Challenge
Apartment Therapy, a lifestyle publishing company focused on home, was looking for innovative ways to appeal to today’s buyers and boost ad spend – especially in these challenging times. As the industry stands today, more than 70% of all marketing dollars are swallowed by the Walled Gardens, leaving publishers in a continuous search for additional revenue streams and tools to incentivise ad spend.
Solution
Index Exchange helped Apartment Therapy capture incremental agency spend via a new publisher-controlled programmatic deal feature called Post-Auction Discounts. Introduced to Apartment Therapy in February 2020, Post-Auction Discounts provided an incentive for buyers to boost their spend on the publisher’s site.
Process
The Post-Auction Discount tool gives publisher sales teams the ability to offer unique private marketplaces discounts to select buyers in order to drive more total advertising spend. For buyers, the incentive does not impact their win rate by lowering their CPM in the auction, unlike some traditional auction floors. Both buyers and sellers have access to transparent reporting detailing the discounted amount. Publishers can use Post-Auction Discounts to encourage select advertising partners to spend more through a negotiated discount rate, with the expectation that the advertiser will spend more on that publisher’s inventory.
Result
Apartment Therapy saw a 1011% increase in Private Marketplace spend from one key advertiser after implementing Post Auction Discounts. March 2020 revenue numbers were among the highest Apartment Therapy had ever seen, despite difficult industry circumstances due to COVID-19.