Fairfax’s third-party native advertising platform ban has had no discernible impact on traffic
Fairfax’s decision to stop purchasing from third-party click providers has saved the publisher millions of dollars on its branded content, and hasn’t resulted in a sizeable drop in traffic or engagement as a result.
“We found out that buying massive clicks does not yield genuine audiences,” said Kate Cox, Fairfax’s commercial content director during a Mumbrella360 session on content marketing.
Fairfax’s Beth van Koesveld and Kate Cox (L-R)
Cox was referencing third party native advertising platforms such as Taboola and Outbrain, which many publishers use to increase traffic via external sites.
“It never made sense for us to buy random audiences,” said Cox. “When we looked at the audiences that we had been buying, their profile, their device behaviour and their habits were different – as in worse – than those of our core audiences.”
“What we’re discovering now that we’ve made this strategic decision is they’re more loyal, they’re more likely to act, they’re more likely to spend more time and they’re more likely to come back.”
“We thought this was a pretty brave move, we thought it would be a lot harder, but to be honest we haven’t seen a drop in traffic or engagement in branded content resulting from this shift in strategy.”
Cox explained how in order to keep both clients and readers happy, Fairfax’s content had to be created with its true audience in mind.
“We’re backing our own loyal, smart, interested, quality and above all, real audiences. We’re putting our money where our mouths are and we’re valuing the people, the actual humans, who engage with us and communicate with us everyday, rather than going out and purchasing eyeballs from who the hell knows where.”
Fairfax’s strategic insights manager Beth van Koesveld, who shared the stage with Cox agreed, adding: “When brands came to us and said that they want to keep talking to our audiences, they came to Fairfax because we stand for something and they know what kind of audiences we have.
“It didn’t make sense for us to then go out and buy a bunch of randos, to put it quite bluntly. That was quite a conscious decision that we made. If brands come to us and want to talk to our audience we want to make sure they’re talking to our audience.”
As part of the shift towards audience-focussed content, Cox’s team are now focussing on engagement as the key metric.
“The focus on the power of the audience is all about engagement,” the commercial content director said. “My team are encouraged to think about engagement rather than page views because I really believe that this is the most important metric of all. I know that the industry standard is pageviews and traffic, and we do take reach pretty seriously, but I really believe that in a few years we’ll be selling content on engagement rather than traffic.”
Fairfax’s move away from third party traffic is part of its attempt to win the trust of consumers who have become aware that their data is “not being used for them, but against them”, explained Koesveld.
Koesveld, who shared the stage with Cox, told the audience how in the light of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and GDPR in Europe, “audiences are becoming aware that they’re being commoditised. With awareness and knowledge comes power. The audience’s power is growing.”
I wondering whether Fairfax is even vaguely aware of the absurdity. One can only wonder as they continue to degrade the editorial product that was once the value audiences came for. Certainly Hywood is clueless about editorial value and we know that Catalano was only interested in pumping up the tyres.
I suspect this brief item will figure in a post mortem analysis one day.
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One wonders whether a publisher that was not a sponsor of the event would be lucky enough to receive such an uncritical report?
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So Fairfax and Outbrain have parted ways? Because the SMH has been happily directing its readers to this crap for years but has now discovered the moral high ground?
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That aside, do you think Fairfax’s decision is a good one or a bad one?
Fairfax has long been primarily a commercial venture. People forget that it owned such down-to-earth left-wing publications as New Idea. They forget that it owns a huge slice of Australia’s right-wing talk radio market. The Melbourne and Sydney newspapers that some people have loved dearly, when profitable, made much of their money from classifieds. The beloved editorial, though valuable, is now harder to profit from than ever before.
Yes, Fairfax is turning the SMH and The Age into someone more like New Idea (leading from the online side). They do this because they believe that this is their best bet for profit. That is where the company’s heart is, not any particular ideology. This is a major difference between it and the corporate entities behind say The Saturday Paper and The Guardian.
“Save The Age” was a major reader-led campaign in the 80’s. People loved the paper as it was. But not enough of them spent enough money on it to keep it doing what it was.
Perhaps Fairfax’s metro division should offer readers new ways to directly fund the distinctive editorial they so desire.
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Hi Skeptic (who I note shares an IP address with “Question”),
While we always appreciate it when a sponsor recognises that sponsorship can be an effective way to talk to our audience, it does not cover our journalism
Our journo would not have had the slightest interest in whether the speakers worked for a sponsor or otherwise.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
It is no surprise to hear that stopping buying 5 cent clicks on questionable quality sites makes little difference to quality audiences!
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I do not think this is strictly true as SMH is still buying loads of clicks for content from Facebook – does that count?
Go to their Facebook page and add “ads” to the URL:
https://www.facebook.com/sydneymorningherald/ads
And you can see many live content ads for:
SAS soldiers committed alleged war crimes in Afghanistan: official report
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/sas-soldiers-committed-alleged-war-crimes-in-afghanistan-official-report-20180531-p4zikl.html
China’s trillion-dollar sharp power play
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/china-s-trillion-dollar-project-changing-the-world-20180618-p4zm4k.html
The Sydney roads where weekend traffic is worse than weekdays
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-sydney-roads-where-weekend-traffic-is-worse-than-weekdays-20180629-p4zoie.html
‘Stop shagging men’: Sarah Hanson-Young accuses David Leyonhjelm of sexist slur
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/stop-shagging-men-sarah-hanson-young-accuses-david-leyonhjelm-of-sexist-slur-20180628-p4zoev.html
Mechanic to millionaire: the rise and fall of ‘drug runner’ Jim Mavris
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/mechanic-to-millionaire-the-rise-and-fall-of-drug-runner-jim-mavris-20180629-p4zol1.html
‘Remarkable’: The Netflix special everyone is talking about
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/hell-hath-no-fury-like-hannah-gadsby-unleashed-in-nanette-20180627-h11xdz.html
etc etc
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Well someone is advertising Fairfax content on Outbrain today. This article is being promoted on The Guardian:
https://www.smh.com.au/money/investing/how-kate-is-building-wealth-outside-superannuation-20180621-p4zmsb.html
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