In this article, you’ll get an in-depth comparison of Ezoic vs Mediavine. Below, you’ll find out the difference between Mediavine and Ezoic in terms of traffic requirements, the approval process, ad setup, earnings potential, revenue model (RPM vs EPMV), and other key factors website publishers want to know.
Consider this your complete guide on the Mediavine vs Ezoic to help you make the right choice between these two advertising networks for your blog or website.
Ezoic vs Mediavine
The main difference between Ezoic and Mediavine is that Ezoic gives you significantly more control over advertising placements than Mediavine. Ezoic also has no minimum traffic requirement while Mediavine requires at least 50,000 monthly sessions to get accepted to the ad network.
Difference Between Ezoic and Mediavine Comparison Chart
The chart below serves as a quick reference guide for you to quickly compare Ezoic vs Mediavine. The rest of this page will go into the full details of these differences.
| Criteria | Ezoic | Mediavine |
|---|---|---|
| Traffic Requirements | None | 50,000 monthly sessions |
| Approval Process | 24-48 hours | 3-4 weeks |
| Ad Setup | Managed by yourself | Managed by Mediavine |
| Earning Metric | EPMV | RPM |
| Average Revenue | $10-40 per 1,000 views | $10-50 per 1,000 views |
| Revenue Share | 90% to publishers | 75-90% to publishers |
| Cost | $0 for Basic ads; $14+ for Premium ads | $0 for all ad types |
| Support Options | Website FAQs, Twist Channel, Community Forum, HelpDesk Tickets | Website FAQs, Facebook Group, HelpDesk Tickets, Email |
What Is Ezoic?
Ezoic is a programmatic advertising network that uses artificial intelligence to automatically test different ad types across your website to increase ad earnings. Ezoic is a self-service platform that gives publishers complete control over the number and placement of ads so they can balance revenue with user experience.
What Is Mediavine?
Mediavine is a full-service ad management platform that controls every aspect of the ad placements on your website. Mediavine is a programmatic advertising network that allows publishers to control the density of ads but not the placement on the site.
Next, we’ll get into the specific requirements between Mediavine and Ezoic. But before we do, I want you to know that I’ve personally been a member of both ad platforms. I had websites using the Mediavine platform between 2020 to 2021. Currently, all of my websites are integrated with Ezoic and I’ve been extremely happy with the quality of service and earnings with the company.
After reading the rest of this comparison guide, I invite you to use my Ezoic affiliate link here to check out the program and get started if you think it’s the right choice for your website.
Ezoic Requirements
- No monthly pageview limits; all websites, regardless of traffic volume, can be accepted.
- Publisher must comply with Google’s Publisher Policies.
- Publisher must comply with Google’s Adsense Policies and be in good standing.
- Website content must be original and engaging for users.
- Website content can be any length (i.e., no minimum word count required).
- Website must be written in an AdSense-supported language.
- Website must be informational or content-rich; predominantly corporate or ecommerce sites are not accepted unless it has an active blog.
If you want more details about Ezoic, you can visit this other page with a complete list of Ezoic traffic & ads requirements.
Mediavine Requirements
- 50,000 monthly sessions within the previous 30 days of applying.
- 90-day contract requiring you to keep ads on your site. After that, the contract will extend every 30 days, automatically, with a written notice required to cancel the partnership.
- Publisher must comply with Google’s Publisher Policies.
- Publisher must comply with Google’s Adsense Policies and be in good standing.
- Website content must be original and engaging for users.
- Website content must be long-form, typically 1,000 to 1,500-word count at a minimum.
- Website must be in a lifestyle niche (e.g., fashion, travel, DIY, finance, fitness, pets)
Ezoic Approval Process
The approval process for Ezoic can take between 24-48 hours for websites with more than 10,000 pageviews per month. However, growing sites with less than 10,000 pageviews can take up to 10 days for approval. Ezoic’s approval process starts after integration and setup have been completed for the being submitted to the ad network.
As you’ll see next, the approval process for Ezoic vs Mediavine is drastically different between these two ad networks. Ezoic definitely outperforms Mediavine in this area. You can use my Ezoic affiliate link here to sign up and experience this for yourself.
