case study DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP), DoubleClick Ad Exchange

Time Out Australia grows revenue 75% while creating efficiencies using DoubleClick for Publishers and Ad Exchange. For locals and tourists alike, Time Out Australia is a leading source of information on where to go and what to do in major Australian cities. Attracting more than 500,000 unique visitors and serving several millions of ad impressions each month, the family of Time Out Australia websites relies on DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) Small Business and DoubleClick’s Ad Exchange for operational efficiency and growing revenue. Time Out Australia earns the majority of its online revenue from directly sold inventory and originally monetized remnant inventory using a third-party network and ad server. However, after experiencing multiple security issues and declining CPMs, Time Out Australia decided to adopt DFP Small Business, which seemed an “impressive” solution to Julian Peterson, digital director at Time Out Australia. Custom targeting for high performance DFP Small Business’ sophisticated feature set makes it simple for Time Out Australia to use custom targeting and define its own targeting criteria for ad tags. To take advantage of these custom targeting options, Time Out Australia retagged several of its pages. “Integrating custom targeting has resulted in a much improved system and more powerful targeting,” says Julian, who believes custom targeting is worth the extra tag implementation effort, as it will be an important feature in the near future. With support from the DoubleClick team, the switch to DFP was a relatively smooth process for Time Out Australia. In addition to using custom targeting in DFP Small Business, Time Out Australia takes a “micro-targeted” approach, separating its inventory at a granular level to better understand demand for each subcategory and goals of direct advertisers. For example, dining-related inventory is broken out into detailed subcategories based on cuisine, price range, occasions and more. “DFP provides us with much improved targeting of ads – either by section, types of page or location of events and venues,” notes Julian. Streamlined interface promotes efficiency DFP Small Business creates efficiencies for the ad operations team at Time Out Australia due to its simple interface and fast reporting. “It has proved to be very easy to use. Team members with little previous digital experience have started to set up campaigns and monitor them effectively,”

www.au.timeout.com

• Time Out Digital Ltd. headquartered in London, UK • Local information about major Australian cities – events, hotels, dining, etc.

Goals • Use a reliable, secure ad serving platform • Earn more value for inventory

Approach • Moved to DFP Small Business • Transitioned from AdSense to Ad Exchange • “Micro-target” inventory at granular levels

Results • 75% higher average monthly revenue • 106% more monthly ad requests • CPMs 33% higher • Smooth transition to DFP Small Business • Greater efficiency, streamlined workflows for ad ops

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case study

says Julian, whose team can now manage all direct ad campaigns as well in a simplified dashboard. With its streamlined workflows and inventory management system, DFP Small Business makes it fast and painless for the entire Time Out Australia team to track campaigns with view-only permissions. “They can see what is live under ‘line items delivering.’ This has cut down on requests to our ad ops,” notes Julian. Ad Exchange lifts revenue, CPMs While Time Out Australia initially began monetizing its remnant inventory with Google AdSense, it transitioned to DoubleClick Ad Exchange in order to achieve more value for its inventory. In particular, Time Out Australia needed to maximize the monetization potential of its branded inventory. With Ad Exchange, Time Out Australia has access to an extensive pool of buyers competing in real time, as well as the option of selling branded inventory at a particular price to maximize yield for each impression. Compared to when it used AdSense to monetize its remnant inventory, Time Out Australia receives 106% more average monthly ad requests with Ad Exchange, as well as 33% higher CPMs, as observed over a one-month period. “Ad Exchange has enabled us to increase the value of our remnant by more than double,” says Julian. “By using Ad Exchange and DFP together, we have begun to see that some remnant is worth four times more than other remnant,” he adds. By maximizing the value of its previously unfilled inventory, Time Out Australia has seen its average monthly revenue grow by 75%. Maintaining control, gaining insights Ad Exchange is also a fitting solution for Time Out Australia because of the complete transparency and control it offers. Julian and his team can block certain ads, advertisers and categories of ads across all inventory, or just certain parts. They can see who is buying, and select which buyers they want to work with and when. Having this control allows Time Out Australia to protect its brand, maintain ad appropriateness and avoid channel conflict. “Since switching to Ad Exchange, we have gained much deeper insight into the different value of remnant inventory on different sections of the site,” adds Julian. Adopting the right long-term solutions Overall, Julian says he is pleased with the results of using DFP Small Business and Ad Exchange and would “absolutely” recommend it to other publishers. Time Out Australia’s revenue from Ad Exchange is growing month over month, and Julian says being on the DFP Small Business platform will enable the group to achieve its long-term publisher goals. Highlighting the value of adopting robust and future-facing solutions, he says, “As you deal with each element of your online business, it is better to improve rather than patch. DFP Small Business is a great example of this, as we have finished with a vastly superior system to what we had before.”

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