10 Google AdSense Alternatives for Bloggers

If you want to make a bit of extra income from your blog, you might consider placing advertisements on your site. To do this, you’ll need an advertising network — a service that connects online advertisers with website publishers.

Most ad networks use an automated system to place advertisements in designated areas on your website. When users engage with these ads — for example, by viewing them, clicking them, and/or making a purchase through the ad — you receive a share of the commission, and the rest goes to the network.

During your search for an ad network, you’ve likely come across Google AdSense. It’s the most popular pay-per-click (PPC) program on the web, used on over 10 million websites. AdSense is lightweight, reliable, and offers publishers a fair share of revenue generated from clicks. But, it’s not the only solution.

In this post, we’ll discuss why you might prefer a different ad network for your site. Then, we’ll explore the best ad networks outside of AdSense you can use to quickly begin monetizing your blog.

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Why Use an AdSense Alternative?

There are a handful of disadvantages to Google’s platform that make it unsuitable for certain blog sites. Here are some common and valid reasons to pick a competing ad network over AdSense:

Eligibility Requirements

Many networks, including AdSense, require that applicants hit certain metrics on their website before they can be a partner. If Google won’t authorize your blog for an AdSense account, you’ll need a network with more lax approval requirements to get started.

Because of the platform’s rigorous click fraud control, you might also have had your AdSense account disabled. For example, you accidentally placed an ad on a page you shouldn’t have, or you unintentionally clicked one of your own ads. It’s easy to violate the terms of service if you’re not paying attention, and you might need a more forgiving alternative.

Revenue Share

With AdSense, publishers receive 68% of the revenue generated by ads on their website. This is a competitive rate, but some alternative networks offer an even greater share. You’ll need a top-notch website with steady and high traffic to qualify, but it’s worth it if you make the cut.

Ad Customization

Some ad networks let you tailor the look of your ads to your website’s theme to help them fit in more naturally with your original content. The level of customization varies by service, but many let you adjust the color and sizing of a unit, which is more flexible than AdSense allows.

Minimum Payout

A network’s minimum payout is the minimum amount of earnings you need before you can receive a payment. AdSense’s minimum payout is $100, which is higher compared to some alternatives. If your website is smaller or less established, it could take longer than you’d prefer to reach $100 in earnings. You might be better off partnering with a service that offers a lower minimum payout.

Additional Revenue Sources

Instead of replacing AdSense, you might want a companion network that runs on your site alongside AdSense, in order to provide an additional source of revenue. There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as you stay within the AdSense terms of service.

If any of these cases apply to you, there are many worthy alternatives that you can try. Let’s break down the best ones.

Best Google AdSense Alternatives

1. Media.net
2. PropellerAds
3. Revcontent
4. InfoLinks
5. Bidvertiser
6. RevenueHits
7. Adcash
8. BuySellAds
9. Skimlinks
10. Amazon Native Shopping Ads

1. Media.net

Media.net is a leader in contextual advertising. The service is run by Bing and Yahoo, and it is widely considered the go-to AdSense alternative. Media.net offers multiple types of display ads and native ads for desktop and mobile, and you can expect to earn about the same from these ads as you would with AdSense.

As with all AdSense alternatives, pay attention to Media.net’s approval requirements. To be accepted, your blog must offer high-quality content and adhere to a clean, professional design. Your traffic source also matters: Media.net requires that the majority of your visitors are located in the U.S., U.K., and Canada.

If you’re looking for a service comparable to AdSense in features, quality, and payout rate, Media.net is a great starting point. The minimum payout is $100 via PayPal, and payouts occur monthly.

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2. PropellerAds

PropellerAds is a fast-growing platform that provides monetization opportunities for both new and old blog sites. PropellerAds is known for pop-under ads, which load behind the current browser window and appear when this window is closed.

If pop-unders seem too aggressive for your blog, PropellerAds provides other targeted and non-targeted ad options for desktops, including native ads, banners, and video ads. PropellerAds also serves mobile sites and applications, and even offers a push notification ad type for these channels.

PropellerAds is accessible to established sites, but is great for newer blogs too: There’s no minimum requirement for site traffic, your account is activated instantly after creation, and the payout threshold is just $5 through PayPal. These payouts occur monthly.

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3. Revcontent

Revcontent is a leader in native ads, which are designed to match the look and feel of your blog content. These ads are highly targeted to help them blend in on your site’s pages. Revcontent also offers ads in other formats like display, mobile, and video.

Revcontent has a reputation for exceptional clients on both the publisher and advertiser side. It partners with publishers that are likely to generate a lot of hits on ads, which attracts advertisers who are willing to pay higher commissions.

The catch is that Revcontent is highly selective, even more so than Google AdSense. To apply successfully, your site needs to report at least 50,000 monthly visitors and generate valuable content on a regular basis. There’s a good chance of rejection, but it’s worth a shot for Revcontent’s promise of higher engagement rates. Publishers are paid monthly, and the minimum payout is $50.

