peter richards - how does digital content generate subscribers?

How does digital

content generate

subscribers?

Data Journalism Days 2015

Peter Richards21st May, 2015

Piano Subscription Software Powers 632 sites

Loyalty (x-axis): content loyalty 100+ varies from 10-35%

Attractiveness (y-axis): unique users vary from 50k to 1M

Note: Loyalty 100+ is approximately one visit per day in the quarter analyzed

Content has Different Loyalty & Attractiveness

General news

Auto-moto Opinion

People

SportLifestyle

LifestyleCulture

Sport

0

200000

400000

600000

800000

1000000

1200000

1400000

0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00% 20.00% 25.00% 30.00% 35.00% 40.00%

Un

iqu

e u

sers

Loyalty 100+

Does Your Content Generate Pageviews?

Analysis of 300 regional newspaper websites

50% of websites studied averaged 3 page views per month per Unique User

• Consider increasing relevance of content offered (e.g. via content recommendations)

• Produce more content from currently “hot” topics (e.g. by monitoring content trends)

• General site improvements (including less ad overloading)

5.2

4.7

4.23.9 3.8

3.4

2.92.6

2.2 2.1 21.7 1.6

95% 90% 80% 75% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 25% 20% 10% 5%

March 2015

How Many Articles Do People Read Monthly?

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

1+ 2+ 3+ 4+ 5+ 6+ 7+ 8+ 9+ 10+ 11+ 12+ 13+ 14+ 15+ 16+ 17+ 18+ 19+ 20+

Sh

are

of

users

Content Consumption

Desktop

Piano DACH Benchmark Desktop60% of your users do not read

Number of full article pages read monthly

Do Pageviews Convert Users to Subscribers?

To some degree the relationship of PVs per User to conversion is obvious:

• The more people read the more likely they are to hit the paywall

• That relationship confirms the importance of developing your audience and increasing readership

Shows the relationship

of PVs per User to

Subscriber Conversion

Conversion: What % of Users Pay When Asked?

• 2.82% conversion for the Top 5% / 0.45% conversion for the Top 50%

• Consider A/B testing to simplify the light-box and/or simplifying product offerings

2.82%

1.67%

1.02%

0.85%

0.74%

0.59%

0.45%

0.35%

0.26% 0.23% 0.20% 0.12% 0.07%

95% 90% 80% 75% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 25% 20% 10% 5%

Content Supply-Demand chart

What Content Is Popular Right Now?

What Is User X Reading at This Moment?

Increase Relevance of Content to Increase Session Time

Content Recommendations in Real Time

This publisher was the first major newspaper to implement a paywall in 1997

Challenge

• Publisher experienced lack of targeting capabilities with their existing ad

platform(s), hence losing out on potential revenue

• They also found their existing solutions too complex and were not able to

manage their own campaigns

• Licensed software to increase subscriptions by offering more advanced

targeting capabilities and to act as an advisor for increasing their

subscriber base

Leading US business-focused publisher

Increase your Subscriber Base with Targeted Promotions

• Implemented personalized content

recommendations to drive more engagement

• Performed multiple analyses to identify

segments with higher propensity to buy

• Replaced all existing ad spaces and

implemented targeted campaigns towards

these segments

529%Increase in CTR on

targeted campaigns

2.3MNon-subscribers have

clicked once or more on

the promotions

Doubling User Conversion Rates

CONTACT US

EMEA: +421 233 046 928

North / South America: +1 212 332 6405

DACH: +43 603 269 782

MENA / Africa: +421 233 046 928

media@pianomedia.com

Thank You