What, you didn’t think that Sport Events bring big cash only for advertisers, right? Cause we’ve got the Case Study of the century, showing you just what happens when a publisher properly pimps up his website for the coming season.
Lucky for you, you’re right on time to get your site ready for the World Cup Championship.
And, for the sake of accuracy, we chose to showcase one of our publisher’s traffic during two major sporting events: the 2022 Champions League Final, and the 2022 UEFA Europa League. But also two more events.
Among the most interesting things this publisher has agreed to show us are the formats he used, some of his tricks to gather more attention around the event, and his stats.
Proof that Website Traffic Reacts to Major Sporting Events
Websites Type: Sports Themed
Top GEO: BR
OS: Desktop, Android, iOS
2022 Champions League – Testing Period: 15 – 28 May
The Champions League Final (CLF) registered record breaking viewership. It managed to bring the main broadcaster (CBS) a staggering 2.76 million viewers on the day of the CLF. But it didn’t perform spectacularly only via cable, but across multiple platforms.
Let’s jump right to the point and see what happened with our online publisher’s traffic volumes. We’ve checked with one of our top Sports publishers, who agreed to share some stats and professional secrets with us. Needless to say, the numbers didn’t disappoint. And we know you’ll love his tips!
In the table above, you’ll see his site’s performance two weeks before the Champions League Final (28 May 2022). During this period, he started first to share links with a short text about the upcoming match on different social media and some dedicated sports websites.
For these two weeks, he got over 90 million impressions and more than $32,000 in Profit. While targeting the same Brazil traffic as he always does.
What strategy he used to best promote his website
When asked what’s his secret, he confessed to using a simple, yet often overlooked thing that many publishers seem to ignore: making waves before major events and also group stage matches. He mostly promoted his game highlights via related sites, and social media channels.
And he also checked with his Account Manager how to best prepare his site for traffic surges.
But if the results from May 16 also caught your eyes, know that that’s when Newcastle beat Arsenal 2-0, in the Premier League, and he shared highlights from the event while also promoting the CLF.
Aside from that, starting from May 20, he started sending his users Push notifications informing them of the highlights from the League Final. As you can see, he had a very good strategy in place, and knew exactly when to send the push, as his traffic volumes were slowly dimming.
Then on May 24, he simply changed the message, and continued targeting his users with Push Notifications. If you’re interested in sending your own personalized push notifications, we can recommend the best service.
UEFA Europa League 2022 – Testing Period: 05 – 19 May
On a different website, he posts football game highlights. And these stats are from when he posted the rerun of the Europa League Final. For this site as well, he used the same strategy: promoting on social media and related websites, and sending direct Push Notifications on different occasions to remind them of the day when he’ll post match highlights.
Here’s what he got in terms of impressions and profit the two weeks before the football match:
As you can see, this website didn’t perform too badly either. Despite not featuring the live match, but posting it one day later on May 19. In total, during the two weeks ahead of the event, while he was making his website known for broadcasting the replay, he reached over 29 million users.
Well over 7 million impressions, the day of the broadcast alone, plus another 6 million the days before and after. All of which amounted to over $34,000 in profit.
What was his strategy?
For this website, he decided to send push notifications to his users, the same time, he started sharing the news on social media and related websites. Which is why his volumes are more constant throughout the two weeks.
UEFA Europa League 2021 – Testing Period: 01 – 10 May
Just to highlight how great his site is doing when there are Sports Events, he also shared with us a very interesting case from the 2020-21 Europa League, which really stuck with him. Not from the final, but the traffic volumes he got during the second legs semi-final.
More specifically, from May 6, when he shared highlights from the football matches between Arsenal – Villarreal and Roma – Manchester United.
“Group stage match days are also real traffic generators. Just prepare your websites for the traffic surge. Lucky for me, I work with a very experienced Account Manager, and she gives me a heads-up before important events to set everything in order. And, as she likes to say, that includes paying providers ahead of time to avoid any inconveniences,” according to this publisher.
Other Major Sport Event – Testing Period: 15 – 29 August 2021
Another example our publisher wanted to share, was a famous trifecta that Paris Saint Germain (PSG) scored last year.
Here’s a word from our publisher: “For all non-believers, remember when Lionel Messi joined PSG back in August 2021? Fans from around the world were ecstatic to finally witness the dream team of Lionel Messi, Kylian MBappe, and Neymar Jr on a football field.”
