Ezoic vs AdThrive vs Snigel: A Definitive Comparison [2023]

Ezoic and AdThrive are two popular ad management platforms offering reliable solutions for monetizing your content with video and display ads.

Ezoic is a self-service platform with comprehensive optimization and analytics tools that experienced bloggers looking to grow their audience will find useful. However, its pricing structure is complicated, and mastering every tool on the platform can take away from the time you could be spending on your own content.

Meanwhile, AdThrive (now Raptive) offers a complete solution to maximize ad revenue with the least ads possible for bloggers in the food, home, parenting, and DIY niches. But, its tools tend to impact your site speed negatively and its analytics dashboard doesn’t work in real-time.

Both platforms are great at what they do but are lacking in some key areas including full-service ad management capabilities. Which is why I included Snigel into the mix.

Snigel provides dedicated ad management experts who develop, optimize, and manage your ad setup for you. High-traffic content creators will benefit from a premium service like Snigel that uses proprietary ad technology and real-time data collection to maximize ad revenue while delivering faster page load and positive user experiences that encourage return visits.

In this article, I compare Ezoic vs. AdThrive vs. Snigel on the following criteria:

• Ad Layout Technology
• Publisher Experience
• Analytics
• Price Structure

To complete the picture, I also cover their website performance optimization, page speed impact, and traffic requirements in the comparison table below. So, let’s get into it!

	Ezoic	AdThrive (Raptive)	Snigel
💰 Price	⭐⭐⭐ 30-day free trial. Complex, tier-based revenue sharing starts at 10% of monthly revenue. Strict lock-in period.	⭐⭐⭐⭐ 75/25 revenue sharing with access to a dashboard, customer support, no lock-in period, and multiple websites.	🏆 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Free ad management services. 80/20 revenue share model. No lock-in. No hidden fees. Net-30 payout.
🤖 Ad Layout Technology	⭐⭐⭐⭐ Header bidding effectiveness depends on Ezoic level. Has AI ad layout optimization which is sometimes too excessive.	⭐⭐⭐⭐ Header bidding. Proprietary ad code optimizes ad placement. Follows strict 30% ad density policy.	🏆 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Header bidding. Advanced ad placement tech using AI bidder optimization, adaptive ads, and super adhesive ads..
🌞 Publisher Experience	⭐⭐⭐ Self-service ecosystem with diverse tools & resources to optimize ad revenue monetization.	⭐⭐⭐⭐ Self-service platform with auto-optimize option. Optional full-service ad management for earners >$250K.	🏆 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ You get a dedicated ad monetization expert to create, optimize and manage a custom ad strategy.
⚙ Website Performance	⭐⭐⭐ Dedicated platform with tools & resources to optimize and ensure website and ad performance align w/ Core Web Vitals.	⭐⭐⭐⭐ Personalized insights to improve site and website performance.	🏆 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Regularly updated ad setup & actionable insights complying with SEO best practices; customized by Snigel's experts.
📊 Analytics	⭐⭐⭐ Real-time dashboard with insights into your content based on author, category, topic, etc.	⭐⭐⭐ Detailed breakdown of revenue & ad performance, but doesn’t offer real-time insights.	🏆 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Dashboard with real-time data collection offering analytical insights from summary, devices, countries, and placement reports.
🏅 Best for	Experienced publishers looking for a hands-on self-service toolset that gives you control over your ad strategy.	Owners of high-traffic sites in the food, home, parenting, and DIY niches, in need of an ad service that doesn’t crowd the site.	Publishers with large site traffic looking for a premium service to maximize ad earnings.
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What is Ezoic?
"Ad monetization at your fingertips" 💻💸

Dwayne Lafleur founded Ezoic in 2010 with the goal of creating an end-to-end platform for publishers looking to monetize their content.

Today, Ezoic is one of the most widely used ad monetization platforms on the planet. It offers a comprehensive toolset and a large pool of ad networks to help convert the publisher’s hobby into a full-fledged business. Publishers have access to tools like Leap to optimize website performance, Ezoic Ads to maximize ad revenue, and Humix to monetize their video content. It also uses AI and machine learning capabilities to deliver real-time insights for a publisher’s ad and content strategy.

Ezoic is perfect for seasoned bloggers and marketers looking for a self-service platform that provides more options than just AdSense..

