Archive | ARPU

Estimating Revenue Uplift Potential From Unit Cost of Engagement

"Demand Map"

Posted by: Matt Shanahan In the previous blog post on unit cost of engagement, the Demand Map™ was used to correlate subscriber engagement with subscription fees. Using minimum and maximum unit costs of engagement, the Demand Map™ segments subscribers into those that are overpaying and underpaying for the service. Aligning actual subscriber engagement to be within the minimum and maximum unit costs of engagement is the revenue uplift potential for a publisher. How can a publisher quantify the uplift potential? Well, the Demand Map™ can answer that question. The chart on the right is a sample of what an actual Demand Map™ looks like. Let me explain the what you will see in the DemandMap™ The horizontal axis is the unit […]

Mandatory vs. Opt-in Paywall Analysis

Posted by: Matt Shanahan Increasing ARPU with a paywall is a strategy being pursued by an increasing number of publishers, however different paywalls have different revenue dynamics. What and how to charge have big implications. Specifically, a mandatory vs. an opt-in paywall have very different revenue dynamics and risks. Let’s look at the math. Assume a publisher has identified a monetizable value proposition (see methdology) and a fan base of 10,000 with an average daily consumption of 10 page views. Further, let’s assume the publisher averages $10 RPM. Under these assumptions, the ARPU of a fan is $36.40 (i.e., 10 page views/day X 7 days/week X 52 weeks/year X $10 RPM ÷ 1000). The revenue of the fan base is $364,000. Now […]

4 Steps to Paywall Opportunity Analysis

Posted by: Matt Shanahan Increasingly, Scout Analytics is performing paywall analysis for publishers – specifically paywall opportunity analysis. The trick pursuing a paywall (audience-based revenue) strategy is to find a unique value proposition (see previous post), a monetization opportunity. Unique value propositions allow publishers to create revenue streams beyond advertising, but rarely does one value proposition apply to the audience as a whole. Consequently, a paywall strategy also relies on packaging that value proposition and targeting the right segment. Paywall opportunity analysis is critical as it helps the publisher move away from debates on philosophical merits to actual identification of value positions and targets using the existing data from their audience. At a high level, the analysis has 4 simple […]

The 4 Audience Value Propositions

Posted by: Matt Shanahan The ARPU equation has two sources of revenue: the advertiser and the audience. A lot is known and discussed about what advertisers want (e.g., quality, targeting, re-targeting, etc.), but there is a dearth of conversation around value propositions for the audience. What conversation does exist focuses mainly on convenience and ubiquity of access to media and information rather than the value of its consumption. To expand ARPU beyond advertiser revenue, a publisher has to create a differentiated value proposition of consumption for audience members. Surprisingly, few publishers have a good grasp on their differentiated value proposition, and even fewer have the data to prove it. The publishers with which we work normally discover some of their […]