How Axios increased its pre-booked ad revenue by pitching niche audiences

That’s because those influencers — who are made up of executives in the health care, financial services, energy and other industries — have tons of value among the advertisers on Axios’ client roster. And since there are only so many executives and only so many opportunities to make one-to-one connections with them, Cameron said it creates limited sponsorship inventory that becomes more valuable and coveted among advertisers. 

During an on-stage session at the Digiday Publishing Summit in Key Biscayne, Florida, on Wednesday, Cameron shared how leaning into Axios’ pockets of niche audiences through newsletters and events has helped round out ad revenue in the second half of 2024 and provide more clarity going into 2025 than publishers have had in a while. 

Selling niche

“Two years ago, I was at [the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity] when I heard the term ‘niche is the new mass,’ and today, we are helping brands navigate niche,” said Cameron. However, “this is a different kind of marketing campaign when you are trying to educate the educated, when you’re trying to influence the influencers.”

Therefore, the key performance indicators that her team is using to prove to sponsors their campaigns have made a positive impact on the audience goes beyond clicks, engagement and shares, and focuses on positive brand affinity among the group and if “that brand is making its way into the Zeitgeist in a positive way,” she said.

Because of that desire to have a positive connotation with the audience, Cameron said sponsors right now are craving any type of campaign that has the opportunity for a personal connection. This includes newsletters, live events and the publisher’s membership product, Axios Pro. “That’s where the demand is, is that one-to-one connection between subject matter experts in the newsroom and audience,” she said.

But these businesses are also limited in scale and require significant lead times to plan, meaning sponsors have to act early and act fast if they want to secure the opportunity. And given several of Axios’ advertisers come from endemic industries that are likely to be active in Washington, D.C., and on Wall Street as the next U.S. president takes office in January, Cameron said they’re eager to grab up sponsorship opportunities now to ensure they can rally support from influential audiences when it’s time.

A positive prophecy for 2025

As of today, Axios has three times as much revenue pre-booked for 2025 than this time last year, according to Cameron, who added that advertisers are snatching up “anything where inventory is going to be constrained,” like live events and newsletters.

This year was not a straight line of growth for Axios’ ad business, but periodically felt like the “tortured revenue department,” according to Cameron. While ad revenue in the first quarter of 2024 was up year over year, the second quarter was slower, she said, and it wasn’t until the third quarter that the ad business started to feel steady again.

But by putting newsletters, live events and Axios’ niche communities forward in pitches to advertisers, Cameron said it’s starting to pay off in booked deals. “Now, based upon everything that we’re seeing, the fourth quarter is going to be very likely to make up the gap [and] misses [from] earlier in the year,” she said.

It’s been primarily existing advertisers buying up that inventory for next year thus far, which usually doesn’t happen until late Q4. But now that they already have the commitments from existing clients, Cameron said her sales team is on the offensive to reach new clients in Q4 to try and keep that momentum going throughout the rest of 2025. She said she expects to see that revenue come in during the back half of Q4 2024.

“For our audience profile and who we’re catering to, we see a very healthy market next year,” said Cameron.