How Smarter Monetization Drove +69% Revenue Growth For ESMG

The Endurance Sports Media Group (ESMG) is an ad-serving network that combines premium endemic advertising from endurance sports brands with high-intent athlete audience data and behavioral signals to drive audience targeting and retargeting activation across publisher properties and social platforms.

One of the publishers serviced by ESMG is Sportstats.com, which provides professional timing services for events of all sizes, including some of the most prestigious endurance races in the world. Sportstats is the first ESMG partner site to utilize Adapex to increase monetization and capitalize on stronger demand, improved yield, and more efficient auction dynamics.

ESMG selected Adapex as its enterprise monetization partner to maximize unsold inventory through advanced programmatic monetization, header bidding, and yield optimization. The result is a highly efficient monetization ecosystem that blends direct endurance industry relationships, premium endemic demand, audience activation powered by high-intent athlete behavioral signals, and enterprise-level ad tech infrastructure.

The Adapex team conducted a comprehensive site and technology audit, applying proven monetization strategies and expert insights gained from managing a global portfolio of publishers. The first step was integrating Merlin™, a proprietary header bidding wrapper that provides access to top SSPs, high-performing ad units, and increased bid density. Existing ad sizes on the site were not optimized and, as a result, were underperforming.

Working closely with the ESMG team, Adapex implemented:

• Demand Stack Optimization
  Expanded bidder participation and optimized bid timeouts to increase competition and improve auction win rates.
• Inventory Expansion
  Identified and monetized previously unserved pages, increasing available impressions without requiring additional traffic.
• Auction & Yield Optimization Foundation
  Established a stronger performance baseline by applying data-driven strategies and insights from Adapex’s broader publisher network, improving how impressions were packaged and exposed to demand.

In just three months, revenue scaled rapidly as initial optimizations took effect and compounded over time. Notably, these gains occurred during Q1, a typically softer and lower-performing seasonal period. Adapex also analyzed year-over-year performance against Sportstats’ previous monetization provider, and both revenue and CPMs improved dramatically.

By leveraging Adapex’s technology and hands-on optimization approach, ESMG transformed Sportstats’ monetization strategy to better reflect the true value of its global audience. These results were not driven by isolated optimizations, but rather by a strategic approach informed by Adapex’s experience across a diverse publisher base and a deep understanding of what drives performance across different environments, audiences, and demand conditions.

Through stronger demand competition, expanded inventory coverage, and more efficient auction dynamics, the site significantly increased revenue without relying on traffic growth. The result is a more scalable and resilient monetization framework positioned to perform consistently across seasonal fluctuations, with ongoing optimizations continuing to unlock additional growth.

“I knew the programmatic advertising on Sportstats was underperforming, and I did a deep dive to find the right partner to improve it. Adapex brought a thoughtful, data-driven approach, and the results speak for themselves — strong revenue growth, better efficiency, and a clear path forward.”

— Ed Hoffman, CEO, ESMG