And he shared his sporting website traffic fluctuations from the days following the highly broadcasted matches:
That’s right, the publisher managed to attract huge traffic volumes the days following important matches that Paris Saint Germain (PSG) had:
- 15 August – following the PSG – Strasbourg game
- 21 and 22 August – following the Brest – PSG game
But also on the day of a very important Ligue 1 match between Reims and PSG, 29 August. And how do you think he did it? By showing highlights from the matches and sharing the news on social media, and related sites, but also sending personalized push notifications.
As you might’ve understood by now, this client’s websites mostly focus on football game highlights. For this reason, during periods when there are no games, his traffic drops significantly, as you can see from the stats he shared.
How to Replicate What this Publisher Did
Of course, you want to start ahead – at least two weeks before these important events. And make sure to find good websites to link back to your site. But also a good Push Notifications service for personalized messages.
If you are interested in starting to start using Push Notifications to keep in touch with your clients, you can check out our partner company Notix. They have free packages that will allow you to send these friendly reminders to your users, and add a personal touch to your relationship with them.
From case to case, either send your user personalized messages, or even bulk push messages sometimes. And just let them know about what your website will be all about in the coming days, or even weeks – based on the magnitude of the event. The bigger the event, the earlier you should start.
For full disclosure, we also checked with our talented Traffic Acquisition Manager, Daria Filippova, about what else publishers can do to ensure everything runs smoothly during the big traffic days. And here’s what she had to say:
If your site is well-known and you have a solid, committed audience, as a publisher your work is half done. All that’s missing now is to ensure that it’s also technically ready for large streams and a rush of visitors.
Winning Formats & Tricks Sports Publishers Can Use
For a better understanding of this aspect, we asked this legend’s Account Manager to shed some light on what winning trends and formats make the top of publisher’s lists when it comes to sport events.
And considering she’s been in the industry for quite some time, Daria really knows what she’s talking about.
The most successful format is OnClick – no matter if we’re talking about Popup or Direct Link. Clients use these the most.
But she also explains the reason why these two formats are amongst viewer’s favorites:
“Users are often tolerant to advertising at the start of the session. They are ready to watch it in exchange for free streaming. From this point of view, there are no complaints on sports websites.”
How often can you use these formats and not damage your viewership
Some choose to use them just during significant championships and take a break the rest of the time. While others use them all the time, varying their chosen ad frequency, according to Daria.
Tricks publishers can try
I’ve noticed the best results when boosting 3-5 pops each half hour on days with crucial games, with a minimum gap in between.
Daria Filippova
Thought that was it? Far from it. Daria kept the best for last. In case you weren’t aware, PropellerAds comes in help of publishers wanting to make the most of their spots sites, with creative and eye-catching tricks. But we’ll let her explain:
“Popups may also be shown via Sport In-Page Push skins. They are inviting to click on them since they have a nice, native appearance. Moreover, for this format, we also provide custom designs”, ad Daria puts it.
And, of course, we thought of everything by recently adding a sports car for the In-Page Push – Popup combination. Keep in mind that you can set up everything based on your custom preferences. Just consider your website’s design and content, and let your manager know how we can best assist you.
Lastly, Daria spoke about our latest addition to the monetization formats. Of course, we wouldn’t have let Vignette fall behind. So you can use the same trick as in the case of In-Page Push + Popunder ball, with Vignette as well.
For publishers, we frequently suggest a combination of Popunders + Vignette or Popunders + In-Page Push. Setting the appropriate intervals between ads will significantly boost publishers’ profit.
In Conclusion
If you haven’t been prepping your website for sports campaigns, this is what you’ve been missing out on – from 3 to 10 times higher traffic volumes and profits than usual. And remember that no matter what type of website you have, you can always throw in a dash of Sport. As we like to say, even the girliest girl has a special man she wants to make happy.
But, as we also already said, you’re just in time for this year’s World Cup. And if you’ve got a case study ready to share with us, we’ve prepared to nicely compensate you ?.
You’ll have the choice to create your own content, share as much about yourself or the sites you want, and control what gets posted.
Just hurry up, this promo ends on December 31! Get all the details about it following the link below ?.
PropellerAds gives Cash for Your Monetization Stories
Lastly: be bold, be creative, and start monetizing sports now. Contact your Account Manager, write to us in the chat bubble from your cabinet, or simply…
