Impressive Double-Digit Increase on Revenue from Display-Ad Inventory for LADbible

Background & Challenge

LADbible Group, one of the world’s largest youth publishers with an audience approaching one billion people, faced an industry-wide challenge where advertisers had become increasingly frustrated at the lack of transparency, complexity, and high cost when buying digital advertising. 

Solly Solomou, founder and CEO of LADbible Group, commented that “more than £1 in every £5 spent on advertising is wasted every year because users are not fully seeing ads, or offered the best experience.”

LADbible Group has a huge reach among under 34-year-olds, and saw the opportunity to offer their clients a superior advertising product that guarantees completed views at a substantially reduced cost, as it is sold directly from LADbible Group.

What Did LADbible & SeenThis Do?

Using SeenThis’ adaptive video-streaming technology, LADbible Group was able to launch a fully transparent media-buying alternative for online video ads, where brands pay only for completed views, at a fixed price.

The product, named “LADx”, offers brands 100% completed views at a guaranteed £0.02 cost per completed view (CPCV) for video ads up to 10 seconds in length. For ads longer than 10 seconds, the price is £8 CPM (cost per mille), with the CPCV estimated (but not guaranteed) between £0.03-£0.04. 

LADbible Group estimates this pricing is 40-60% cheaper than similar ad units elsewhere, and the use of SeenThis’ streaming technology is what enables these substantial cost reductions. 

Impressive Double-Digit Increase on Revenue from Display-Ad Inventory

Thanks to LADx’s unique, transparent, and market-first pricing model, the product has been very well received by the industry. Stevie Antonioni, LADbible Group’s Head of Display & Programmatic Sales, explains “[…] there is real value in the openness it creates between us as a publisher and the brands that we work with.”

As a result, over the last 9 months, LADbible Group has been able to offer a market-leading advertising product, at a lower cost to their clients, while increasing revenue by improving the eCPM of their display ad units by a significant double digit increase.

Transparency & Simplicity

Regarding the potential mid- and long-term industry implications of the SeenThis partnership, Antonioni continues “[…] if advertisers have greater confidence and trust in our industry as a result of a more transparent ad ecosystem, it would be safe to say they would see greater reason to invest more in marketing and realize the potential for advertising to be a significant growth driver for their businesses.”

Colin Gottlieb, LADbible Group Chief Growth Officer, further explains “[…] that is exactly the reason we partnered with SeenThis, to build LADx. We wanted to create an ad product that not only reduced the complexity and cost for our clients, but also moved the needle in the industry towards transparency and simplicity – because that is where the future lies.”

Jun 30, 2021