📌 Overview
In Southeast Asia (SEA), low ad viewability rates on the MSN homepage were causing reduced interest from advertisers on the demand side — resulting in declining ad revenue. I led a product optimization to revisit the page refresh behavior, launching a smarter, in-focus refresh strategy that significantly improved viewability metrics and revenue potential across key markets.
❓ The Problem
MSN’s homepage used a 30-minute auto-refresh mechanism to keep content fresh and engage users. However, this approach refreshed the page regardless of whether the user was actively viewing it, which meant many ads were being counted without ever being seen — leading to:
- Low ad viewability scores
- Reduced demand from advertisers (DSPs)
- Revenue drop across SEA homepage inventory
💡 The Solution
🔁 In-Focus Refresh Mechanism
We updated the homepage refresh logic to trigger only when the user is actively focused on the page (i.e. window/tab is in focus). This ensured:
- Ads refreshed only when likely to be seen by user
- Better alignment with IAB viewability standards
- Reduced waste and better ROI for buyers
🌍 Phased Market Rollout
- Initial A/B test in EN-PH (English Philippines)
- Based on success, expanded to EN-SG (Singapore) and EN-MY (Malaysia)
- Eventually applied to other SEA markets based on ad performance profiles
📈 The Impact
- ✅ Significant uplift in ad viewability rates, leading to better demand-side engagement
- ✅ Increased ad revenue as advertisers re-engaged with high-quality, viewable inventory
- ✅ No impact on user engagement, as the refresh logic remained seamless and transparent
- ✅ Provided a blueprint for global adoption across low-performing regions
🧠 What I Did
- Partner with the market lead to identified the root cause of low viewability with meetings with DSPs.
- Proposed and defined the in-focus refresh strategy
- Partnered with engineering to implement and A/B test the feature
- Managed rollout strategy across SEA markets
- Aligned with monetization, ad operations, and regional content teams to drive adoption
🔍 Key Learnings
Monetization isn't just about selling inventory — it's about earning advertiser trust through measurable quality. A subtle change in refresh logic led to a measurable uptick in value, proving that user context matters just as much as content freshness.