Pravda, one of the biggest and longest running daily news publishers in Slovakia with over 2.2 million active users, had experience with Web Interstitials due to a previously launched direct campaigns.
Pravda looked to introduce this format for open auction to boost overall revenues as there was a strong demand among agencies and clients, promising eCPM and the potential for new incremental revenue.
When it comes to programmatic monetization, Pravda worked closely with the local yield agency, Madwire, and Google who helped with technical implementation, benchmarks and market trends for Web Interstitials. The process of implementation was smooth for programmatic and they gradually launched preferred deals, which were popular among advertisers during seasonal campaigns.
Since Web Interstitials come with strict frequency capping, their readers accepted it with limited negative impact on user experience.
After Web Interstitials were implemented for both mobile and desktop, Pravda’s revenue through open auction increased by 35% thanks to a 29% improvement in average open auction eCPM. They registered a Web Interstitial eCPM and CTR 9x higher than display banner ads, which met their benchmark.