Content is no longer King. The game has changed. In a new era of the web, Audience is King. There is a new kid on the block. In a tumultuous year, large numbers of niche sites met their demise with Google’s Helpful Content update. But honestly, publishers should have seen this coming. With a flood of new AI generated content entering the web, Google had to find a new way of ranking content. Unfortunately, niche sites suffered. However, Google hasn’t. Using AI overviews – Google is keeping users and eyeballs on Google.com, longer…
In this piece, I aim to highlight how the web has changed and how publishers can adapt. As the dust settles, there is a new path forward. Audiences are key. If built and used properly, a new cream of publishers will rise to the top.
Is Google Really Taking My Website Traffic?
Google’s reaction to keep up with both new AI content flooding the web and a new foe in ChatGPT, was the creation of their own AI Overview. Google AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that appear in Google Search results to help users quickly understand information from multiple sources.
They are basically the new Google snippets and it turns out, users like them. In fact, nearly 74% of users today now like to see some form of AI generated information in search results. As a result, website search engine visibility has decreased as more and more search queries now include AI overviews. This means publisher owned websites are falling further down the rankings below AI overviews. Google did throw publisher’s a lifeboat by including links to relevant website sources. However, it’s hardly enough. The results of AI overviews are often good enough that users no longer have to click into web search results.
For example, pull out your phone and go to Google.com. Enter the search phrase ‘best things to do in San Diego.’
The top items before any search result include an AI Overview with popular San Diego attractions like Balboa Park, San Diego Zoo and USS Midway. Now, I live in San Diego. These results aren’t bad especially if you are a tourist. Consequently, most users are now satisfied with this result and are less likely to click links to visit publisher websites.
In exchange, Google is getting more engagement on their own property and more ad dollars in search results. It makes it tough for the little guy who can no longer rely on a search engine as a primary traffic source.
Build Your Own Audience
With the decline of search, an owned audience is king. Sure, you can try building a Facebook following, YouTube channel, or even TikTok. I’m not saying don’t do this but at the end of the day – you are still at the mercy of a third party. These third parties can change their algorithms at any time and upend your traffic. A truly owned audience is one that you have a direct connection with. This can be achieved through building a newsletter.
Create content so valuable and trustworthy that people are willing to sign up or subscribe. Ensure that you have clear, visible call to actions making it easy for people to subscribe. You also might want to consider giving away something ‘free’ to encourage users to sign up.
At the start of building your user base, running a paid Facebook campaign to encourage sign ups is a popular option. You could even consider buying an existing newsletter on marketplaces like Flippa.
A final option is creating some form of user authentication on your website where users are required to register/login to access exclusive content or make comments.
Cultivating an audience you own is important because I always say, ‘Build traffic once, drive traffic forever.’ Consider that each and every time you send out a newsletter, you are driving more traffic and eyeballs to your website. If you use an email service provider like Beehiiv, you can easily create email sequences that automatically send newsletters at your frequency of choice.
Why Advertisers Pay More for a Unique Audience?
Newsletters will not only provide you a consistent stream of traffic but also users arriving to your website through this medium will have a significantly higher RPM than other sources. Allow me to explain…
Normally, third party cookies did a good enough job of retargeting users with relevant ads. Unfortunately, these same 3rd party cookies that Internet advertising was built on are beginning to be phased out. They have already disappeared on popular browsers like Safari. As a result, RPMs (revenue per mille) have fallen significantly on Safari. The jury is still out on how long they will be kept around on Chrome.
The end result is publishers are getting paid less for ads on their websites. However, advertisers are also smartening up. They are looking for alternatives to 3rd party cookies. The solution is 1st party data. The same users that are now arriving to your website through your newsletter are incredibly valuable to advertisers, whom are now willing to paying top dollar for them. Why you ask? Because a unique, specific audience is more valuable than a generic, broad audience. With 1st party data, advertisers can now neatly fit their brand/product to a demographic with a high likelihood to buy.
Even if you are still in the early stages of building your newsletter audience, a small subscribed audience can still pay dividends. This is because advertisers will make the assumption that your remaining audience (not subscribed) is of a similar demographic to the same unique, subscribed audience. As such, advertisers will pay more for your entire audience and you’ll see a lift in RPMs on display ads sitewide.
Now, forward thinking publishers that are cultivating their own unique audience are positioned to be paid more for display ads than they ever thought possible.
Audience is King with 1st Party Data Solutions
If you build it, they will come…
The final piece of the puzzle is connecting the unique audience you have built to advertisers willing to pay top dollar for it. Without doing this part, the value of your audience cannot be extracted by advertisers. In today’s privacy centric world – the user data you collect (email addresses), by law, has to be passed to advertisers anonymously and in a privacy compliant manner. This is a challenge in itself.
Fortunately, many of the top ad networks also realized the value of 1st party audience data and created 1st party data solutions that solve and simplify this process for you. Personally, I use ezID from Ezoic. The results have been off the charts. My unique, subscribed audience is paying more and users are for more engaged.
Finally, I understand why audience is king 🙂
Reclaiming your Audience & Revenue Strategy
If you have a content site, the game hasn’t ended.
You just need to be smart and shift your strategy to own your audience and revenue using the strategies shared in this article. With a subscriber base and 1st party data, you will unlock the value of your audience. Armed with these strategies, you can now grow your existing business or increase your website’s multiple if preparing for an exit on Flippa. The new king is audience. Welcome back.
Feel free to reach out if you want my advice.