Streamlined Ad Management Allows TigerNet to Focus on Building Their Business

TigerNet founders Brian Cross and Tommy Crumpton met in 1995 when they were Juniors at Clemson University, majoring in Computer Science. With no official Clemson University sports website at the time, let alone any fan-oriented, sports-driven Clemson sites, Cross and Crumpton set out to create a site that offers updates to fellow students and alumni of the university. TigerNet is a way for fans and alumni to connect over Clemson sports.

From the Starting Line

Originally started as a project used to boost their resumes, Cross and Crumpton quickly found great success as the only source of online updates for the Clemson sports community. Today, TigerNet publishes daily coverage of most Clemson sports, features schedules, rosters and player profiles, and tracks recruiting efforts. Gaining popularity since its founding in 1995, the site also facilitates an active message board to foster community among fellow Tigers fans.

Jumping the Hurdles

Before becoming the platform TigerNet is today, having studied Computer Science, Cross and Crumpton attempted ad management on the site by themselves. Using two different self-service ad platforms, they experimented with ad placement and found what was most successful for their site. Eventually, finding self-management time-consuming and tedious, they turned to an ad management company so they could focus on creating content and reporting. Still, they experienced numerous technical issues they thought having an ad management company would solve. Now they faced new challenges they hadn’t anticipated, such as slow site speeds and lower RPMs than they envisioned. 

Extensive research of the ad tech industry led the duo to Mediavine, which they had consistently short-listed as one of the best ad management companies. After hearing raving reviews from fellow publishers, Cross and Crumpton decided to partner with Mediavine and leverage its PubNation offering for sites focused on gaming, sports, tech, entertainment and more.

Having experimented extensively with ad placement themselves, Cross and Crumpton had a unique vision for ad setup on their site, and had many atypical placement requests for their in-content ads. While outside the norm, the PubNation team got to work implementing those ad placements as soon as possible to test their strategies. 

Over the course of their first few weeks with PubNation, the ad placements on TigerNet’s site were put through considerable testing. Cross and Crumpton knew what worked well for their site, and the PubNation team knew the best uses of PubNation’s technology. Once the balance between their preference for unconventional ad placement and PubNation’s cutting-edge technology was discovered, the TigerNet site saw a jump nearly overnight in earnings and RPMs. Through PubNation, TigerNet was also able to serve fewer ads per page, creating a favorable environment for their audience. The streamlined approach to their ad management left Cross and Crumpton seeing higher RPMs than TigerNet ever previously experienced.

Go Tigers

Now in 2024, compared to their first year with PubNation in 2023, TigerNet is still seeing increases in RPMs, overall earnings, and CPMs. With earnings up by 48% year-over-year (YOY), CPM increasing by 30.94% YOY, and a whopping 102% increase in RPMs YOY. 

“Working with Mediavine has been an absolute pleasure,” Cross said. “The onboarding was very simple, and we very quickly started seeing a higher RPM than we ever had on [another ad management company]. Eliminating the other two networks we were working with simplified our setup. The great support, publisher tools, and a faster site are also very much appreciated.”

Simultaneous to their significant revenue increases, TigerNet has seen improvements in site speed, page visual stability, and interactivity, passing Core Web Vitals metrics which makes for exceptional user experiences. PubNation’s consistent performance in providing premium ad management and the best environment for favored user experience has provided Cross and Crumpton the stability their business needs to increase salaries, hire more team members, and strategically plan for the future of their business.

“I’ve been in web publishing for 30 years and have worked with more companies than I can count,” Cross said. “Mediavine is, without a doubt, the best ad management company we have ever worked with! You can be confident that your site’s ad management will be in good hands. And you can spend less time worrying about ad issues and revenue and more time building and improving your site.”

From the site’s origin as an idea to boost two students’ resumes to growing to the successful site it is today, TigerNet has developed into a strong community, supported by their beloved Tigers fans. We’re looking forward to seeing TigerNet’s continued growth and are always excited to partner with publishers who are so passionate about their communities.

The above results represent this user’s experience with Mediavine and PubNation. We cannot verify these results are typical and we do not guarantee your site will see the same results.