In the fast-paced world of news publishing, timing is everything. The sooner you can get your content in front of an audience, the better your chances of engaging them. Being the first to report can lead to more traffic, signups, and subscriptions. This is especially true for breaking news, where the first-mover advantage can make or break a campaign, organic posting, or newsletter’s success. With the resurgence of breaking news growth in the past few months, and with the anticipation of the upcoming election, we sought out new innovative and data-driven solutions to help get breaking news stories into ads quicker than ever before.In this blog post, we’ll try to break down the opportunity, our solution, and how we measure it’s (great) success.
The First-Mover Advantage in Advertising
In any industry, the first-mover advantage is often the key to success. In advertising, especially in the context of breaking news, being first to hit the right audience with your content is critical. Engaging with users early boosts the chances of achieving a high click-through rate, as the news remains fresh and relevant. This freshness also enhances the story’s perceived value, making readers more likely to convert, whether by subscribing or signing up for emails. By taking this approach, there’s a good chance of significantly reducing costs due to the combined effects of increased engagement and conversion rates. Our recent data study quantifies just how crucial this timing is. By selecting and pushing breaking news within the first hour, publishers using Keywee’s automation tool saw an 80% increase in click-through rates (CTR). What typically yields a 2% CTR increased to 3.6% when urgency and the high value of exclusive reports were factored in.
The Experiment: Turning News into Action
With that in mind, how did we go about building the tool, and what were the challenges? First, we had to figure out how a story qualified as breaking news that was relevant and likely to perform well. The solution was an internal qualification system, which included building baseline scores for each Facebook page we work with to identify what topics, initial engagements, audiences, keywords, and more performed well. Based on these results, stories would then be selected for promotion using a combination of past performance data, topic relevance, keyword analysis, audience insights, and initial organic results. With the creation of this baseline, publishers could then decide whether to automate the breaking news promotion process completely, or use curated content to push their stories.
We aimed to demonstrate the value of rapidly promoting a breaking story. Our hypothesis was that the first 48 hours would show significantly higher performance, justifying the need to get stories up and running as quickly as possible.
To measure the full impact of our tool, we conducted an experiment across a range of campaigns, focusing on various types of breaking news. From political events to sports coverage to entertainment news, we selected content that we knew would resonate with audiences when delivered promptly.
During the first 48 hours, we tracked critical metrics like conversion rates (CVR), cost per acquisition (CPA), click-through rates (CTR), and cost per click (CPC). The results were compelling—CVR for events like email acquisition and paid subscriptions during this window was significantly higher, while CPA remained impressively low. However, when the same content was promoted over the next three days, costs started to increase, and the campaign’s effectiveness diminished. This sharp contrast ultimately underscored the power of immediacy in breaking news.
Why Timing Matters: Breaking News and User Behavior
So, why is it important to get stories up and running in the first 48 hours? As we saw, breaking news captures attention because it’s fresh, relevant, and urgent. During the first 48 hours, audiences are more likely to follow through with subscribing, sharing, or purchasing because they perceive the content as timely and important. The urgency of accessing news right now amplifies the value of a subscription, as users recognize the worth of paying for immediate and exclusive access, especially when faced with a paywall. This heightened sense of value justifies the investment, turning frustration into a realization of the benefits that come with a subscription. Waiting even a day longer to promote breaking news content can result in missed opportunities, higher costs, and lower engagement.
Insights on Effective Topics
While political content naturally lends itself to this approach due to its inherent urgency, the breaking news automation tool isn’t limited to just one genre. We’ve seen similar successes with content related to major industry changes, financial reports, and even cultural moments. The key is to identify stories with high impact potential and act fast.