What is AdThrive?
“To create the best ad experience”🤩✨

Andy and Kelly Marzka decided to start AdThrive (now Raptive*) in 2013 to provide lifestyle bloggers (like Kelly) with a personalized, data-driven approach to optimizing their ad revenue without dedicating all their time to it.

AdThrive does this using proprietary ad technology that shows only high-paying, relevant ads on its publisher’s websites. Its in-house ad code—Nucleus—identifies the most lucrative ad space while its contextual ad targeting program—Marmalade—fills each space with relevant ads. Meanwhile, publishers can use the AdThrive dashboard for personalized, data-driven analytics, customization options, and video management tools.

AdThrive is ideal for lifestyle bloggers in the food, home, parenting, and DIY niches looking to improve their ad revenue with highly relevant, targeted ads.

*Note: In April 2023, AdThrive merged with CafeMedia and became Raptive. They now offer tailored solutions, technology, and expert advice to improve every aspect of your business, including your website ad revenue.

What is Snigel?
“Getting the most out of your ad inventory” 💰💰

Understanding the limitations publishers face using AdSense, Chris Krischnig and Peter Gallagher started Snigel in 2012 to develop a transparent ad tech ecosystem dedicated to helping content creators succeed.

Every one of Snigel’s publishers get access to a dedicated account manager that creates and manages a custom ad monetization strategy, keeping in mind the publisher’s revenue goals and brand. It also offers two unique solutions to maximize the publisher’s ad revenue: AdEngine (Snigel’s header bidding solution) and AdStream (Snigel’s video ads solution). Publishers can also track how well their ad strategy is working with the AdVantage dashboard or by reaching out to their dedicated ad expert. Snigel stands out because of its tech and helpful customer service, which is why it earned the Google Certified Publishing Partner badge, the highest quality badge Google gives to ad monetization platforms.

Snigel’s services are designed for web publishers and busy content creators with high-traffic websites who need a trusted premium ad management service to maximize their revenue while they focus on what’s important: developing great content, growing their audience, and creating the optimal user experience.

Ezoic vs AdThrive vs Snigel: Ad Layout Technology

Ezoic uses AI to optimize ad revenue, AdThrive uses high-earning ads, while Snigel offers customized solutions and advanced ad placement optimization with AI.

All three support header bidding, but differ slightly in execution.

Header bidding is a modern advertising technique that allows multiple ad providers (ad networks and ad exchanges) to bid on a publisher’s ad space simultaneously — replacing the traditional method where advertisers bid one at a time.

It encourages competition between advertisers which translates to larger bids for each ad space and increased ad revenue for the publisher. Apart from increased ad revenue, header bidding offers more transparency, gives you better control over your display ads, and takes only milliseconds to sell your ad inventory.

All three—Ezoic, AdThrive, and Snigel—use header bidding technology but go about it in different ways.

AdThrive uses header bidding to sell to its “large pool of advertisers.” You can choose the ad categories you don’t want to display on your site, giving you some control over who can bid on your ad inventory.

On the other hand, Ezoic gives you the option to use header bidding. If you do, you’ll need to install and set up their Mediation app and manually add the revenue share percentage and bid parameters discussed with your header bidding partner.

Meanwhile, Snigel helps its publishers create a unique, customized ad setup and ad strategy. Every publisher gets a dedicated ad monetization expert to create a custom ad stack based on their niche, content relevance, revenue targets, traffic trends, and user experience preferences. This ensures only relevant advertisers can bid on the ad inventory, increasing ad revenue and offering a better user experience.

The team then uses AI ad setup optimizations to sell the available advertising space to high-paying advertisers while prioritising a good user experience and fast pageload speed.  Snigel uses both client- and server-side header bidding based on performance. So it’ll automatically ensure you’re always displaying ads on your website while prioritising page load speed. You can read more about it here.

Ezoic optimizes your ads using artificial intelligence but may overdo it sometimes.

Ezoic optimizes your ad placements, sizes, and formats using artificial intelligence to maximize revenue. However, users have reported that the AI may crowd your page with ads, leading to slower page load times and a negative user experience.

AdThrive focuses on displaying higher-earning ads to maximize ad revenue with the least ads possible.

