If you’re looking for ways to increase the revenue from your website, then you’ve likely seen Mediavine recommended as a great way to do that. But Mediavine isn’t the answer for everyone.
In fact, Mediavine recently changed their requirements so that sites now need 50,000 monthly sessions instead of 25,000.
So, if you can’t meet those requirements, or if your site was rejected by Mediavine (been there!), then it’s time to look for alternative display ad options. Since I’ve had to do exactly this, let’s look at the options and I’ll share what I’ve done with my sites.
**And as always, I’m an affiliate marketer and this post contains some affiliate links, meaning I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.
Why People Love Mediavine
Currently I have one site in Mediavine and it’s easy to see why people are always raving about in Facebook groups and forums. You really do get high RPMs with them.
In fact, my Mediavine site was on AdSense before getting into Mediavine and it earned just under $40 the last month it was on AdSense. And it’s first month on Mediavine was over $500.
That’s why people love Mediavine.
Best Mediavine Alternatives For Low Traffic Sites
With Mediavine now requiring 50,000 monthly sessions to qualify, that means lots of site owners are going to need something better than AdSense to turn to for higher display ad income. So, here’s some options for you to consider.
1. Ezoic
If you’ve been to my site before, then you already know that I use Ezoic but that I’m far from loving it. The truth is, I have some gripes about it, which I wrote about here.
But for me, they are the best alternative until I can get my sites into Mediavine.
To give you an idea of the increase in ad revenue when moving from AdSense to Ezoic, this is what it looked like for me – just over $100 for the last month with AdSense and over $500 from the first full month with Ezoic.
So, even though I don’t love Ezoic, I do love that kind of income increase.
Ezoiz requirements:
- Traffic: 10,000 monthly
- Site is Google AdSense approved
2. Monumetric
Personally, I have never used Monumetric but I’ve seen a lot of bloggers and site owners singing their praise. Though they do have a referral program, so it’s hard to know if people are being truthful or just trying to earn referral monies.
Like Ezoic, you only need 10,000 monthly traffic to qualify with Monumetric.
One thing that turns me off of Monumetric is that you have to pay a $99 setup fee if your traffic is under 80,000 monthly. That being said, if you’re currently on AdSense then you’ll likely recoup this cost with the higher ad revenue from Monumetric.
Monumetric requirements:
- Traffic: 10,000 monthly
Learn more about Monumetric here.
3. Media.net
Last year I bought a site that running Media.net ads and making around $100 a month from them (earnings were only slightly more when I changed it to AdSense). If you’ve never heard of Media.net, then you might be surprised that they are Yahoo & Bing ads – so they’re an AdSense alternative.
But what’s interesting (and different) about Media.net is that they seem to pay based on impressions, not clicks.
While they don’t have any traffic requirements listed on their page other than “a reasonable volume of visitors,” I did some digging and found several bloggers who got approved with traffic of around 6,000 monthly.
Media.net requirements:
- Traffic: at least 6,000 monthly
- English language content
- Most traffic from US, UK, Canada
Learn more about Media.net here.
Best Mediavine Alternatives For High Traffic Sites
If you’ve got a site that’s outgrown the requirements of the companies listed above, then you have a few more options that are available to you. I typically sell my sites before these reach these sorts of traffic levels, so I have zero experience with these companies.
1. AdThrive
This is probably the most well known of the high traffic ad platforms. And from what I’ve seen online, they seem to often be able to give people higher RPMs than Mediavine.
But, of course, that’s not always the case.
If you’re already in Mediavine, then you may be tempted to move over to give AdThrive a try once you reach 100,000 monthly visitors. I can’t tell you if that’s a good idea for your site, but I can tell you that you’ll have to re-apply to Mediavine if you want to switch back – and your loyalty bonus resets when you leave Mediavine.
AdThrive requirements:
- Traffic: 100,000 monthly
- Most traffic from USA
Learn more about AdThrive here.
2. Taboola
If you’ve been building sites for as long as I have, then you’re likely already familiar with Taboola…but probably thought there’s no way you’d ever meet their requirements.
Not that long ago I started seeing people in Facebook groups and forums talking about how Taboola lowered their traffic requirements for new sites.
From what I can find, it seems that you now need traffic of 500,000 monthly to qualify. Unfortunately, Taboola doesn’t list the traffic requirements on their site, so I cannot 100% confirm this number.
