Case Study: Mediahuis achieves 27% of ad sales and 26% higher CTR with Piano

How Piano Helped Mediahuis Achieve a 26% Higher CTR with Targeted Campaigns

Mediahuis, the leading European publisher behind 40+ news, classified and career sites in Belgium and the Netherlands, reached nearly 70% of a 6.4 million population (4.4 million registered readers) and 320 million monthly pageviews but lacked the data literacy and platform technology to unify siloed audience data. The publisher wanted an ad experience with the granularity of Facebook and Google while offering service and flexibility global platforms could not—so they partnered with Piano to bridge that gap. “Our digital strategy is reader-centric, with a focus on selling subscriptions,” says Mediahuis strategy director Geert Desager. “That doesn’t mean no advertising — it means the advertising needs to be more personalized, more relevant. That’s where Piano and their approach to data come in.”

Using Piano’s out-of-the-box DMP plus AI/ML and a dedicated data-science team, Mediahuis unified first‑party data, built niche audience segments and launched audience-matching and retargeted campaigns (including a native ad case for an insurer). The results: ~25% CTR on re‑targeted native ads, a 16% traffic lift to the advertiser during the campaign with ~60% of those readers converting onsite, targeted campaigns now make up 27% of ad sales, and CTRs are 26% higher than non-targeted campaigns; Piano’s API also automated data uploads. “We don’t use our advertisers’ data for our own or a third party’s benefit,” Desager says.

Mediahuis

Geert Desager

Strategy Director