Mediavine Approval Process
The approval process for Mediavine can take between 14-21 business days from the time you submit your Google Analytics PDF file to verify the monthly session volume until a final decision is made. Also, when application volumes are high, or a website needs further inspection, it can take up to 28 days for final approval.
Ezoic Ad Setup
Ezoic is a self-service platform that requires you to connect your website through cloud integration. After the integration is completed, you can then use the Ezoic WordPress plugin or Chrome Extension to set up placeholders on your site for the ads to display.
Cloud integration can be done in two ways:
- Via Nameservers: This allows Ezoic to act as a proxy and serve the optimized version of your site to your users. All it requires is changing the nameservers with your domain host (e.g. GoDaddy, Bluehost, HostGator, NameCheap).
- Via Cloudflare: If you already use CloudFlare as a CDN, then Ezoic can detect it and automatically connect your website to the platform.
For more details on cloud integration, see Ezoic’s Getting Started with Integration page.
Placeholders for ads can be set up in two ways:
- WordPress Plugin: This plugin creates placeholders automatically on WordPress sites based on Ezoic’s best practices. See Ezoic’s Guide on Using the WordPress Plugin.
- Chrome Extension: This extension allows you to choose ad locations and sizes without using code; simply activate the extension, then point and click on areas of your website to place ads. See Ezoic’s Guide on Using the Chrome Extension.
Mediavine Ad Setup
Mediavine is a full service platform that only requires a script wrapper to be added to the <head> section of your website’s HTML code. After the wrapper is set up, Mediavine will control the placement of ads on your website.
Mediavine ad integration can be done in two ways:
- WordPress Plugin: This plugin automatically inserts the script wrapper into your WordPress site. See Mediavine’s Guide On Using the WordPress Plugin.
- HTML Code: This option requires you to copy the script wrapper code and paste it into the website’s HTML <head> section. See Mediavine’s Guide On Inserting Script Wrapper On Non-WordPress Sites.
When it comes to the comparison of Mediavine vs Ezoic for ad setup, Mediavine is the clear winner here. As a full service platform, Mediavine takes care of everything after you’ve installed the script wrapper code.
Ezoic Revenue Metric
Ezoic calculates revenue with EPMV, which stands for “Earnings Per Thousand Visitors”. EPMV is also referred to as “Session Revenue” or “Session RPM” because it relates to the overall revenue generated from your website for 1,000 visitors. In other words, EPMV takes into account all visitors to your website, which gives an accurate measurement of how much each visitor is worth based on the number of pages they view, the number of ads they’re exposed to, bounce rate, etc.
When compared to RPM (explained next), the EPMV revenue metric is more accurate for the total value of each visitor that comes to your website. You can view this other page for more details about Ezoic RPM rates based on EPMV.
Mediavine Revenue Metric
Mediavine calculates revenue with RPM, which stands for “Revenue Per Mile”. RPM reports the estimated earnings per every 1,000 impressions; however, Mediavine switches those earnings to focus on Session RPM per page. In other words, Mediavine’s RPM metric is page-specific without taking into account the total user experience for all visitors.
You can increase RPM for any web page by adding more ad units and placing more intrusive ads; however, those practices can also increase the bounce rate and reduce the average number of pageviews per visitor, which can lower your overall earnings. That’s why when you’re comparing the difference between Mediavine and Ezoic on the revenue-earning level, Ezoic’s EPMV metric is a more accurate measurement for earnings.
Mediavine vs Ezoic Earnings
On average, Mediavine pays between $10-50 for 1,000 pageviews while Ezoic pays $10-40 for 1,000 pageviews. The total earnings depend on the website niche, number of ads displayed, traffic location, time of year, bounce rate, and the average number of pages visited per session.
It’s not uncommon for a website publisher to earn more money with Ezoic than Mediavine based on the website’s niche. For example, one publisher reported that their website earned $24 per 1,000 pageviews with Mediavine and $27 with Ezoic after the switch. However, the opposite can also be true. Another publisher reported $19 per 1,000 pageviews with Mediavine and $4 with Ezoic.
