Univision

UnivisionCase study : Univision : www.univision.com

Business

Univision Online, Inc. is the interactive division of Univision Communications Inc. (NYSE:UVN), the premier Spanish-language media company in the United States. Univision Online owns and operates the most visited Spanish-language Internet destination in the U.S., located at www.univision.com. Each day, users visit Univision.com nearly 850,000 times, accessing everything from the latest entertainment and sports news to classified ads and reader forums. Univision Online, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Univision Communications Inc. Univision Communications Inc’s portfolio includes television, radio, music and Internet offerings that entertain and inform more Hispanics each day than any other media company in the country. Television operations include the Univision Network, TeleFutura Network, Galavisión, and Univision and TeleFutura Television Groups. Other operations include Univision Radio and Univision Music Group.

Approach

“We’ve had significantly better results since switching to Google. Google helps us monetize our site better.”

Javier SaraleguiPresident of Univision Online

Maximizing revenue from its popular online property is one of Univision’s chief goals. Univision Online discovered early on that contextual ads are a meaningful way to do just that. As a result, Univision.com began delivering contextual ads in January 2004. Although the ads immediately generated income, Univision Online sought to increase revenue even further, as well as improve click-through rates and ad quality. “We were doing relatively well with contextual advertising,” recalls Charles Walter, Director of Product Development for Univision Online. “But we also had a suspicion that we could improve our metrics manifold, including click-through rates, revenue per thousand impressions and overall income.”

In addition to boosting revenues, Univision Online sought to ensure that they delivered ads that were relevant, tasteful and useful to visitors – ads that meshed well with the content and site design of Univision.com. Among the biggest considerations was the ability to deliver a mix of ads in both English and Spanish. This is especially important because of the prominence of the Spanish language among the more than 40 million US Hispanics. The US Hispanic population makes up approximately 14 percent of the total U.S. population, and is driving the nation’s population growth. Analysts predict advertisers will spend more than $3.4 billion this year to get their attention.

With these goals in mind, Univision began investigating contextual advertising more fully and changed ad vendors, implementing Google AdSense for Search and AdSense for Content in June 2005.

Results

Walter reports that it was easy to get up and running with AdSense, and that AdSense “runs itself.” According to Walter, Google ads are highly appropriate. He notes that he was immediately impressed with Google’s content matching and ability to crawl the Univision website with unmatched accuracy.

In terms of revenue, the Univision team immediately saw positive results. Gauging the success of AdSense a year later, Univision has seen AdSense for Search revenues grow by 160 percent. Revenue from both Google AdSense for Search and AdSense for Content increased by 103 percent. Univision has subsequently expanded its use of Google tools by implementing site targeting with the goal of attracting advertisers who want to promote their brand specifically to Univision’s highly sought after user base.

“We’ve had significantly better results since switching to Google,” said Javier Saralegui, President of Univision Online. “Google helps us monetize our site better.”
For Univision, AdSense has become an exceptional complement to traditional advertising. It produces revenue without requiring an internal sales staff, providing a way to fill ad space at lower fixed costs and letting smaller advertisers benefit from the broad reach of Univision Online.

“Google is an important strategic partner,” says Saralegui. “Not only are we pleased with the relationship, but we believe both users and marketers on our site are benefiting as well.”

About Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to specific web content and search pages. With service levels ranging from online sign-up to dedicated support management, a broad range of sites profit from AdSense. Thousands of Google advertisers also benefit from AdSense by gaining exposure on sites across the Google Network, which includes many of the Top 100 Media Metrix sites such as AOL, About.com, Amazon, Ask.com, and Lycos.