We’ve talked at length about first-party data (authenticated traffic) and how Grow helps publishers harness it through a value exchange — offering enhanced user experiences to incentivize readers to log in.
To hold up the publishers’ end of that value exchange and convince readers to authenticate, Grow already offers some awesome tools, features and settings, with many more in the pipeline.
Today, we’re excited to announce our latest setting: Always On.
Leif Lessons
- The new Always On setting has been shown to increase views by 20% and clicks by 30%.
- We’re continuously running A/B tests to help get your content viewed by new readers.
- While Always On will be the default setting for new Grow users in a matter of days, existing Grow users need to opt in.
- Enable the Always On feature in your Mediavine Dashboard today!
Always On Refers to a New Header Carousel Setting
The name of this setting also describes it accurately!
If enabled, “Always On” will display the Recommended Content Header Carousel on your site whenever the user scrolls past a certain point.
The idea behind displaying the carousel once the reader scrolls past the header is — you guessed it — to increase views and clicks on the Carousel.
Based on A/B testing we’ve conducted so far, it definitely works!
Compared to the legacy, or default behavior, sample traffic tested with the Carousel “Always On” showed a significant increase in views and an even more impressive increase in clicks.
How big an increase are we talking about, and how specifically does this new Grow setting work?
Always On vs. Default Behavior
When it first launched, the Grow Header Carousel appeared upon “scroll up” — a tell-tale sign that a user is about to leave your site.
The idea behind launching the Header Carousel was to grab a users’ attention before they split and direct them to other pages on your site.
After launch, we ran an A/B test where we tweaked the behavior slightly in order to see if it would improve performance.
It turns out that a little change went a long way.
The Header Carousel’s test behavior is now the default behavior. It now appears on scroll up but also if a reader idles on page for five seconds. This only happens twice per visit on your site.
Altogether, this functionality adjustment — displaying the carousel during “idle” behavior in addition to when readers scroll up — resulted in a 40% increase in carousel clicks!
Once we saw these results with the functionality, we ran another test, sampling traffic with the Carousel “Always On” overall.
So far, that test has shown a 20% increase in views and an even more impressive 30% increase in clicks!
Wow, Sam, How Do I Enable This?
Glad you asked!
If you’re already running Grow and want to try this new setting out, just navigate to your Mediavine Dashboard, visit the Grow settings page and look for the “Always On” setting under Recommended Content.
For new users of Grow, this will be a default functionality, so no action is required to have your Header Carousel display always on.
New to Grow?
If you’re new to Grow, well, you may be wondering what any of this means or simply what is Grow for that matter.
The shortest answer is that Grow is Mediavine’s end-to-end audience engagement solution, loaded with dynamic features designed to streamline the process of connecting, engaging and nurturing your audience relationships in one place.
But, as we touched on above, there’s a lot more that goes into that.
From a user standpoint, Grow is a user engagement suite that makes websites so superior you’ll actually want to make an account to enjoy improved experiences — personalized ads and all.
Reaching its potential requires your feedback, both as beta testers and publishing community members, now and down the line.
Grow Needs Your Feedback
Just like Mediavine’s ad tech, our Grow product team is continuously testing and tweaking its features for optimal performance.
We need your help to ensure we’re building the right features that work the right way and to get readers to log in and authenticate ASAP.
If you’re already a user, you rock. Please feel free to send us an email with your thoughts at Grow.me@mediavine.com anytime.
If you’re on the fence, what are you waiting for?
It’s free for Mediavine publishers, and you can help us shape the future of a more sustainable and open web, right here and now.
