Case study: How Raptive helps Laura Fuentes work smarter and grow faster

Summary

• Laura Fuentes has six websites with Raptive, and all of them have grown in traffic and revenue each year.
• Her portfolio has seen 816% growth in annual revenue since 2018
• In 2024, her year-over-year revenue increased by 48% and pageviews by 34%

Featured Creator

Laura Fuentes

LauraFuentes.com

Challenge

Laura is a prolific entrepreneur with a portfolio of English and Spanish-language recipe websites, including MOMables.com, LauraFuentes.com, and TequilaOClock.com. Her success comes from listening to her audience and giving them what they need, not chasing viral trends. 

“When it comes to things like algorithm updates, I accept it and move forward because those are the things I don’t own and I don’t control,” she said. “I either pivot and adapt or my business dies.”

Fortunately, her approach has paid off. As her business grew, Laura needed a partner who would make it easy to manage multiple websites under one umbrella and could provide data to help her make smart long-term decisions. 

Laura started working with Raptive in 2015. “In the early days I thought ads were just ads. At one point, I even switched my sites to a different monetization provider, which was the biggest mistake ever,” she said. “Other companies promised the world, but within three months I was back at Raptive.”

Approach

Laura appreciates the collaborative approach Raptive takes with creators. “Every time I correspond with anyone at Raptive, I feel like they take ownership of my business. You can’t ask for more.” 

Laura works closely with her Creator Partnerships Manager, Theresa, to make sure the ad layout for each of her sites is as effective as possible. “Theresa knows me and my business inside and out. When I change something, I send her a note to say ‘Hey, I’m thinking about doing this,’ and I always really trust her response.”

I’ve been able to make better decisions on how to expand my business.

Raptive is also receptive to suggestions and provides insightful data. “I mentioned that I’d like to see which countries were driving traffic to my sites,” Laura said. “And a few months later that feature appeared in the dashboard. Now, I can tailor my keyword research for sites with international traffic to bring in more readers.”

Outcome

With Raptive’s support, Laura has been able to focus her energy where it will have the biggest impact.

Since 2018, her Raptive portfolio has increased annual revenue by 816%. 

Year over year, every website has grown in earnings and revenue.

In the last year alone, she saw a 48% year-over-year revenue increase and 34% more pageviews across her sites. Raptive’s direct sales team also continues to drive up the value of her combined traffic, with a 144% year-over-year increase in direct sold revenue—something she can only get through Raptive’s exclusive brand, agency, and marketplace deals.

She attributes this growth not only to the high RPMs Raptive delivers, but also to the resources Raptive gives her to help her succeed. 

“You can share recipes all you want, but if you can look at the data that brings people to your sites, you can focus your time and work smarter,” she said. “I’ve seen my friends’ dashboards who aren’t on Raptive and that data just isn’t there.”

Year-over-year increases from 2023 to 2024.

“I can go into any of my websites and look at what category makes me money. I look at the opportunity cost of spending time on one site versus another or one post versus another based on how much revenue each can bring.” 

And when it comes to broader industry issues—like generative AI and its impact on search traffic—Laura knows that Raptive is on her side, with initiatives like Independents’ Day and the Keep it Real campaign. 

“Raptive has some of the most knowledgeable industry people I’ve ever met. I have no doubt they’ve got my back, and it makes me a bit less anxious knowing I have someone advocating on my behalf in ways I simply can’t afford on my own.”

Over the years, Laura has seen how Raptive invests in creator success, whether that’s through advocacy work or providing solutions like Topic. And that’s true regardless of a creator’s size, category, or tenure. 

“I am not the biggest creator with Raptive,” she said. “But no matter who you are, when you’re communicating with Raptive, they make you feel like the largest creator in the network.”

Raptive has been a huge part of my success.

While she doesn’t know what the future holds, she’s confident in her partnership with Raptive.

“I’ve been with Raptive for years and I know they’re in my corner,” Laura said. “But they’re also fighting for the person who just signed up last month, too.”

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