So part of being an entrepreneur is always looking for improvements to your business big and small. The number one thing we measure in business is revenue. So, if you could get a couple of percentage increases in your yearly revenue, you would take it, right? But, what if you’ve grown large enough that you’ve been approved for AdThrive – a gargantuan ad provider?
Running this case study website and monetizing using display ads, one of the opportunities to increase revenue (according to the internet at least) was exploring the possibility of moving over to AdThrive. I have to say, I wasn’t convinced this was the best thing to do. But, I thought it was only right I investigate it.
How Did This Happen?
When I got an outreach email, confirming that I’ve been approved for Adthrive. It is a bit long, which you can see in full below. But in short, they said, that they like my content. And, whether I’d be interested in learning more about what they could offer publishers such as myself.
AdThrive Outreach Email
I responded and said that I would be happy to have a no-obligation talk with the team, but I don’t actually plan on moving anytime soon. So we booked a call.
AdThrive Meeting Booked In
The AdThrive Call
On the call, I spoke with a customer account manager and a technical guy. It was interesting, I was honest about my current setup and returns. Explained that I am likely to stay where I am, but I was interested to hear them out and then if they could provide me with better returns than Ezoic.
Of course, any company is likely to promote its products over the competition. AdThrive told me so far in the last 6 months they had around 65 publishers move from Ezoic to Adthrive. And they said that the typical uplift to expect would be about an 80% increase in ad revenue.
80% sounds incredibly high, right? If I was earning $17,000 a month with Ezoic, then 80% more would take me to around $30,500 a month. And of course, at this point, they hadn’t seen my configuration, any real user data, or financial returns, so that 80% didn’t mean much, other than trying to make it sound exciting.
I learned a lot more about AdThrive’s offering during that call, how they differed from Ezoic, how they don’t have an AI ad placeholder configuration and use a standard template, and more.
AdThrive’s offering does sound good, but at the end of the day, I am interested in what has the best ad revenue returns, rather than who has the best features.
AdThrive, like Ezoic, has an ad revenue guarantee when you are onboarding “Switch from another ad management company and you’ll hit a 20% higher RPM within two weeks, or we’ll pay you the difference.” So figured if they could guarantee me an extra 20% a month in ad revenue, then from a business perspective, it was the right thing to explore the opportunity until I have all the information needed to make a decision.
I couldn’t lose really, if I moved because I could get better ad revenue, then great. If I stayed because I was already getting the best ad revenue, then that is great also.
I Applied To AdThrive – To See If They Could Earn Me More Ad Revenue
I agreed to go through their application process, with no obligation to move.
This meant giving them the access they required to Google Analytics to look at my user data. Answering a few basic questions. And then wait for about a week.
I Got Approved To AdThrive – For The Case Study Site
Then I received this email I was approved for AdThrive. This is what most publishers look forward to and for many content creators, it is a goal to obtain. But let’s let the data dictate the best thing to do, rather than just moving and assuming I would earn more.
Although it was great that AdThrive wanted to work with me, I am less interested in that and more interested in whether or not AdThrive can make me more money from the traffic that my case study site has compared to my current setup with Ezoic.
Email – Approve for AdThrive
Financial Analyse Stage – AdThrive vs Ezoic
The next part of the process was the financial analysis stage where being approved for AdThrive confirms whether or not they will grant you that 20% ad revenue guarantee.
They requested a selection of reports from Ezoic Big Data Analytics which shows all of my ad revenue. This was daunting to share, but essential for AdThrive to understand if they could outperform my current setup. I submitted this information and had to wait again a few days or a week.
Now lots of publishers write online about the move from Ezoic to AdThrive to have a massive RPM increase, like 50%+. So getting approved for the 20% ad revenue guarantee seemed like the least I could expect. I spoke with the analysis team and wanted to get some realistic expectations for what type of uplift I would be looking at so I could make a decision on whether or not to make the move to AdThrive.
Financial Analyse Outcome – No Ad Revenue Guarantee Given
So the long and short of it, AdThrive looked over my earnings and wasn’t able to offer their 20% ad revenue guarantee. Meaning that they couldn’t guarantee that I could earn more with AdThrive than Ezoic, and certainly not 20% more than my current income from the case study site.
We wouldn’t be able to offer you our RPM guarantee if you moved forward with AdThrive.
So this was actually a very honest reply after being approved for AdThrive, which I do appreciate. It did take up some time going through the application process but I got my answer in the end. I am best placed with Ezoic for maximum ad revenues at the moment.
I believe that AdThrive believes I am showing more ads currently compared to what their templated ad layout version would offer and that the returns from their ad layout would yield lower earnings. In a way, this was good news for me, as I am happy with Ezoic and know I am earning the most amount possible where I currently am.
Ads Per Page – Case Study Site
But this did make me look at the density of my ads to check what my readers are experiencing. You can do this within the Big Data Analytics page. Under ‘Yield’ and then ‘Ads Per Page’.
You can see here the top results for the number of ad units shown per page. I exported this data to excel and did some crunching.
The average number of ad per page was 9.
I actually felt that 9 ads per page on average isn’t that high and I am more than comfortable showing my readers this many ads in long-form content. But still, a very useful exercise to go through. I would recommend that you do the same.
Why Am I Earning More With Ezoic Than Adthrive?
There are lots of elements to this answer, I think that most people use Ezoic as a stepping stone. And, use it for a bit before moving off to MediaVine or AdThrive. Not many publishers spend as much time as I have to learn about the platform and optimize the content. Not to mention, all the ad placeholders for maximum performance.
Also, I think a big part of it is that I am creating content… Specifically to show ads and earn ad revenue profits. In short, I’m not trying to balance user experience and profits like some publishers. Just being honest here. I do have ads disabled on some pages where I don’t want ads to show. But, that is all I am doing for user experience.
Another thing to consider is that Ezoic, isn’t the same company it was 3 or 4 years ago, it has grown significantly. They are a technology company with a feature set that is growing massively.
Ezoic is certainly on the same level as AdThrive and in my use case. So, being approved for AdThrive and joining them didn’t feel like they could compete with the earnings I am getting from Ezoic.
Am I Happy Staying With Ezoic?
Yes. 100%. As I said at the start, it was the right thing to do – to investigate if moving to another ad provider could earn me better ad revenue returns. But now I know for sure I am getting the best results where I am with Ezoic. This has since removed any bit of doubt I had about moving elsewhere.
I have a good relationship with Ezoic, they have offered me lots of support as a publisher and helped me rake in thousands of dollars in ad revenue over my time with them.
Ezoic is a lot more than just an ad provider. Ezoic is a publisher technology solution that helps website owners to manage all aspects of digital publishing from monetization through SEO, site speed, and video. From what I hear from Ezoic, there are even more features in the pipeline too.
I feel 100% my cards are in the right place with Ezoic… And I am staying for the long run.