One size doesn’t fit them all, as every campaign and monetization strategy requires a tailored approach, strict discipline, and a bit of creativity. With this in mind, RollerAds presents a case study of how publishers can boost their monetization income up to $60,000 per month and beyond.
The key is to retain a flexible mindset and monitor how the website performs. For maximum performance, you need to regularly check your KPIs and make adjustments to your monetization strategy when necessary; with RollerAds, it’s easier than ever.
Our ad formats of choice are push notifications, pop ads (a.k.a. OnClicks), and Direct Click. With RollerAds, you can monetize even the most complex GEOs, while keeping your users engaged. You’ll see the proof in the case study below.
This case study ran from January to May 2024 and was kept under wraps until now. With the publisher’s approval, we’re finally ready to share it. Let’s dive in!
For Context: Why Attending Conferences Is Important
On the eve of 2024, a publisher with 1,000+ news sites contacted RollerAds. While we cannot reveal their identity due to confidentiality concerns, we can disclose that one of our managers talked with the publisher at an Affiliate World conference.
Our new prospect at the time had been using push monetization from another provider but was looking for an alternative solution. Initially, the idea was to do a sort of split-testing and compare the performance of two independent networks to determine the quality of the existing provider at the time.
Having analyzed the data on traffic, we established some key performance indicators (KPIs) for a few months ahead. Once all the arrangements were made, we connected the publisher to RollerAds and began our first tests.
Spoiler alert! The ultimate income from monetization exceeded our boldest expectations.
We don’t know how much the publisher was earning before joining us, but we do know that we multiplied that income several times, considering that the publisher was quick to reconnect all their websites in a couple of months.
Let’s explore what happened throughout the first four months after the new year of 2024, all the stages of optimization, as well as intermediary and final results; but first…
Case Summary: Key Facts and Numbers
Here is a brief overview of the case study, including the publisher’s specifics and some future campaign details.
- Publisher’s websites: news portals with SEO-interlinking, leading to the main website
- Websites quantity: 1,000+ dynamic websites, which occasionally exhausted their potential and were rotated
- Traffic volume: 60+ million users monthly
- GEO: France 🇫🇷
- Maximum income from monetization with RollerAds: $60,000 monthly
- Time to reach maximum income: 4 months
- Ad format of choice: push notifications
Pre-Planning: Preparation Is the Key for Any Battle
Prior to accumulating the database of push subscribers, we asked our partner for any extra requests. One of them was to cap the number of push ads so that the audience wouldn’t end up fatigued. That was an important request as besides push ads, the users received push notifications, containing news, announcements, and general information. Thus, we settled for 3 push notifications per hour.
As per request, we also excluded a few verticals and offers that the publisher deemed inappropriate and violating their policy.
Once all the tags were in place and all the notifications set, we began gathering the first subscribers to send out the ads afterward. Here is a roadmap divided into months.
January 2024: $4,000 During the Test Run
To play it safe, our partner chose a website with a humble traffic volume for initial testing. In a few quick steps, the publisher replaced the old tag for a database with the new one from RollerAds.
For the sake of fair testing, the already existing database of subscribers remained untouched, leaving the old provider to monetize it; we started gathering the users anew.
In the first 10 days, our partner saw a substantial increase in their income, compared to how much they were earning with the old provider. Satisfied with the result, the publisher decided to connect all their websites to our network.
Likewise, a part of such websites retained their old databases of subscribers, while we were gathering users from scratch. At the same time, we recommended transferring the most active subscribers to our network to reach the designated KPIs easier. The frequency of push notifications for every subscriber remained the same: 1/20 minutes (3 notifications per hour).
Summary of the 1st month
- Earnings from monetization: $4,000
- Average daily subscribers: 3,900 users
- Total active subscribers: 26,800 users
Not bad for a start, eh? But wait, there is more to come!
