Ancestry.com has evolved its programmatic media buying quickly from a direct-response vehicle to a message-based storytelling channel that impacts both branding and sales at a higher level. Director of Display and Content Marketing Riddhi Goradia explores how the company is getting closer to both the technology and the data in order to get richer messages directly to potential customers. She will illustrate how a deeper, more personalized content strategy, distributed programmatically, ultimately grows acquisition and loyalty.

1. Ancestry’s Evolving Content Strategy in a
Programmatic World
Riddhi Goradia, Director, Display and Content Marketing
August 22, 2016

2. Agenda
I. Introduction
II. Programmatic Challenges
III. Questions Confronting Us
IV. Old Ad Experience- DR style
V. New Experience- Content Based
Messaging
VI. Learnings
VII. Looking Ahead

3. 3
Ancestry Introduction
Ancestry is the global leader in family history research and consumer
genomics. We are dedicated to helping everyone discover, preserve
and share their family history.
● 10 Brands, presence in 9 markets
● Core family history business has 2.4 MM paying subscribers
 >18 Billion historical records
 >80 Million family trees containing >8 Billion profiles
● DNA business is up and coming, and over 2MM people have taken
the test

4. Wealth of First-Party Data for Targeting
4
●Technology platforms brought onboard to tap into unique 1st
party data for programmatic purposes
●Opportunity for incredible depth and detail of targeting,
including targeting based on:
 Days remaining in Trial
 Nodes on customer tree
 Search counts and Record Types
 Content Views and Deny Activity
 Login Frequency

5. Despite Rich Data, Programmatic Performance
Faced Challenges
● Programmatic presence included
using common-place retargeting
techniques
● Hyper-targeted segments followed
site visitors everywhere
4

6. Diminishing Returns were Becoming Evident
● Lower-quality inventory, ‘Viewability’ issues
● ‘Banner blindness’ and ad blocking limited click rates
● CTR is a key influencer of CPC, lower CTR means higher CPC which affects CPA negatively
● View based measurement not validated in macro models
● Business unclear of value; lower budgets
6
Cost per
Acquisition
(CPA)
Cost per
Click
(CPC)
Conversion
Rate

7. Questions Confronting Us
● Are we using technology market to consumers in a
smart way?
● Are we being too literal in our messaging by
bombarding users with exactly what they saw on
our website?
7

8. ● Old way of messaging focusing on 14-day Free Trial assumed a certain
familiarity with the brand
● Potentially excluded users who were not in the mind-set of exploring
their family history
● Banner focused only
Old Direct Response Ad Experience
8

9. 9
Content-Based Messaging drove an Improved
Ad Experience
● Move away from 14-day
Free Trial opened things
up in terms of targeting
● “Last Names” theme
resonates with
EVERYONE; inspirational
● Creative iterations
included driving
messaging to content on
our blog
● Move to native platforms

10. Improved Ad Experience, Improved Economics
10
● Broader audience did impacted Conversion rates
● But economics were still positive
● Subscriber growth
● Acquisition Cost reduced 23%
$0.00
$50.00
$100.00
$150.00
$200.00
$250.00
$300.00
$350.00
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
AcquisitionCost/Subscriber
SubscriberGrowth
Month/Year
Subscriber Growth & Acquisition Cost Decline

11. Content-Based Messaging Extended to Omni-
Channel Presence
11
● Content wins were pushed to Paid Social
● CRM testing gardened block buster response
● Strong response in Google Sponsored Content
and text ads
● Upcoming test in Digital video

12. 12
Content + More Native Platforms = Better
Engagement & Story Telling
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
DisplayMediaSpend
Axis Title
Programmatic
CPA buys
Endemic
buys
Testing
Native
Programmatic
CPA buys
Endemic
buys
Testing
Native
Programmatic
TestingNative

13. Learnings
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● Content Based Messaging meant that we transition messaging from demand capture to
‘inspire’
● Old approach limited ability to build brand. New approach enabled it
● Improved metrics allow us to expand into distribution channels and targeting types
previously unprofitable
● New focus is on learning how to best create end to end ‘inspire’ experiences

14. Looking Ahead..
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● Programmatic video
● What does success look like?
● How do brands measure it given that by its nature, it is essentially disruptive to
the consumer experience?
● Leveraging first party data at scale
● When will programmatic native garner the scale to make it a
bigger part of media buys?
● What type of publisher participation does this require?

15. Thank You!
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