Axonaut is a business management SaaS solution that is very popular with small and medium-sized enterprises. Their blog is a key part of their acquisition strategy, featuring in-depth articles, practical guides, comparisons, and more.
The need: a blog that is more like a media outlet than a simple “WordPress blog”, capable of supporting inbound marketing and to host a genuine in-house advertising agency.
The starting point
Before the redesign, the blog:
- did the work to publish articles,
- but limited the team contained in the formatting,
- and did not allow for proper management of advertising inserts (Axonaut self-promotion, partner campaigns, highlighting features, etc.).
So we started with a simple logic:
👉 A customised media-oriented WordPress theme + a fully customised advertising network in PHP.
Structuring a “real” media outlet around SaaS
Tree structure & categories
We worked on the editorial architecture to ensure that the blog would be:
- clear for visitors (by business theme: invoicing, CRM, accounting, business management, etc.),
- readable for Google (clean categories, consistent slugs, controlled internal linking).
The articles are enriched with:
- dedicated fields (ACF) for abstracts, reading time, Contextual CTAs,
- “Next reads” and “Additional resources” blocks to keep readers within the Axonaut ecosystem.
Article templates
We have created several article layouts:
- standard article (guide, tutorial, opinion piece),
- long-form article with summary, anchors, highlight blocks,
- templates suitable for editorial landing pages (series of articles, thematic dossiers).
Everything is integrated into the custom theme, without relying on a page builder, to maintain a blog. fast and clean code.
A custom WordPress theme, highly performance-oriented
Rather than stacking plugins and options, we have:
- developed a custom Axonaut theme,
- optimised queries and asset loading,
- Limit scripts to what is strictly necessary.
Objectives:
- a blog that quick charge (important for SEO and mobile experience),
- a base that is simple to maintain,
- Complete freedom to manage the graphic charter and components.
We have integrated:
- modules of product promotion (blocks such as “Discover Axonaut”, “Try for free”, etc.),
- manageable editorial areas (banners, proof blocks, key figures, etc.).
Custom advertising management in PHP: maintaining internal control
The specific focus of the project is the in-house advertising agency, integrated directly into WordPress.
Campaign & placement management
On the back-office side, we have added a dedicated interface that allows you to:
- create campaigns (Axonaut self-promotion, partners, sponsored content),
- manage different formats (header banner, inserts in the body of the article, sidebar, end of article, editorial interstitials, etc.),
- associate each campaign with one or more display areas.
Each zone can be:
- global (displayed everywhere),
- limited to certain categories,
- or even to a targeted list of items.
Display logic & rotation
In PHP, we coded the following logic:
- rotation of campaigns in the same location,
- possibility of setting a “priority” campaign,
- display conditions depending on the context (type of article, category, tag, etc.).
The idea: that the marketing team can manage both:
- of the product promotion (new feature, promotional offer, etc.),
- and editorial partnerships more traditional,
without ever touching the code.
Tracking and statistics
To monitor performance, the control room:
- log the impressions and clicks per campaign,
- displays statistics that can be viewed in the admin section (CTR, volume per period),
- can be integrated with UTMs for tracking on the analytics tools side.
We stick to a simple but sufficient logic for:
- manage self-promotion,
- measure the impact of partner campaigns,
- and adjust the most effective locations.
Experience on the Axonaut team
On a daily basis, the team can:
- publish articles as on a traditional blog,
- choose, for each item, which CTA and which inserts display,
- Create a new advertising campaign in just a few clicks, link it to an image, a URL, and broadcast dates, and publish it on the blog.
The whole thing without third-party management plug-in, without external iframes, without dependence on an additional SaaS solution.
A blog that informs, converts... and monetises
By combining:
- a WordPress theme tailored for content,
- a clean editorial architecture,
- a bespoke advertising agency,
The Axonaut blog becomes:
- one robust acquisition channel (SEO + content),
- one promotional material SaaS features,
- one monetisation lever and editorial partnerships managed internally.
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