Patch is one of the largest local news networks in the United States. It delivers hyperlocal news, events, and community information to neighborhoods across the country. Patch connects readers with what's happening where they live.
The Opportunity
Patch operates one of the largest local news networks in the United States, with more than 15,000 hyperlocal communities across the country. Managing monetization at that scale is an operational problem that most ad tech tools aren't designed to solve.
With a lean team managing ad operations, client services, and branded content simultaneously, Patch was running on a manual process that couldn't keep pace with the network's complexity. Pricing floors were set by pulling reports at the slot, regional, and time-of-day level, then updating wrappers through a ticket-based system. Applying precision pricing across distinct local markets, each with its own content mix, audience sources, and user behavior, was difficult with a manual process so Patch used broad regional pricing which was ultimately leaving revenue on the table and couldn't adapt to the actual value of specific inventory.
Patch had scaled to a point where the existing approach couldn't keep pace with the opportunity in front of them. Without automation or a technology partner with real ad ops depth, there was a limited path to unlocking the full revenue potential of a network that size. That’s where Aditude came in.
"The process was manual and archaic. We didn't have the bandwidth to optimize monetization without sacrificing everything else."
— James Sang, Director of Revenue Operations, Patch
The Approach
Patch partnered with Aditude to implement Cloud Wrapper, replacing a manual, ticket-based operation that couldn't scale across their hyperlocal communities. From there, Patch added Exec to consolidate revenue reporting across all partners, eliminating the daily manual data pulls the team couldn't sustain. Prebid Server came last, layering incremental demand into the auction stack to drive competition and increase bid pressure alongside existing TAM and open bidding partners.
"Aditude helped us automate reporting extraction from our SSPs. That time I was spending every morning logging into multiple platforms — that's gone now."
— James Sang, Director of Revenue Operations, Patch
The Solution
Cloud Wrapper
Patch's previous wrapper setup required manual ticket submissions every time a floor price needed to change, a process that couldn't scale across 1,300 local markets with varying audience value and demand patterns. With Cloud Wrapper, Patch shifted to dynamic pricing that responds to actual inventory performance at the placement level. Key capabilities that drove impact:
Refresh settings configured by placement, page type, and user behavior to maximize impression volume without degrading ad quality
Lazy load logic tuned to balance viewability thresholds with incremental impression opportunities across 1,300 local markets
Ad load optimizations adjusted to protect user experience while increasing impressions per page view
Inventory-level floor pricing replacing broad regional averages
Dynamic adjustments based on actual market and placement value
Eliminated ticket-based change management
Exec
With a small team responsible for forecasting revenue, Patch couldn't afford to spend hours each morning manually logging into GAM, Prebid partners, and TAM separately. Exec centralized that data into a single reporting view. Key capabilities that drove impact:
Automated aggregation across GAM, Prebid, and TAM partners
Single dashboard replacing manual daily data pulls
Accurate revenue projections without additional ops headcount
Prebid Server
Before Prebid Server, Patch's ad stack relied on TAM and open bidding with limited additional competition driving up bid pressure. Adding Prebid Server introduced a new demand layer participating directly in each auction alongside existing partners. Key capabilities that drove impact:
Incremental demand sources competing alongside TAM and open bidding
Bid rate improvements in the 20–30% range from increased auction competition
Impressions per page view grew from under 3 to a range of 3.5 to 4
Direct Sales
As programmatic fill grew as a share of Patch's overall revenue mix, maintaining the inventory available for direct campaigns became equally critical. Aditude adjusted lazy load and refresh settings to preserve and increase the inventory available for direct placements, ensuring direct campaigns could scale without competing against programmatic fill for the same supply. Key capabilities:
Lazy load logic reconfigured by page type and user behavior to increase available impressions for direct placements while maintaining viewability thresholds
Refresh settings adjusted to protect direct campaign delivery and maintain CTR performance above industry benchmarks
Additional Partnership Value
Beyond core product deployment, Aditude provided hands-on support in areas that a lean team couldn't absorb internally:
Partner testing coordination — Aditude managed the legal vetting and technical implementation for new supply sources including Optable and IntentIQ, allowing Patch to run tests and surface incremental gains faster
CMP and compliance guidance — Ensured correct consent signals were passing to supply sources across U.S. markets, including California, without requiring dedicated compliance staff
Ad quality cost savings —Support and integration of clean.io savings time and resources
The Results
Revenue and RPS growth
From January 2025 to July 2026, programmatic revenue grew 46.2% and revenue per session grew 66.8%, with every month in 2026 coming in above the same month the prior year. June and July 2026 saw the strongest year-over-year gains, at +40.7% and +30.1% respectively.
