Back in the early days, AdSense was the life force for online publishers, and undoubtedly, it still is, for most of us. However, over the last 5 years, the ad tech industry has rapidly changed and today, there are a number of players in the market who have created ad technology that results in additional monetization streams for publishers. So…
If you’re still using only AdSense on your website, this is a WAKE-UP CALL for you.
Yes,
There are more ways to monetize
Nobody owns the world. So feel free to explore it!
And if you’ve good traffic, you can probably get the new iPhone 7 with the additional money that you’ll be generating, all within the next 30 days of your life…
So, if that interests you.. Let us take this further!
It’s all about adding more ad networks to your site, make your ads compete, optimize the ad placements and see the growth.
Today, in this post, we’re going to talk about some ‘tried n tested’ AdSense alternative ad networks for mid-sized publishers. Yes, we agree that most of them don’t provide a 100% fill rate and don’t pay you as much as AdSense does, but adding a few of them can almost increase your ad revenue by 50-80%… Yes, that’s true!
We’re going to help you out…. Tell you the minimum traffic requirement for these ad networks so that you don’t apply to all of them. We’ve also shared the best performing demographics for these networks so that you can choose the right ones for your blog.
Top 13 Ad Networks for Mid-sized Publishers
1) Media.net
Media.net is the second largest contextual ad network with a strong advertiser base. It can monetize US and Canadian traffic at premium rates. Media.net performs best for a set of niches and sometimes their RPM can outperform AdSense. You should definitely test their 728×90 and 300×250 banner ads, make it mobile optimized, and keep testing their ad skins till you reach a good RPM rate.
Tip: Only apply if you’ve good US and CA traffic. Use display ads as a backfill to ensure you get the maximum revenue from Media.net. You need to contact your publisher representative for approval of display ads.
Minimum Traffic Requirement for Media.net: While there is not any mention of the minimum traffic requirement for Media.net since every site unique, however, you’re expected to have at least 1000 UVs to stand a chance to get accepted.
Page RPM for Media.net: The page RPM is determined by the niche, site quality and the demographics. It tends to vary from $0.50 to $5.00 and sometimes even higher based on the ad placements. Note that the data is for page RPM where you’re expected to have around 2-4 ad units per page. Do check out this Media.net review before getting started.
2) Taboola
Taboola is one of the fastest growing ad networks with a direct partnership with advertisers and publishers across the globe. This has led to immense inventory for advertisers to optimize their ad campaigns, while publishers keep benefitting with the high CPC rates and quality ads provided by Taboola. The good thing about Taboola network is, they can monetize 100% of your traffic and the overall earnings are quite decent.
Minimum Traffic Requirement for Taboola: Publishers need to have at least 1 million page views in order to display native ads from Taboola network. Sometimes, there is a relaxation to this number when you’ve good quality tier 1 traffic.
Taboola RPM Rates: Varies based on a lot of factors including the site quality, demographics, and conversions. For general news sites, the CPC for Asian traffic varies around 1-3 cents and tier 1 traffic is in the range of 8-10 cents per click. Attached here is the screenshot of my Taboola earnings. Since the majority of my traffic is from India, my CPC hovers around 3-4 cents.
3) AdClerks
AdClerks is a marketplace where publishers can showcase their sites for direct ad deals. Direct ad deals can yield you higher revenue than AdSense. Agreed, direct deals are difficult to realize, and that’s the reason we have created AdClerks. We want our publishers to make money and a lot of them are earning good, in fact, higher than AdSense. AdClerks is highly integrated with OneClerk- the CPM ad network which shows ads on publisher sites when no ad slots are sold in the marketplace. Thus, a publisher always end up making money irrespective of his ads being sold in the marketplace 🙂
AdClerks is ideal for publishers who are
- Not using AdSense
- Banned or rejected by AdSense due to a number of reasons
- Making low ad revenue with AdSense.
- Have high-quality, niche traffic websites
- Looking to supplement their AdSense income with other high paying ad networks
Minimum Traffic Requirement for AdClerks: As of now, AdClerks doesn’t have a minimum traffic requirement. However, we’d like to have publishers with a minimum of 1k unique to be registered on the AdClerks marketplace. Publishers having traffic from IN, US, UK with a good percentage of mobile traffic seems to perform well with OneClerk.
CPM Rates for AdClerks: Publishers who have signed up with OneClerk (the ad network wing of AdClerks) are seeing an ad impression CPM of around 20 cents to 1.2 dollars. In addition, you can sell your ad slots directly in the AdClerk marketplace at a rate pre-determined by you. Thus, you should definitely give AdClerk a try, and setup OneClerk ad units to make additional revenue from your existing traffic. It is one of the ideal ad networks for mid-sized publishers. You can signup with AdClerks here.
