Adsense alternatives should be top of your list if you’re only making a couple of hundred dollars each month from your blog ads! I’ve been aware of bloggers making money through Google Adsense since 2007 when I was on my work placement year at college. Since that time, my dream was to become a pro blogger, although I put it down to being a pipe dream. Like many people.
It blew my mind when I discovered that people were able to make a full-time income from Google Adsense and that was always what I wanted to do. It seemed to be genuinely passive income.
AdSense Alternatives & Ad Income… Truly Passive Income?
Of course, we know it isn’t genuinely passive income as you have to do all of the hard work to get traffic to your website. However, it is entirely possible to magnify your contextual advertising income whether you use Adsense and other advertising programs to ensure that ads are always displayed on your site.
Whether you’ve been kicked off the Adsense program, can’t get approved or merely want to increase your income by using more than one ad network, this list going to help you immensely.
The 10 Adsense Alternatives:
1. Media.net
Media.net are the contextual ad network that I have experience with, and I’ve been more than happy with the service. Media.net reaches more than 100 million desktop users in the US alone.
2.AdSterra
AdSterra can show ads that are entirely suited to your audience down to their location and the user’s previous advertising results due to the insanely fancy technology that they use.
An excellent reason to choose AdSterra is that they are partnered with GeoEdge, who are “the Vanguard of Ad Security & Verification” for mobile users which ensure that the ads are secure for your users.
3. AdBuff
AdBuff is another CPM based network and offers higher Fill Rates as compared to other ad networks like Popcash, PopAds, and AdSterra.
Like most accounts, they have a dashboard, but the main difference is that the AdBuff dashboard gets updated every second.
4. Propeller Ads
PropellerAds is an extensive ad network that offers pop-under ads, banner ads, and in-banner video ads.
They have a high fill rate for countries other than the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.
5. PopAds
“We are the highest and fastest paying ad network on the market specialised in popunders.”
With PopAds you can choose the minimum price of a single pop-under advert, and you can limit the number of pop-unders shown to a unique website visitor in one day. You can also refuse to accept pop-under adverts with sound or video that are infuriating.
6. Sovrn formerly Lijit
Sovrn ads use RPM’s (Revenue per 1000 impressions) instead of CPM (Cost per impression) like Google AdSense. The CPMs and fill rates for US users can be as high as $2 with a floor of $0.50. They accept people from the UK and Canada, but the fill rates won’t be as high.
My ad manager at Sovrn was more than happy to limit video ads and anything with a sound that can infuriate your reader. That was great news because it meant I had more control over what was being shown.
7. Adversal
Like Monumetric, Adversal pay for each raw impression and not per visitor which means that there’s more money for you. Adversal has pretty decent CPM rates (higher payout per 1000 views). They also use a fancy code that allows their ads not to be blocked by ad blockers. Sweet right?
You can get paid when you reach $20 in your account, via Paypal, Bank transfer or cheque.
8. Monumetric
Monumetric is a company built for bloggers by bloggers. Their ads are Pay per view and not Pay per click, so the payouts can potentially be huge.
They pay bi-monthly, but your earnings are spread out over several months.
If you earn $300 in your first month, you may receive $80 as your first payment. Then, $40 as your second payment and so on. I currently use Monumetric on my craft blog, but I plan on making the switch soon.
The minimum page views required are 100,000 monthly. Don’t have that many page views? Then, you will have to pay an $80 fee to have them set up on your blog.
9. Info Links
Info Links can extract user intent in real-time. They run keyword-based real-time bidding auctions, which means they can deliver a perfectly timed, relevant advert to your audience.
10. Chitika
Chitika is an online network that has more than 350,000+ publishers. Their top-tier advertising partners are companies like Yahoo!, SuperMedia and HomeAdvisor. Chitika targets their ads. They work best if the majority of your site traffic comes from Search Engines and not Social Media.
The minimum payout with Chitika is $10.
New To Blogging Or Still On A Free Platform?
If you are new to blogging, it’s best to ensure that your blog is self-hosted and have at least some traffic heading to your website.
For more information on setting up a self-hosted blog, please read The Only Guide You Need To Read Before Starting Your Blog.
Are you struggling to get traffic?
This training is EXACTLY what you need to drive even more traffic to your posts.
Essential Info If You Want To Triple Your Ad Income In 30 Days Using Adsense Alternatives:
It’s possible to use a combination of these ad networks to ensure your ads are always on display! Although, it’s essential that you read the TOC’s to ensure you aren’t violating the Terms Of Service.
To do this, you must create a ‘waterfall’. In each ad network, there will be a small space to ad code for ‘back up’ ads.
