Media technology startup Snap Skout announced the release of its newest product today. Skout Blocks is a content-driven recommended offers engine which displays highly-relevant offers and deals at the bottom of online articles, creating new revenue for publishers and driving deeper reader engagement.
Snap Skout has partnered with leading offer providers and advertisers – such as Groupon, LivingSocial, Yelp and Gilt – to deliver highly-targeted deals and offers directly into an online reading experience, at exactly the right time and place. Through Snap Skout’s recommended offers engine, publishers can connect with engaged readers and generate new revenue – without having to worry about overwhelming them with irrelevant ads.
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“Skout Blocks is truly a product born from customer feedback,” said Aaron Goodin, Co-Founder and CEO of Snap Skout. “Publishers found our proprietary technology to be useful and effective, however they wanted our deals and offers to be more visible – so we took the original concept and created an additional delivery system to better meet their needs.”
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In July 2013, Snap Skout launched the Skout Button, which lives in the social media sharebar. When hovered over, the offers display in the button’s dropdown. The technology behind the Skout Button and Skout Blocks is the same. It reads the digital content on the page, processes it and then surfaces offers and deals based on the topics being read about.
With the launch of Skout Blocks, the company has expanded on its initial offering by integrating the technology into an even more desirable location on the web page. Publishers have the option of using the Skout Button, Skout Blocks, or both for extra coverage.
“Early data shows that offers delivered through our platform are ten times more likely to get clicked when compared to traditional display ads,” said Goodin. “And, with the addition of Skout Blocks we anticipate that the interactions and clicks will increase significantly due to the heightened visibility and placement of this product.”
Looking at the current results, the company believes that the Snap Skout concept will be a game changer for online publishers who have been experiencing declining banner ad performance. It will also shake things up in current conversations surrounding native advertising and sponsored content.
Currently, Snap Skout’s recommended offer engine is installed on hundreds of blogs and news and magazine websites including SFist.com, SeattleMag.com and MyNorthwest.com.