Introduction

In the fast-paced world of digital advertising, finding the right tools and strategies to optimize revenue can be a formidable task. This is especially true for organizations like World History Encyclopedia, a non-profit dedicated to providing historical knowledge to the masses. In this customer story, we delve into the challenges World History Encyclopedia faced before adopting Assertive Yield's Yield Manager solution, the innovative transformations it brought to the table, and the key results that followed.

Watch World History Encyclopedia's complete customer story here

The challenges with previous Prebid analytics tool

Jan van der Crabben, the CEO and Founder of World History Encyclopedia, began by reflecting on the organization's initial setup. He mentioned their custom-built prebid solution, boasting an impressive 80% viewability metric. However, they soon realized that their setup lacked certain critical functionalities.

One of the primary challenges was the inability to access detailed reporting data from Google Ad Manager and Amazon.

Instead, they had to rely on estimates from an early prebid analytics tool. This limitation hindered their ability to make informed decisions and accurately measure the performance of their demand partners.

“Initially we had a setup that we had built ourselves, which we thought was a very advanced prebid custom implementation with A/B testing functionalities, lazy loading, active in-view refresh, and all.” Jan van der Crabben, the CEO and Founder of World History Encyclopedia.

Moreover, they struggled with understanding how demand partners impacted their site's performance, particularly in terms of latency and user experience. Cumulative layout shifts caused by different demand partners remained a mystery as well.

Lack of granular data on partner-generated revenue

They also grappled with questions like: How much did demand partners impact their auctions? What latency did they introduce to their pages? Some demand partners used non-standard IAB creatives, causing issues like cumulative layout shifts. These were critical metrics that were challenging to measure accurately.

Jan van der Crabben, also mentioned that their initial custom-built prebid solution boasted an impressive 80% viewability metric. However, they soon realized that their setup lacked certain critical functionalities.

“We had 80% viewability metrics. We thought we were doing really well and we were a bit reluctant to try Assertive Yield because wealready had something amazing”, said Jan.

They’ve also tried other early prebid analytics tools, including Google Ad Manager, which offered basic reporting features like viewability, revenue, impressions, and RPM.

However, without the ability to pass down key values into Google Ad Manager, breaking down these metrics by bidder and understanding the impact of Amazon Tam was a daunting task. 

Another significant drawback of their previous solutions was the reliance on estimates when prebid didn't win. These analytical tools they experimented with lacked the granularity of reporting that Assertive Yield offered.

The Solutions: boosting results and analytics with the Next-Gen monetization platform

Despite initial reluctance, World History Encyclopedia decided to give Assertive Yield's Yield Manager and Yield Intelligence a try. The decision paid off handsomely. They discovered that Assertive Yield offered unparalleled granularity in reporting, allowing them to access actual data down to the order and line item level in Google Ad Manager.

Demand partner measurement with Assertive Yield Manager

With Assertive Yield Manager, World History Encyclopedia could finally gain insights into the impact of demand partners on page latency, cumulative layout shifts, and overall user experience.

“Assertive Yield really helped us understand how each of our demand Partners is doing. How much does a demand partner slow down our auction? How much latency does that add to the page? Also, some partners have special creatives that break out of the standard IAB formats. How much cumulative layout shift this demand partner adds to our page?” Jan van der Crabben.

Advanced analytics with Yield Intelligence

The WHE also leveraged AY Intelligence, another AY solution which finally provided advanced analytics and granular insights into partner performance and page performance, while dissecting this data across various dimensions.

Assertive Yield went beyond just prebid, giving them a comprehensive view of their entire advertising landscape, including accurate revenue predictions based on real-time data not just estimates. 

“We turned to Assertive Yield in order to get a better understanding of the analytics, how are our partners performing, and what pages are doing well. AY provided us with the granularity broken down by any dimension”.- Jan Van der Crabben

The Key Results with Assertive Yield

The transition to Yield Manager and Yield Intelligence led to rapid and significant improvements. Within weeks, they witnessed a remarkable 25% increase in overall advertising revenue from programmatic advertising.

+ 63% revenue uplift with Yield Manager

One essential metric that saw a positive shift was Revenue per thousand sessions (RPM), which had remained flat for six months prior to using Assertive Yield. Through A/B testing, they confirmed that Assertive Yield's solution was generating positive returns. This increase in RPM is directly correlated with the adoption of Yield Manager.

The impact of Assertive Yield's Yield Manager solution was transformative. Their ads loaded faster, viewability rates improved, and demand partners enjoyed higher win rates. This overall programmatic revenue increase of 63%+ was a testament to the power of Yield Manager in optimizing ad operations.

“Our supply looks a lot better to our demand partners because their win rates are higher, the click-through rates are higher, and the viewability rates are highe. We can directly attribute that to Assertive Yield's Yield Manager.” Jan van der Crabben, CEO/Founder of World History Encyclopedia.

Yield Intelligence

The integration with Yield Intelligence allowed them to gain insights not only into how Prebid was performing but also into how Google Ad Exchange, Google AdSense, and their Amazon Tam connection contributed to revenue.

Unlike previous solutions they’ve tried, which relied on estimates, Assertive Yield's data was synchronized with these platforms, providing precise revenue figures for each day, content, author, and tag, even during A/B testing of layouts and more.

Within just two weeks of implementation, they witnessed a remarkable 25% increase in overall advertising revenue from programmatic advertising. This dramatic shift in their revenue stream was a testament to the power and accuracy of Assertive Yield.

“The integration of Assertive Yield with Google Ad Manager was really important so that we can get granular insights into prebid, Google Ad Exchange, Google AdSense, and how much our Amazon Tam connection contributes to the revenue.”

In conclusion, World History Encyclopedia's journey with Assertive Yield's Yield Manager product underscores the importance of adopting innovative solutions to overcome challenges in the digital advertising landscape. With a commitment to providing historical knowledge to the world, World History Encyclopedia found a reliable partner in Assertive Yield, one that not only improved their revenue but also enhanced the user experience for their audience. This success story serves as an inspiration for organizations looking to maximize their programmatic advertising potential.

To learn more about how AY Yield Manager can help your business achieve remarkable results, talk to sales today!