Advertising on Quartz grew by 400 percent in past year

Jay Lauf, the publisher of the business news site Quartz, writes on Medium about its advertising strategy and provides some data on how it has grown.

Lauf writes, “The rich interactivity of the digital media consumption experience combined with the lush image quality that we’re now able to render on any piece of glass gives us the opportunity to draw in and delight users like never before. So why are so many of us squandering this opportunity with terrible experiences? Publishing and advertising were once proudly known as two of the most creative industries in the world. I pose that it is beneath us to settle for a lowest-common-denominator user experience in the pursuit of myopic, incremental revenue streams—rather, it is our obligation to advance the medium for our readers, which in turn will open up stronger, more sustainable revenue streams.

“At Quartz, we’re seeing the results of our attempts to aim high:

1. Revenue growth: Between Q1 2013 and Q1 2014, Quartz revenue from advertising grew 426%.

2. Advertiser growth: During this same period, the number of ad campaigns running on Quartz grew 320%.

3. Advertiser satisfaction: 80+% of Quartz advertisers have returned for future campaigns.

“Our large ad formats, natively embedded within the reader experience, coupled with our higher standards for content marketing are leading to more shares, interactions, and yes, even clicks. By orienting ourselves around the user’s experience, we’re able to introduce effective advertising into it, and thereby justify a more sustainable pricing model. The resulting feedback loop is a positive one: happier users, better advertising, fairer pricing models, and investment into continuous improvement. I’m determined that we as an industry can break the cycle of cynicism in the pursuit of a path more worthy of our efforts and imaginations. But first, we must aim higher.”