Greetings, readers, on this fourth day of May, also known for the past few decades as Star Wars Day. (If you don’t get it, we apologize for the many quotes and references to come.)

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, an evil empire of corporations ruled the advertising universe with an iron fist. Okay, this was only a few years ago, but still.

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Fortunately, Mediavine sparked a rebellion that would ultimately dethrone the oligarchs of this industry, restoring balance, efficiency, innovation and integrity to the galaxy.

How did a small band of publishers rise above powers so great they seemed invincible?

Whether you’re a Jedi Master or a padawan, May the Fourth be the day we enlighten you …

“Decide you must, how to serve them best.”

When it comes to digital advertising, most new publishers get their feet wet with Google AdSense. It’s easy to see why; AdSense is as ubiquitous as it is simple.

Sign up for an account, place a few snippets of code here and there on your pages, and the earnings roll in, albeit very slowly. Hey, it’s easy, and better than nothing.

Along the way, you might build on this by signing up with a few other ad networks and have them compete against each other, using a free ad server or plugin.

That’s great! You’re on the right track. In order to maximize earnings, competition is needed. After all, if there are only one or two bidders in an auction, demand for your supply will yield a very inexpensive price – same as with most industries.

More competition leads to increased bid pressure, which will drive up the price for those same ad units. When it comes to digital ad partners, more is more.

Unfortunately, managing multiple partners can very quickly become overwhelming, slowing down your site and cutting into time you could be devoting to content.

Not to mention, many ad managers — including well-established, powerful industry names — lack the transparency, technology and publisher-first focus you need to succeed.

If you only knew the kinds of things these companies do …

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As a premiere ad management company that has helped build thousands of businesses for content creators, Mediavine works with all of the major Supply Side Platforms (SSP) in the industry today. Furthermore, Mediavine is a Google Certified Publishing Partner, a distinction given to only a select handful of companies worldwide.

What this means is that our business practices and technical methodology have been vetted thoroughly, and we have proven ourselves as experts in Google AdSense, DoubleClick Ad Exchange and DoubleClick for Publishers.

All of these resources are integral to meeting the revenue goals for nearly 3,000 publishers. We have done, and continue to do, the heavy lifting on your behalf. By placing your site’s ads under Mediavine’s umbrella, you get to take full advantage.

“Judge me by my size, do you?”

Diminutive Jedi Master Yoda showed Luke Skywalker a thing or 10 about underestimating the little guy, but when it comes to major ad exchanges, size actually does matter.

What advertisers are willing to pay only gets better the more ad inventory you can send their way — and with Mediavine, you’re part of a much greater, ever-growing pool.

You might be thinking, “What difference does it make? My site’s content is still relevant and valuable whether I run my own ads or if Mediavine does it for me.”

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We don’t disagree, but try to think of it from the perspective of an ad buyer looking for the most efficient way to reach a large audience of the most relevant users.

Would you rather search the web, cherry-picking sites that fit the bill regardless of size — or find a giant pool of neatly organized inventory from a known, trusted source?

Understanding and leveraging this fact is precisely why we built our ad technology to scale, and why Mediavine is for big bloggers as well as small.

Nearly 3,000 sites, ranging from 25,000 users to millions per month, have joined us in recent years. With every publisher, our ad inventory becomes more valuable.

Comparing the first quarter of 2017 to 2018, this growth has helped our publishers achieve a 12% increase in eCPM and a 41% increase in average RPM.

“In a dark place we find ourselves, and a little more knowledge lights our way.”

Let’s say you’ve succeeded in setting up some competition for your site’s ads, while growing your audience to the point where programmatic advertisers take notice.

Now would be the time to start analyzing the data to see what is working and where, and maximize earnings accordingly. Sounds simple enough, right? Not so fast.

Remember that CPMs vary wildly based on geographic region, device type, and seasonality. We even see wild swings in CPMs between different types of mobile phones.

There is no magic, “one size fits all” solution to ad inventory pricing.

What Mediavine offers is a dedicated staff dissecting this data each day to decide exactly how to price inventory based on what time of year it is, where each specific user of your site lives, what kind of device they have in their hand, and on and on and on.

Other companies may offer you get-rich-quick ideas that sound great, but aren’t sustainable over the long term and may irreparably hurt your user experience.

Mediavine emphasizes long-term ad optimization and overall website growth, not just empty short-term promises. If someone pitches you on an overly-simple, instantaneous plan that sounds too good to be true, don’t fall for it, because chances are …

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You are in good hands. May the force of our data-driven, holistic approach to ad management be with you on this fourth day of the month, and every day thereafter.

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