A resurgence of video and demand for inventory is expected across the industry in the second half of this year. There’s a lot up in the air — will budgets that were cut in 2020 return to publishers’ pockets? Will we be able to rely on our pre-pandemic methodologies or will we need to keep pushing the boundaries as an industry and find new ways to drive growth? Here are a few ideas for how to be ready for what’s next.
1.Zoom out and take a fresh look at your design:As consumers visit a given domain, publishers should think carefully about every detail related to a site visit and how they all play in the eye of the viewer. The initial images, the way the site and videos are organized, the differences between mobile and desktop… even the color scheme can wash into the background during general upkeep. Websites can become stale after a time, so enlisting some help from outside your organization can be useful in streamlining your overall design.
2. Go straight to the source for feedback:While there’s no one who thinks as deeply about your content and its distribution as you, it’s important to think of the users who consume it as your partners and taking their feedback into consideration can be incredibly insightful. Users find themselves in unexpected places on the web every day; the challenge is finding out what informs their return and there’s no better way to find that information than to ask them. You may be surprised about what you learn about your property’s infrastructure, user experience and perception compared to similar sites. Incentivized surveys, forum posts and even a quick email to your dedicated audience can help you prepare for growth and increase your understanding of how to improve monetization based on your findings.
3. Make better, data-informed decisions:It’s not a new idea that ‘data is king,’ but as a publisher trying to juggle any number of different projects at once, it’s often easier to ride the market wave and make choices purely based on programmatic pricing. Users visit your site for the content, not for the ads; as such, this is a good time to think about data points around your most valuable asset, which is your content. Which videos are most popular, and what is it about the best content that makes it great? What sort of engagement is actually being driven and what can you learn about your users from that information? These are just a few questions that can be informed by a hard look at data points around content viewership and behaviors, which can lead your organization to create more of what makes your site special and increase monetization as a result.
