Online publishers could be sabotaging their attempts to attract readers and monetise their sites effectively by offering a miserable user experience. That’s the stark warning from Sébastien Moutte, Chief Strategy Officer and co-founder of Opti Digital, which develops advertising solutions.
Sites with more advertising than content, and ads which load slowly changing the whole structure of an editorial page – are two if the biggest issues he identified.
Readers can also find it infuriating if they click on a link, the page suddenly moves around, and they end up opening an advert instead. “Publishers can get penalised when their user experience score isn’t good,” he warned. “That’s why they need to ensure their websites are stable and optimised.”
The importance of ensuring sites are in the best possible position to attract advertisers and revenue streams has been illustrated in a study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
A report published earlier this year, suggested 2023 could be positive if the news industry can comply with evolving privacy regulations and adapt to consumer usage patterns.
“These factors, compounded with economic uncertainty, underscores the importance of finding alternative, efficient ways to reach and measure audiences with fewer identifiers,” it noted.
As it has turned out, online spending with publishers has fallen in the UK and US this year even as the display advertising market has grown overall.
Five ways publishers can enhance UX and improve advertising revenue
Opti Digital has come up with five ways publishers can improve their chances of enticing readers with great content, while also benefiting from effective monetisation.
“In an age where advertising is prevalent across various platforms, striking a balance between generating revenue and respecting user experience is crucial,” said Moutte.
1: Make adverts less intrusive
Display adverts in a way that doesn’t disrupt the user’s website browsing experience.
Publishers also need to avoid annoying pop-up ads and autoplay videos that automatically have the sound on, even if such solutions are technically profitable.
So-called native adverts that blend in with the “look and feel of the surrounding content” are a better option, according to Moutte.
2: Ensure your website loads fast
Publishers should focus on their site’s overall performance by ensuring it has been optimised.
“A website should load as fast with adverts on the page as it does when there aren’t any,” Moutte insisted. “If publishers don’t pay attention to this optimisation then they risk losing their audience.” For example, lazy loading is a technique that improves performance by selectively sending ad requests and loading content as it becomes visible to the user, rather than multiplying ad calls and loading all content upfront.
3: Think mobile-first
The need for fast-to-load media is even more true when connecting from a mobile device. Moutte believes publishers must focus on mobile devices, especially given the fact they’ve become many people’s primary way of accessing the internet.
Mobile-friendly designs are not only essential for clearly displaying content, but also for the effective display of adverts. This enables partners to engage with a larger audience.
The increasing adoption of 5G technology should enable mobile ads to load much more quickly, including content that includes video. But given that mobile data speeds vary, the lighter the advertising code, the better. The most recent ad monetisation technology that Opti Digital has developed takes up less than 20Kb of memory and loads ads twice as fast as the usual combination of Google Publisher Tags and a client-side header bidding wrapper. This type of optimisation is key to increasing ad revenue and improves UX on mobile as well as Google search ranking for pages.
4: Innovative ad formats
New ad formats stand more chance of catching the eye of readers who have become virtually immune to more traditional approaches.
“Try to display ad formats that aren’t too intrusive and don’t negatively affect the user experience,” explained Moutte. “They need to be innovative and engaging.”
He also suggested getting users involved through surveys and feedback, as well as via interactive solutions such as quizzes, polls and puzzles.
Opti Digital has already invested in a new ad format, known as Opti Engage, that was inspired by the approach taken by popular social media platforms, such as Instagram.
“It’s a kind of carousel animated with different elements,” he explained. “It looks like a story and these types of ads are generating more engagement with audiences.”
According to Moutte, Opti Engage’s visually appealing story format results in higher engagement and increased revenue – and it’s already being used by various media groups.
By October 2023, the Opti Engage advertising format had been rolled out to more than 1,700 outlets, including those owned by Webedia Spain.
This company, which operates in more than 15 countries, belongs to a group that boasts 250 million unique users per month across 15+ countries.
“For Webedia, creating an engaging experience is not just a goal, but a fundamental priority, so this original format was totally in line with their strategy,” explained Moutte.
More broadly, other Opti Digital customers include Au Jardin, which is dedicated to gardening, and Tokyvideo.com, a leading streaming platform in Spain.
Moutte is adamant that publishers must understand how their website is performing before exploring the various new monetisation methods that are now available.
“Google provides tools such as PageSpeed Insights that can be used to test the website and highlight what elements are proving to be too slow,” he explained.
Ensuring effective monetisation, meanwhile, comes down to securing the right partners and implementing a longer-term, sustainable strategy.
“Partners need to be agile and offer solutions that enable them to adapt to the market with minimal defaults on the site,” he said. “We offer solutions for midsize and larger publishers.”
5: Stay ahead of ad tech developments
It’s also important to stay abreast of technological developments that could affect – both positively and adversely – monetisation rates.
A prime example is the forthcoming end of third-party cookies on Google’s Chrome browser at the end of 2024, which is likely to have a significant impact on the way publishers monetise online content.
Moutte pointed out that there has been an increasingly low consent rate for personal data use in Europe. This has adversely affected publishers’ revenues by reducing the among or personalised premium advertising they can sell.
“The less cookies are accepted, the less information advertisers have to target users with relevant ads, which ultimately weighs on media’ revenues,” he explained.
Opti Digital, for example, has responded to the essential need for consent by testing different layouts in order to “identify the Consent Management Platform parameters” that produce the highest rate of consent.
Of course, the fast-moving pace of the digital landscape means publishers must be constantly monitoring their media to ensure they’re not falling behind their rivals.
Moutte emphasised the importance of publishers embracing diversified revenue streams such as subscriptions with quality content and strong user experience remaining key.
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