Integrating an advertising network to show ads is the next big step if you’ve been working on a content site. It’s the best way to monetize your efforts. The dilemma now is choosing the best ad network. So I’m here to help you with this Ezoic vs Mediavine comparison (I’ve partnered with both).
Some folks might want to throw AdSense into this mix, but I advise against it. Earnings with the AdSense network can be a bit – well – low.
So let’s focus on your two best options for sites below 100,000 monthly visits, Ezoic and Mediavine.
First, let’s look at the qualifications for each and how they affect your site’s overall appearance and feel. Then we’ll discuss how much they cost.
Finally and most importantly, we’ll tackle how much you can expect to earn.
Ezoic vs Mediavine: A Comparison In Features
What You Need To Get Accepted
Now, let’s determine which of the two networks better fits your site depending on its size.
We’ll look at their prerequisites for acceptance and the average time it takes for each network to accept you.
Getting Accepted To Ezoic
Ezoic had a minimum requirement of 10,000 page views per month until recently. As of June 8, 2021, their official policy states that they no longer have any traffic requirements.
So anyone can be approved into their ad platform.
This means that sites of any size can theoretically use the Ezoic platform’s monetization features. It’s a significant leg-up from a network like AdSense.
However, please note that there are still a few requirements for your site to be allowed into their network.
First and foremost, your site must adhere to Google’s ad policy and be in good standing with the search engine.
Basically, nothing in your material can breach copyrights or be regarded objectionable in any way.
Chances are slim for sites that publish adult content or tolerate shady things like bullying.
You may face additional restrictions if you cover topics like politics, healthcare, or financial services.
Aside from that, your site is potentially suitable to use the Ezoic network if it publishes content regularly. You should also have a mechanism to show your traffic stats.
Google Analytics is your best friend.
Related Reading: Ezoic vs Monumetric – Read Another Ezoic Comparison Here.
How Long It Takes To Be Approved By Ezoic
Anyone with a functional website can sign up and be accepted by Ezoic within 24 hours, with a few exclusions.
The clearance procedure takes anywhere from 12 to 24 hours, in my experience. It could also take an additional 3 to 5 hours to construct and test the network.
If your site is built on the WordPress platform, you can quickly integrate it after approval. Ezoic has a dedicated WordPress plugin.
Connecting your Ezoic account with their plugin by copying and pasting your account ID is all that is required.
Please be prepared to wait a few hours for everything to sync up.
Then Ezoic will automatically start running advertisements after everything is completed.
Getting Accepted To Mediavine
Mediavine, like Ezoic, has simple requirements. Your site must be in good standing with Google and have unique and ideally long-form content.
They do, however, have a minimum threshold of 50,000 sessions in the last 30 days, unlike Ezoic.
It’s crucial to note that this is a requirement for sessions rather than page views, unlike many other advertising networks.
This is a stringent requirement, but it may be worthwhile in the long run if Mediavine pays you more.
Open Google Analytics and look at the audience overview report to see how close you reach this criterion.
This will provide you with a session count for any period you specify. To be considered for admission, all you have to do is fill out a form.
You will be asked basic information about your site, which can be finished in about five seconds provided that you’ve fulfilled the 50,000 session criterion.
How Long It Takes To Get Approved By Mediavine
It usually takes two to three weeks for Mediavine to approve your application once you submit it.
Anticipate a few emails from their team once they begin considering your application.
They will require you to submit a lot of information about your site upfront.
It’s also not unusual for them to request extra information or explanation on aspects of the application that need more clarification.
As your application progresses, the Mediavine support team is likely to contact you with a few questions regarding your content.
Expect to be asked how you’ve previously integrated ads or affiliate monetization.
Once your application has been approved, they will contact you with any last-minute changes to your site.
People usually have to make some changes to meet their advertising requirements.
They’ll also send you some valuable tips to make the process more seamless.
The complete process takes between five and seven business days when your application is approved.
Only then will the ad appear on your site.
Related Reading: Top Types Of Blogs That Make Money – Click Here To Read The Post.
User Experience
The impact of any ad network on the overall user experience should be one of your primary considerations.
After all, who wants to come to your site if they have to scroll through a dozen different adverts?
Ezoic UX
Ezoic can be a complete blessing or a complete nightmare, depending on how your site is set up.
Some Ezoic implementations resulted in a terrific user experience. In the same vein, some are a chore to deal with.
Let’s look at a few different factors to see where you might fall into one of the camps.
Site Speed
Any advertising network can be expected to slow down your site. The basic edition of Ezoic has a significant impact on this element.
The average page load time increased by six to nine seconds across most sites. This can be a bad user experience and result in less total organic traffic.
However, Ezoic has a few tricks up its sleeve to help tackle this problem.
For starters, Ezoic provides its content delivery network (CDN), which aids in the mitigation of this problem.
You may have some difficulties putting this into action. However, utilizing it correctly will cut the time it takes for a page to load in half.
You might already be utilizing a CDN, like Cloud Flare. If so, you’ll have to switch entirely to Ezoic’s CDN to take advantage of this feature.
Leap By Ezoic
Ezoic’s next feature, namely Leap, is designed to aid with the site speed issue.
The Leap application is entirely free. It’s meant to optimize everything you need to pass the most rudimentary web tests.
Core web vitals refers to the several elements that Google believes to be good indicators of overall user satisfaction.
The Leap program is free for customers with 500,000 monthly page views. It’s meant to help you pass all three tests with flying colors.
This was an important step in the right direction, and it can cut increasing load times by roughly half. It also helps clean up a few other sites’ analytics, so it’s worth checking out.
In addition to the free “Leap” program, Ezoic offers a site speed accelerator, which can help your site load faster.
