System1, Inc. (SST): Marketing Mix Analysis [Dec-2025 Updated]

System1, Inc. (SST) - Marketing Mix: Product

The core technology underpinning System1, Inc. (SST) is the Responsive Acquisition Marketing Platform (RAMP). This platform utilizes proprietary data science and AI to connect consumers and advertisers. In the first quarter of 2025, the RAMP platform processed 3.0B sessions, showing continued gains from AI and agentic automation.

System1, Inc. (SST) maintains a portfolio of Owned and Operated Products, which are central to its privacy-centric focus. These include Startpage, MapQuest, and CouponFollow. The company has been emphasizing the performance of these organic products.

Performance metrics for the Owned and Operated Products segment show notable growth in the first half of 2025:

The strategic focus remains on these privacy-centric search, couponing, and online mapping products. System1, Inc. (SST) has also advanced these offerings, including the expansion of CouponFollow.com into Europe and the launch of redesigned MapQuest apps.

A new AI-focused product, the Vanish Private AI Chat app, was recently introduced by Startpage.com in the third quarter of 2025. This mobile application provides access to models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity, all routed through Startpage's privacy proxy layer, ensuring user IP addresses, queries, and conversations are not logged.

The success of these owned assets is reflected in the company's gross profit structure. As of the third quarter of 2025, the Products segment is now the majority of the company's gross profit. This shift is noted alongside an 8% year-over-year growth in product revenue for Q3 2025.

System1, Inc. (SST) - Marketing Mix: Place

System1, Inc. (SST) deploys its offerings through a distribution strategy centered on its omnichannel platform, which is designed to bring high-intent customers to advertisers across various digital channels.

The Place strategy is structurally divided into two main segments that represent its distribution channels and revenue streams. This segmentation dictates how traffic is acquired and monetized across the System1, Inc. (SST) ecosystem.

• Omnichannel platform delivers high-intent customers to advertisers.
• Distribution spans globally, including the US, UK, Canada, and the Netherlands.
• Two main segments: Owned and Operated Advertising and Partner Network.
• Traffic is sourced from major networks like Google, Meta, Outbrain, and TikTok.
• CouponFollow.com expanded its reach with beta launches in Germany, France, and Poland.

The geographic footprint for System1, Inc. (SST) includes the United States and international markets. For its Owned and Operated (O&O) segment, international revenue represented 30% of total O&O revenue in Q1 2025, an increase from 29% in Q1 2024.

Traffic acquisition involves leaning heavily on major networks. TikTok has been noted as a really good source of traffic and a growing part of the business. System1, Inc. (SST) prioritizes Tier 1 countries, specifically naming the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, for achieving the highest Revenue Per Click (RPC) figures.

The performance of the owned properties, which are a key part of the distribution, shows traction. CouponFollow.com, a primary digital coupon platform, reported a 44% jump in organic sessions in Q2 2025 and had posted a 162% year-over-year increase in organic sessions in Q1 2025.

Here is a breakdown of the segment performance for the first half of fiscal year 2025:

The company's distribution relies on its Responsive Acquisition Marketing Platform (RAMP) to manage campaign scale and optimization accuracy across its channels. In Q1 2025, System1, Inc. (SST) launched over 41,000 marketing campaigns, which was five times the number launched year-over-year.

System1, Inc. (SST) - Marketing Mix: Promotion

You're looking at how System1, Inc. communicates its value proposition amid significant platform changes. The promotional narrative right now is all about managing the exit from one monetization source while aggressively pushing the growth story of its Product segment, which is heavily reliant on new AI-driven offerings.

Strategic shift is promoted internally and externally toward the Products segment.

Management is actively communicating the pivot away from the deprecated Google AdSense for Domains (AFD) channel. This transition is a core promotional theme, framing the move as necessary for long-term stability. To give you a sense of scale, AFD still represented 27% of total marketing revenue in Q2 2025. The promotional focus shifts to the Product segment's success, which saw revenue increase 8% year-over-year in Q3 2025, even as overall company revenue fell 31% year-over-year to $61.6 million.

The promotional messaging highlights the segment's resilience:

• Product segment sessions increased 23% year-over-year in Q3 2025.
• Product segment profit was $21.2 million, up 6% year-over-year.
• Adjusted gross profit margin improved to 59% in Q3 2025, up from 42% the prior year.