Patch's goal was to increase impressions and volume, not simply optimize what existed. A combination of dynamic floors, refresh, and lazy load, alongside Prebid Server, drove those gains.
Prebid Server: Impressions Per Page View, RPM, and RPU
Since launching Prebid Server in 2026, the impact compounded across every key per-page and per-user metric through July. Impressions per page view grew 12.8% from launch to July, RPM grew 25.0%, and RPU grew 30.0% over the same period.
Comparing July 2025 to July 2026 specifically, the year-over-year gains tell an equally strong story: impressions per page view up 10.7%, RPM up 27.9%, and RPU up 23.9% — making July 2026 Patch's strongest summer month on record across all three metrics.
Those gains are notable given the context: July is historically one of the softest months of the year for publisher revenue, and Patch was simultaneously reducing email send frequency to build a more stable, lower-churn user base resulting in fewer page views overall. The combination of stronger auction competition from Prebid Server and improved floor pricing through Cloud Wrapper drove the lift despite fewer ad slots and less traffic. More revenue was being extracted from each user and each page view, not from more inventory.
"With Aditude, our RPUs and RPMs right now are the healthiest they've ever been…As we continue to push towards a more stable user base, those are the types of numbers that are always going to be great and are going to be our north star.”
— James Sang, Director of Revenue Operations, Patch
Direct Sales: Protecting What Drives Renewal
Patch runs more than 300 direct campaigns per month across a direct advertiser base that renews based on campaign performance. Aditude adjusted lazy load and refresh logic to preserve and expand the inventory available for those campaigns, keeping direct placements separate from programmatic fill and ensuring campaigns had the supply needed to hit delivery targets. Those campaigns have consistently delivered above the thresholds brands require.
Viewability held above 70%: Meeting the threshold that premium direct advertisers require to renew campaigns.
CTR well above industry average: Industry benchmarks for display CTR sit between 0.05% and 0.10%. Patch's direct campaigns have consistently outperformed that range.
300+ monthly campaigns supported: Strong campaign performance has supported Patch's ability to retain and grow its direct advertiser base, protecting a revenue stream that runs alongside programmatic.
“Even as we've shifted to filling more programmatically, our direct campaigns are still some of the most valuable inventory we have. Aditude has helped us protect that, adjusting for user behavior, different page types, and campaign goals, so we're not sacrificing one for the other, and we're seeing results on both sides."
— James Sang, Director of Revenue Operations, Patch
Beyond revenue and impression gains, the partnership delivered meaningful improvements across Patch's broader operations:
Bid rate improvement: Prebid Server implementation improved bid rates in the 20–30% range.
Operational cost savings: Integrating clean.io through Aditude eliminated a recurring monthly cost Patch had previously carried for a standalone ad tech resource, freeing up budget without sacrificing coverage.
Reporting efficiency: Automated SSP reporting through Exec eliminated the daily manual aggregation process, returning meaningful time to the team each week.
Identity and addressability: Ongoing CMP configuration work is improving how Patch's newsletter-driven audience data matches with supply partners — with additional revenue upside still in progress.
Conclusion
Patch came to Aditude with a clear goal, to extract more value from one of the largest local news networks in the country, and a lean team that needed a partner with the bandwidth and expertise to help get there. The opportunity wasn't just the technology. It was having someone with the depth and availability to act on it consistently.
What Aditude provided was the combination of platform depth and hands-on expertise that made the difference, dynamic pricing through Cloud Wrapper, expanded demand through Prebid Server, and centralized reporting through Exec, all managed in close collaboration with Patch's team. The revenue gains are measurable. The time and operational overhead recovered are equally real.
For publishers running lean and competing at scale, that partnership model is often what separates a performance ceiling from a growth trajectory.
"The industry is constantly fluctuating, and Aditude's team stays on top of those changes and makes themselves accessible. That combination is rare."
— James Sang, Director of Revenue Operations, Patch
Become an Aditude Publisher
Ready to Take Control
of Your Ad Stack?
Get a personalized demo and see how our platform and expertise drive measurable growth for publishers.