Mediavine Review: Is it the Best Ad Network for Bloggers and Websites?

Ads are an integral part of blogs & websites and are a primary source of income for the same. For example, this blog generated over $211k from ads alone.

This is why it is of grave importance to choose the right ad network that generates the most money without disrupting the user experience for the users.

The question is,

Does Mediavine do a great job in both departments?

Hint: You’re reading a Mediavine review, and their ad network is the one I use for my own blog

I guess that speaks volumes about my take on the company itself since it is the ad network I chose to settle with.

And since they do not pay people to write sponsored posts about them, this review will be as transparent and honest as it can be based on my experience as a new blogger who joined Mediavine in 2019.

In the Mediavine review, I’ll give you a detailed rundown of this ad network and why bloggers aspire to join this network which has “50k sessions in the last 30 days” as a requirement to join (more of that discussed later).

Also, if you haven’t started blogging already, you can start your own blog in 10 minutes by following this step-by-step guide.

A Little About Mediavine

Founded in 2004, Mediavine soon became one of the largest exclusive ad management companies in the U.S.

Their goal is to be more than just an ad company; they are a full-service ad management company, and a monetization partner, dedicated to helping influencers build sustainable businesses

And Mediavine has over 8,000+ exclusive content creators (website owners/ bloggers) with over 130 million unique monthly visitors and 13 billion monthly ad impressions under their belt in total.

Apart from their unmatched RPM numbers and exceptional customer support (whom I’ve interacted with quite a few times), Mediavine also provides a whole lot of free resources and tools that are unquestionably useful.

Such as sharability buttons, tap to read what’s next, etc., plus a whole lot of SEO resources and tools, all for free for the growth of your business.

During the early days when I started this blog, I heard from bloggers whom I looked up to that Mediavine delivers one of the best RPMs in the industry, and it was the first time I came across the acronym “RPM.”

RPM: And what does it signify?

If you’re in the blogging space or any ad-related space in general, such as YouTube, you might have heard terminologies such as RPM.

RPM (rate per millie): A calculation determining how much revenue was earned per thousand pageviews or sessions.

You get paid according to your RPM and amount of pageviews/sessions.

For example, in the given image, you can see the RPMs this blog had over a given period.

Meaning: For every 1000 I get on my blog, Mediavine would pay me the (RPM amount * sessions/1000) of that given date.

Say on 25 May (71.23*1705/1000); my earnings will be $121.44

One thing you should know is that not every blog has the same RPM.

Some niches/ topics make more than others because advertisers are willing to pay more to get ads on that particular blog/website solely because of the topic of the blog.

Mediavine vs Adsense

Before I got approved in Mediavine, I was with Google Adsense for merely a month.

Then I realized that my threshold to applying for Mediavine (25k sessions at that time) has just crossed. And I got accepted after a month of applying on 15 May 2019.

For the whole month I was with Adsense, I made around $80; right after making the switch, I saw a jump to over $577 with nearly the same amount of traffic.

How crazy is that?

Mediavine just gave me a 7X boost in a matter of days!

That being said, I would still recommend Adsense for blogs and websites that are comparatively new or/and haven’t cleared the 50k sessions threshold just yet.

Adsense could be a really great option to make the most of the traffic in that situation.

Is Mediavine better than Adsense?

Having tried both, I can confidently say that Mediavine is far better than Adsense, not just in terms of earnings but a whole other subset of features and services provided by Mediavine once you’re part of the team.

Mediavine vs AdThrive

Adthrive is another ad network similar to Mediavine, although Adthrive has a higher traffic threshold (100k pageviews in the last 30 days) than Mediavine to be accepted as their publisher.

In terms of money making potential of Adthrive (compared to Mediavine), it actually gives similar results.

Although a lot of bloggers who have switched to Mediavine from Adthrive have witnessed a slight bump in ad income (source).

Apart from that, I think Mediavine takes the price in additional aspects such as support, loyalty bonuses, free resources for growth, and so much more.

The revenue share on Adthrive is set at 75%, whereas you can get up to 90% revenue share as your numbers grow on Mediavine.

Mediavine vs Ezoic

Ezoic is another excellent example of a good ad network. Ezoic is actually a certified Google Adsense Partner, just like Mediavine.

You can get accepted into Ezoic with much less traffic than Mediavine, with around 1000 sessions or even fewer at times. Also, I’ve read reports from various site owners about how Mediavine’s revenue is higher than that of Ezoic.

So until you reach the desired threshold of your desired ad network, this is something you can try.

How do You Qualify for Mediavine?

The main criteria for qualifying for Mediavine is having at least 50k sessions in the last 30 days.

But I know that isn’t an easy task. Taking a blog from scratch to a 50k session/month can take you at least a year or two minimum, which is why you need to put good use of your time to make that happen.

Also, just somehow managing to touch 50k sessions isn’t enough; you need good-quality traffic as well.