This tool is a beefed-up version of the Leap program. It’s designed to speed up anything that can slow down a website.
If your site is still slow on the Ezoic platform, you might want to look into the accelerator program too.
However, unlike the Leap program, the site speed accelerator program comes with a $29 monthly subscription.
So it wouldn’t be some people’s first remedy if they’re having speed issues with the Ezoic advertisements network.
However, this might be the single most crucial factor in restoring your page performance metrics to pre-Ezoic levels.
With the accelerator program in place, your total net speed loss could be between one and three seconds. That’s a vast improvement over a hypothetical 6-9 second drop.
Related Reading: AppSumo Review – Read The Secret Here.
Ad Placement
One of the best things about Ezoic is that you have complete control over where your ads appear.
Ezoic will begin testing different placements on your site once you’ve been accepted and finished the integration processes.
They let you choose from a number of various profiles, ranging from very user-friendly to the most ad placements conceivable.
They’ll also test several positions to see what works best for you.
You can add or remove ad placements one at a time from your Ezoic dashboard. That’s if you think there are too many or too few on your site.
Mediavine UX
Site Speed
While adding an advertising network to your site would slow it down, Mediavine’s adverts are designed to minimize this.
Mediavine page load times are significantly faster than Ezoic even after using several expensive Ezoic tools.
Additionally, under your Mediavine dashboard, you have some control over frequency. You can control the number of times individual ads are presented.
Mediavine appears to perform a far better job of guaranteeing a positive user experience while balancing your revenue potential.
Ezoic may be a better alternative if you like complete control.
Mediavine may be the ideal option if you prefer a hands-off approach and feel comfortable relying on Mediavine’s team of experts.
Ad Placement
Compared to Ezoic, the Mediavine network gives you substantially less control over ad placements.
In general, Mediavine will use five basic ad positions, which you must keep during your initial 90-day onboarding period.
You could always contact Mediavine support staff if you wish to make adjustments to any of these placements beyond that period.
If you find something obtrusive with your website design, they can offer recommendations or changes for you.
There are several reasons for this, but Mediavine is designed with the user experience.
The out-of-the-box settings for Mediavine are meant to lazily load ads, meaning they load after the rest of the page.
The entire system is centered on optimizing Google’s page speed insight standards, similar to limited control over placements.
There are no other free or paid add-ons required to use Mediavine’s capabilities.
Pricing
The cost of each network is also something to think about. Of course, you should be aware of a few expenses associated with their use.
In most cases, the base fees for each network are deducted from the money you’ve generated.
Ezoic Costs
While Ezoic offers a “free” tier, you should anticipate paying Ezoic at least 10% of your earnings. Please note that they place an Ezoic ad on your site with your other ads on the free tier.
You may encounter a few more charges in addition to this 10% price. You have to pay extra if you decide to use the site speed accelerator.
It has a monthly cost of $29 and scales up to $999, depending on the number of domains and page visits.
Mediavine Costs
Mediavine, like Ezoic, relies on a flat percentage fee, which is usually 25%. This percentage will decrease as the number of ad impressions you generate increases. It may be as low as 15%.
However, 75% to you for most sites and 25% to Mediavine is a decent split.
In other words, Mediavine will keep $25 of every $100 in advertising revenue you create.
Related Reading: How To Start A Blog – Read The Complete Guide Here.
Earnings
Now, it’s time to get into the meat of the matter: how much money you can make with each network.
Possible Earnings With Ezoic
Some niches can make upwards of $15 per 1000 pages, while others earn between $3 and $4.
You can expect earnings of between $10 and $12 per 1000 pageviews on the Ezoic platform on average.
This is a reasonable estimate to use as a ballpark average. You might come across amounts as high as $25 to $30 per 1000 views too.
Obviously, your actual revenue per 1000 page views may fluctuate from month to month. But if you’re looking for an estimate to apply to your historical traffic data, this $10-$12 is an accurate range.
Possible Earnings With Mediavine
So far, our revenue-earning with Mediavine has been significantly superior to that of Ezoic.
You can receive roughly $20 in revenue per 1000 page visits on average.
Please note that the same site that earned just under $4/1000 pageviews now reaches approximately $19 on the Mediavine platform.
It’ll take a bit of time, but you’ll get there.
Quick Pros and Cons
Ezoic Pros:
- Speedy setup and excellent account support
- Low visitor requirement (only 10,000 per month)
- Intuitive dashboard
- Allows you to place ads manually
- Decent RPMs
- A massive upgrade from AdSense and a superb option for monetizing your blog for the first time
- Open to income school students who get low traffic
Ezoic Cons:
- Fiddly DNS settings
- Customer service could be better (response times are long)
- RPMs might dip considerably over time
- RPMs will fluctuate between sites
Mediavine Pros:
- High RPMs (up to $30)
- Transparent about revenue shares
- Support is considerably better
- Has a Facebook community
- Better UX and ads
- Ads are also catered to EU customers
- Gives out rewards for growth and loyalty
Mediavine Cons:
- Slow approval time
- Not much control when it comes to ad placement
- Higher traffic to your site is required.
Related Reading: How to Make 100k a year – Check Out The Ways Here.
Final Thoughts
Both Ezoic and Mediavine are excellent ad suppliers for your website, earning you far more than AdSense.
It appears that whether Ezoic or Mediavine will make you more money varies by industry.
Some people have seen significant revenue increases after switching from Ezoic to Mediavine.
The advice I’ve followed and would provide to anyone is to switch to Ezoic as soon as you have good traffic.
The next step would be to upgrade to Mediavine after satisfying their minimum requirements.
If your revenues have decreased after a month or two due to the changeover, you can always go back.
There are a lot of other services. But if you’re a relative newcomer with decent traffic, I see no reason to leave Mediavine.
