From bylines to bottom lines: SmartNews unlocks new demand and increases revenues

Tapping into Prebid, pre-packaged deals, and direct relationships with demand partners increased fill rates.

quarterly revenue growth
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eCPM increase on Android
0 %
quarterly fill rate increase
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Category: Publisher

Solution: Brand+ Marketplace

Region: United States

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"Verve’s strategic partnership, excellent customer services, along with the introduction of pre-packaged deals led to significant open exchange revenue growth. They will continue to be an important strategic partner and an invaluable asset to SmartNews."

Adam Sadur

Head of Programmatic, SmartNews

Opportunity

News organizations are always looking for new ways to better monetize their readership. Media innovators like SmartNews partner with SSPs to bring their premium ad inventory to the best, most engaged audiences and drive revenue efficiently.

As a chart topping news app, SmartNews highly values ad quality and was seeking new high-quality demand partners. With a high volume of mid-page unit display ads (MPU, 300 x 250 banners), SmartNews’s goal was simple: to open doors to new demand, elevate fill rates, and increase eCPMs.

Solution

Verve’s Brand+ Marketplace (formerly Smaato) used a multipronged approach to boost SmartNews’s monetization by delivering high-performing ads tailored to their premium traffic quality, enhancing inventory appeal and revenue generation.

First, Verve established a Prebid integration to connect SmartNews’s in-app inventory with demand from Verve’s ever-growing pool of demand partners. The team made SmartNews’s inventory even more appealing by unleashing demand from Verve’s pre-packaged deal aimed at clients to reach news apps and premium US traffic. These pre-packaged deals help to increase competition — and eCPMs — for SmartNews’s ad units.

Verve’s Brand+ Marketplace team also implemented ads.txt to further boost SmartNews’s credibility and desirability, which helps to secure ad spends from demand partners.

Results

How did Verve’s approach impact SmartNews’s monetization goals? The key results for SmartNews’s new Prebid integration speak for themselves:

PicsArt increased revenue with Verve

This remarkable growth all comes down to the substantial surge in competition and spending from demand partners, both existing and newly onboarded. Verve’s proactive approach, including the implementation of pre-packaged deals designed to seamlessly connect the right traffic with suitable buyers, has played a pivotal role in achieving these results.

Additionally, based on Verve’s recommendations to establish additional transparency measures, SmartNews secured spending commitments from demand partners and further solidified their revenue stream.

SmartNews now considers Verve a top-tier partner, and Verve looks forward to maintaining the client’s growth and delivering positive results.

About SmartNews

SmartNews is an award-winning news app downloaded by more than 50 million readers. Their mission is to deliver the world’s quality information to the people who need it. SmartNews accomplishes this with a dedicated editorial team and world-class algorithms that aggregate news from thousands of publisher partners around the world each day.

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