February 2024: Full Transfer and Hybridization of Notifications
Since the initial monetization proved to be profitable, we recommended trying out a hybrid format, when push ads are mixed with informational notifications, e.g., breaking news and new article releases. Our experience suggests that this combo benefits the retention rate and audience engagement. As a result, the majority of websites yielded a surge of organic traffic, reached Google Discover, and grew in search ranking.
The hybrid monetization resulted in occasional traffic bursts when the number of new daily subscribers grew 5–10 times compared to an average value.
Besides making the content of our push notifications less predictable, we also continued to transfer the old subscribers from niche websites. Our ad frequency remained the same: 1 push notification per 20 minutes.
Since the traffic volume grew, we were able to attract bigger advertisers and on exclusive terms. And even though the growth was sporadic and irregular, all the available ad spots were bought up regularly, contributing to the ever-increasing income of the publisher.
Summary of the 2nd month
- Earnings from monetization: $18,500 (+363%)
- Average daily subscribers: 14,000 users (+259%)
- Total active subscribers: 237,000 (+784%)
At the end of the month, the publisher decided to switch to RollerAds completely and monetize all their websites, and their respective databases of subscribers, with us exclusively.
March 2024: Work Smarter, Not Harder
Two months later, we continued to try out various ways to increase the quality of push notifications while capping its quantity. Using all the features of the RollerAds network, we managed to double the CTR of push notifications without increasing their frequency (1/20 minutes).
Additionally, we heeded the request of our publisher and turned off some other ad categories.
At the same time, we continued to transfer the subscribers to our platform, and RollerAds started to monetize all the websites.
Summary of the 3rd month
- Earnings from monetization: $31,000 (+68%)
- Average daily subscribers: 18,000 users (+28%)
- Total active subscribers: 400,000 (+69%)
Around 80% of old subscribers were integrated into the new databases.
April 2024: Strategy Update and Boom in Subscribers
The 4th month brought to the limelight the importance of sending non-advertising push notifications. The subscribers began to frequent websites to read articles, which signaled to Google that the articles were relevant and popular. As a result, the search engine started to promote the websites’ content as trending. High visibility in SERP, a more engaged audience, and frequent appearances in Google Discover created a positive loop, which boosted organic traffic.
This surge of traffic benefited the growth of our database, so we decided to tweak our strategy. Previously, we were focused on maximizing the earnings, now we redirected our efforts to maintain the stable growth of subscribers. To make it possible, we lowered our notification frequency for the first time: from 1/20 to 1/30 minutes.
As a result of changing our strategy and increasing the share of organic traffic, the number of new daily subscribers doubled
Summary of the 4th month
- Earnings from monetization: $57,000 (+84%)
- Average daily subscribers: 33,000 users (+83%)
- Total active subscribers: 760,000 (+90%)
May 2024: Stabilizing the Income
In our line of work, the plateau is inevitable; but we prefer to call it stability. Our partner reached stability in the 5th month when they reached $50,000–60,000 monthly.
Partially, the income growth was halted by a Google update, which slowed the organic growth of websites. This in turn forced the publisher to transfer their websites and subscribers to other domains. Fortunately, our partner knew how to deal with such transfers from earlier experience. With the help of non-advertising push notifications, the transition was made even easier and smoother.
Below is a table summarizing the total active subscribers for each month. You can clearly see the steady growth in the subscriber base, which played a key role in sustaining and stabilizing the income:
Conclusion
It should be noted that throughout the case study, we’ve been talking about a large-scale publisher, but it doesn’t imply small website owners are out of luck. In fact, we are accustomed to helping smaller publishers squeeze the most out of their websites. No matter the quantity or quality of traffic sources, we know how to produce profitable cases, which are worth sharing and reading.
Try out RollerAds now to see if your websites perform at their best. We are not afraid to put our money where our mouth is, because all our expertise is based on field-tested insights. Feel free to contact us; we’ll guide you through our platform and tell you everything you need to know to maximize your performance.