So, if you’re over 100,000 monthly but under 500,000, you still may want to try applying and see what they say. You just might get approved.
Taboola requirements:
- Traffic: 500,000 monthly (???)
Learn more about Taboola here.
Other Options
The alternatives above by no way exhaust the options available to you. They’re just the ones that I’m most familiar with.
That being said, I did a bit of research to see what else is out there that might be available. And I’d found the following:
- AdMaven (they seem to accept anyone with no traffic minimums)
- Conversant (traffic minimum seems to be 3,000 monthly)
- Adsterra (traffic minimum seems to be 50,000 for display ads)
- Outbrain (no traffic minimum stated)
And there’s probably even more options out there that I didn’t find.
One thing to keep in mind as you look for a Mediavine alternative is that the more popular display ad companies are popular for a reason – they pay well and on-time. Good luck out there!
Hey, I’m Shawna. I make a living working from my laptop in places like London, Sydney, Dubai, Rome, Oslo, Bangkok, Las Vegas, Barcelona, and Amsterdam. I share how I do some of that on this website.
Hi Shawna! for
Another timely and great post. I was just on my way to applying to Mediavine when I got slapped by Google’s May Core Update, so I’m trying to recover. Not easy, but it seems I’m just going to wait it out and continue pumping out content until I do.
Between Google, Amazon lowering its commissions and now Mediavine raising their minimum requirements. There seems to be a trend of devaluation going on with traffic. Hopefully, perseverance is key in surviving and hopefully thriving in this business.
Anyway, I’m on Monumetric and although the rpm’s also took a dive (Covid related), again trend here, I’m in general pretty pleased with them.
Also, I think it should be said that you don’t need an Adsense account to join. Your site just needs to be approved by Google’s Ad Partnership(Management) Program which is different from Adsense. My personal Adsense account was terminated back in 2011 on a different site, so I thought that would be an issue. But, as long as your current site has no issues or adsense bans, then they’ll approve you since your going through them. Big difference.
Thanks again for the timely post!
Hey David! Thanks for that info on Monumetric – I’ve updated the post accordingly. And it good to hear from someone using them that they’re a decent option. Now you’ve got me wondering how their RPMs compare to Ezoic.
Hey Shawna,
That’s a good question regarding Ezoic. I never applied since they require a personal adsense account whereas Monumetric and Mediavine don’t.
However, I can’t that Monumetric Ads have slowed my site all that much which is the main complaint I hear about Ezoic. Although Monumetric does require $100 to set their ads up on your site, which is a turn off. They also require a 30 day notice to cancel their service or they keep 20% of the revenue owed.
I must say that their customer service has been good, even during Covid. They are also trying out video ads, but that’s still in beta.
Anyway, Monumetric might be worth a shot, at least for diversification’s sake.
I look forward to more of your great posts!
Actually Mediavine require that you be in good standing with Adsense before you apply. If you had applied with your Adsense terminated, you would been denied.
Really? I applied and got in a couple of months ago and don’t remember seeing anything mentioning AdSense on the application or during on-boarding.
Hi Shawna,
I’ve been waiting months to join their network. During this time I tried to read everything on them. From what I gathered, you must not have been banned from Adsense before applying. I even heard they helped some people get their Adsense back up before setting up their ads. Also don’t forget, Google Ads make a large chunk of their inventory so if a site can’t work with Adsense, they won’t have much to display on the site.
All said, they may have changed/modified their requirements going by the recent changes from them.
Ah, interesting. Maybe it was on the application and I just missed it since my AdSense account is fine.
Actually, according to this comment from a post “GOOGLE ADSENSE BANS AND MEDIAVINE” on Mediavine’s blog, the Mediavine rep who had replied to this very question said this about Adsense Bans “As long as your new website is in good standing, we won’t have any problems with your other site’s Adsense issues.”
Here’s the link to the post: https://www.mediavine.com/google-adsense-bans-and-mediavine/
So, there is a difference between a “site ban” and an “account ban” in regards to being accepted into their network. As long as the site you are applying with has no Adsense issues, then they wouldn’t have any problems.
Ah, perfect. Mystery solved! Thanks, David.
What is your take on google ads vs that of organic SEO services ?
In what respect? Do you mean in terms of referring traffic to the site?