A music blog gave mobile its own timeout — mobile revenue rose 11%

A music blog gave mobile its own timeout — mobile revenue rose 11%

The timeout is the bidding deadline. Phones are slower than desktops, so a deadline that works on a laptop can be too tight on mobile.

What happened: a music blog used 1000ms everywhere. On phones, many bids arrived just after the deadline and got thrown out — wasted demand.

The fix:
1. Kept 1000ms on desktop.
2. Raised mobile to 1400ms.
3. Compared mobile revenue for two weeks.

Result: more mobile bids made it in time, and mobile revenue per thousand views rose 11% — without hurting load speed enough for readers to notice.

In plain English: phones run slower, so give mobile a slightly longer deadline. The lost bids were arriving late, not missing.