AdThrive makes sure you get the most out of inventory using different ad types like interstitial ads, mobile ads, native ads, and video ads. It uses two systems to automatically decide which ad is displayed where:

• Nucleus is the in-house ad code that identifies the highest-earning ad space and dynamically adds them to the page.
• Marmalade is the contextual ad targeting program that picks the most relevant & highest-earning ads for your ad spaces to maximize revenue.

To maintain a good user experience, AdThrive also follows a strict 30% ad density policy which states ads should only make up 30% of your page content. But the actual accuracy of that number is questionable since it excludes certain ad types (header ads, instream video ads, below post ads, and sidebar ads) when calculating the ad density.

Snigel uses advanced ad optimization techniques and AI algorithms to maximize your RPM.

Like AdThrive, Snigel also uses proprietary algorithms to optimize its ad strategy. For example, it adjusts the minimum floor price on an hourly basis to counter bid shading by looking at the user’s location, device type, and bandwidth.

It also uses advanced ad optimization techniques:

1. AI bidder optimization consistently rotates SSPs and bidders based on their performance. By having fewer bidders on the client side, Snigel is able to generate faster page load speeds while maximizing revenue.
2. Adaptive ads adjust your ad space dynamically to accommodate ads of different sizes in the same space. For example, consider two 300x250 ads with $0.8 CPM. Snigel can fit both these ads into a 300x600 ad space of $1 CPM, effectively displaying two ads in the space of one. This increases your ad revenue (2 x $0.8 = $1.6) compared to displaying just one 300x600 ad.
3. Super adhesive ads display larger ads in smaller spaces. The ad moves along with the user’s scrolling; similar to how parallax scrolling works. Larger ads usually have a higher CPM, increasing the revenue earned from the smaller spaces.

Snigel’s partners report great experiences with these features because they get better opportunities to utilize the ad space.

Ezoic vs AdThrive vs Snigel: Pricing Structure and Services

Ezoic’s pricing is complex, AdThrive follows a simple 75/25 split, while Snigel uses a straight-forward 80/20 revenue sharing model.

Ezoic uses a complex, tier-based pricing model that locks certain services from lower-tier members.

Ezoic offers a 30-day free trial for new users with access to all its features. If you choose to sign up, you’ll be assigned to one of the six different ‘Ezoic Levels’, depending on monthly traffic and revenue:

You can choose between two revenue sharing models depending on your level:

• Ezoic Standard: Available for all levels, it charges 10% of your monthly revenue.
• Ezoic Premium: Only for level 2 users and above with different revenue shares for each level.

Your Ezoic level also determines your access to certain ad networks and services. So, your earning potential may be limited since you don’t have access to the highest-paying or most relevant ad providers.

Moreover, Ezoic Premium has a lock-in period of one year. If you want to switch to another ad management service, you’ll have to pay 50% of the remaining yearly premium — something not every publisher is okay with doing.

AdThrive follows a 75/25 split and lets you add multiple websites to your account.

AdThrive follows a simple 75/25 revenue-sharing model where the publisher gets 75% of the total ad revenue. You’re also not tied to a long-term contract like Ezoic. To work with AdThrive, you need to meet the following criteria:

• Minimum traffic of 100,000 monthly pageviews.
• Majority traffic from the US, CA, UK, AU, or NZ.
• Unique original content that engages the audience and is a great fit for their advertisers.
• Publishing in the food, home, parenting, and DIY niches.

AdThrive lets existing publishers register multiple websites to the same account. Even sites with lower monthly pageviews will be considered if you’re the owner and the site meets the other requirements.

However, AdThrive isn't truly a full-service ad management company like Snigel. It only offers a dedicated team of experts to its highest-earning members — the majority of customers need to manage their ad operations manually (more on that in the Publisher Experience section).

Snigel offers a simple 80/20 split with no hidden charges, advanced ad technology, and dedicated support.

Snigel offers a straightforward 80/20 revenue split where the publisher takes home 80% of the total monthly revenue. It follows a very strict selection process to maintain a high quality publisher network. To become a Snigel publisher, you need to fulfill the following criteria:

• Minimal or no bot traffic.
• Daily earnings of at least $300 USD.
• High-quality content, original and free from copyright issues.

