of the site and therefore do not generate any income.

Summary

This case has become another proof that any site has every chance of being revived. We have shown that a news portal can be monetized with a new approach to advertising and also video content. Thus, we have chosen the optimal advertising format that would not interfere with visitors and increase coverage.

The work done allowed to increase the growth of income and monetize the site. This is how a non-standard solution turned out to be very effective.