The Challenge
The growing use of adblockers posed a significant challenge to Paramount’s ability to monetize their digital content. With a large portion of their audience using adblock software, CBS needed an end-to-end solution to recover lost ad revenue and maintain the quality of their visitor experience across multiple sites.
Additionally, Paramount aimed to fine-tune their engagement strategies, ensuring that visitors remained actively involved with their content, thereby driving higher retention and maximizing lifetime visitor value.
The Solution
To address these challenges, Paramount partnered with Admiral to deploy a suite of tools designed to recover ad revenue, enhance user engagement, and optimize performance across their digital properties.
- Adblock Recovery Implementation:
- Multi-Site Rollout: Admiral’s adblock recovery solution was systematically deployed across Paramount’s key properties, including CBS Sports, CBS News, and 247 Sports. The implementation involved using Smart Engage and time-based frequency adjustments to encourage users to disable adblockers or whitelist CBS sites.
- Optimized Targeting: With the introduction of consumption-based frequency and surge targeting, Paramount was able to better engage visitors by showing tailored messages at the right moments, reducing bounce rates, and increasing the likelihood of adblock recovery.
- Continuous Optimization:
- Configuration Adjustments: Admiral worked closely with Paramount to continually optimize the recovery configurations, adjusting frequency settings and targeting based on real-time performance data. This iterative approach ensured that Paramount could respond quickly to changes in visitor behavior and market conditions.
- Expanding Reach: Paramount expanded the adblock recovery efforts to additional properties over time, refining their strategies based on insights gained from earlier implementations.
The Results
The partnership between Paramount and Admiral led to significant improvements in revenue recovery and visitor engagement:
Adblock Recovery Metrics:
- Reduced Block Rates: Block rates varied across properties, with CBS Sports starting at 8.5%, MaxPreps at 4.95%, and CBS News at 6.11%. By the end of each year, Paramount achieved significant reductions in block rates across their properties, reaching as low as 1.63% on CBS News.
- Recovery Rates: Paramount achieved strong recovery rates shortly after launch, with CBS Sports recovering 28.18% in the first 30 days and reaching 41.94% by the 180-day mark. MaxPreps saw a recovery rate of 50.37% after 180 days.
- Revenue Impact: Paramount saw a dramatic increase in recovered revenue, with a total of $2.82M recovered in 2023 and $5.36M in 2024.
Through a strategic partnership with Admiral, Paramount has successfully navigated the challenges posed by adblockers while optimizing visitor engagement across their digital properties. The results speak for themselves: significant revenue recovery, improved visitor interactions, and a sustainable approach to managing their extensive online ecosystem.