You can save they have specific standards that are needed to be met in order to get accepted; having these standards allow them to deliver comparatively high RPM to their publishers.

Learn to drive traffic from Pinterest and SEO (search engine optimization).

Pinterest offers high-quality niched traffic to your blog that too mostly from high-income households, which means RPMs will be high. I get most of my traffic from Pinterest and now slowly transitioning to SEO to get a much broader reach than what Pinterest already does.

Initially, you’ll not get that much traffic because, obviously, your site is still in its infancy, and it will take time to reach that level of readership.

Till then, you can monetize your blog with affiliate links and ad networks that don’t require that high a threshold, such as Adsense and Ezoic.

Create and publish good quality original content for your blog, and make it consistent.

What if, after getting approved, my site traffic drops below 50k sessions/month? Will I be kicked out?

No: Once approved, you will not be kicked out for having low traffic as long as you maintain the standard content guidelines.

Mediavine Requirements

• At least 50k sessions in the last 30 days, according to Google Analytics
• Good standing with Google Adsense
• No controversial and vulgur content
• High-quality traffic, preferably a good fraction coming from the US

Submit your application:

Cleared the threshold of 50k sessions in the last 30 days? You can apply through this form.

Mediavine: The Onboarding Process

After I submitted my application on their website, I got a mail from their end asking for my Google Analytics report for the last 30 days.

And after a few more email exchanges about site details, they asked permission to access google analytics to check the legitimacy, the demographics, and the sources of my blog traffic.

After that, I got a “Congratulations! Your Application has been Approved” email (the best moment of my blogging career, tbh)

Then within the next few days, I got some exclusivity contracts signed with them digitally, and they handled the rest, from the ad setup to the plugin installation; they handled everything.

I just sat back, and soon enough, I saw ad income roll up on my dashboard.

The whole process, in general, was pretty smooth, except for the 1-month waiting period, which was nerve-wracking; I wasn’t sure if I was going to get a green light or not.

But I guess the wait time is justified since they get tons of applications every month to evaluate and select from.

Additional Mediavine Features that Sets Them Apart

Apart from exceptional RPMs provided by their network, Mediavine offers a ton of perks to their exclusive publishing partners to support their businesses:

They are:

1. Site Health Checks

Site health checks are indicators that tell the platform and the publishers how their website is performing in terms of factors that yield the best results.

Every progress bar in the teal color represents the best conditions. If these bars change color to green, yellow, or red, some changes are required according to the severity of the issue.

2. Loyalty Bonuses

It actually pays to stay with Mediavine, seriously!

Mediavine offers loyalty bonuses to premium publishers who stay with them long-term. There is a consecutive 1% increase in publishers’ revenue share each year they stay.

3. Mediavine Pro and Premiere

Publishers who generate over $100k annually through ads are eligible to join Mediavine Pro, which comes with a whole new set of perks, such as 85% (minimum) revenue share, a dedicated support team, and a private Facebook group.

Also, if you have a second site, it can get accepted into Mediavine with much less traffic (25k session) if you’re on the Pro level with website 1.

And, if your annual revenue from Mediavine ads is $500k or above, you’re eligible to join Mediavine Premiere, which can potentially fetch you an astounding 90% of the revenue share.

But Mediavine Premiere isn’t for everyone; in their own words,

“Premiere isn’t the right fit for every website or website owner. We’re looking for business owners that see Mediavine as true partners in all aspects of their business.”

4. Business growth & SEO Guidance

Mediavine actually provides resources that help creators and publishers grow their businesses. Mediavine consistently provides SEO insights in the form of interviews with top people in the field.

They also have a platform called Mediavine University, where creators can access community resources for free and get paid courses to learn about blog traffic and best RPM practices.

5. Engaging Tools for Your Blog

Within your blog content, you’ll get tools such as bookmarking, sharing to socials, and even search buttons, all for free.

There’s even a “next post” button that can drive your readers to the next blog post so that you make the most of each visitor.

If that wasn’t enough, they also offer email signup forms that capture, you guessed it, emails from your most loyal readers.

6. PSAs

Public Service Announcements are a way to spread awareness among the audience about mental health issues, women’s rights, LGBTQIA+ issues, text and drive prevention, adoption awareness, and a whole lot of topics that need attention.

PSAs in the form of banners can appear in ad spaces if that particular ad space isn’t in use at that moment.

Of course, you can choose which PSA you would like to show on your website.

That is all folks for the Mediavine Review.

I tried to explain everything based on my experience and showed the exact numbers with as much transparency as I could so that you get the accurate picture; hope that you found it helpful in any way.

You can say I really appreciate this ad network based on the way I highlighted them 😅; I guess this is what you do when you really enjoy the services and believe in the company.

If you have any questions regarding this Mediavine review, feel free to let me and the readers know in the comment space down below.

Fun stat: number of times the name “Mediavine” came up in this article, 50