Instead of charging doctors for its valuable productivity tools, Doximity offers them for free to maximize user engagement. This creates a highly concentrated, valuable audience of physicians, which is then monetized through targeted advertising from pharmaceutical companies, its primary revenue source.

Before programmatic advertising, BroBible found a ceiling on direct ad sales. They built a highly profitable events business, hosting concerts and selling high-value sponsorships to major brands. This became their number one revenue source for two years, demonstrating a creative monetization strategy beyond simple ad inventory.

To remain sustainable, the local media outlet combines direct ad sales, branded content, merchandise (coupon passports), and a Patreon membership. This multi-pronged approach provides stability and avoids over-reliance on a single, often volatile, revenue stream like programmatic advertising.

Boosting posts directly from a person's profile (like a CEO or founder) performs significantly better than standard company ads. Users on LinkedIn engage more authentically with individuals than brands, leading to higher dwell times and lower costs.

Cycling Tips found that attracting luxury advertisers like car brands was incredibly unreliable. Revenue often depended on a single executive's personal passion for the sport; when that person changed jobs, the ad budget disappeared overnight, making it an undependable growth strategy.

Social platforms want to acquire new advertisers. By boosting your best-performing organic posts with micro-budgets (even just $5), you can achieve disproportionately large reach as platforms "make it rip" to encourage future spending. Don't boost underperforming content.

A key to Twitter's early business success was making its ad and content formats the same: a tweet. This design choice made ads feel native and relevant, allowing brands to participate in real-time cultural moments. The model also seamlessly translated to mobile, avoiding Facebook's initial struggles.

To avoid the trust erosion seen in traditional search ads, Perplexity places sponsored content in the 'suggested follow-up questions' area, *after* delivering an unbiased answer. This allows for monetization without compromising the integrity of the core user experience.

When creating branded social media content, BroBible allocates a portion of the client's budget to an ad buy that boosts the post. This not only increases the campaign's reach for the brand but also drives new, engaged followers to BroBible's own channels, making advertisers subsidize their audience growth.