VICE Media’s core business is content. Whether it’s reporting on news, politics, relationships, or entertainment, VICE Media prides itself on capturing its audience’s hearts and minds with original journalism that offers a unique perspective.
In addition to its flagship VICE.com website, the company manages ad monetization for the VICE Digital Network: more than 500 websites with a combined reach of 200 million monthly unique visitors. A large publisher network comes with both opportunities and challenges. Small positive changes in monetization can greatly increase VICE’s bottom line, however rolling out changes throughout a large network of diverse websites can be difficult to scale.
Optimizing for innovation at scale
A longtime Google Ad Manager partner, VICE’s programmatic team first learned about Exchange Bidding when it launched in open beta.
Alex Payne, Vice President of Ad Platforms at VICE Media, describes the testing and implementation process as “straightforward and streamlined.”
Exchange Bidding also kept VICE Digital Network sites running fast. Alex shares, “Anytime we’re able to go to the product team with a solution that’s server-side, beneficial to load time, and that also minimizes code on page, it’s always seen in a positive light.”
A final hurdle for VICE to overcome was reporting. In the past, adding new advertising partners increased operational complexity and required reliance on paid solutions that charged for incremental reporting sources.
Exchange Bidding is included in Ad Manager’s unified reporting interface that gives VICE access to publisher results and robust reports. Alex explains, “Different transaction types and clients can have different revenue shares. Ad Manager’s consistent reporting is very helpful, revenue-wise.”
Results beyond expectation
Since implementing Exchange Bidding on both VICE.com and the VICE Digital Network, VICE Media has seen impressive results. CPMs for Exchange Bidding inventory are 41% higher than those for non-Exchange Bidding inventory. Ad Manager revenue is up by 17% as well.
Looking toward the future
VICE sees a strong future for Exchange Bidding, and the company intends to try out a number of new strategies, including using the feature to monetize their ever-growing video content library.
It also plans to increase its number of exchange partners and move new partners out of header bidding in favor of Exchange Bidding. Alex notes, “We look at Exchange Bidding as both additional revenue source and as a way to compete more dynamically. I'm looking into having the feature set up as comprehensively as possible with partners and leading platforms where we’d want to continue to have access to their demand.”