Preparing for Q1 with Brad Hagmann and Amber Bracegirdle: Mediavine On Air Episode 2

Every year, Q1 rolls around and high Q4 RPMs drop. Brad Hagmann and Amber Bracegirdle are here to help with advice on how to mitigate the damage. Learn why this RPM drop occurs industry-wide and how you can turn this negative into a positive by planning your content for the following year. This episode is packed full of tips for your optimizing your blog.











Helpful Resources



Ad Revenue By The Seasons — Learn when your ad revenue will likely be the highest.What is Q1 — A guide for the best practices for dealing with the Q1 slump.Why All Traffic Doesn’t Monetize the Same — Find out what you can do to monetize your traffic better.The Mediavine Content Upgrade Challenge: A 3-part optimization challenge for increasing your ad revenue.Create by Mediavine — A Plugin for recipes, lists, how-to guides and craft instructions.Best Days of the Year (2021): Ad spend insights, includes a printable calendar!







Transcript



**The RPM Challenge has been rebranded as the Content Upgrade Challenge**



[MUSIC PLAYING] JENNY GUY: [LAUGHS] Kicking off with that fun sound, we are here, everybody. It is December 12. So it's 12/12/2019. This is Teal Talk. I am your host, Jenny Guy. I'm Mediavine's Director of Marketing.



And we are excited for a very fun show today. I have two incredible guests from the Mediavine staff here to talk about maybe not our most fun topic, but one that is necessary and that we can do everything possible in our power to protect against, and mitigate the damage.



So, right now, we're in the midst of Q4. It's the happiest time of the year. We're making all the money, all of the dollars, all the advertisers are spending. And then we go to January 1. And it feels like we take a leap off a cliff.



So I brought a couple of experts in here to help us get prepared for that, to winterize ourselves from the scariness that is Q1 1st. We have meet our Mediavine Co-Founder. It is Amber Bracegirdle. She is the Managing Editor of Food Fanatic. And she is here with us.



Hi, Amber. Welcome back.



AMBER BRACEGIRDLE: Hello, thank you so much. Good to be here, guys.



JENNY GUY: We haven't had you on in so long.



AMBER BRACEGIRDLE: I know.



JENNY GUY: I don't know why it's been so long, but it's so good to have you.



AMBER BRACEGIRDLE: Well, I was supposed to be on that one this summer that Josh jumped in for me because I wasn't feeling well. And, I mean, we got the Beanie Babies out of that. So--



[LAUGHTER]



JENNY GUY: I could never forget that, the Beanie Baby Live. It was a special time for us all.



AMBER BRACEGIRDLE: It really was.



JENNY GUY: And then for his first time ever on a Mediavine Live appearance, we have BRAD HAGMANN, Brad from the Internet, B-rad, our Vice President of Ad Operations.



Brad, welcome.



BRAD HAGMANN: Hello. Thank you for having me. I've been begging to get on this show forever.



JENNY GUY: You have.



AMBER BRACEGIRDLE: He lies.



BRAD HAGMANN: So it's is lovely to be here.



AMBER BRACEGIRDLE: He's lying.



JENNY GUY: He's always-- always trying to get on this show. And I had to say no so many times. And, finally, I said, fine. You seem to know something about ads. I'll let you on the program.



BRAD HAGMANN: There you go.



JENNY GUY: Brad, so you're something-- we're going to start here because you've never been on. And I'm going to capitalize on it. You are basically Mediavine royalty. So if you could tell us what does the Vice President of Ad Ops do? And what kind of your trajectory was at Mediavine? Because your job has been a little fluid over-- since we've become full service ad managers.



BRAD HAGMANN: Royalty, wow.



JENNY GUY: Yeah.



BRAD HAGMANN: That's a great introduction.



JENNY GUY: Yeah.



AMBER BRACEGIRDLE: I agree with that



BRAD HAGMANN: I mean, so honestly, the answer is, like, most days, I don't even know. It's sort of a joke, but not really. But, you know, with the speed of change in this industry,