Don’t put all of your eggs in the same basket.
This is an age-old saying, but still very true. We have heard it countless times. But do we apply this to our business?
When it comes to monetizing a blog, we use either Google AdSense or Affiliate Marketing.
That’s all great. These are the best monetization ways. But what about putting some of your eggs in another basket?
If we translate this into internet marketing lingo, that means keeping another monetization method ready in case something unexpected happens to the primary method.
When thinking about an alternative monetization method, Media.net should be one of your top choices. This is the 2nd largest contextual ad business in terms of revenue and shows high potential as an alternative source of monetization.
In today’s post, I am going to take an in-depth look into Media.net and help you decide whether this is a suitable platform for you or not.
But first, let’s take a moment to know a bit more about Media.net itself.
What is Media.net?
Media.net is a leading contextual advertisements company currently managing traffic that generates 70+ million paid ad clicks every single month. Working in collaboration with the Yahoo-Bing network, the platform displays ads on your website based on your content, making sure that the ads are always relevant, connected and contextual. Several leading publishers including Forbes, WebMD, NY Times, Good HouseKeeping, Martha Stewart etc. use Media.net ads on their websites.
Media.net was originally started by Divyank Turakhia, a serial entrepreneur from India. He started the company back in 2010 with only 20 employees. Within just 6 years, it has grown to 800+ employees with 6 offices in USA, UAE, Switzerland, India and became a leading player in the display ad industry.
Media.net made headlines in 2016 when it got acquired for $900 M by a Chinese consortium. The deal was reportedly the third-largest ad tech deal ever. However, that doesn’t change anything for us, the end-users. We are still able to use this platform to display ads on our website.
Now that you know what Media.net is, let’s take a look at its features.
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Which Type of Advertisers are There?
Since Media.net works with the Yahoo-Bing network, you will have access to a ton of advertisers from all kinds of businesses. This makes sure that you are getting advertisements regardless of the niche or topic of your website.
Thanks to the incredible depth and reach of the available advertisers, you will also enjoy an excellent ROI out of your content. In most cases, multiple advertisers will bid, and the highest bidder will win the right to display ads on your content. All the advertisers are chosen and filtered by applying strict editorial guidelines.
Ad Customization & Reporting Options
When it comes to customizing the ads, Media.net offers all the features you need. You can create custom ad units which match the existing design and overall branding of your website. There are 15+ ad sizes including all the popular IAB sizes and some uncommon ones as well.
Professionally designed color skin is a unique feature of Media.net ads. Instead of choosing just colors, you can choose one of these skins and get a brand-new view for the ads.
Alternatively, if you want complete control, it is possible to create your own ad from scratch. And in case you don’t have the time to make the necessary customizations, you can rely on the platform’s ad specialists to handle the performance and styling of the advertisements for you.
There is a dedicated publisher control panel to monitor the live ad impressions. You can filter the earnings by the date, ad tags, and websites. This is very useful to have an overall idea about the performance of your website and to detect any rising trends.
As the reports are fully compatible with iPhone and iPad, you can use these devices to check out the reports as well.
The Available Ad Targeting Options
Media.net uses superior auto-learning algorithms which make sure that your pages are getting the most relevant ads only. The advanced technology will scan all the pages of your website, categorize and classify the pages based on their content, and detect the key concept of each page.
The machine learning algorithms are always gathering valuable information about the interests and desires of your visitors. This allows the algorithm to predict the engagement rate of various types of ads for your website.
What’s more, the professional optimization team will hand-pick the most suitable concepts and advertisers for your website. The unique balance of relevance and revenue will serve the purposes of all relevant parties.
Displaying Ads on Mobile Devices
Media.net comes with a simple option to display perfectly optimized advertisements for mobile devices. The mobile ads feature helps you to avoid complex coding or lengthy integration process. Instead, the intelligent ad tags will automatically identify the mobile and tablet devices and display ads accordingly.
Currently, the ad network supports iOS, Android, and Blackberry platform, which mostly covers the majority of the mobile traffic. The mobile ads are highly optimized to have the least impact on the load time and ensure the best user experience. This could be useful to display ads when your website is not fully optimized for mobile devices.
