Mediavine Review: Is it the Best Ad Network to Boost Your Profits?

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In this Mediavine review, I'll give you the rundown on how simply switching from Google Adsense to Mediavine gave me an 80% boost in ad revenue in only 10 days!
Now just to be clear, I am still a big fan of Adsense. I started putting it on my sites over 10 years ago. And 3 years later, the income it was generating was enough for me to quit my corporate job and become an internet entrepreneur.
And I will always be thankful to Google for that.
However, there are now other ad networks available to help site owners boost profits.
In the past year, I've tried out Ezoic, AdThrive, and Mediavine ad networks. Each ad network has their own pros and cons largely depending on your traffic.
And in this Mediavine review I'll provide some details of each ad network and how they compare. Plus, I'm going to show you how you too can enjoy the same boost in profits with zero work. I'll share all the details below.
Mediavine Review – Mediavine vs Ezoic vs. Adsense Earnings
When I first started this particular niche site, I was just using Adsense and Amazon Associates. However, about a year ago I switched over to Ezoic, which is an ad optimization platform and network.
Ezoic is a Google ad partner, so they are able to place more ad units on my site than I could on my own. Plus, I believe they have some additional ad partners.
So basically Ezoic gives you the absolute best of AdSense as well as extra revenue from Ezoic ads from their other partners.
Then I heard about Medivine from someone in a Facebook group, so I decided to give them a shot. Here's my earnings the previous month from Ezoic:
The site was earnings roughly $25 per day on average from Ezoic Ads.
Then I switched to Mediavine ad network, and you can see the immediate jump! Here's the earnings screenshot:
The site is now earning about $45 a day on average, or about an 80% increase from what it was doing the previous month!
That's a Mediavine RPM of $15 or so (revenue per 1000 pageviews).
I also really wish they had an affiliate program. I'd be first in line to sign up for a mediavine affiliate program, but they don't have one.
So, I am not compensated at all for recommending them. I just saw an awesome increase in earnings and so I wanted to share.
If you can get higher advertising revenue from the exact same amount of blog traffic, that's a good thing. Money in the pocket.
Mediavine Review: Update After NSP4
In my Niche Site Project 4, I've been using Ezoic for a while. I started with Ezoic when my site was new as a way to monetize my info articles. And the longer I stayed with them, the more they impressed me.
It seems like Ezoic has come a long way since I first tried them out. They now add a lot of speed optimization options and are always split testing my ad placements. So for the foreseeable future, I'm sticking with them.
The constant testing of ad units and ad placement for more income is part of the reason they've done so well.
I'll update this article again if I ever move NSP4 to Mediavine.
You can read our full Ezoic review here.
Mediavine vs. Ezoic vs. Google Adsense vs. Adthrive
So, what's the difference between Mediavine, Adsense, AdThrive, and Ezoic?
At the end of the day, they are all ad networks that tend to serve very similar looking ads. Most ads from these networks are even serving up Google ads.
Each of these programs let a blogger place display ads on any blog post they publish. Or all of them. But the differences in results can be huge.
This Mediavine review compares Mediavine to each of the other ad management platforms out there.
Mediavine vs. Adsense
You are most likely already familiar with Adsense since it's been around the longest. Someone clicks an ad and you get paid. The beauty (and curse?) is that Google is the middle man so you don't have to work with advertisers at all.
Google automatically finds the relevant ads for your content. You just copy and paste a snippet of code and then you are all set. I love this simple model, because it's a great way to get started making some money from your site.
Almost everyone starts off with it (or Ezoic) when blogging.
They have the lowest barrier for entry and dead you the ropes of how the display ad model works.
How do they compare to Mediavine ads?
Unsurprisingly, Mediavine would be a next step up. Mediavine ads will earn you more, and the Mediavine RPM will be far higher.
Mediavine vs. Ezoic
Ezoic is actually a certified Google Adsense Partner. This basically means that Ezoic still gets most of the ads it run from Google, but there are other advantages as well. For example, they are allowed to place more ad units per page than a regular publisher.
More ads tend to equal more earnings.