Here's the quick math on the segment split in Q3 2025, which underpins the promotional narrative:

What this estimate hides is the depth of the marketing challenge; advertising spend was down 54% from Q3 2024.

AI-driven automation and decision-making are highlighted as key operational efficiencies.

System1, Inc. promotes its use of AI to drive efficiency and product enhancement. CEO Michael Blend specifically mentioned seeing increasing efficiency gains from AI-powered Agentic coding. This technological advancement is used in communications to signal future product superiority and operational leverage, helping to offset the volatility in the marketing side of the business. The company is planning to launch new products specifically addressing the AI space.

Investor relations is a key focus, with participation in investor conferences in late 2025.

Active outreach to the financial community is a clear promotional tactic to maintain confidence during the transition. System1, Inc. management participated in several key events late in the year to convey this message:

• RBC Capital Markets Global Technology, Internet, Media & Telecommunications Conference (November 18-19, 2025).
• UBS Global Technology & AI Conference (December 1-2, 2025).
• Benchmark Discovery One-on-One Conference (December 4, 2025).

CFO Tridivesh Kidambi was available for one-on-one meetings at these forums, directly engaging with analysts to discuss the strategy.

New product launches like Vanish Private AI Chat drive media and user engagement.

The launch of the 'Vanish' private AI chat app by Startpage.com is a major promotional highlight for the Product segment. Vanish is promoted as meeting an increasingly important consumer need: maintaining privacy while using AI for sensitive queries like healthcare and legal matters. The app offers access to models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity through Startpage's privacy proxy layer, ensuring users' IP addresses and conversations are not logged.

Management is actively communicating a shift to a newer Google product to mitigate marketing challenges.

A significant part of the external communication involves framing the move from AFD to Google's RSOC product as a strategic necessity and an opportunity. Management is promoting their leadership position in RSOC, which they believe represents a much larger and more durable opportunity than the legacy Google business. They anticipate greater stability heading into 2026, aiming to return the marketing segment to growth in the coming quarters. Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

System1, Inc. (SST) - Marketing Mix: Price

System1, Inc.'s revenue model fundamentally monetizes end-users through Advertising Partner relationships, which is the realization of the 'Price' element in their marketing mix. This involves setting the terms under which advertising inventory or traffic is sold or exchanged, reflecting the perceived value derived from their user base across their platforms.

The financial results for the third quarter of 2025 show the direct impact of these monetization strategies amidst a shifting advertising landscape. Overall, System1, Inc. (SST) reported Q3 2025 Revenue of $61.6 million, which represented a 31% year-over-year decrease. This revenue figure is the aggregate of the pricing achieved across both the Marketing and Products segments.

A key indicator of pricing effectiveness and strategic focus is the margin profile. The Adjusted Gross Profit Margin improved significantly to 59% in Q3 2025, a substantial increase from 42% year-over-year. This expansion suggests that the pricing or cost structure within the revenue-generating activities became more favorable, driven by a strategic pivot.

The strategic shift is clearly visible in the segment performance, which directly relates to how System1, Inc. prices its offerings or inventory. The company is moving towards higher-margin revenue streams, which inherently affects the realized 'price' per transaction or impression in the lower-margin areas.

The pricing pressure in the Marketing segment, which saw its revenue drop 43% year-over-year to $39.1 million, was explicitly attributed to product changes at their largest advertising partner, Google. This external factor directly impacted the realized price or volume available for sale in that channel.

Conversely, the Products segment demonstrated resilience and higher value realization, which supported the overall margin improvement. Here are the profit details for the segments:

• Products segment adjusted gross profit was $21.2 million in Q3 2025.
• Marketing segment adjusted gross profit was $16.6 million in Q3 2025.
• Products comprised 56% of the total segment profit.
• Overall Adjusted Gross Profit Margin reached 59%.

The improved margin profile to 59% reflects a successful strategy of prioritizing higher-value monetization, even as top-line revenue declined. This suggests that the pricing strategy within the Products segment, or the cost to acquire that revenue, is superior to the Marketing segment's current realized pricing structure. System1, Inc. is effectively trading lower volume at lower realized prices (Marketing) for higher volume at better realized prices (Products).