Not all page views have the same value. For that matter, some page views have no monetary value. To illustrate this dynamic, consider the following: would a subscriber be willing to pay the list price of $26 a year to search for product reviews on ConsumerReports.org but not allowed to actually see the reviews? The most common answer will be no. The monetary value of a “search” page view with no results is worth zero.
Page views can be placed into one of two buckets, a “unit-of-value” or a “path-to-value.”
- Unit-of-value - A page view that enables a visitor to make a decision, complete a task, or fulfill a need (e.g., entertainment) delivers value.
- Path-to-value - A page view supporting functions such as search, navigation, and headlines links the visitor to the desired page view.
The path-to-value page views, while important for accessing the unit-of-value page view, have no value of their own.
Value Rating is a metric that reports the ratio of how much value a visitor receives versus their total engagement with a publisher’s site. Just because someone is a frequent visitor, doesn’t mean the person represents a good revenue opportunity (e.g., someone whose home page is a news site but never reads actual articles). Scout Analytics’ research shows that the higher the Value Rating becomes for a visitor, the more engaged and monetizable that visitor becomes both in paid content and in ad-supported media.
Whether publishers are seeking renewal price increases, setting paywalls, or improving audience development, they need to target visitors that are receiving the most value. Value Rating is the engagement metric for targeting sales and marketing campaigns to maximize revenue.
In the next post, Value Rating for targeting on renewals will be discussed.
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