Ezoic also does additional optimization, and even automated optimization once you are in their network to increase earnings. So allowing Ezoic to run the ad process for you is probably a good move for most people.
Traffic Minimums
Ezoic also works with less monthly viewers.
For Mediavine, you'll need 50k monthly viewers before you can apply. And important to note is that they care most about USA based traffic. Ezoic will accept you even if you have less than 10k monthly viewers.
Mediavine works similar to Ezoic. They are a certified Adsense Partner and many (most?) Mediavine ads are straight from the Adsense inventory.
However, they also have their own network so have a wider range of ad options for your site.
Why the Different Ad Revenue Results?
So, I don't know exactly WHY my Mediavine earnings were so much higher than Ezoic, I just know that they were when I tried them out the first time. For my NSP4, I've been making a ton with Ezoic instead. My ads have been making up to $17.40 per thousand visitors. That is a ton!
It's more than the $15 per thousand I was making with Mediavine ads, but it's not fair to compare sites in two different niches. Even so, an extra $2.40 per thousand visitors is a lot.
You can find many reports online of Mediavine earnings beating out Ezoic earnings on the same site. You can also find Mediavine reviews that say the opposite. This could very well be niche and site dependent.
The biggest concern on Ezoic vs. Mediavine has been that site speed is often more heavily affected by Ezoic. In theory this could cause some SEO issues, but if it was that bad a situation they wouldn't be able to survive as an ad platform.
Mediavine Vs. AdThrive
Finally, I wanted to briefly mention AdThrive network. AdThrive works very similar to Mediavine. However, you need to have at least 100,000 pageviews as a minimum traffic requirement in order to qualify for AdThrive.
I do have a site using the AdThrive network and the overall RPM is around $13 to $14. As you can see, this is actually lower revenue per thousand visitors than Mediavine and Ezoic. However, I think the main reason for the lower RPM is due to the site itself, not the network.
You can't compare the earnings of 2 completely different sites in different niches.
I would personally put the earnings potential at about the same for both AdThrive and Mediavine.
This seems to hold up in many blogging studies that have been done in recent years. Though it will be interesting to see what comes out as more large traffic sites do studies on each ad platform, the ad revenue they make, and what the results are at that point with more data.
The Process of Using Mediavine
The process for applying for and getting set up on Mediavine is not that complicated. It will probably take a couple of weeks to go through the process, but it's not a lot of work.
First you have to apply here.
Please be aware: Mediavine requires a minimum of 50,000 sessions per month to apply. So, if your site is brand new, you'll need to wait until you get that much traffic.
Once you submit your application, they will request to verify your Google Analytics. Then you have to go through a verification for Google AdExchange (you basically login to your Adsense account through a certain link).
Once verified, it might take a few days but you should get an approval email from Mediavine. If you have any questions, you can always reply to their emails. I found the Mediavine team very helpful and responsive through the process.
Once approved, you have to make a few small tweaks to your site, but nothing complicated. You basically need to get the Mediavine team access where they need it and then you are set.
They get your ads up and running for you and you can start earning money. They will optimize the ad placement for you, but you can also request certain ad layouts if you are particular about anything.
After that, it's pretty much hands free.
Let the Mediavine ad network do their thing while you get to focus on getting more traffic. Check your Google analytics often (and check out which kinds of hits does Google Analytics track). And check in every so often on your Mediavine dashboard to see how things are going, and let their team do their thing.
Use this Knowledge to Buy Sites…
If you are just now discovering that there are a couple of ways to increase the earnings of your site that has just Adsense, you are not alone. Many website owners out there monetize with Adsense and have never tried Mediavine, AdThrive, or Ezoic.
They are likely leaving money on the table.
One website buying strategy would be to find sites that are monetized with Adsense that are getting over 50,000 sessions per month.
If you did nothing more than just get the site approved for Mediavine, you could potentially increase the earnings of the site by 80%.
Let's take a look at a potential website purchase. If you found a site making $1,000 a month with Adsense, you might be able to buy it for $30,000 (30 times monthly earnings).
