Is Mediavine Better Than Adsense – A Closer Look At The Two Ad Providers
Adsense is usually the first port of call for anyone trying to put Display Ads on their site.
Almost everybody has heard of Adsense and if they have tried it, they quickly realise that it is extremely difficult to make money with your blog on the platform.
While Everyone knows Adsense, a far smaller percentage know of Alternatives like Mediavine that can make you a lot more money almost immediately.
Sure, both platforms use the same kind of Ads, but that is where the similarities end.
Mediavine can make you up to 10x more revenue per thousand visitors and are the best Ad Management Network platform I have had the pleasure of using.
Overall Comparison Table: Adsense Vs Mediavine
Adsense |
Mediavine |
| No Traffic Minimum | 50,000 Monthly Sessions Required |
| Easy Approval | Approval Takes Up To 4 Weeks |
| Easy Installation & Setup | Easy Installation & Managed Set Up |
| Unoptimized, Intrusive Ads | Continually Optimized Ads |
| Google Ad Network ONLY | Google Ad, Double Click, Premium Ads |
| EXTREMELY Low Earnings | BEST In Class Earnings |
| No Video Player | Video Player With Ads |
| Forum Support | Dedicated, Responsive Support |
| No Community | Thriving Facebook Community |
Rating: 62/100 |
Rating: 98/100 |
What Is Adsense
Adsense attracts many small and beginner websites because it is so easy to set up, get accepted and use.
Minimum Traffic
Adsense has no minimum monthly traffic requirement so you can set it up and start running ads from the very same day.
Approval Process
It is very rare to see a site getting disapproved from Google once it is not of a sexual nature, offensive or in violation of the Google Rules.
Once you are approved by Adsense, they will give a notification whenever your content is not in line with their guidelines so you fix it up and have it re-evaluated.
Ad Inventory & Earnings
Adsense uses basic inventory from the Google Ads network and that is why the earnings are so crumby.
You are paid when people click on the Ads as opposed to based on impressions with other premium networks.
Set Up And Installation
Google Adsense is initiated by adding a line of code to your sites header and then you have the option of manually adding the ads yourself with code or using Auto Ad Placement.
Auto Ad placement sounds great but it really means just kitting your site out with the most common sized ads everywhere with absolutely no thought of optimization for revenue.
It is a completely Hands Off Ad Network.
Sure you can increase the earnings yourself by manually placing the Ads but it is a lot of work and since Google Adsense doesn’t utilise the same arsenal of Advertisers as premium Ad Management companies, you will never be able to make the same amount as you will with someone like Mediavine.
Who Are Mediavine?
Mediavine are a specialist Ad Management Network that are set up to provide bloggers and web property owners with a hassle free way to generate the highest possible revenue from their web traffic.
Like many Ad Management Solutions, Mediavine was born out of necessity when the Ad provider that were using made changes to their platform and their revenues dropped substantially.
They quickly started to run the Ads themselves and started earning more than ever before. As the requests flowed in to duplicate the process on their friends blogs, Mediavine was born.
One glaring difference between Adsense and Mediavine is that Mediavine has access to the Double Ad Click Google Ad Exchange and other premium ad providers while Google is limited to the sub par Google Ad Network
Minimum Traffic Requirements
Mediavine has up until recently accepted medium sized sites from 25,000 sessions per month but that threshold changed during lockdown when they became swamped with new applicants and were wasting a ton of time vetting through them.
They subsequently increased the minimum traffic requirement to the current 50,000 sessions per month.
Application Process
Mediavine will approve all sites that meet the community standards and the application process is quite quick.
You submit an analytics PDF showing your traffic for evaluation by the team before your application gets accepted. This process can take up to or over 4 weeks, depending on how busy they are.
Set Up
Once approved the developer comes in to get your site ready and they place the initial Ad Placements on your site.
Increased RPM’s
You should see an instant increase in RPM over Adsense but the party is just starting.
With continual hands on management of your Ads, you should see the RPM’s rising consistently month after month until you can reach up to or over 10x what you would get on Adsense.
Video Ads On Your Site
Before we jump into comparing our experiences on both platforms, there is an additional feature available on Mediavine that you can’t get on Adsense and that is videos.
With Mediavine you can upload short videos to your site that will play automatically when a visitor is reading your content and move to the bottom right corner as the user scrolls.
These videos have Ads that play at the start and can considerably increase your RPM’s as your traffic grows and having more than one video can increase your RPM’s even further.
Mediavine Pits Advertisers Against Each Other To Bid On Your Ad Space
Your Ad Space is probably worth a lot more to the people who want to advertise on it than you know.
If you are with Google, the highest bidder on the Google platform gets the position but with Mediavine, every advertiser on the network bids against each other in real time, with programmatic software to ensure that you are getting the absolute most money for showing ads on your site and the difference that this can make is often ten fold.
