About Times Higher Education…

Times Higher Education (THE) is a global authority on higher education, providing data, news, and rankings for universities, students, and industry. They are known for their annual World University Rankings and other subject and regional rankings, which assess universities across key areas like teaching, research, and international outlook. THE also offers insights, consulting, news, events, and job boards to help universities, students, and governments make informed decisions and improve performance.

Situation

The publisher was working with a provider  who was only running Prebid and not reaching monthly potential. They were also seeking a way to offer richer data segments to ad buyers and boost direct revenue. At the same time, they were purchasing their Google Ad Manager (GAM) access through their provider,  therefore paying additional high fees.

Challenge

THE faced several obstacles to revenue growth. Their existing Prebid setup was basic, leaving significant demand and yield on the table. Meanwhile, accessing GAM through a third party came at a disproportionately high cost relative to the value delivered.
Editorial concerns added complexity, with strict limits on certain high-yield formats like rich media and sticky placements, requiring a monetisation strategy that balanced performance with user experience.The key challenge was to clearly demonstrate how a fully optimised ad stack could overcome these issues—delivering better results within their constraints—and to communicate this value in a transparent, compelling way.

Solution

Our recommendation was to transition Times Higher Education (THE) onto a fully managed service, enabling Content Ignite to take complete ownership of their ad stack and deliver a more sophisticated, performance-driven setup. This included optimising GAM, implementing a strengthened Prebid configuration, and introducing additional high-quality demand sources tailored to THE’s audience and editorial standards.

By refining the technical foundation and removing unnecessary operational overheads, we aimed to create  a cleaner, more efficient environment designed to maximise the value of their growing traffic. This optimisation-first approach would ensure  better yield from every impression, greater access to premium programmatic demand, and a setup resilient to shifts in platform policies.

Most importantly, these improvements would establish the conditions for sustainable, scalable revenue growth, while simultaneously achieving major uplifts across core performance metrics.

Results

As Times Higher Education (THE) focused on driving higher levels of traffic, Content Ignite refined and optimised their advertising setup to ensure the publisher could fully capitalise on the increased footfall. This work unlocked substantial improvements across all major performance indicators, with revenue, delivery and efficiency metrics all climbing sharply.

The uplift in performance also strengthened THE’s ability to secure more valuable Direct Campaigns, supported by a significantly more robust and scalable monetisation framework. Improvements to header bidding further reduced the publisher’s reliance on Google as a single revenue source, offering greater stability and protection against unexpected policy or algorithm changes.

THE rated Content Ignite’s service as 5 out of 5, reinforcing the strength of the relationship and the ongoing strategic value the team provides. The collaborative nature of the partnership has been a key driver of success, with both teams working closely to optimise performance and continuously improve outcomes.

Testimonial

“Having been in discussions with the team at Content Ignite for many months; we finally got a window of opportunity to begin integration. The integration process was exceptionally well managed and went very smoothly. Although we’ve only had data flowing into Fusion for a few weeks we’ve already identified numerous revenue opportunities whilst not compromising the user experience (and all actionable without dev/ engineer assistance). Ad quality has also seen a marked improvement. On day one of go-live we were also able to begin building numerous custom audience segments, substantially increasing our targeting options for our direct clients whilst opening several conversations with exchange partners. We’re now in the process of rolling out Fusion to all group properties. Would I recommend speaking to the team at Content Ignite… 100%” 

Matthew Clancy

Creative Services Director, Times Higher Education

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