THE IDEA OF ARBITRAGE SHOULD BE EMBRACED: Arbitrage sometimes is seen as a dirty word. Its definition is “the practice of taking advantage of a price difference between two or more markets.” For publishing, this relates to audience and advertising. There is a market to sell audience (ads, commerce, etc.) and to generate audience (direct traffic, referral, SEO, SEM, paid content marketing) and this philosophy can accelerate revenue while maintaining margins.

1. Every Publisher
Should be an
Arbiter (or at least
think like one)
OPTIMIZATION STRATEGIES FOR PUBLISHERS

2. THE LINK BETWEEN
CONTENT AND AUDIENCE
About LinkSmart
LinkSmart is a solution for
publishers built by publishers.
We help publishers build
engaged audiences,
understand more about these
readers and maintain control
of monetization streams.
BUY, SELL AND MANAGE AUDIENCES

3. Introduction
THE IDEA OF ARBITRAGE SHOULD BE EMBRACED: Arbitrage sometimes is
seen as a dirty word. Its definition is “the practice of taking advantage of a
price difference between two or more markets.” For publishing, this relates to
audience and advertising. There is a market to sell audience (ads, commerce,
etc.) and to generate audience (direct traffic, referral, SEO, SEM, paid content
marketing) and this philosophy can accelerate revenue while maintaining
margins.
PUBLISHERS NEED TO MEASURE AND SHARE ALL DATA: As publishing
businesses grow, and job functions get departmentalized, certain data is not
shared with all business units. Effectively communicating why the data is
important, how each department contributes, and what the success metrics are
will lead to the creation of simple common goals.
DATA NEEDS TO BE MEASURED AT A GRANULAR LEVEL: There are many
powerful (and free) tools to measure website performance. But most of these
are looked at through at too high a level. Every page of content generates
revenue and has a cost. All revenues and costs should be measured at the
user, visit, and page level and shared with internal stakeholders to show how
effectively the business is being optimized.
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4. The Basic Formula for Publishing
REVENUE PER PAGE VIEW:
All pages on your site have the
potential to generate revenue. And
they behave differently. Don’t lump
them all together when analyzing.
Measure and optimize them on a
SECTION or PAGE level as each has
unique economics.
And optimize each page to maximize
revenue through A/B testing using
multiple ad placements, formats and
revenue partners.
Revenue
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5. The Basic Formula for Publishing
COST PER PAGE VIEW:
It’s easy to measure cost per page
view if you have a single site. Simply
divide page views by total costs.
It’s harder to measure cost per page
view when you operate a family of
sites but costs need to be allocated
to each site.
If possible, a ‘cost accounting’
approach should be adopted for each
site. At a minimum, allocate costs
per visit to show basic user
acquisition margin.
Costs per Page View
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6. The Basic Formula for Publishing
PAGES PER VISIT:
All visitors on your site navigate and
consume content differently. Don’t
treat them all the same.
Measure all pages per visit by
VISITOR and SOURCE of traffic, as
each visitor, and source, behave
differently.
Optimize each visit to maximize PPV
(pages per visit) if this is your target
by not having dead ends, having
simple and clear navigation, and
explicit calls to action to read/do
more while on site.
Pages per Visit
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7. The Basic Formula for Publishing
BASIC MATH (the old way):
TOTAL REVENUE = Revenue per Page View (PV) x Total PVs
TOTAL COSTS = Cost per PV x Total PVs
PROFIT PER VISIT = Revenue – Cost
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8. But There is New Math
HERE’S THE TWIST:
Rather than targeting total profitability, publishers should target
profitability at the user/visit level.
But what is the revenue per visit by each Source?
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9. The New Way of Thinking
DETERMINE THE COST OF
TRAFFIC FROM EACH SOURCE
Direct: Brand building, advertising,
sponsorships
Referral: Link building, business
development efforts, partnerships
SEO: Consultants, time, energy,
design, copy
Paid (SEM, Content Marketing):
Cost per Visit
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10. The New Way of Thinking
THE NEW MATH:
REVENUE PER VISIT = Pages Per Visit BY SOURCE x
Revenue per Page
COST PER VISIT = (PPV x Production Cost per PV) + User
Acquisition Costs per Visit BY SOURCE
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11. Paid Traffic Is Not Bad!
CONTENT MARKETING IS THE FASTEST
GROWING TOOL FOR AUDIENCE
DEVELOPMENT
Companies like Google pioneered paid traffic
generation with search engine marketing.
Companies like Outbrain, Taboola,
LinkSmart, and many others have taken this
to the next level through Content Marketing.
But how does content marketing work and
how do you scale it?
audience development
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12. Content Marketing Basics
Tools: The first step is to set up your tools including analytics reporting, revenue reporting, all
at the page level and by source of traffic.
Providers: Every provider of traffic is different, and their traffic quality will show it. LinkSmart,
Outbrain, Taboola, nRelate, Zemanta, Content.ad, and Disqus all provide traffic to your content
through widgets, or links. Each needs to be measured separately.
Revenue: By measuring every paid visitor on a revenue per visit, by source, top line revenue
can be allocated accordingly.
Cost: Each visitor is paid for on a CPC basis. Daily, or Max budges can be set, as well as geo
and platform targeting. Cost per visit can be calculated through the providers UI.
Content: The content to be marketed is your content. It can be articles, microsites, video, or
commerce. However you need to measure the performance of the content before you
distribute it on a network by measuring the revenue per page view of each. Each provider
allows different types of distribution tools and controls, and some allow you to edit the tittles,
images, etc. to increase your performance.
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13. The algorithms are pretty simple. For companies that display your content in
a widget or as a link, your content’s CTR x bid CPC = how much placement in
the network you will receive (volume). Bidding higher or having more
compelling content (images and headlines) will get you a higher score and
place your content in more frequent rotation.
The Traffic Providers Secret Sauce
(or – “How do I get Clicks?”)
What type of content
are visitors drawn to?
ROIVideos
Content
Slideshows
Photos
Text links
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14. Publishing is a business, and needs to be measured and managed like one.
The tools are available to optimize every visit, but you need to know what to
measure and what it means. Transparency is key to any business and if all data
related to revenue and costs are shared, clear decisions can be made to
maximize profitability. The future is generating audience at low cost, and selling
them at the highest price. And with these new sources of traffic, many
opportunities exist for web publishers.
Conclusion
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Your website
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15. Get In Touch
1805 11th Street Unit C
Boulder, CO 80302
info@linksmart.com
twitter.com/LinkSmart
facebook.com/LinksmartInc
linkedin.com/company/linksmart-inc
www.LinkSmart.com
BUY, SELL AND MANAGE AUDIENCES
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