Other Notable Features
Media.net supports multiple types of ads for websites – Ad Topics, Sponsored Links, and Display ads. The best part is you don’t have to decide which type to use on which page. The system will automatically determine which type of ads are perfect for a page and show only topics, only links, or a combination of both. For display ads, however, you will need to get in touch with your Account Manager to set them in motion.
If you want to control which type ads you want to show, that is possible too. You can block specific ads, advertisers, or ad topics from showing up on your website. It is also possible to provide hints about the content of specific pages and help Media.net provide the appropriate ads for those pages.
How to Get Started with Media.net
Media.net has a stringent quality check procedure which you need to pass to be able to display their ads. You can submit your website for review using this link. This is a special link for RTB readers which will help you to earn 10% more for the first 3 months. You can apply for multiple blogs or websites from the same page.
To get approved as a publisher, your website must be in the English language, get most of its traffic from the USA, UK, Canada, and provide useful content for the visitors.
Similar to all the other ad platforms, Media.net doesn’t accept websites which offer pirated software, counterfeit products, torrents, adult, pornographic, cracked, hacked, or any other type of illegal content. Additionally, you can’t apply for parked domains, websites that are under construction or which are hosted on free platforms.
Provided that your website complies with the Media.net regulations, your request will be approved without any problem. At that point, you will be assigned a dedicated account manager who will help you create and display contextual ads on your website.
Currently, the minimum amount you can withdraw is $100. You can get your payment by using PayPal or wire transfer.
Media.net Pros and Cons
At this point, it is time to check out the pros and cons of this contextual ad platform. Let’s start with the Pros first –
- Higher RPM on Average: Media.net offers one of the best RPM (Revenue Per Thousand Impressions) rate in the industry. I guess that’s possible because they only accept websites with most visitors from the western countries.
- Excellent Customer Support: Once your account is approved, you will get a dedicated customer representative. The reps will help you optimize the ads and maximize your revenue.
- Highly Converting Ad Design Options: The intuitive designs of the ads blend really well with the blog layouts, which leads to higher CTR. You can change the ad style to match your website design.
- Powerful Dashboard: The Media.net dashboard is very powerful. You can filter the earning by various durations. The graphs and reports will help you keep track of your website performance.
- Allows Ads on Sticky Sidebars: Most ad networks don’t allow ads on fixed or sticky sidebars. But Media.net lets you do that which is a big plus.
And then, the Cons –
- Some Ads Require Double Click from Visitors: There are some ads which require the visitors to click twice before you get paid. This can reduce your earning a bit.
- Revenue Isn’t Updated in Real-time: For some strange reason, the platform doesn’t show your earning for the day. You have to wait until tomorrow to find out today’s total income.
- Requires Most of Your Traffic from the USA, Canada, or the UK: If your website gets a lot of traffic from other countries, you can’t utilize that traffic. There’s a chance you might not get approved in the first place.
Should You Join Media.net?
Judging from all the features and the long list of pros, Media.net seems to be an attractive option for website owners. However, since this ad network performs superbly well in niches and possibly not in others, it makes sense to use it along with Google AdSense.
But if you are banned from AdSense for whatever reason, Media.net should be the first ad network to try. The platform is recommended by top blogs like Jeff Bullas, ShoutMeLoud, Fat Stacks Blog, Monetize Pros and you can’t ignore their experience when it comes to making money online.
Alternatively, if you are feeling ignored by the other CPC service representatives, or just want to try something new, you can give Media.net a try as well. Features like the superior customer service, higher RPM, and attractive ad designs help the platform claim a unique space in the world of display ads.
Final Words
Displaying contextual ads is the most passive form of income for bloggers and website owners. While Google AdSense is still the leader in this industry, it doesn’t hurt to test other platforms like Media.net and have a backup plan ready. If you match the requirements, I strongly encourage you to become a Media.net publisher and embrace the opportunity.
So, what do you think about Media.net? Are you going to try this ad platform on your website? Let me know in the comments.
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