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Don’t Underestimate the Power of the Football League


Mary Varney - 1st June 2015 - 0 comments

In an online media landscape that is saturated with football news websites dedicated to the Premier League, many people forget about the other leagues that make up the hierarchy of competitions in English Football.

With 92 professional clubs making up the four leagues in the English game, there are 72 clubs that receive nowhere near the amount of online media coverage that the 20 in the Premier League do, and this subsequently raises issues. It begs the question, Are online publishers losing out on the benefits of covering these clubs?

Brands actively seek websites that will increase engagement with their given product or service, and serving advertisements on a site that hits a significantly UK based audience is something that is seemingly desirable and attractive among these companies. This is something that is an overarching benefit of covering the Football League, for both advertiser and publisher.

Cost per Mille (CPM) – a metric that indicates the ‘cost per thousand’ advertising impressions is one of the most common advertisement measurements, and it is a clear indication of how UK traffic can have a beneficial impact. Premier League orientated online content has a sizeable audience in Asia and Africa, which may be good for overall page view numbers, but in-terms of UK page views it is significantly lower than content focused on the Football League. This in-turn results in a distinct contrast in CPM values, with advertisers offering considerably higher CPM’s for UK based traffic, compared to traffic from other countries.

Through Snack Media owned site ‘footballleagueworld.co.uk’, it is evident to see that Football League based content can be a gateway for acquiring a significantly high amount of UK traffic, and in-turn increased revenues and audience engagement for brands.

This sentiment is echoed by Tom Jones, Head of Digital Operations at Snack Media, who feels that UK ad impressions are one of the key components of a brand’s marketing campaign: “Compared to the global reach of the Premier League, the Football League fan-base is much more of a local audience. As a result content centred around Football League teams has a very high UK percentage and is often localised around the clubs themselves.

“This allows brands to target their product to a local audience and be very precise in their marketing plans, often resulting in better brand engagement and audience cut-through.

As Tom Jones adeptly sums up, “Global Impressions is vanity, UK impressions is sanity.”

By Sam Rourke

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Mary Varney

Mary is a Senior Account Manager at Snack Media. Follow her on Twitter @varns_social

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