Revista Bula

Carlos Willian Leite, Founder

Goiânia, Brazil

2024

Revista Bula's Adaptation and Growth in Partnership with Google

Since 1998, Revista Bula has aimed to provide quality news and insights about the cultural landscape. Choosing Google AdSense has helped them deliver on this promise, all while building a stable, consistent ad strategy.

A Story of Persistence and Passion for Culture

Founded in 1998 by a group of university students, Revista Bula stands out in cultural journalism for its in-depth approach with analyses, essays, and critiques. Led by Carlos Willian Leite and Tainá Corrêa since 2002, the magazine combines cultural journalism with effective communication strategies, consolidating its online presence and relevance in the Brazilian cultural scene.

But, like many 21st-century magazines, Revista Bula has had its ups and downs. Based in Goiânia, the magazine had some trouble gaining attention at first. With much of Brazilian culture happening in and around São Paulo, the team had to work hard to build a readership. After years of work and research, they managed to build a following and appear in the rankings of major magazines.

“In 2007, some people left the project after university, which marked a turning point for Revista Bula,” says founder Carlos Willian Leite. “That's when we really tried to professionalize the business. We put our focus firmly on culture and then partnered with R7, another news company. At that time, we also started selling advertising directly with agencies to governments and other partners.”

Carlos' next step? Build a powerful ad strategy that could keep Revista Bula financially secure, regardless of the instability of the advertising market.

Google Becomes the Ideal Partner

The traditional advertising market can be volatile and unpredictable, which made strategic planning difficult for Carlos and his team. So, in 2018, they started testing new advertising options that would generate revenue with greater predictability and stability. And in 2019, they found the answer: Google AdSense.

Since then, AdSense has become the main source of revenue generation for Revista Bula. Along the way, the magazine has reduced its dependence on the traditional advertising market, achieving high revenue without excessive ads and financial stability.

Based on the success with AdSense, the team adopted other Google tools to improve performance, audience, and monetization. They leveraged Google Discover to expand their reach, leading to exponential growth in their monthly revenue and significant financial success in 2020—all while navigating the challenges of a global pandemic.

“Google has been a critical partner, driving visibility and revenue growth. AdSense was crucial for sustaining us through the pandemic, and now fuels our expansion into new markets.”

From that moment on, they began to prioritize Google's networks. They realized that the results were improving thanks to the high performance and ease of AdSense, along with the certainty that they would receive payments on time and consistently.

Today, Carlos realizes that these results are outperforming the rest of the market and attributes these gains to choosing Google's network for ad sales. Meanwhile, the user experience on the site has remained strong. Users are not overloaded with ads and still have the chance to access important cultural information completely free of charge.

“Google has been a critical partner, driving visibility and revenue growth. AdSense was crucial for sustaining us through the pandemic, and now fuels our expansion into new markets.”

Growth and Next Steps

Now that Revista Bula is earning a stable and consistent income from ad sales through Google, Carlos has been able to hire more employees. Today, around 35 people work for the magazine, collaborating daily to make it as informative and insightful as possible.

“Google allows us to operate completely online with AdSense, giving us the freedom to work from anywhere in the world,” says Carlos. “Google manages monetization, optimizing our work and allowing us to focus on producing quality content.”

When the pandemic hit, Revista Bula didn't miss a beat. With a team that was already used to working remotely and a consistent ad strategy working efficiently, Carlos was able to keep the business running and continue publishing new content on the site.

Now Carlos hopes to expand into new markets and internationalize content for the US and Spanish markets. As AdSense continues to generate reliable ad sales, he can now confidently think about expansion—and bring Revista Bula's mission to more continents.

“Our goal is simple,” says Carlos. “We want to publish articles that generate impressions, fuel debate, and contribute to a more reflective society.”

About the Publisher

Carlos Willian Leite is a journalist specializing in cultural and wine journalism. In the wine field, he focuses on the technical analysis of the wine universe, covering historical, production, and market aspects. His work in cultural journalism concentrates on covering the publishing and audiovisual market, with an emphasis on streaming platforms. He is a partner of publicist Tainá Corrêa at Eureka Comunicação, an agency specializing in crisis management and strategic planning for social media, with a focus on public services and politics. He is also the founder of Bula Livros, a publishing house created in partnership with Tainá Corrêa, dedicated exclusively to the publication of literary works, including contemporary authors and classical literature.