Motion Invest published a detailed article on the average earnings per thousand visitors for each niche across different ad networks to help you compare them side-by-side. View it here: Finding The Best Ad Network: Changing Platforms Can Increase Website Revenue by 300%.
As for Ezoic, you can see my related guide on how to increase Ezoic ad revenue for complete details on how to maximize your earnings with this platform.
One thing to keep in mind is that Ezoic offers a Premium program (explained in the next section) that can increase your average monthly earnings with the ad network. Ezoic Premium members get access to higher-paying ads, which pays publishers the most money per 1,000 pageviews. Mediavine doesn’t have a program like that to help publishers earn more revenue with their network.
In my personal experience with the Ezoic Premium program, the average EPMV increased from $20 to $27 as soon as I became a member of the exclusive service, which equals a 35% increase in monthly earnings. Over time, as traffic increased to my sites, the EPMV went even higher as I reached new Premium levels. If you want to get one step closer to the Premium program, then use my Ezoic affiliate link here to sign up and get your website integrated today.
Ezoic Costs
Ezoic is free to use for website publishers who participate in its revenue share program. Publishers keep 90% of the ad revenue and share 10% with Ezoic; however, you get to keep 100% of revenue from any linked Mediation partners like Google Adsense.
Ezoic also offers a no-cost ad-funded program for anyone who wants to take advantage of its basic monetization features without sharing ad revenue. Ezoic keeps revenue from an advertisement on the page to pay for the continued use of monetization features. (See this related guide answering the question about is Ezoic free to use for more details.)
In addition to those two basic programs, Ezoic has a paid monthly subscription service called “Ezoic Premium” which is an invite-only program that delivers higher-paying ads for the publisher. Publishers keep 100% of these high-earning deals without any revenue share with Ezoic.
As explained in this Ezoic Premium review, there are various plans that affect the monthly cost for this special program. The fee is based on your monthly Ad Partner earnings. For example, the Starter Plan requires $50 to $119 in earnings to qualify for it. And the cost ranges from $14 to $22 per month depending on the level you choose (Basic, Preferred, or Elite), with an estimated return on investment of $4 to $20.
The highest Ezoic Premium plan, 7 Diamond, requires monthly Ad Partner earnings between $120,000 to $10,000,000. It costs from $32,000 to $50,000 per month and delivers an estimated return on investment of $4,000 to $28,000 in extra revenue.
Another paid option for Ezoic publishers is the VIP program which includes exclusive offerings for publishers with very large audiences. VIP members get a discount on their monthly Ezoic Premium fees and offerings are personalized to each publisher based on their long-term relationship with the company.
Mediavine Costs
Mediavine is free to use for all website publishers. The company offers a revenue share model where 75% of ad revenue goes to the publisher and 25% goes to Mediavine when it pays the expense of the ad server. There are some ad partners (e.g., GumGum, ZergNet) where the ad serving costs are absorbed by the partner. In those cases, publishers receive 80% of ad revenue and Mediavine gets 20%.
Publishers who continue to partner with Mediavine can also earn a loyalty bonus of a 1% increase in earnings per year for up to five years. This means you can earn a base rate of 85-90% of ad revenue after you’ve committed to Mediavine for five years.
Additional ways your revenue shares may increase from the base 75% include:
- If your site produces 5 million ad impressions over the previous 30 days, your revenue share increases to 80%.
- If your site produces 10 million ad impressions over the previous 30 days, your revenue share increases to 82.5%.
- If your site produces 15 million ad impressions over the previous 30 days, your revenue share increases to 85%.
If you compare the cost difference between Ezoic and Mediavine, Ezoic is the clear winner here because you earn 90% of ad revenue from the start of the partnership. You don’t have to wait five years or produce millions of ad impressions to get that extra amount of earnings.
Ezoic Top Features
There are several features of the Ezoic platform that make it stand out from Mediavine:
- Leap: Leap is a toolset to help you improve the performance of your website by helping you find the causes of decreased performance and providing automated solutions to many of the most common problems.
- Video Player: The Ezoic Video Player uses custom machine learning technology to improve the outcomes for streaming video on your website.
- SEO Tag Tester: This allows you to try out different page titles and descriptions to determine which improves SEO performance the most.
