Case Study: The Economist achieves 4X subscription revenue growth with Lytics

4X Growth in Subscription Revenue

The Economist, a 175-year-old global news publisher, faced the modern challenge of digital disruption: retaining current readers and converting new, younger audiences in a crowded news market. To stay relevant and scale subscriptions, they needed better personalization and smarter audience targeting to increase engagement and subscription conversion.

Working with Lytics, The Economist implemented a customer data platform with a content-affinity engine, behavioral scoring and predictive models, built content hubs and a student-focused segment (.edu/IP/title plus high propensity to subscribe), and ran multichannel campaigns on Facebook, Snapchat and Google. The results were dramatic: subscription revenue quadrupled over three years, return on ad spend improved 37%, cost per acquisition fell 80%, digital subscriptions grew 3x, one campaign hit a 9% CTR, onsite conversions were 5–10x higher for targeted audiences, and 35% of ad-driven subscribers were millennials.

The Economist

Steve Lok

Global Head of Martech