Al Arabiya increases their click-through rate by 200% with AI-backed recommendations

Not only were we able to effortlessly achieve our goal of increasing the number of pageviews and the CTR for new users, but Insider also helped us optimize our article page, to drive even greater results.

54

%
uplift in click-through rate on mobile AI-powered smart recommender

200

%
click-through rate uplift on desktop AI-powered smart recommender

1,762,853

additional page views AI-powered smart recommender

About AI Arabiya

Al Arabiya is a Saudi-owned pan-Arab television news channel broadcast in Modern Standard Arabic. Based in Dubai, the channel also focuses on distributing English content via different channels like web and social media. Through this content, Al Arabiya seeks to reach an international, non-Arab audience, as well as expatriates living in the Middle East and North Africa, in order to deepen the understanding of Arab societies, cultures and economies.
Personalizing Content for New Users

When Al Arabiya approached Insider, they were already working to engage existing users through personalized content. On desktop and mobile web, the brand was handpicking articles for existing users to read, but they wanted to explore the potential to increase the number of pageviews and CTR of articles by new users as well.

They set a goal to increase pageviews by showing new users personalized content based on their preferences, interests and reading habits. As the users were new to the site, one of the challenges was identifying exactly what those interests and preferences were. This is where Insider stepped in.

Using AI and Machine Learning Technology to Target New Users

Insider’s Recommendation Engine, backed by powerful AI technology, enables marketers to make relevant recommendations based on users’ behavioural data and interests. These recommendations can be for anything, such as products, articles, videos and so on.

It works for both new and existing users as brands can target AI-backed “lookalike” clusters of new visitors with interests that match those of existing users to deliver content based on their preferences.

Putting Insider’s AI tech and Recommendation Engine in use, Al Arabiya started experimenting with personalized content recommendations for all users who visited the article page.

For every article visited by existing users, Insider’s machine-learning algorithms gathered data to help recommend the most relevant articles to new users who displayed similar reading habits. Additionally, Insider worked to customize the onsite position of the recommended articles to increase the chances of a user clicking through to read them.

Insider’s Recommendation Engine didn’t just help Al Arabiya achieve their goal of increasing pageviews for new users, it also had a huge impact on the way that existing users interacted with the content, too. No longer did Al Arabiya need to manually ‘handpick’ articles for existing users. Implementing the Recommendation Engine meant that they were also able to serve existing users tailored content, as its Machine Learning algorithms adapted to the users’ behaviour and learnt about their preferences.

200% CTR Boost & More Than 1.75 Million Additional Pageviews

On mobile, the Recommendation Engine contributed to an uplift of 54% in CTR for articles, resulting in an additional 974,387 pageviews.
On desktop, the Recommendation Engine delivered a major CTR boost of 200%, with 788,466 additional pageviews recorded.

“We were delighted to discover Insider’s AI-backed Recommendation Engine. It made it simple to understand the behaviour of users who had previously been unknown to us, using data that we already had at our fingertips. Not only were we able to effortlessly achieve our goal of increasing the number of pageviews and the CTR for new users, but Insider also helped us optimize our article page, to drive even greater results. The outcome far exceeded our expectations and we are really excited about continuing to work with the experts at Insider to see what we can do next.”

Karim Morgan

Head of Digital Operations

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