- Big Data Analytics: This gives you valuable audience insights to find out how various aspects of your website and content are affecting your ad revenue so you can work on ways to improve it.
You can use my Ezoic affiliate link here to learn more about these features and how they can be applied to your website.
Mediavine Top Features
Mediavine also has some good features that set it apart from Ezoic:
- Create: Create is a WordPress plugin that lets you insert content cards to your blog posts that are marked up for search engines with structured data. It’s best for recipes, how-to guides, and lists.
- Grow: Grow is a user engagement tool. It encourages visitors to log into the website to receive personalized, higher-performing ads through the collection of first-party data.
- Trellis: Trellis is a speed-optimized WordPress theme that helps publishers keep up with Google’s Core Web Vital standards for performance and user experience.
Ezoic Support Options
Ezoic offers three support options to help assist publishers with website integration and troubleshooting. These include:
- Visiting the website’s support page to find common FAQs.
- Joining the Twist Channel for chat support.
- Using the Community support forum.
- Submitting HelpDesk Tickets through the publisher dashboard.
Mediavine Support Options
Mediavine offers four support options to help answer questions its publishers have about using its products. These include:
- Visiting the website’s support page to find common FAQs.
- Joining the Facebook Group for community help.
- Submitting HelpDesk Tickets through the publisher dashboard
- Sending emails directly to the company.
As you can see, there’s not much difference between Ezoic and Mediavine when it comes to the support options. Both advertising platforms offer plenty of customer service choices for their website publishers to the support they need.
Ezoic and Mediavine Member Reviews
Both Ezoic and Mediavine have an average 4.5 star rating on Glassdoor and 90% of users would recommend these ad networks to a friend. If you want to dive deeper into customer reviews, you can visit these pages below to read through the experiences web publishers have with these platforms:
All-in-all, Ezoic and Mediavine have thousands of happy members. Each advertising network has numerous publisher success stories which is why both of these platforms are so popular among website publishers.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this comparison guide, all of my websites are integrated with Ezoic and I’ve been 100% happy with the service. I invite you to use my Ezoic affiliate link here to check out the program for yourself to make sure it’s the right choice for your website.
Is Mediavine Better Than Ezoic?
Mediavine is not better than Ezoic because you have significantly less control over ad placements when using the Mediavine network, must commit to a 90-day contract, and only earn 75% ad revenue share as a new website publisher.
There have been reports of some Mediavine members earning higher RPMs when switching over to this ad network from Ezoic; however, not all websites will experience an increase in revenue on the Mediavine platform. Ezoic, for example, pays publishers 90% of ad revenue and EPMVs typically increase when a member joins the Ezoic Premium program.
Therefore, Mediavine is not necessarily better than Ezoic when it comes to the overall user experience and long-term earnings for a website publisher. Depending on the website, its level of traffic, type of content, and audience, Ezoic may be better or vice versa.
How Much Can You Earn with Ezoic?
You can earn between $10-40 for 1,000 views on average. However, the total amount you’ll earn depends on several factors such as the website niche, number of ads displayed, traffic location, time of year, bounce rate, and pages visited per session.
See this other guide on how much does Ezoic pay for 1,000 views to get a more accurate answer to this question.
Ezoic vs Mediavine Summary
I hope you enjoyed this guide on Ezoic vs Mediavine.
As you discovered, the basic difference between Mediavine and Ezoic is that Mediavine gives you less control over advertising placements than Ezoic. Also, when it comes to Mediavine vs Ezoic for minimum traffic requirements, Mediavine requires at least 50,000 monthly sessions to get accepted to the ad network while Ezoic will accept any website regardless of traffic volume.
For some publishers, like myself, Ezoic is a better choice. But for others, Mediavine can earn them more money if their site is in the right niche. Going forward, it’s up to you to decide which ad network is best for your website based on the differences and comparisons outlined on this page. If you’d like to try out Ezoic, then I invite you to use my Ezoic affiliate link here to get started today.
SEO Chatter is dedicated to teaching the fundamentals of search engine marketing to help marketers understand how to increase organic website traffic and improve search engine rankings.