How wikiHow Found the Right Ad Monetization Partner in Aditude

For nearly two decades, wikiHow has thrived with a lean team and a deeply ingrained do-it-yourself culture. This scrappy approach served them well as they built and maintained their entire ad stack internally, managing their own Prebid integration, Google Ad Manager (TAM), AdSense, and direct SSP relationships.

But as the programmatic advertising landscape grew increasingly complex, maintaining this DIY approach became unsustainable:

• Resource Constraints Hit Hard – With no dedicated ad ops team, ad monetization responsibilities fell on already stretched employees. Leadership found themselves managing ad operations alongside their executive duties, while engineers split time between core product development and ad tech maintenance.
• The Innovation Gap Widened – Without full-time focus on ad optimization, wikiHow risked falling behind on the latest monetization strategies and techniques. The team lacked the bandwidth to test new approaches or stay current with industry developments properly.
• Technical Compatibility Struggles – wikiHow's engineers often found themselves more knowledgeable about Prebid than the vendor representatives trying to help them implement wrapper solutions. After frustrating experiences with major players, the team retreated further into their DIY approach.
• Vendor Options Didn't Align – Previous attempts to work with traditional ad ops companies revealed fundamental mismatches:
• Pricing Models: Standard 20%+ revenue shares felt excessive compared to wikiHow's known internal costs
• Control Issues: Many vendors required taking over SSP relationships, eliminating wikiHow's preferred risk diversification
• Support Friction: Fragmented communication through account managers who lacked technical depth created bottlenecks
• Inflexibility: Rigid systems that couldn't accommodate wikiHow's specific needs, like their Google CMP integration or COPPA compliance requirements

The writing was on the wall: wikiHow needed a monetization partner that could match their technical sophistication, work at their pace, and provide genuine value without demanding ownership of their relationships or charging prohibitive fees.

wikiHow's leadership took a characteristically thorough approach to solving their ad ops challenge. Over the course of a year, wikiHow evaluated 15 different monetization providers, each promising to solve their pain points.

Three key differentiators drove the decision to partner with Aditude:

• Cost Structure That Made Sense: Aditude’s transparent, impression-based pricing aligned with wikiHow’s internal costs of managing their ad stack. Unlike traditional rev shares, it felt proportionate and fair.
• A True SaaS Partnership: wikiHow retained its SSP seats, maintained transparency, and remained in control of its monetization strategy. Aditude acted as an extension of the team, not a replacement.
• Collaborative, Fast-Paced Support: Aditude matched wikiHow’s preferred working style—quick Slack responses, direct access to engineers, and zero “we’re not set up for that” attitudes. 

wikiHow approached the transition with characteristic caution, starting with tests on alternative domains before committing to a full rollout. What they discovered was an implementation process that felt more like collaboration than vendor onboarding.

• Speed Without Sacrifice – Rather than weeks of complex integration work, Aditude cloned wikiHow's existing ad unit structure within days. The team simply explained their naming conventions, page layouts, and requirements, and Aditude delivered a working solution that matched their specifications exactly.
• Custom Solutions, Not Rigid Templates – Where other vendors had balked at wikiHow's specific needs, Aditude embraced them:
• Google CMP Integration: Other providers treated this as a roadblock; Aditude simply made it work
• COPPA Compliance: Complex child-safety requirements were implemented in hours, not weeks
• Quiz Page Logic: When wikiHow launched high-velocity quiz pages requiring sophisticated refresh timing, Aditude built a custom key-value counting system to handle the complex use case

Six months after full implementation, wikiHow's ad operations look fundamentally different—not in complexity, but in efficiency and capability.

Operational Improvements:

• Fill Rate Revolution: Immediate and sustained improvements in fill rates provided both performance gains and revenue optimization.
• Setup Acceleration: New ad unit creation and SSP onboarding, previously multi-week processes, now happen in days or hours.
• Data-Driven Insights: Rather than conducting lengthy investigations into performance fluctuations, wikiHow can now get expert analysis from Aditude's team, complete with specific diagnoses and recommendations.
• Format Innovation: Deploying new ad formats like outstream video went from "multiple weeks of internal development" to "a matter of a day or two" with Aditude's support.

Strategic Capabilities:

• Informed Decision-Making: wikiHow now has a trusted advisor for evaluating new SSPs, identity solutions, and industry trends, eliminating guesswork and reducing risk.
• Custom Problem-Solving: Complex challenges like TAM discrepancy resolution became collaborative projects rather than dead ends, with Aditude developing novel solutions like bid discount mechanisms.
• Future-Proofing: As wikiHow faces industry changes like AI overviews affecting search traffic, they have a technical partner ready to help explore "novel monetization strategies and novel ad formats."

Resource Liberation:

• Executive Focus: wikiHow can concentrate on strategic responsibilities rather than daily ad ops troubleshooting.
• Engineering Efficiency: Development resources previously tied up in ad tech maintenance are now available for core product innovation.
• Responsive Support: Same-day answers to technical questions eliminate the bottlenecks that previously slowed decision-making.

As the digital publishing landscape faces unprecedented changes from AI overviews affecting search traffic to evolving privacy regulations, wikiHow's partnership with Aditude positions them to adapt quickly and effectively.

The relationship that began as a solution to resource constraints has evolved into a strategic advantage, providing wikiHow with the technical capabilities and market intelligence needed to navigate industry changes while maintaining their core values of lean operations and user-first thinking.

For other publishers facing similar challenges, balancing the need for sophisticated ad operations with desires for control, transparency, and fair pricing, wikiHow's experience demonstrates that the right partnership can enhance capabilities without compromising principles.