If you did nothing more than just switched Adsense to Mediavine, the site could increase by 80% to $1,800 per month.
At 30 times earnings of $1,800 a month, the site is now worth $54,000. A $24,000 bump in value…not bad!
(If you have an Adsense site you are looking to sell, you can sell it on MotionInvest here :)).
Final Thoughts From my Mediavine Review
Overall, I've been very happy with my Mediavine experience and earnings so far. If you have a site that is getting over 50,000 sessions per month, then I highly recommend that you check out Mediavine.
If you aren't quite at that level but are getting over 10,000 views per month, take a look at Ezoic.
But if you aren't at that 10,000 views per month yet, keep working at it. 🙂
Whether you have a travel blog or are building your niche website, you have options to monetize once you get the traffic.
Have you had experience with Mediavine or another ad network that you would like to discuss? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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33 Comments
Conversation
Do they care if the traffic is not from tier 1 country? I have a site earning some cash with adsense and the niche is for my local country. It has about 500,000 session per month and I have been with adsense for over 8 years…
Will you completely remove adsense ads and replace it with theirs?
Is there payment structure similar to Google? i.e. net 30?
I believe they want most of the traffic from US, I don’t know what the % threshold is though. Yes, they remove all your Google Adsense and replace.
I actually got contacted by Ezoic to have them implement themselves on my site, but for some reason, it just would work.
Just applied for Medivine now and fingers crossed, will see what happens!
Good luck!
Thanks for sharing, Spencer. I think I would give Medivine a try on my high traffic site. How do they pay their publishers? PayPal, direct deposit to bank or what? Pls reply soon.
Thanks
Paypal. You will have a 75 day wait period for 1st payout, then monthly
Also for other folks–mediavine is EXCLUSIVE. You can’t run other ad networks like media.net , revcontent, etc
BUT you CAN run amazon native ads–so I am doing both.
I actually found ezoic could match the ad network juggle–but mediavine beats it silly.
Can we use Mediavine with infolinks? Any update on that would be great, thank you
Paypal.
Had a very similar experience and I can’t talk about Mediavine without sounding like a shill.
The only thing I disagree on is the RPM boost. I got about 2x and April is historically a LOW month.
Went from a historical $8 ish RPM on Ezoic to over $16 (and potentially climbing).
Ezoic is not bad–so I’d say–1st use them–then try and apply to Mediavine as SOON as possible.
I also think 2 things that are better–my UX google analytics are slightly better–as mediavine lazyloads–so the content is there faster for the user–THEN the ads roll/pop in as they scroll.
They also don’t use ATF ads nearly as much as Ezoic–so I do believe you cut down on initial pogo-ing.
I don’t have hard data but just my impression and a slight increase in average time on page. (2 sec? range)
Thanks for the thoughts!
One important thing to be careful about the network is once you sign the contract you are lock for 90 days with them. So I feel check this before you think to try them…
Great point, thanks for sharing.
thanks for mediavine info, will try it next thing. i tried ezoic some time ago to find my site completely covered in ads top to bottom, so went back to 2 adsense ads which performed as good as 10-15 ezoic ads..
i also wanted to note, your old article on being banned from adsense comes up first in google even when searching for new info.. article is quite outdated, links to adbright and generally has very little relevant info, although is the google’s goto for many searches.. maybe something can be done with that article? i couldn’t comment right on it for some reason…
I’ll have to update the article.
Thank you spencer for the Mediavince Review.
Just applied for the account, let’s see what reply i recieve.
I hope for the best as your said above.
regards
I have an amazon affiliate website, I use only amazon and 1 affiliate program of a manufacturer. The website is getting like 75k views/month from serps. If I will add mediavine how much my affiliate comis will decrease?
Thanks
Thanks for the insight Spenser, I’ve heard good stuff about Mediavine.
Question, do they have a certain threshold for number of Ads that must be placed per page?
Hey Logan!
We utilize just four standard placements for our ads that have all been researched for excellent viewability and performance.
