If you own a blog or website in 2024, one of the best ways to earn money from your content is through ads. Adsense is usually a bloggers first port of call, but their payout is very low compared to alternative ad networks.
It's notoriously hard to get on Mediavine which is why we started looking for good, UK based ad network alternatives, and how we come across Ezoic.
Ezoic Review
Have you been declined by Mediavine? (us too) which is why we decided to give Ezoic ads a try and we love it! - here is our review, the pros & cons, and our first month's results...
Which is the best AdSense alternative?
What is Ezoic?
Ezoic is the world's largest ad-
They are a Google-certified partner and boast that they can improve your ad revenue earnings by 50-250% by systematically testing lots of different website layouts, ad types, and ad positions.
In a nutshell, Ezoic will help you to make as much money with ads, as well as, figure out how best to improve your site’s user experience.
You put loads of placements on your website, but that doesn't mean ads will show in all of them. That was one of my big worries, that ads would be plastered everywhere. You can even set the max amount of ads per page, so if you say 3, it will only show 3 in the best earning placements.
Ezoic Requirements
The great thing about Ezoic compared to Mediavine is that you don't need 25000 views per month, Ezoic only requires a good quality website with potential. Your content should be original, and you need a track record of identifiable traffic via analytics.
Lastly, If you possess an existing Google AdSense or Ad Manager account, it must be in good standing with Google.
That's it! As long as you meet those requirements, you're good to go.
If you're interested in ways to monetise your blog or website check out how to make money blogging
Ezoic Pros
>> Free Wordpress Hosting - This is probably one of the better perks of being with Ezoic, particularly for smaller sites that don't want to spend out on their site.
>> More Money - From my own experience, and other blogger friends, as well as extensive research, there's no one that has tried Ezoic that hasn't doubled their income - with some lucky dabbers even earning 4x as much.
>> Free CDN - Ezoic has its own CDN which is free to use, it's also compatible with Cloudfare if you have that and wish to continue.
>> LEAP - Ezoic has an amazing site speed tool, which is completely FREE and absolutely awesome. You can delete every cache and speed plugin you have because leap does it all. It can take some tweaking but I manage to get my site speeds to the high 70s on mobile and high 90s on desktop. LEAP also sorts out your core web vitals.
>> User Friendly - Ezoic is super easy to use once you get the hang of it, and if you can't, your account manager will do it for you!
>> More ads - Ezoic is a certified partner of Google so they are able to put more ads on your site than you can with AdSense.
>> Great Support - Adsense support is non-existent, but with Ezoic you have a dedicated account manager and access to support tickets.
>> More Networks - Ezoic uses dozens of different ad networks as well as AdSense, such as Criteo and Media.Net. So there are more advertisers to choose from, some of which are higher-quality and higher-paying ads
>> Premium ads - Ezoic offers a paid-for premium ad service that guarantees your earnings will be higher.
Ezoic Cons
>> Initial Start-Up Support Slow - My account manager usually takes around 24 hours to answer an email (due to the US/UK time difference), which now isn't a problem as it's non-urgent enquiries anyway, but when I was trying to set up, it was quite annoying because I am super impatient - so bear this in mind.
>> More Ads - This might not necessarily be a problem for you, but the more ads you have, the more you earn. I was focused on user enjoyment when I first started blogging, but since switching to Ezoic, I have got the taste for the income, so I have added a few more placements.
>> Ezoics Share - If you don't want to pay the 10% fee you can, put a small ad on the bottom of your website so that Ezoic can earn some revenue. I have opted for the 10% option simply because I feel fewer ads mean a better experience for my users.
>> USD - A mild annoyance but everything is in USD, I'd personally prefer to see my earnings in GBP.
>> Payments - If you choose to opt for the 10% (no ad) option, Ezoic takes their payment at the beginning of the month, whereas they pay you at the end, which is annoying. I hope they change it in the future so that they take their cut directly from your earnings before they payout.
Top Tip: As you have to pay Ezoics fees a few days before you actually get paid, I use a cashback credit card. So they take the payment but I don't have to worry about having the funds, then as soon as I get paid a few days later, I transfer it straight onto the card. Plus with the added bonus of getting cash back each time!
I use American Express for this purpose as there's a free £20 for joining plus you earn 10% cashback on all purchases for the first 3 months and 3% thereafter.
Our Findings
In short, we switched from Google AdSense to Ezoic and doubled our sitespeed and ad revenue in the first month.
We started on the 1st of the month so we could get a true representation, and luckily we had around the same amount of views for the month we started (September) to the previous month (August) with AdSense.
Google Adsense Earnings August 2020
Pageviews - 180,199
Average EPMV - £2.52
Adsense Revenue - £453.98
Ezoic Earnings September 2020
Pageviews - 197,700
Average EPMV - £6.81
Ezoic Revenue - £1151.09
Now that is one hell of a difference in one month! Especially as the first month is testing and tweaking, so your EPMV is naturally lower.
You have to take off the 10% fee of £115.19 if you're not opting for the free version, and also there is a 0.15% fee (£1.55) to get your payment via payoneer, which leaves a grand total of £1048.98.
Ezoic FAQs
Is Ezoic trustworthy?
Yes absolutely. The ad network is used by millions of happy customers all over the world, with a 4* rating on Trustpilot.
How much is Ezoic site speed?
As of 2021, Site speed has been replaced by leap and is now 100% free for all users. It's a fantastic tool and the only thing that helped us get a decent score. An added benefit is you can delete all cache, speed and compressing plugins from your site as it does everything.
What is Leap in Ezoic?
Leap is an all-in-one site speed solution. It can compress images, cache your entire website, reduce script sizes and much more, to speed your website up to pass Google's core web vitals.
Is Ezoic better than AdSense?
Absolutely. Our income tripled in the first month and has stayed consistent for over a year now. My only regret is that I didn't join earlier.
If you need any more information or know of any other good ad networks to rival Ezoic please let us know in the comments below...