Ezoic recently finished a study about ad mediation with our publishers, and the results were illuminating. Here, you’ll see how using ad mediation on your site will help it grow faster.
We look at two cohorts of publishers: one cohort (722 domains) that enabled ad mediation in the last 12 months, and another cohort (3502 domains) that did not enable ad mediation in that time.
The graph below shows the results. The blue line indicates the first cohort, the Ezoic publishers that enabled ad mediation on their site; the red line indicates publishers that did not:
As you can see, the results were astounding. The publishers that enabled ad mediation saw upwards of a 3x faster growth rate in EPMV, the true north metric of measuring real site ad revenue. The publishers that did not enable ad mediation saw nowhere near the same level of success.
You can see if you have ad mediation enabled here. Here are some more reasons why enabling this will increase your ad revenue, user experience, and overall success as a site.
Why Ad Mediation Helps Your Site Bring In More Revenue
The more advertisers that enter a bidding war for the ad real estate on your site, the higher the competition will be — and thus, the higher revenue your site will earn.
Ad Mediation instantly sorts through countless advertisers and mediates the process to determine the highest bidder for your site. If your site has real value to these advertisers, the competition will naturally be higher and these advertisers will spend more to secure their ad on your site.
In years past, the popularity of CPC (cost per click) ads and CPM (cost per mille impressions) ads have differed; some advertisers pay more for one or the other. As digital marketing agency SetupAd noted, “CPC is the dominant bidding strategy in Google AdSense which has the highest ad revenue potential.” These advertisers heavily favor CPC ads over CPM ads, and have demonstrated they are willing to pay significant prices to place their CPC ads on sites like yours.
If you restrict these advertisers by not allowing ad mediation, other advertisers that prioritize CPM ads might be at a far lower price than their CPC advertiser counterparts. As one of Ezoic’s top publisher experts put it, “Having both [CPC and CPM] competing for the ad inventory on your site is strategic because some users might engage more with Adsense ad units versus Ezoic’s and vice versa. Adsense is CPC-based whereas Ezoic’s partners are CPM-based so again, this diversification is strategic to the success of ad revenue for your site.”
If you don’t have AdSense, you’re completely negating that higher revenue. Maybe an advertiser through Ezoic will see your CPC placeholders and opt not to bid on them, since they value CPM more. This decreased bidding means decreased income for your site.
Interestingly, advertiser demand for CPC is increasing. Like anything in the digital publishing world, you can expect this trend to fluctuate over time; in the meantime, make sure your site is able to earn the most revenue on whatever ads are currently popular!
The purpose of Ezoic’s system is to make you the most money possible while balancing user experience. At the end of the day, cutting out Mediation defeats that purpose. In short: if you want more revenue, then allow advertisers the chance to pay you in every possible way. Ezoic’s AI will determine which advertiser will pay the most for a specific kind of ad; don’t restrict this opportunity by not enabling ad mediation.
How to Enable Ad Mediation If You Do Not Have an AdSense Account SetUp
One of the main reasons publishers don’t have ad mediation enabled is because their AdSense account is not set up. Here’s how to set your AdSense account up to allow ad mediation. It should only take a few minutes, and can make a significant impact in terms of additional revenue. It also helps drive up competition which increases the amount advertisers are willing to pay for ad space, and thus how much your site can earn.
**Note: the longest part of this process is having to wait for the AdSense invite (20–40 minutes) if you don’t already have it pre-generated in your Mediation tab, found here.**
Here are the exact steps you need to take to enable ad mediation if you haven’t already:
- Go to your Ezoic dashboard, then EzoicAds > Adsense|Mediation (can be done here)
- Fill out the invite boxes
- Wait 20–30 minutes for Mediation Dashboard email to arrive in your inbox
- Head to AdSense Dash > Account > Access/Authority > Third Parties > Will see “Not active” switch to “Active”
- Back to Ezoic dashboard > Mediation
- Enable Mediation if it is not on yet
- Click “Add Network” next to AdSense and fill in the required information and click “Save”
- Required info: email (Must be the same as what was used for the AdSense Account), phone number for AdSense account, and a zip/postal code
Linking an AdSense account allows Ezoic to use your existing AdSense, ensuring your site earns more than it could using either solution on its own — as a competition with thousands of ad networks already include in Ezoic.
Sites keeps 100% of any revenue produced from AdSense linked to Ezoic — we don’t take any cut from that process at all! We are the only partner in the industry that allows for Adsense mediation to take place — Ezoic doesn’t care who wins the bid, we just ensure that you can collect as much ad revenue at the end of the day from whichever demand partner/s that is.
Ezoic is what you might call “Ad Agnostic;” the AI doesn’t prefer one ad source over another, it prioritizes the best ads that earn you the most revenue. That’s why you should enable ad mediation so the AI can earn you more ad revenue for your site.
How Can You Be Sure Ad Mediation Will Actually Increase Revenue?
Ezoic’s AI is always creating the possible balance between user experience and advertisement revenue. It makes these choices with the abundance of proven historical data, and it uses the same historical data when it comes to ad mediation decisions.
In addition, when you link ad mediation, Ezoic doesn’t take any revenue from these transactions, meaning you can earn more overall revenue in this area. Why are we promoting processes that make Ezoic absolutely zero income? Frankly, we just want to make sure our publishers are earning as much as they can. We know that if you’re satisfied with your revenue growth, we can work together even more in the future.
But the best case for ad mediation is simply the virtue of what it does: it gives you a bridge to connect with more advertisers and affords you more ad types to sell, increase diversification, competition, and ultimately revenue.
Give yourself and your site more chances for revenue. Take a few minutes to ensure you have your ad mediation set up so you can start earning more revenue.