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4. InfoLinks

InfoLinks provides a viable alternative to display ads — its specialty is in-text advertising placement. InfoLinks searches for keywords in the body of your blog text, and automatically associates ads with relevant text snippets. When a visitor hovers over this special text, a relevant ad appears next to it. In-text ads work well on blogs, since more words on a page mean more opportunities for relevant ads.

InfoLinks can monetize any blog, old or new. It requires no setup fee, and there are no minimum requirements for page views. Once set up, you can quickly implement in-text ads (as well as targeted display ads, if you’d prefer) and gain insights from the reporting dashboard.

InfoLinks pays every 45 days via PayPal (the minimum payout is $50), Western Union, and Payoneer.

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5. Bidvertiser

Bidvertiser operates on a bidding campaign system. Rather than placing ads automatically, Bidvertiser sells display ad space on your website to whichever advertiser pays most.

There are pros and cons to a system like this. If your site brings in enough traffic, advertisers will try to outbid each other for space, and you might end up earning much more from the auction than you would from AdSense. But, if advertisers are unaware of your site, you might not receive any bids at all.

Before trying Bidvertiser think about which of these categories your blog falls into. If the bidding system works for you, you’ll benefit from Bidvertiser’s easy ad customization tool, zero approval restrictions, and payment for both clicks and conversions.

Bidvertiser users are paid monthly, and the lowest payout threshold is $10 through PayPal.

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6. RevenueHits

A relative newcomer to the industry, RevenueHits is gaining traction as a reliable monetization platform. RevenueHits highlights its advanced ad optimization tool, which learns from your ad performance and shows you where to best place ads on your site.

There’s no minimum traffic restriction to get started with RevenueHits. However, it’s important to note that ads through RevenueHits are performance-based, not cost-per-click. This means that you won’t earn money from clicks alone. To generate revenue for your blog, visitors need to click your ad, then complete specific actions on the advertised website. These actions vary by advertiser, but are always less attainable than a simple click. Common examples include making a purchase or subscribing to a service on the website.

RevenueHits pays on a 30-day basis via PayPal and Payoneer. The minimum payout is $20.

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7. Adcash

Adcash serves more than 200 million active users and 850k app installs each month. It supports nearly all ad formats, from standard display ads to more premium units like pop-unders and instream video ads. It’s easy to place and customize any ad unit, and you can view real-time reports of your ad performance via the admin panel.

Like RevenueHits, Adcash also follows a pay-per-action model. It offers payouts through PayPal, Payoneer, Skrill, and WebMoney. As an added perk, the $25 minimum payout is fairly low.

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8. BuySellAds

If your blog generates consistently high traffic, consider BuySellAds, a self-serve ad portal for publishers. BuySellAds is highly exclusive — you’ll need at least 100,000 page views per month to join, and it only accepts English-language websites with excellent content and design.

If you can reach this high bar, you’ll enjoy a 75% commission per click. This is very competitive for the industry and significantly higher than Google’ commission rate of 62% per click. And, the minimum payout is just $20 with PayPal.

Ad formats include banners, text ads, native ads, RSS feed ads, email ads, and content sponsorships. Unlike other solutions, BuySellAds does not display automated or targeted ads. Instead, publishers sell the ad space available on their site to advertisers via a marketplace.

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9. Skimlinks

Skimlinks specializes in affiliate marketing, making it unique from other options on our list. It works by scanning text on your blog for links to other sites. If a link leads to one of its advertising partners, Skimlinks turns it into an affiliate link and you’ll receive 75% commission when a visitor clicks on it. You also earn additional revenue when users purchase products through your affiliate links.

Skimlinks is ideal for bloggers who want to monetize their text content without (or in addition to) display ads. It also works well for product reviews, which are more likely to mention brands by name. Skimlinks offers a very low minimum payout of $10. However, it only sends payments every 90 days.

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10. Amazon Native Shopping Ads

You’ve heard of Amazon, but did you know about its display ads program? Amazon Native Shopping Ads, a division of the Amazon Associates program, allows you to place native Amazon product listings on your blog pages. These ads are targeted based on the surrounding page content.

When a visitor clicks one of these ads and then buys any product on Amazon, you’ll receive a commission from the purchase. Thanks to Amazon’s unparalleled reputation in e-commerce, your visitors are more likely to make a purchase this way than through competitors.

Amazon sends payments 60 days after the end of each month, and the minimum payout is low at $10 via direct deposit.

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Ads Without AdSense

A high-quality AdSense alternative will help you secure an additional revenue stream that can motivate you to produce more blog content and help cover the cost of running your website.

When making your choice of ad network, don’t settle for the first one you try. Be sure to test at least a few different options over a set period of time, then determine which ones generate the most passive income for you without disrupting the user experience. It’s okay to do things a bit differently — you don't have to go with Google.