4) Facebook Audience Network
Facebook Audience Network is one of the fastest growing ad networks for mobile apps and mobile web traffic. With more than 2 million advertisers, Facebook has one of the biggest databases of ad sets and can monetize impressions at premium rates. The fill rate generally varies between 20-40%, so it is always advised to your FAN ads via DoubleClick. This tutorial can help you get started with Audience Network.
Minimum Traffic Requirement for Audience Network: You need to have a decent volume of traffic which can be anywhere around 8-10k unique per day. Also, a lot depends on the percentage of your desktop/mobile ratio. If you’ve good mobile traffic, chances of approval are high. You can also get accepted with a relatively low volume of page views if you run a quality site.
CPM Rates for Audience Network: Audience Network takes 2-3 days to optimize your ad unit CPM. You can expect a CPM of 1.2-2x times of your existing AdSense impression CPM/RPM. But do not expect to have a very good fill rate.
5) Criteo
Named as “the golden child of adtech”, Criteo is one of the leading retargeting ad tech companies. Brands rely on Criteo’s technology to drive more leads and sales. Criteo can pay CPMs which can be almost 3-4 times of your AdSense CPM, however, the fill-rate is around 10-40%. This is obvious since they only take those impressions which are relevant to their advertisers. They can monetize global traffic and this should be one ad network that can get you good money if you run a parenting, lifestyle, travel blog.
Minimum Traffic Requirement for Criteo: Since Criteo is a retargeting network, the minimum traffic requirement varies based on the niche, quality and audience demographics of the site. We have seen Criteo ads running on publisher sites with low traffic, so feel free to signup here.
CPM Rates for Criteo: CPM rates are high and can be anywhere around $1-$5 per 1000 ad impressions. Criteo works well for blogs which are focused on shopping, travel, lifestyle etc and can monetize your US, UK, CA and EU traffic.
6) Spoutable
A little extra is always good. Isn’t it?
Spoutable can help you make more than ‘the little extra’ if you’ve US traffic. We have seen RPMs to be around $2-$3 for US traffic, and this comes as an additional revenue. Spoutable ads are powered with exit intent technology and are displayed on the top, bottom or as an overlay to visitors. Generally, their ads tend to be native in nature and blend well with the content. It takes around 24 hours to get your site approved and they do accept sites with moderate traffic.
Minimum Traffic Requirement for Spoutable: Each and every site is screened for quality and a minimum traffic criteria to be accepted into this network. If your site is doing around 1k to 2k UVs per day, I guess, you can get a go-ahead from Spoutable. I have sites with similar traffic running Spoutable ads.
RPM Rates for Spoutable: Spoutable does pretty good for US traffic. Although they can fill almost 100% of your traffic, the RPM which you’ll be getting for your Asian traffic will be around $0.50 and less.
7) UnderDogMedia
Underdog Media is driven by a team of Digital Media and technology experts. They leverage best in class technology and industry partnerships to create ad placements that drive engagement with analytics that inform and guide intelligent business decisions for their partners. Publishers can make use of their header bidding platform, Edge and IAB ad formats. Underdog Media’s ads are sticky in nature, thus delivering a 100% viewability. Publishers can increase their revenue by 20-30% using UnderDog Media’s ad formats.
Minimum Traffic Requirement for UnderDogMedia: I have only seen their ads on websites with good Alexa rank, which means they must be accepting sites with a minimum traffic of 1 million page views or more.
CPM Rates for UnderDogMedia: UnderDogMedia ad units perform well for desktop traffic. You can expect the CPM to be anywhere around 1.3 to 2 times your normal AdSense impression RPM.
8) PubGalaxy
PubGalaxy collects demand from a number of sources, but keeps adding and removing advertising partners, in order to ensure that only the best performing ads gain access to the inventory of the publishers. PubGalaxy achieves an average eCPM increase for its publishers ranging between 15% and 93%. It offers a reporting system and API, as well as a 24/7 support system. This allows PubGalaxy to provide an increased CPM rate to any publisher signing up with their network. PubGalaxy would be a great ad network for publishers who have quality converting traffic. Since PubGalaxy’s optimization team continuously hand pick advertisers, the publisher’s revenue tends to be on the higher side.
Minimum Traffic Requirement for PubGalaxy: Publishers who can deliver 100K+ daily ad impressions for an initial test period, regardless of the traffic geos can get started with PubGalaxy. They usually combine Tier 1 and international, in order to get a broader idea. Needless to say, all publishers need to pass their requirements in terms of content quality, traffic quality, etc.
