How To Get Ads On Your Blog in 2023 [Adsense, Ezoic, Monumetrics, Mediavine, Raptive]
As a starry-eyed blogger starting out their blog and aiming to flesh it out into a profitable venture, how to monetise your content is going to inevitably be on your mind. And how to get ads on your blog may be at the forefront.
Monetising your blog through display ads is an avenue utilised by many bloggers bringing in a solid monthly income. This post will help break down the various options for you.
Monetising through ads - a good move for blogs?
Most people who start a blog want to eventually grow it into a source of income. Monetising your blog through ads is one of the easiest and most passive ways to do so.
Once you have ads set up and running, you'll be raking in money consistently as long as your blog keeps getting traffic. What's not to love?
Please note, if you use a FREE blogging platform you will not be able to use these ad networks to monetise your blog. I recommend using a self-hosted WordPress blog if you're serious about making money blogging. I talk about the reasons why in this post.
What ad networks are out there?
There are a vast number of ad networks out there, but for the sake of this post I am going to lay out some of the most well-known and most used networks:
- Google Adsense
- Ezoic
- Monumetric
- Mediavine
- Raptive (previously known as AdThrive and CafeMedia)
I'm going to lay out each of these networks entry requirements, average earnings, application and set up process and their pros and cons. Average earning figures are all sourced from productiveblogger.com's post here.
NOTE: RPM (revenue per mile) is a figure used to indicate how much money is made per 1,000 page views.
Google Adsense
Average earnings: $3.60 RPM
How to apply: You can sign up here. You'll be asked to sign in or create a Google account, and then you'll be directed to create an Adsense account. You'll then be given a snippet code to insert into the header (<head></head>) section of your blog code. Once this is done, Adsense will review your application.
How to set up: Once your account has been reviewed and accepted, you'll be given access to your Adsense account. From your Adsense account you'll have the ability to create new ad units and add them manually into your posts via the HTML code.
Google Adsense pros: No entry requirements, so you can monetise a brand new blog immediately
Google Adsense cons: The lowest RPMs on the market, having to manually insert ads into your blog which is time consuming, the whole process isn't so user friendly, particularly for those who aren't tech-savvy, minimum payout threshold of $100 which can take a long time to reach given their very low RPMs
Ezoic
Entry requirements: None! Your blog just needs to be your own content and meet Google publisher policies, found here.
Average earnings: $4-7 RPM
How to apply: You can apply to Ezoic's publisher program here.
How to set up: Once you are accepted into Ezoic's publisher program, you have to manually connect your blog to Ezoic.
Ezoic pros: No entry requirements mean you can monetise a brand new blog immediately
Ezoic cons: Low RPMs for ads, reviews online report Ezoic ads slowed down their blogs. I've done a lot of tech-y things in my life but setting up Ezoic ads for one of my blogs was frustrating, confusing and ill-explained on their website and I ended up spending a lot of time trying to figure it out myself from 3rd party websites.
Monumetric
Entry requirements: 10,000 page views a month with 50% or more traffic from the US, Canada, UK and/or Australia
Average earnings: $20 RPM
How to apply: You can apply to Monumetrics here. You may be put on a waiting list and might not hear back from them for a while. They'll require screenshots of your Google Analytics account or they may request access to your Google Analytics account.
How to set up: Once you're approved and pay the $99 setup fee, Monumetric takes care of the rest. You will be required to give them access to the backend of your blog so they can set up all the ad coding.
Monumetric pros: A great stepping stone for bloggers who have built some traffic and would like to monetise it, good RPMs, free site audit if accepted
Monumetric cons: One off set up cost of $99 (although assuming an average RPM of $20 and 10k page views, you should make that money back within a month), waiting list is a few months long
Mediavine:
Entry requirements: 50,000 sessions (not page views) a month with a majority of traffic from the US, Canada, UK, Australia and/or New Zealand
Average earnings: $25 RPM
How to apply: You can apply to Mediavine here. Mediavine will request access to your Google Analytics account to take a look at your traffic stats
How to set up: Once you're approved, Mediavine will handle the setup. You will need to give them access to your WordPress account so they can install the ad coding
Mediavine pros: best RPMs in the industry, great community and customer services and frequent blog-related webinars and trainings with industry leads for their publishers, seamless and easy set up process handled entirely by Mediavine
Mediavine cons: high entry requirements make this an option not available to new bloggers
Raptive (AdThrive)
Entry requirements: 100,000 page views a month with a majority of traffic from the US, Canada, UK, Australia and/or New Zealand
Average earnings: $22 RPM
How to apply: You can apply to Raptive here. You'll be required to grant them access to your Google Analytics account so they can take a look at your traffic stats
How to set up: Once you're accepted, Raptive will take care of everything. All you need to do is grant them access to your WordPress account so they can install the ad coding
Raptive pros: Industry leading RPMs, active community, great customer services and frequent blog-related webinars and trainings with industry leads for their publishers, easy and seamless set up process handled entirely by Raptive
Raptive cons: Very high entry requirements make Raptive inaccessible for many
Average earnings from different ad networks: a visual
Final considerations
This post was written to guide you as to how to get ads on your blog.
It's now your decision to make whether getting ads on your blog is the right decision for you, and also it's your own duty to research about an ad company before joining their network.
You've probably noticed that the lower paying networks with a lower bar to entry have a much more manually labourious application and set up process. This is in comparison to the higher paying ad networks which have an efficient and seamless set-up process. This is something you'll want to keep in mind to as you navigate this arena.
I hope this post has been useful in informing you about the various display ad options available for blogs.
With love, Fatima x
