Sports Thread Ad Network is the advertising arm of Sports Thread Inc. – a social networking platform and SaaS suite built for youth and amateur sports organizations. The ad network grew quickly, becoming one of the fastest-growing networks in the sports vertical, connecting brands with one of the most engaged and underserved audiences in digital advertising: people deeply involved in sports at the grassroots level.
The growth was real. The infrastructure supporting it was not keeping up.
By the time Sports Thread started looking for a new ad solution, the gap between what the network could offer clients and what clients actually needed had become impossible to ignore. A recommendation from an existing Epom customer brought them to the conversation. What followed was a rethink of both sides of the business at once.
Growth That Outpaced the Infrastructure
Ad networks live and die by two factors: the quality of their supply and the quality of their tools. Sports Thread had an audience worth advertising to. What they didn't have was the infrastructure to fully monetize it or the platform to keep advertisers satisfied long enough to grow their spend.
The team knew what needed to change. The question was whether a single solution could tackle both problems at once, or if they'd have to go for broke.
Two Problems, Two Sides of the Same Business
On the supply side: Sports Thread's inventory was largely limited to its own mobile application and a collection of partner publisher sites monetized through Google AdSense. That setup worked at a certain scale. It stopped working when the network started attracting advertisers who expected real reach – more publishers, more audience, more control over where campaigns actually ran.
On the demand side: advertisers were hitting the ceiling of what the existing tools could do. Reporting was limited. There was no meaningful platform customization. Advanced targeting options, the kind that let an advertiser target by geography, audience behavior, or specific content context, just weren't available.
Two separate problems, but the same root cause: the tech had stopped keeping pace with the business.
Why Sports Thread Chose Both Epom Products
Most ad networks choose either a WL DSP or an Ad Server to save costs. Sports Thread didn't want to settle for compromises; they looked at both problems and decided that solving one without the other didn't solve anything.
The solution: Epom White-Label DSP to cover the demand side, and Epom Ad Server used as an SSP to cover the supply side.
"The DSP allows us to run advanced advertising campaigns for our clients. The SSP allows us to aggregate websites within our industry to scale the reach of the Sports Thread Ad Network."
The WL DSP gave Sports Thread's advertisers a proper campaign management environment: advanced targeting, audience reach beyond the network's own inventory, and real buying capability. The Ad Server gave the network a way to aggregate publisher inventory across the sports vertical and manage it as a proper supply-side operation.
Together, the two products covered what neither could cover alone.
| Business need | Epom solution |
|---|---|
| Broader audience reach | WL DSP access to inventory beyond the network |
| Supply management | Ad Server used as SSP to aggregate publishers |
| Better reporting | 30+ metrics, detailed analytics, mobile and video |
| Advertiser flexibility | UI, logo, and platform color customization |
| Operational speed | Dedicated onboarding and ongoing support |
Customization as an Unexpected Growth Driver
Who would have guessed that UI customization would become one of the biggest drivers of client spend growth? It did.
Sports Thread's advertisers were able to customize the platform experience – UI, logos, and platform colors – to reflect their own brand. What the team expected to be a convenience feature turned out to change how advertisers related to the platform entirely.
Advertisers who could make the platform feel like their own spent more time on it. More time in it meant more campaigns, more optimization, more investment. The 35% increase in average client ad spend traces directly back to a feature that looked like a nice-to-have on paper.
The lesson is worth keeping in mind: in a market where advertisers have options, the platform that feels most like theirs gets the most cash.
Reporting, Geo-Fencing, and the Support Behind It All
Reporting
Before Epom, reporting was a recurring source of friction. Advertisers wanted more visibility. The existing tools weren't giving it to them.
With Epom Ad Server, Sports Thread gained access to 30+ ad metrics, detailed analytics covering mobile, video, and conversion tracking, and an interface that made the data accessible rather than something to dig through. Advertisers could see what was working, act on it faster, and build more confidence in the campaigns they were running.
More transparency produced better client relationships. Better client relationships reduced churn.
Geo-fencing
Geo-fencing gave campaigns the geographic precision that sports-vertical advertisers needed – targeting audiences around specific locations, events, and publisher contexts rather than relying on broad distribution. Alongside this, expanding the publisher partner network through the Ad Server SSP setup drove the 40% reach increase Sports Thread had been targeting from the start.
Support
The platform was one part of the partnership. The other part was the team behind it. Epom worked alongside Sports Thread through implementation and beyond – onboarding, strategic guidance, and ongoing technical support as the network scaled. Campaign deployment moved faster. Problems got resolved before they became patterns.
"We have been able to provide significantly more value to our clients, which has helped us achieve more successful campaigns and retain more business from our advertising clients."
What the Numbers Looked Like
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Average client ad spend | +35% |
| Reach | +40% |
| Churn rate | −15% |
| Task completion speed | 15-20% faster |
The 40% increase in reach was the primary goal, and it was delivered. Expanding publisher partnerships through the Ad Server SSP setup gave Sports Thread access to inventory it didn't have before.
The 35% increase in client ad spend came from an unexpected place. Customization moved the needle more than anyone anticipated – advertisers who felt a sense of ownership over the platform invested more in it.
The 15% churn reduction followed from the reporting improvement. When clients can see what their campaigns are doing in real time, they stay. When they're guessing, they leave.
The 15-20% improvement in task completion speed was the least expected result. The team was closing advertising tasks faster, not because the workload decreased, but because the tools stopped getting in the way.
"Sports Thread is a great example of what happens when you get the right infrastructure in place for both sides of an ad network's business at the same time. This is the kind of situation where you can't fix one problem without the other; just dealing with the demand or the supply wouldn't have produced these results."
