Case Study
General Mills Captures Premium Ad Dollars with a Simple Above-the-Fold Shift
General Mills connects with millions of consumers through email newsletters across beloved brands like Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Tablespoon, and Box Tops for Education. As part of their monetization strategy, they partnered with Zeta to optimize newsletter ad performance and boost revenue without compromising user experience.
The Challenge
General Mills wanted to maximize advertising revenue from their email newsletters. The goal: improve monetization without disrupting subscriber engagement or the editorial experience. At the time, all ad placements were located at the bottom of each newsletter, which limited exposure and revenue potential.
The Solution
Zeta analyzed newsletter layouts and recommended repositioning ad units to higher-impact locations. Working closely with the General Mills team, Zeta introduced a multi-size, above-the-fold ad unit. This prime placement attracted premium bids and justified a higher CPM floor. To maintain quality, the ad unit was collapsible, serving only when high-value bids were available.
To ensure a subscriber-friendly experience, General Mills ran controlled tests on lower-volume newsletters. The results showed no negative impact on subscriptions or engagement, just stronger monetization metrics. Encouraged by this performance, they rolled out the optimized ad unit across all major newsletters.