CPM Rates for PubGalaxy: PubGalaxy has a strong presence in EU along with US and Canada, so if you’ve good EU traffic, I bet this network can perform very well for you. You can see at least 30% increase in your CPM rates in the test period and further optimization can get you higher.
9) AdRecover
With an increasing user base of Adblock users, it was becoming imperative for publishers to monetize this traffic segment. Luckily, a number of companies have emerged to help publishers monetize their adblock traffic and AdRecover is my personal favorite when it comes to monetizing adblock users.
Minimum Traffic Requirement for AdRecover: You need to have around 50k page views a day or one million page views a month to be accepted in their publisher program. Please note that this is the overall traffic requirement out of which your ad block traffic will be around 10%, so that justifies the high traffic cutoff.
CPM Rates for AdRecover: The CPM rates can be anywhere close to what you’re getting from your existing AdSense ad impressions or maybe a little more. You can signup here and start making money from your ad block inventory.
10) Content.ad
Content.ad is another native ad network similar to Taboola with a lower traffic requirement. Publishers can make additional money by showing content.ad after article content and on the sidebar. They also provide a 100% fill rate, but the CPC hugely varies and is based on the advertiser demand of your traffic.
Minimum Traffic Requirement for Content.ad: Content.ad is another native ad network that performs well for mid-sized publishers with good tier 1 traffic. They don’t have any specific traffic requirement and new blogs can be approved if they have a good mix of tier 1 and international traffic.
CPM Rates for Content.ad: The eCPM depends on the number of ad units you’re using on your blog. The CPC varies between 6-10 cents for tier 1 traffic and 1-2 cents for tier 3 traffic. If you’ve a mix of international traffic, you can expect a CPC of around 5-6 cents. The earning screenshot here is from a finance blog and hence the CPC is on a higher side.
11) Infolinks
Infolink is one of the oldest Adsense alternatives. They still have a number of publishers under their network with tools that can monetize your traffic with various ad formats like- intext ads, native ads, footer overlay etc. Infolinks don’t work well with all type of sites and across all geos. So, you need to signup and see how your traffic is performing with infolinks. Make sure you integrate the in-text ads because that’s what Infolinks is known for and a majority of your ad revenue will come from it.
Minimum Traffic Requirement for Infolinks: Infolinks doesn’t have any minimum traffic requirement but they do screen every site based on their eligibility criteria.
CPM Rates for Infolinks: We’ve seen publishers making anywhere around 10 cents to $5 with Infolinks ads. So, it is very difficult to come to a median CPM rate for Infolinks. All that we can say is to signup with Infolinks and see how they perform for your site.
12) Teads.tv
Teads.tv is another high paying CPM ad network which focuses on native video ads. Although Teads accept mid-sized publishers buy their quality benchmark is quite high when it comes to site approvals. This is perhaps one of the reasons that they’re working with the best advertisers and can pay publishers such huge CPMs. They can monetize your EU, US, and Canadian traffic and also Asian traffic for website niches like News, Tech, Gadgets etc.
Minimum Traffic Requirement for Teads: Teads work with top quality publishers across the globe. We have heard publishers with 60,000 UVs getting accepted, however, the publisher was running a highly respectable UK news site. If you have an engaging news website, signup with Teads to make additional revenue by display native video ads.
CPM Rates for Teads.tv: There isn’t much information available on their CPM rates and we haven’t come across a publisher who would share his/her CPM rates with us. We look forward to updating this section once we have some idea of their CPM.
13) Wordads
With more than 60 ad networks bidding in real time, Wordads is one of the most robust ad networks that helps you make the most of every impression. Wordads is backed by WordPress and has more than 10,000 publishers registered with it. To get started with Wordads, you need to have Jetpack installed and once you apply for their program, they’ll send you a confirmation email upon approval. Through there are no traffic criteria mentioned for approval, the Wordads representation screen individual sites to ensure that they meet the minimum traffic criteria of their demand networks. Once approved, you just need to install the AdControl plugin to get started.
Minimum Traffic Requirement for Wordads: Initially, Wordads was created to monetize WordPress.com sites and now it is open to WordPress.org sites as well. The traffic requirement won’t be too high and you can get accepted if your site is doing 1000 unique/day or even less.
CPM Rates for Wordads: The CPM rates can vary, but consider this to be additional to your AdSense earnings or it is a good monetization opportunity for publishers who don’t have an AdSense account. I’ve already started testing Wordads and shall soon share my revenue report here.
I am signing off with the hope that you’ll consider signing up with some of these ad networks and will take blog monetization seriously. I ‘ll see you again with more interesting posts on traffic generation, monetization and ad optimization.
Note: The ad networks here, are listed keeping in mind the traffic potential and acceptance rate of mid-sized publishers. Do not consider this list to be a ranking!
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