Once selected, Snigel provides a truly full-service experience designed for the publisher with no hidden fees, no lock-in period, and a dedicated ad monetization expert who works with you to create and optimize a customized ad strategy.

Ezoic vs AdThrive vs Snigel: Publisher Experience

Ezoic requires a hands-on approach and continuous optimization, AdThrive only offers full-service ad management to its highest earners, while Snigel assigns a dedicated expert to develop and manage a custom ad strategy from the start.

Ezoic is a completely self-service platform.

Ezoic gives you control over your ad monetization strategy, including ad types, placements, and AI-enhanced optimization options. If you’re new to Ezoic, you’ll need to dedicate some time to learning its features and optimizing them to meet your needs.

For example, the Ad Tester feature lets you run A/B tests of different ad strategies to find the most lucrative setup.

You can also use it to create a customized experience for audiences using specific ad types and placements depending on their preferences. However, you don’t have much control over the ad content since access to DSPs is decided based on your Ezoic level. You’ll need to carve out some time every few weeks to track and optimize your tests to get the best results.

It also offers some useful features like a WordPress plugin and a Chrome extension, which automatically shows you the best ad layout with placeholders for your website. It also offers options to choose ad placements manually. However, users have reported that Ezoic’s Chrome extension slows down your website; so, keep that in mind if you’re thinking of using it.

AdThrive offers full-service ad management but only to its highest-earning members.

When you first join, AdThrive creates a custom ad layout for your site — taking into account your traffic data, site design, preferences, viewability, and current ad performance. You can then choose between two ways to develop and optimize your ad strategy:

1. ‘Auto-optimize’, which lets AdThrive’s experts optimize your ad strategy (1). They will adjust your strategy according to their recommended settings while keeping you informed of any major changes. They will also offer insights into optimizing your ad layout and website for a better user experience. You can always jump in and modify the strategy to meet your requirements.
2. You can optimize the ad strategy yourself via the Ad Preferences tab (2). You will have complete control over your ad settings, user experience settings, and permissions. I found the Ad Categories tool especially useful since it lets you decide on the ad content you want on your sites. The more categories your website can include, the higher your earning potential.

Although they provide auto-optimization services, it is still the publisher’s responsibility to ensure the strategy aligns with their brand and content.

AdThrive does offer a complete full-service ad management service with access to a dedicated ad management team and advanced tools to grow your audience, revenue, and business. However, only the highest earners with a yearly revenue of $250K-$499K can qualify as AdThrive Platinum (Raptive Platinum) members.

Snigel is a full-service ad management platform with a dedicated ad monetization expert.

Snigel assigns an ad management expert during onboarding, who analyzes your current ad setup (content, demographic, and ad strategy) and creates a fully customized ad setup and strategy.

Post onboarding, the account manager will continue to monitor your ad and website performance, and suggest changes to improve your strategy. They will also conduct regular A/B testing with new ad settings, formats, and features to identify the best ad setup for your website.

Snigel’s full-service ad management is great if you are a busy publisher who can’t dedicate the time to manager or learn how to optimize your ads effectively.

Ezoic and AdThrive have their own video monetization tools, while Snigel integrates with YouTube.

Ezoic has its own video management platform called Humix which lets you host and monetize your video content. You can still run your videos on YouTube which means you can earn from both channels.

You can also allow other publishers to share your videos on their websites, creating an entirely new revenue stream for you. But they can only use videos from Humix which may not be great if you’re looking to grow your YouTube audience.

Similarly, AdThrive also requires that you upload your videos on their platform. You can choose from their stock video library if you don’t have any video content.

It provides three different media players to monetize your content:

• The Related Player embeds videos related to the content on the page.
• The Playlist Player plays videos on any post or page of your site and is not specific to the content of the page.
• The Sticky Outstream Player runs video ads at the bottom of the screen.

Snigel's AdStream lets publishers make money from their own videos, use stock videos, or show a pop-up with ads when advertiser demand is high. It can be set up to show in different spots, like the image below shows.

AdStream offers two types of video players:

• Instream player which monetizes existing YouTube content or other videos by serving ads before, during, or after the video content.
• Outstream player which places video ads in between your content. The ads play automatically as long as the player is visible on the user’s screen. The unit folds away once it plays the last queued ad. They are great for high-traffic websites and easier to set up compared to Instream units.