Two of those units would be placed in your sidebar — one above the fold and one below. We run an adhesion unit on desktop, mobile, and tablets. That’s the unit that sticks to the bottom of the browser as your reader scrolls. We also run ads in-content on both desktop and mobile. If you use a recipe card (typically food & lifestyle sites do) that would be a fifth placement that also performs really well.
All of our ads are placed automatically using our Mediavine script wrapper, so you won’t need to manually place any codes to get ads.
Feel free to reach out to [email protected] and we can help you answer any questions!
— Susannah at Mediavine
Hi Susannah,
If 90% of my traffic is mobile based will this work? Thank you.
This is wonderful Spencer,
Im actually hearing about this network for the first time, and it’s totally amazing. Please, how do they pay their publishers? Is it via check or PayPal alone?
Hey Theodore!
Ad earnings are paid out via PayPal. Feel free to reach out to [email protected] if you have any other questions!
— Susannah at Mediavine
at these last months, I have a low CPC -0.09? but at last year was fine +0.15.
why i have that cpc what is the reasons of that?
i think Q1.
My understanding is that the threshold on the number of adsense ads that you are allowed to place has changed and it is now as per ‘judgement’.
One of these ways that these networks work is to self-optimise. So, although you have already had great results, they should actually get even better.
I suspect why you are getting paid more by one network rather than another is that they have a larger inventory from different ad companies.
Thanks so much for the Mediavine shoutout!
Our application process is quick and easy and our support team guides you through every step to launch. With the Mediavine plugin or a simple line of code, you’ll get our optimized ad placements that have already been tested for viewability, which is what advertisers are paying for these days. We place a big focus on site speed and the best earnings possible without negatively impacting user experience. Digital ad income is a great source of passive income and while you’re 100% right that every site earns differently based on a number of factors, our publishers generally do extremely well.
If anyone has questions, we’re here at [email protected]!
— Susannah at Mediavine
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I still haven’t an Adsense account I it’s a must have? I thinked that I read somewhere that it’s not needed.
Very interesting results. I’ve had the best results with Adsense and Link ads lately. I tried ezoic and they could not come close to the RPMs I was getting with my original layout. You have me intrigued with your MediaVine results. Sounds like it’s worth checking out. Thanks so much!
Before coming to this blog post we had the plan to monetize our blog with Google AdSense as it’s a proven method to make money with any blog since years. But this post gave me an idea to try something different.
I will apply for the Mediavine program and see how this works for our blog.
Thank you very much. 🙂
You are welcome!
Hello nichepersuits. Is this offer also available in Pakistan. Google Adsense is available in Pakistan but don’t know about this new company you are mentioning here. So can you tell us are they providing their services to south Asian countries also.
One of these ways that these networks work is to self-optimise. So, although you have already had great results, they should actually get even better.
I have seen the comments in Facebook groups and everyone seems to think that Mediavine is the way to go however when I take a look at their sites the have an incredible amount of ads.
I mean the average amount of ads from Adsense is around 3-4 ads per page, but most of the Mediavine sites I have seen have around 21-24 ads, so of course you are going to make more money. With 6-7 times more ads you should be making 6-7 times more earnings. The thing is it really messes up the UX. The advertisers are not paying Mediavine more money than Adsesne so think that you are making more money from MV is not a reality it is just your site is displaying more ads.
I have two questions about something you wrote in your article, quote:
“Let’s take a look at a potential website purchase. For example, if you found a site making $1,000 a month with Google Adsense, you might be able to buy it for $30,000 (30 times monthly earnings).
If you did nothing more than just switched Google Adsense to Mediavine, the site could increase by 80% to $1,800 per month.
At 30 times earnings of $1,800 a month, the site is now worth $54,000. A $24,000 bump in value…not bad!”
Questions:
1- How long does the site need to be making those $1,000 a month for that valuation to make sense? 6 months? 1 year? 2 years?
2- What are the top 5 things you would look at before buying a site once the valuation/price make sense? (I’m looking at a site that is with AdThrive and it seems to be working fine but even though I am well versed in SEO and Content, I’ve never bought a website before. What things would you say: “Watch out for this?!”
Thanks!