Google’s AdSense is undoubtedly one of the most common ways to start earning with digital advertising. It offers a streamlined process and ‘hands-off’ approach that makes it easy for any newbie blogger to benefit from. However, as your blog grows, the lack of increase in earnings is pretty noticeable. And to anyone trying to earn a living through blogging, it’s quite the obstacle.
Not sure if you’re ready to cut ties from AdSense?
The good news is, you don’t have to. You can integrate additional revenue streams without losing earnings from AdSense. But, if you are looking to replace the platform, we have options for that too. Here are the best tips and alternatives to AdSense that will help you earn more without taking two steps backward.
What An Alternative Should Offer
Switching to a new ad manager is an exciting opportunity. If done right, you can reap better ads and more money! However, to avoid any negative experiences ( a decline in earnings, site quality, etc.), it’s best to research potential partners out.
It’s essential to get answers to the big questions and anything else you might want to know. For example, how will page loading speed be affected? How much control will you have over units? Do they have a history of network nonpayment?
In general, these are the best factors to consider when searching for a new provider:
- Network size: A network has to offer a competitive network stack for you to see an increase in earnings and ad quality.
- Compensation: It’s important to know what type of revenue model (CPM, CPC, etc.) a network operates under. You’ll want to work with a type that best suits your website. It’s also important to access their payment history for any past complaints of nonpayment.
- Ad Management: Having more control over your ads will allow you to create a balance that best works for your website.
- Safety: An ad platform should have user and publisher safety top of mind. They should offer safety solutions and products to help you avoid a breach in data protection and privacy laws and fix malvertising and redirects.
The Best AdSense Alternatives
While there are many great alternatives, here are a few top recommendations we can make:
- AdSterra: This network offers some of the highest CPMs and prides itself on safety against bad or malware-hit ads through its fraud protection detection systems. They have a minimum traffic requirement of 5,000 impressions per month for pop-unders and 50,000 impressions per month for display banners. Adsterra is a popular ad network amongst the smaller website community.
- Monumetric: This is a trendy choice amongst lifestyle bloggers; the network caters mostly to the specific niche. By committing to such a specific niche, they’re able to serve their publishers with highly relevant ads. You can sign up for Monumetric when your traffic hits 10,000 monthly pageviews; however, any blogs under 80,000 monthly pageviews pay a $99 fee upfront for setup.
- Media.Net: They’re a major advertising network that runs contextual ads fueled by the Yahoo! Bing Network. They offer an extensive range of ad types and a pretty impressive demand pool. Since they have no traffic requirement, they’re an easy alternative to get started with.
- RevenueHits: Is fill rate a high priority to you? RevenueHits boasts an impressive 100% fill rate and sizable ad format inventory. Also worth noting, they offer quality app and widget monetization. They have no traffic requirement to join and have a strong payment history.
- Revcontent: For publishers who prefer to work with native ads, Revcontent is a great network. They specialize in highly targeted ads to ensure ads blend seamlessly into your content and pages. They have a traffic requirement of at least 50,000 monthly visitors and a payout minimum of $50.
Header Bidding
- Newor Media: Newor Media is not your traditional ad network but is instead a header bidding provider. Header bidding is an advanced programmatic technique that auctions ad units to a host of networks simultaneously. Since header bidding was made to combat the shortcomings of various ad networks, it’s entirely the best alternative to AdSense.
For publishers hitting the 30,000 impressions a month marker, upgrading to a premium header bidding provider like Newor Media is the best (and easiest) way to maximize earnings.
Beyond having partnerships with top ad networks, they optimize ad layout, balance user experience, offer consent management platforms, and provide a host of revenue-generating solutions. They also have a dedicated publisher relations team to assist in all facets of header bidding management, from implementing units to getting paid each month!
If you’re ready to scale your earnings, it’s time to consider an AdSense alternative. Even if you’re not ready to altogether leave AdSense behind, many of the providers mentioned above are willing to work alongside Google’s AdSense platform. Check out this free earnings calculator to see what you could be making.