Real Time Bidding With Programmatic Advertising makes Mediavine a force to be reckoned with in the Ad management game.
Mediavine are also one of very few Google Certified Publishing Partners which ensures you are with an industry leading titan of Digital Ad Platforms.
Ads Load On Demand
Mediavines Ads don’t all load as soon as the user visits the site which is another key advantage.
The Ads only load as the user scrolls down the page and this has two benefits:
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It allows your pages to load more quickly
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You get paid more per impression because advertisers know they are actually get eyeball for every impression
Dedicated Support
If you have a query for the Mediavine Support staff, they are very responsive, usually coming back to you in a couple of hours.
They are also ready to take action, not just point you towards some forum for an answer.
Example: I had a problem showing the video with my theme, contacted them and the issue was resolved in a hands on way by their development team within 24 hours.
Thriving Facebook Community
Another big advantage of Mediavine over the hands off approach by Adsense is that you are invited to join the Facebook group on acceptance.
This is full of the who is who of the blogging world and you can ask any questions to the group of experts and get a ton of replies from people who have been there and done that already.
You can also just keep an eye on the group to pick up any pointers or keep up to date with what is catching bloggers attention right now.
Pro And Cons Of Both Platforms
Pros Of Adsense
- No Minimum Traffic
- Easy To Set Up
- Auto Ad Placement
- Great Option For Brand New Advertisers To Start Earning
Cons Of Adsense
- Low RPM’s
- Slow Your Site Down
- No Support
- Intrusive Ads The Block The Content
Pros Of Mediavine
- Programmatic Advertising
- Higher RPM’s
- Many Premium Advertisers
- Video Advertising
- Loyalty Bonus
- Excellent Set Up And Support
- Excellent Dashboard
- Continuous Optimization
- Fast And Well Placed Ads
- Excellent Community
Cons
- Long Waiting Time For Approval
- High Entry Requirements
Is Adsense Even Worth It?
There is a long gap between starting a new site and getting it to 50,000 visitors per month for Mediavine.
While Mediavine is clearly the far superior option for running Ads, Is Adsense even worth running before you get there and the answer maybe yes, maybe no.
50,000 visitors a month works out at over 1,500 visitors a day which is going to be $5 MAX per day with Adsense but you could be earning considerably more from Affiliate marketing at those numbers and don’t want to upset your visitors, it is up to you.
If you just want to start earning some money as quickly ad possible, Adsense can be a good bet.
There is another alternative to Adsense for Lower Traffic Sites
Introducing Ezoic
What I would tell people to do most often is skip Adsense and sign up for Ezoic instead.
They have access to better Ad Providers and they use for Artificial Intelligence for continuous improvement and strategies to ensure you get the most bang for your buck possible.
Entry Requirements
Ezoic will work with your site from 10,000 pageviews and they will even waive that if you are a member of Income School.
This offers a nice alternative to Adsense while you are building your site up to 50k sessions per month for Mediavine.
Drawbacks
People complain about overloading of Ads with Ezoic, Ads blocking the content intrusively and site speed is also a considerable issue.
The RPM’s are also hit and miss so if it works for your site great, if it doesn’t work harder to get to 50k sessions a month or check out Monumetric.
Best Course Of Action
I would say go Adsense (only if there is no money from Affiliate or Info Products), Ezoic from 10k to 50k and then switch to Mediavine and stick with them forever.
The Golf Case Study
Our Golf Site grew quickly even through a pandemic the good thing is that we have the earning data for the site across 3 Ad Management companies, so you can see the exact figures in operation.
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Adsense RPM: $2.14
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Ezoic RPM: $5-$10
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Mediavine RPM: $25 – $30
Not only is Mediavine the best paying by far, they also have the best Ads, Support, Community and the ads don’t slow down your site.
I wouldn’t see any reason to ever move from Mediavine to a competitor once you get accepted to the program.
How To Gain Traffic And Increase Your RPM’s
The Best way to gain traffic is do proper keyword research and write articles with content people are actually looking for.
Next you need to weigh up the competition for that keyword and write a better article than what is already there. ALWAYS aim for number 1 spot.
Google Favours longer form content, so make sure you also have the longest article for the search if you can.
Cram it full of helpful knowledge and pre-empt what the users next query will be once you have addressed their first query.
Short paragraphs, a nice line height and slightly larger text will allow more ads to fit into your article and increase your RPM’s considerably.
Make the content scannable with plenty of quotes, tables, headers, lists and bolding of the key words.
Visitors don’t want to read heavily all the time, sometimes, they just want to scan and pick up the key information at first glance, so allow them to do that.
Conclusion
Have fun growing your blog and rest assured you can earn and amazing income with Mediavine once you hit the 50k sessions per month.