For example, if you have adsense, you will;
- create an ad unit
- copy the code and then
- go to your first choice network and paste that code into the section allocated for ‘back up’ ads
Good luck with your monetisation efforts!
Don’t forget to Pin!
I don’t have ads on my site, but pretty much everyone else I know does. This is a great way for them to boost their income!
This is wonderful for all those bloggers wanting to make money off of their blog. Adsense is great and I wish everyone all the best with their success.
Wow, this is very informative. I had no idea there were so many options for bloggers to earn money on ads.
I had no idea that there were this many alternatives to Adsense! I had Adsense for awhile but switched over to MediaVine when I hit a session goal. Thank you for sharing these alternatives!
Yeah MediaVine is a great network! AdSense is pretty low with their payouts, so signing up to several alternatives at once is a great idea but MediaVine handles all of that on your behalf. 🙂 Are you happy with them?
I’ll keep these in mind. At the moment I really don’t have any ads. I should try them out again. I used to have one, but took it off since I made like 5 cents.
I really enjoyed reading this post. I had no idea about all of these resources. I can’t wait to look further into them. Thanks for sharing.
I’ve heard of most of these. I never made any money with Adsense so I stopped using them years ago. I refuse to have any popovers or unders on my site.
I get that for sure, AdSense is one of the lowest paying networks. As I responded to someone else in the comments, you can make the most money by signing up to several ad networks, so that if one or two networks fail at the same time and are unable to deliver an ad, someone else can.
It’s a great way to monetise if you have the ads placed in the right spots 🙂
Wow there are a lot on your list I’ve never heard of. I’m going to check them out.
Hiya Ashley!
I’ve responded this comment to another commenter but….
The best thing to do is create a waterfall; meaning that you sign up to like three networks and use them as back up ads in case one or two ad networks aren’t able to show an ad at a certain time.
I’m going to be creating a training video for someone in my Facebook group because she has NO clue what she’s doing. I can share it with you if you like?
Despite having a lot of sponsored content, I don’t run a lot of ads on my blog. Adsense never really generated much add’l income for me but I may have to check out some of the others you shared.
These look like great ways to increase ad income. I am on a different ad network but the passsive income can really increase.
Hi Melissa!
Thank you for your comment 🙂 Can I ask what network you use and if you like it? Do you use a waterfall or does the network (like Mediavine) cover all that for you?
I’m switching networks on my other blog so I’m being nosey :p
Thank you for the super list of alternatives! I’ve been using adsense, but haven’t made any money on it. I’m just starting to learn about how to make better use, but will look into these other ones.
Hey Katie!
I’ve said this to other commenters but the best thing to do is create a waterfall; meaning that you sign up to like three networks and use them as back up ads in case one or two ad networks aren’t able to show an ad at a certain time.
I’m going to be creating a training video for someone in my Facebook group because she has NO clue what she’s doing. I can share it with you if you like?
I HATE ads on blogs, LOL!! I know I’m in the minority here but I just find them annoying. And popups too. The WORST.
I can understand that 🙂 I’m kind of glad that welcome mats started to be penalised for mobile devices,less people are using them now.
Although, I do think that it’s more of a mindset issue.
Say you had a blog full of great content, but had no products, no services or no affiliate strategy in place because you hadn’t thought of it or you don’t think that blogging can actually be profitable, I think it’s a great way to monetise a blog.
I also think, as a blog reader, it’s a good way to thank someone if you appreciated their content and don’t really have the social media audience to share said content. Make sense? If I like a recipe or an article on a vegan blog for example, I’ll click on one of their ads. It doesn’t cost me anything. I’m all about the #communityovercompetition and supporting fellow bloggers 🙂
I am totally going to save this post because I need to boost my ad income. I hear Adsense is one of the lowest-paying ones.
It really is. The best thing to do is create a waterfall; meaning that you sign up to like three networks and use them as back up ads in case one or two ad networks aren’t able to show an ad at a certain time.
I never really paid much attention to adsense before because they have too many policies and it’s tough to get income from it. At least that’s how I felt. It’s nice to see alternatives for it.
Hi Carol, I can understand that for sure. There are plenty of great ways to make money from ads, like everything with blogging there’s a strategy behind the placement and using waterfalls 🙂
Adsense is the best thing ever! If you have a blog Adsense is a great way to make extra income.
Thanks Nikka! I totally agree 🙂
I’m not doing that great with adsense, generally only $100 a month and that’s peanuts. I definitely want to check out some of these alternatives.
I’ve mentioned it above, do you use a waterfall? I.e; 3 different programs in case AdSense can’t deliver an ad at a certain time? It’s a great way to maximize the income
Thank you so much for this! I tried getting on AdSense weeks ago and kept running into issues! I signed up for Media.net instead and was able to get ads on my site in 2 days!