How Visual Capitalist turned Raptive’s Google Discover insights into 39% more clicks

About Visual Capitalist

Since 2011, Visual Capitalist has grown into one of the fastest-growing publishers, turning data into visual stories that make complex topics easier to understand. Its coverage spans business, markets, the economy, technology, and other subjects that matter to modern investors, reaching readers across the globe.

Salina Vuong, VP of Growth at Visual Capitalist, oversees audience growth and engagement. Her team’s data-first mindset shapes both its editorial strategy and its evaluation of business performance.

Getting more visibility into performance data

Visual Capitalist’s previous ad partner provided reporting and performance metrics, but the team couldn’t access them as readily as it needed. That made it harder to connect content decisions with revenue results and act quickly when new opportunities emerged.

The Raptive dashboard gave Visual Capitalist easier access to its data, helping the team better understand how content performance connected to revenue.

“The dashboard is just incredible to see, in near real time, how our content is performing and what audiences or advertisers are resonating with,” says Salina.

That visibility has been especially valuable for Google Discover, which accounts for a significant share of Visual Capitalist’s traffic.

Turning Google Discover data into clearer decisions

Working with Raptive’s audience growth team helped Visual Capitalist move from broad channel reporting to more specific questions:

• Which creative choices were earning attention?
• When did a story’s opportunity peak?
• What was worth testing next?

Note: This screenshot uses sample data to show the Discover Workbook and doesn’t reflect Visual Capitalist’s actual performance.

The Discover Workbook brings that analysis into one place. The Scorecard shows how reach relates to click-through behavior, while deeper views reveal trends across pages, authors, and publishing timing. Together, these insights help teams spot opportunities and prioritize what to test next. For Visual Capitalist, that meant a better understanding of its Discover performance and a more focused view of what was driving it.

Who can access the Discover Workbook?

The Discover Workbook is available to eligible Raptive partners whose sites have the technical setup and enough Google Discover data to support meaningful analysis. To be considered, a site must be active with Raptive, use WordPress, connect Google Search Console, and have sufficient Discover and recent publishing activity. Eligibility is evaluated after a site joins Raptive.

Putting those findings into action

Raptive’s audience growth team reviewed Visual Capitalist’s Discover trends and identified patterns across its strongest-performing content. The analysis helped the team evaluate how topic framing, titles, thumbnails, metadata, and publishing timing related to reach and click-through performance.

Visual Capitalist used those insights to make more focused editorial and creative decisions, from thumbnail selection to how it framed content for its audience. Rather than relying solely on broad Discover best practices, the team could use its own performance data to identify opportunities and prioritize what to test next.

The payoff from stronger Google Discover insights

Visual Capitalist’s Google Discover performance continued to grow following its work with Raptive, with clicks increasing 39% compared with the previous six months. The team also saw an 84% increase in clicks during the most recent three-month period compared with the same three months the previous year. 

These gains showed that Visual Capitalist could build on its already strong Discover presence and convert more of its visibility into site traffic. 

“Visual Capitalist already had a strong foundation in Discover, so our work focused on helping them understand what was driving performance,” says Lauren Varrone, Raptive’s Director of SEO Solutions. “We identified patterns across their strongest-performing content and turned those insights into practical recommendations for topics, titles, visuals, and timing. The goal was to make the data more actionable, so their team could keep building on what was already working.”

A smooth migration with stronger returns

Moving to a new ad partner can feel risky for an established publisher, especially when implementation requires development support and affects a high-traffic site. For Visual Capitalist, the transition to Raptive proved easier than expected and delivered stronger monetization.

Rob Hoover, Visual Capitalist’s Senior Web Developer, knew how disruptive a platform integration could become. So it surprised him how little friction the Raptive switch created. “It took longer to make the approval decisions on our end than for Raptive to actually implement them,” he said.

Once the team completed its internal approvals, implementation moved quickly, with the Raptive team having ads ready for the staging site within a week of beginning onboarding. Compared with past integrations that had taken months, Raptive’s onboarding felt refreshingly simple.

And the benefits went beyond an easier implementation. After making the move, Visual Capitalist has seen sustained 53% year-over-year RPM growth compared with its previous ad provider.

Ready to make more of your audience data? 

Raptive combines industry-leading monetization, transparent reporting, and audience growth expertise to help you understand what’s driving performance and act on the opportunities that matter most.

Get in touch to learn what a Raptive partnership could unlock for your business.