Case study: How Raptive helped Valerie’s Kitchen turn up the heat on success

Summary

• Valerie’s previous ad network couldn’t keep up with her site’s success; switching to Raptive in 2018 gave her the earnings and support she needed to grow.
• With Raptive’s expert guidance, A/B testing, and SEO tools, Valerie has fine-tuned her site for maximum revenue and traffic.
• Growth has continued: organic search traffic was up over 62% in 2024 vs. 2023, and is up almost 35% so far in 2025.

Featured Creator

Valerie Brunmeier

Valerie’s Kitchen

Challenge

Valerie Brunmeier started Valerie’s Kitchen in 2011 to document the family recipes her four boys loved. It’s now a go-to source for busy home cooks who seek out simple, seasonal recipes. 

As her business grew, she noticed her earnings weren’t keeping pace with that growth. She tried to work with her previous ad manager, but they weren’t able to solve the problem.

“They would always come up with an excuse for why certain posts weren’t earning. When I was looking at where I thought I should be, I knew I had to try something else.” 

She switched to Raptive in 2018, hoping she’d see income that aligned with her traffic.  

Approach

During a stressful time—selling a business in one state and moving to another—Valerie was relieved Raptive was able to ensure a seamless transition. 

I felt valued by Raptive immediately. They learned about my site right away and helped me see opportunities to make it better.

That trusted relationship has continued over the years. As a Platinum Elite creator, Valerie works with a dedicated Creator Partnerships Manager, who helps her maintain an ad layout that works best for her site and earns her the most money. 

“I like the A/B testing where Raptive tells you specifically how much additional ad revenue you could make through simple changes, like placing some ads in your recipe card. I can trust the suggestions they make and there’s zero pressure to make changes.” 

Valerie also takes advantage of Raptive’s SEO solution, Topic, developing a workflow to optimize every post on her site—800 posts and counting. “I’m either slightly refreshing or fully updating all of my content, and Topic has been such a useful tool in this. It’s part of my workflow with each post and helps me stay on track and cover what’s important.”

Outcome

As soon as she switched to Raptive, Valerie saw results. “My earnings immediately catapulted a significant amount.”

That growth has been ongoing. Compared to the same time period in 2024, her 2025 earnings are up 40%, RPM is up 22%, and overall sessions are up 14%. 

Her recent traffic growth can be attributed in part to her adoption of Topic and Raptive’s proactive customer service. 

“They check in frequently with suggestions and are always looking for things that help boost my earnings.”

Incorporating Topic to her workflow and implementing Raptive’s suggestions also improved her SEO, helping to offset the decline in social media traffic many sites are seeing. Her organic traffic was up over 62% in 2024 vs 2023, and is currently up almost 35% so far in 2025. 

Raptive is an ad management company, but they’re more of a partner in my success. They do whatever they can to give me tools to increase the profitability and success of my business.

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