Since implementing Reader Revenue Manager 2022, News Corp Australia has experimented with different features to optimise performance and meet their subscriber acquisition and retention goals. The Account Linking feature in Reader Revenue Manager enables subscribers to connect their subscriptions to their Google Accounts, which highlights content from their paid subscriptions across Google Search, News and Discover, and keeps readers logged into their subscriptions across devices.

Over a six month period, News Corp Australia measured the impact of linking subscriber accounts with Google on driving favorable subscriber activities and outcomes such as engagement, breadth of content consumed, active days on the site, and cancellations.

Two cohorts were analysed to determine the impact of Google account linking:

Cohort 1: Subscribers who had linked their accounts with Google.

Cohort 2: Subscribers who had not linked their accounts with Google.

Analysis revealed that News Corp Australia subscribers with Google-linked accounts had better engagement and retention levels compared to subscribers who hadn’t linked accounts. This included lower cancellation rates, more frequent engagement, broader content consumption, and increased Google referrals.

Key Findings:

Cancellation Rate: Subscribers with Google-linked accounts (Cohort 1) showed a cancellation rate improvement of 3 percentage points compared to those who did not link their accounts.

Content Engagement: Subscribers with Google-linked accounts demonstrated greater engagement in terms of page and article views. Engagement per subscriber in the Google-linked cohort was approximately 56% higher than that of the non-linked cohort.

Breadth of Content Consumed: Subscribers with linked accounts consumed a broader range of content, visiting more site sections compared to those who did not link their accounts.

Active Days on the Site: Subscribers with Google-linked accounts visited News Corp Australia sites on more days across a month than unlinked subscribers. The number of active days per subscriber in the Google-linked cohort was approximately 2 days higher per month than the non-linked cohort.

Google as a Referral Channel: Subscribers with Google-linked accounts visited News Corp Australia sites more than those who did not link their accounts. The number of Google referrals per subscriber in the Google-linked cohort was approximately 3.57 percentage points higher than the non-linked cohort.

Conclusion: Google account linking enhances subscriber engagement, breadth of content consumed, active days on the site, and reduces cancellations. These findings demonstrate the value of integrating Google account linking to improve overall subscriber experience and retention.