How This Network of Radio Stations Grew Revenue After Joining RebelMouse

Introduction

Photo by Sašo Tušar on Unsplash

Audacy is a leading media and entertainment network in North America, composed of 205 radio stations, covering music, news, and sports.

Since migrating to RebelMouse, Audacy has seen significant growth from a reveune standpoint. RebelMouse manages ads across the Audacy Listen App website, Audacy Radio stations news pages, Video, and Newsletters.

The Solution

Our collaboration with Audacy focused on key advertising optimizations that delivered an immediate revenue impact across their entire network.

Notably, ad viewability has climbed past 90%, while programmatic ad revenue has more than doubled.

Ad fill rates have reached an outstanding ~95%, meaning nearly all ad requests are monetized; any remaining unmonetized requests are filled with Public Service Announcement banners.

Let's explore the specific elements of ad revenue that were enhanced through these improvements.

Newsletters

The strategic improvements made to the newsletter channel completely turned its performance around. Despite experiencing a decline in the total volume of newsletter sends, this segment shifted from a negative-margin operation into a highly profitable revenue driver.

Key achievements from these newsletter optimizations include:

• 180% Programmatic Revenue Expansion: Programmatic ad revenue grew by 180%, performing 2.8 times higher than it did prior to the adjustments.
• 90% Reduction in Serving Fees: Operational delivery and serving fees for newsletters plummeted by 90%, representing an almost tenfold reduction in costs.
• ~978% Growth in Total Ad Revenue: Overall advertising revenue from newsletters saw an exceptional increase of nearly 978%.

Video Ads on Audacy Radio Listen App Website (A2)

Programmatic video ad revenue increased since the move to RebelMouse on May 1, 2026:

Direct-Sold Video: We have introduced station-level targeting capabilities for direct-sold video ads on A2, enabling a display format that was previously unavailable.

Prior to this implementation, Audacy exclusively executed direct video campaigns on the A1 property, while A2 was completely programmatic. Following the migration to the RebelMouse platform on May 1, 2026, programmatic video ad revenue on A2 saw an immediate increas

Although video ad inventory experienced a significant decline on the new Audacy News website, we successfully mitigated this impact by introducing custom station-level targeting capabilities for direct-sold video ads on the A2 Listen App website, enabling a display format that was previously unavailable on this platform. By establishing this targeting framework, we ensured that direct-sold video ads stabilized and sustained a consistent volume of around 200,000 ad impressions per month, ensuring that the sales department can seamlessly continue selling and maximizing video inventory.

In-content ads on Audacy news website (A1)

Following the removal of Teads, Audacy A1 is projected to achieve a 100% revenue uplift from in-content ad monetization.

This growth is primarily driven by the previous provider's inability to maintain a high fill rate. Under the former configuration, there were only two ad units that were predominantly filled with video ads, which resulted in a poor user experience. Consequently, even though eCPMs were higher in the past, overall revenue was 50% lower compared to current performance, and user experience is way better now, without video ads in content.

Example of the new in-content ad:

Ad and Cost Efficiency Analysis on A2

Monetization ad fill rates for ad requests were significantly constrained under the previous advertising configuration, typically remaining below 10% and fluctuating between a low of 5.85% and a peak of 12.45%. This imbalance is exemplified by January 2025 data, where only 26.6 million ad impressions were filled out of a total that left approximately 300 million impressions unfilled. Operational costs became disproportionately high as a result, because Google Ad Manager (GAM) serving fees are levied against both filled and unfilled impressions.

Recent optimizations to the ad configuration and underlying code have fundamentally transformed these outcomes, with monetization now exceeding 98% of all ad requests.

The remnant 2% of inventory is utilized for Ad Council Public Service Announcements (PSAs). By leveraging unsold inventory for these mission-driven messages, the brand reinforces its social responsibility while ensuring a high-quality user experience and protecting its overall reputation.

With the recent optimized ad configuration and fixed ad codes on the Audacy A2 SPA website, we now have optimized the ad viewability rate to above 90% which is considered an excellent result in the ad industry.

Ultimately, the programmatic ad revenue increased by 222.49%, which is more than 3 times.

A1 programmatic revenue

Historical data indicates that ad revenue for the Audacy A1 news property — following its migration to the RebelMouse CMS platform — experienced a 70.5% surge.

* Please note: This analysis excludes the in-content ad performance that launched on June 1, 2026.

This kind of growth is in line with what we’ve seen with other publishers and shows you the opportunity partnering with us on ads. Whether it's continuous month-to-month audits or other efforts to build up mission-based brands like Common Dreams, The Fulcrum,, Vault12, and others, we go well beyond revenue generation. Want to work with us? Get in touch.