The challenge 

HK Discuss (discuss.com.hk) is Hong Kong’s top online discussion forum with over 5 million monthly visitors. Although Oscar Leung, HK Discuss’ director, has used Google Ad Manager for years, his team struggled to tap into the private marketplace (PMP) budget of programmatic buyers due to the growing demand to reach hard-to-find audiences. HK Discuss wanted to build a strategy  to make their unique audiences available to buyers in the private marketplace. 

The approach

HK Discuss partnered with Acqua Media, a Google Certified Publishing Partner in Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, and Australia, to help them attract more Private Marketplace (PMP) budgets from top advertisers. Acqua Media first consulted with agency trading desks to understand what audiences advertisers wanted to reach and the performance requirements of these agencies. Then Acqua Media helped HK Discuss adjust their Ad Manager setup to create audiences that advertisers wanted to reach the most HK Discuss then promoted their content on its social media pages to increase user engagement with their most valuable content. 

The results

From January 2018 to August 2018, the campaigns using the new setup performed with 70% higher CTRs. The campaign effectiveness also increased to 80% , surpassing HK Discuss’ original goal of 70% campaign effectiveness. Going forward, HK Discuss will continue participating in PMP campaigns.