Ezoic vs AdThrive vs Snigel: Analytics

Ezoic offers website and ad performance analytics, AdThrive provides detailed breakdowns and content optimization tools, while Snigel has an intuitive dashboard with real-time insights and analytical deep-dives.

Ezoic provides in-depth analytics into your ad monetization strategy.

Ezoic prides itself on its in-depth analytics capabilities that give you an overview of your website, ad strategy, revenue, and user behavior. You can derive granular insights into your ad performance by filtering the data by author, category, topic, word count, etc.

To make analysis easier, you can also create custom reports to analyze data along specific metrics like visits, pageviews, bounce rate, and so on. Ezoic offers a lot of analytics options but it shouldn’t be too difficult to master because the layout is very similar to Google Analytics.

You also get insights into your Core Web Vitals on a different platform called Ezoic Leap. So, you’ll be spending time and energy mastering two platforms which might not be worth the effort since users have reported that Ezoic’s analytics platform provides inaccurate data.

AdThrive offers detailed breakdowns but doesn’t update in real time.

AdThrive also offers insights into your ad performance and earnings using an intuitive and easy-to-navigate dashboard. It’s divided into different sections covering important information like:

• Earnings broken down by page, traffic source, device, ad unit, and so on.
• Traffic showing you how your traffic affects your ad earnings by linking with your Google Analytics data. You can also use it to understand how the audience engages with your content.
• Site Opportunities providing personalized recommendations on how to improve your website and increase earnings.

However, the AdThrive dashboard isn’t updated in real-time so you’ll know the impact of any major updates only after a couple of days. This makes decision-making difficult when an error could mean no revenue generation for at least two days.

Snigel provides a user-friendly dashboard with in-depth insights from reports.

Snigel assigns a dedicated ad tech expert to track your ad and website performance. You also have access to Snigel’s AdVantage, a user-friendly dashboard that independently collects real-time data on ads served, from various demand sources. This not only increases transparency for you but holds the entire ecosystem accountable. Advantage provides real-time insights and analytical reports based on:

• RPM per session or pageview
• Ad impressions
• Pageviews
• Sessions
• CPM
• Fill rate
• Placement coverage
• CTR

It lets you dive more deeply into analytics based on geolocation, devices, and ad placements. AdVantage is also available as a mobile app, so you can access the data on the go.

For more precise data, you can reach out to your dedicated ad tech expert. This shouldn’t be a problem since the expert works on optimizing your ad strategy anyway and can even suggest improvements, saving you the headache of parsing through large amounts of data.

Ezoic vs AdThrive vs Snigel: Pros & Cons

Final Verdict: Ezoic vs AdThrive vs Snigel

AdThrive is for bloggers with niche-specific ads, Ezoic is for self-service content optimization, and Snigel is for all large publishers who want a premium service with a dedicated account manager and AI-driven ad optimization.

All three are ad management services but go about optimizing your ad strategy in different ways. Ezoic is a self-service platform for experienced publishers looking for analytics and optimization tools to grow their audience. AdThrive is for large websites looking for high-earning ad networks specifically in the food, home, parenting, and DIY niches. While Snigel is for busy content creators with high-traffic websites looking for a premium service to create and manage a customised ad strategy.

Use Ezoic if:

• You are looking for a complete toolset that gives you full control over your ad strategy.
• You have a growing website with at least 10,000 monthly visitors.
• You have the time and technical knowledge to set up and manage your ad strategy.

Click here to get started with Ezoic!

Use AdThrive if:

• You are looking for detailed breakdowns of your ad and content performance.
• You have at least one blog with more than 100,000 monthly visitors.
• Your creating blog content in the food, home, parenting, and DIY niches.

Click here to get started with AdThrive!

Use Snigel if:

• You’re looking for a customized ad setup with dedicated ad experts who will manage everything for you.
• You want the latest in advanced AI ad technology to maximize revenue from your ad inventory.
• You want access to an intuitive reporting dashboard that enables you to make data-driven decisions.

Click here to get started with Snigel!

Still not sure which one would work out best for your specific situation? We’ve tried, tested, and compared some other most popular ad management platforms and found the best fit for every site, budget, and need. Check out our detailed comparisons of Ezoic vs Google AdSense and Ezoic vs Mediavine.