Graham Media Group boosts monetization and auction performance with Mile
Graham Media Group (GMG) is a local media company and subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company, operating seven television stations and a growing digital portfolio across the U.S.
Through its digital arm, Graham Digital, and tools like Social News Desk, GMG extends its reach across web and social media platforms. With a mobile-first audience and significant Safari traffic, GMG focuses on providing a seamless user experience while improving programmatic revenue.
Managing hundreds of millions of monthly ad opportunities across multiple properties, GMG was navigating increasing complexity in auction management, partner integrations, and browser-related constraints.
To address growing Safari traffic, stricter privacy regulations, and increasing auction complexity, the team aimed to streamline operations and gain greater control across their programmatic stack to support long-term revenue performance.
They were looking to:
GMG needed to improve match rates and increase bid density in cookieless environments like Safari.
After implementation, Safari Session RPM increased by 46%, and Session RPM across cookieless environments improved by 40%, driving stronger monetization outcomes across high-value inventory.
To expand revenue channels and reduce reliance on client-side demand, GMG aimed to activate server-side bidding across its properties while maintaining control over user experience and partner overlap.
After implementation,Server side contributed to nearly 10% of GMG’s programmatic revenue.
GMG’s auction setup included redundant paths through Open Bidding, making it harder to control demand routing, enforce floor prices, and optimize revenue.
After implementation, GMG saw an 18% increase in fill rate and a 36% lift in monetization opportunities per session (MIPS) between January and March 2025.
GMG needed a way to protect inventory value, improve bid competitiveness, and build a data-backed foundation for future yield optimization.
After implementation, Mile’s dynamic flooring drove an estimated 6% lift contributing to incremental revenue.
GMG needed to mitigate the risk of keyword-based blocking from SSPs without negatively impacting yield.
This approach protected GMG’s inventory reputation while allowing for a controlled, data-driven rollout of the URL throttling strategy.
The previous video vendor’s aggressive refresh rates, low-CPM display units, and non-transparent bidder prioritization were degrading GMG’s auction quality and risking domain reputation.
By working with Mile, GMG achieved measurable improvements across monetization, auction performance, and inventory health.
After implementing all of Mile’s optimizations, GMG saw a 35% increase in total programmatic revenue and a 57% lift in Session RPM between January and March 2025.
Instant Revenue Insights
Monitor performance in real time across 30+ metrics and 20+ dimensions. Track everything from session RPM to alternative ID effectiveness.
Risk Free A/B Testing
Run experiments on ad layouts, refresh rates, and bidder partners without disrupting your current setup. Make confident decisions backed by data.
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It offers a breakdown of today’s identity landscape, how to to integrate ID solutions, and how publishers are activating them across their stacks.
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