Gear Up for Growth: December Strategies to Set Your Publishing Business Up for 2025 Success

December isn’t just the end of the year; it’s your last chance to make a big impact and pave the way for a stellar 2025. Whether you’re wrapping up your Q4 goals or planting seeds for future growth, this month offers unparalleled opportunities to fine-tune your performance, deepen audience connections, and maximize revenue potential.

With a little strategic planning, December can go from a scramble to tie loose ends into the launchpad for your most successful year yet. From performance metrics to consumer relationships and ad optimization, here’s how to turn year-end challenges into game-changing wins.

1. Assessing Your Current Performance

A thorough performance assessment is your launchpad for crushing 2025 goals and maximizing the final month of the year. With countless KPIs to choose from, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed; but focusing on the right metrics can transform your strategy from good to unstoppable, especially when you consider the KPIs that project your chances for longterm consumer relationships. Here are some of the key indicators that matter most for publishers aiming to level up their game:

Engagement Metrics:

• Time on Page: Do your consumers diligently review your articles, or are they skimming and skimping out? A strong result for time on a page varies by industry, but 50-60 seconds is generally considered ideal. That said, if your site is a news site, you may aim to have more time spent reviewing your content.
• Scroll Depth: This will help understand if your articles are genuinely being read. 60-80 percent scroll depth is ideal – if your pages are regularly only at the 40 percent mark, you may want to reevaluate if your content is truly inspiring your ideal audience. Or, this may indicate that you are not targeting the right audience to your site.

Traffic Metrics:

• Bounce Rate: Are you grabbing the attention of your unique and returning visitors? A bounce rate of 41-55 percent is considered the average for a Publisher, though anything above 26 percent is generally considered good.
• Page Views: Have you developed enough of a solid experience to inspire a reader to continue on to more articles beyond what they first reviewed? This will determine the likelihood of subscription and return visits. If one article read leads to another, that indicates strong content and a solid user experience. Utilizing related article links that are highly segmented and category-specific can catapult this metric.

Conversion Metrics:

• Subscriber Growth: Are your readers so captivated by your content that they are asking to hear more from you, and to email you when you post something new? The median subscriber rate for digital publishers, according to McKinsey, hovers around 10 percent.

2. Strengthening Consumer Relationships

December is an ideal time to fortify relationships with your new and existing readers and subscribers before the new year. Personalized outreach can make the difference between retaining clients or losing them in 2025. Consumers receive countless generic messages daily, so to develop a solid relationship this month, a simple “Happy Holidays” email won’t suffice.

Ways to Personalize Outreach over December:

• Sneak Peeks: Offer a glimpse into the projects and upcoming major headlines you are planning to launch in 2025, giving your consumers a reason to return back to you.
• Specialized Holiday Themes: Break out of the same-old messaging with some unique content ideas that will solicit community engagement. Offer a recipe book featuring favorite dishes from members in your office, or promote gift-giving guides – even if that is not a normal cadence to your content, it will be well received.
• Year in Review: Everyone is anxiously waiting for their Spotify Wrapped, and Spotify’s year-end digital campaign is a true masterclass in developing relationships with your readers. You can create your own “Spotify Wrapped” moment by emailing your subscribers a recap of articles they’ve read, or your top trending content pieces throughout 2024. You can even personalize the email by thanking your subscribers for being an evangelist to you, all via dynamic messaging that will make them feel like it’s a personalized message you have delivered just for them.

3. Optimize Ad Setup for Increased Revenue Generation

Optimizing your ad setup is crucial for enhancing revenue generation, especially during high-traffic periods such as December. Strategic ad placement and appropriate density are key factors in this optimization process. While it’s best for you to leave this in the hands of your AdTech partner, here are a few things you should consider in your ad monetization strategy:

Ad Placement and Density

Strategically positioning ads can significantly impact user engagement and earnings. It’s essential to focus on the technical aspects of ad insertion to maintain a fast, user-friendly experience. Consumers will want to be inspired by your ads, not distracted; that’s what makes it so important to ensure that the ads you implement are complimenting your content.

Ad Sizes

Advertisers have unique size preferences, and by offering a dynamic range of ad formats, you can attract more bids, meet diverse advertiser needs, and unlock maximum earnings. Consider the variety of sizes you have within your ad placements and work with your monetization partner to strengthen where needed.

Ad Density

Tailoring ad density to your specific content type is vital. For instance, long-form blog content may accommodate ads every few paragraphs, whereas list-based content might require a different approach to avoid overwhelming users. Adjusting ad placement settings based on content structure and user preferences ensures a balanced distribution of ads, enhancing user experience and revenue potential.

Ad Placement

Implementing exclusion filters prevents ads from appearing in inappropriate or undesirable locations on your site, such as author boxes or homepage tiles. By configuring these filters, you maintain a clean and professional appearance while benefitting from ad revenue.

Ad Variety

Finally, it’s important to consider the variety of ads offered throughout your site. Video ads are increasing in popularity, while interactive CTV ads are also providing unique experiences that drive conversion. Work with your ad monetization expert to determine where you can have a better ad mix that will produce more revenue for you.

December isn’t just about ending the year on a high note. It’s a month where publishers can re-engage and reignite their consumers to lay the groundwork for longterm success in 2025. By assessing your performance, strengthening relationships, and optimizing ad placements, you can set the stage for a breakthrough new year.

For more on trends that are transforming the AdTech space for publishers in 2025, check out our 2025 AdTech Forecast.