How Much Does Ezoic Pay? 6 Factors That Affect Your Earnings

If you search for information on how much Ezoic pays, you’ll typically see numbers measured in earnings per thousand visitors (EPMV), ranging from $5 to $12+.

It’s a wide range. That’s because the amount you can earn with Ezoic (or any other ad network) depends on specific aspects of your website, your audience, and your ad strategy.

In this article, we share 6 factors that will affect how much you can earn from Ezoic and other ad platforms. Plus, for each factor, we also share the specific, highly customized approach we take at Snigel to improve your earnings.

Then, we cover payout details and Ezoic’s revenue share model.

Snigel is a Google Certified Publishing Partner. We provide a full-service ad management platform using dedicated account management and AI-powered ad tech to help publishers optimize their ad setup and maximize revenue. For a free assessment of your site, get in touch with us.

6 Factors That Affect How Much You Can Earn with Ezoic

Just because two websites have the same amount of traffic and/or pageviews doesn’t mean they’ll earn the same amount of ad revenue.

In practice, the amount advertisers are willing to pay for a particular ad space is determined by a vast range of variables, including your audience, your vertical, and the ad tech that you use.

You can read in detail about how to optimize your ad setup and increase ad revenue in these articles.

In this section, we consider six factors that affect how much you’ll earn from Ezoic, or any other ad network you’re using.

1. Audience GEO

One of the biggest factors that affects your Ezoic earnings is the location from which your audience accesses your site. For instance, Ezoic shared data showing how rates for audiences in the US were more than double those for audiences in India.

One reason for this is that advertisers are usually willing to pay more for your ad inventory if your audience is primarily in Tier 1 GEOs (since users in Tier 1 GEOs typically have more disposable income).

Another reason is that different GEOs have different internet speeds, with Tier 3 GEOs typically having slower speeds. As a result, for these audiences, your site may not be able to support larger numbers of ads, or specific ad types such as video ads, without affecting your site speed. So, in Tier 3 GEOs, you may not be able to make use of higher-value ad formats, a fact which can limit your revenue.

Often, though, publishers have audiences across different GEOs. In this case, it’s best to have a separate setup for each specific location. This way, you can optimize your site for Tier 3 GEOs while still using higher-value ads for Tier 1 GEOs (below, we cover how Snigel helps you do this).

With Ezoic, though, optimizing your setup for each GEO will take you time and advanced technical skills. Ezoic is entirely self-serve, so you’ll have to put the work in yourself to tweak your ads for each audience.

Snigel Lets You Create Different Setups (for the Same Webpage) for Users in Different GEOs

While Ezoic is a self-serve platform, Snigel provides a fully-managed service. Typically, optimizing your ad setup yourself requires years of experience, which most publishers simply don’t have. Instead, Snigel’s ad ops specialists provide that expertise, to help you maximize your revenue.

We’ll do the hard work of optimizing every webpage for users in different GEOs. We’ll select the most appropriate types of ad, test them, and implement them, so you can be sure that every site user has the best experience possible.

Plus, our ad tech was designed from the beginning to support this high level of customization. So you’re less likely to see bugs or issues when implementing a custom layout with Snigel vs Ezoic.

2. The Device Audiences Use

Every site has different proportions of users coming from mobile or desktop. This affects how much you earn, as advertisers pay more for different ad types, which are limited by device.

For instance, on desktop, there’s much more space to fill, so you can show more ads without affecting your user experience. Large ads and video ads, which typically have higher costs-per-mille (CPMs), are also better tolerated by users on desktop.

On the other hand, mobile performs best with small, lightweight ads. The smaller screen also means that there’s less space to show ads without frustrating users. As a result,  if most of your audience uses mobile, you’re likely to receive less ad revenue overall.

So, just as you need to optimize your setup for every GEO, it’s important that you have a separate setup for different devices, too. If you limit your desktop ads to those you’d have on mobile, you’ll be missing out on higher-value ad formats.

As the Ezoic platform is self-serve, you’ll need to work out by yourself how to balance revenue with UX on each device. For beginners or website owners without ad expertise, this can be a time consuming and challenging process.

Snigel’s Ad Ops Specialists Create Expert Ad Strategies for Every Device

If you partner with Snigel, our ad ops specialists will create a custom ad setup for each device, based on your specific goals and audience. We’re experts in optimizing ads, with experience working with hundreds of different ad setups. This means that we’ll identify and implement the best approach for you, and you don’t need to take the time to optimize it yourself.

3. Your Site’s Vertical

The amount that publishers in one vertical can earn can be significantly greater than those in another vertical. Part of this is due to the fact that advertisers in different verticals may just be willing to pay more than those in others. For example, the finance vertical attracts high CPMs because advertisers will pay a lot to get in front of this audience while the comic book/manga vertical attracts low CPMs.

However, the vertical you’re in will also affect the form of your content and therefore your ad layout, which will, in turn, impact your earnings. As an example, if you’re a lifestyle blogger and you write long-form content, you’ll have more space for ads than a translation app webpage.

Plus, your vertical also determines which demand sources you can connect to. For instance, some SSPs have strengths in retail or eCommerce advertisers. They may be willing to pay higher rates to show their ads on your site if they know the audience is relevant.

Snigel Will Customize Your Ad Strategy & Setup to Get the Best Results for Your Vertical

At Snigel, we work with publishers across verticals including tech, education, weather, and reference-style websites. But since we take a custom approach to every site we work with, we’re happy to partner with sites in any vertical.

We customize our ad strategy for the vertical — this includes connecting to vertical specific SSPs, crafting a custom ad layout for your content, and passing relevant contextual information from your website on to buyers to help them improve their targeting.

4. Demand Sources

Relying on single vertical-specific demand sources is often not the best strategy to maximize your ad revenue. If you’re using a header bidding partner such as Ezoic or Snigel, it can be a good idea to have a mix of niche and more general demand sources, to help you get the highest bids.

Header bidding partners connect you to multiple demand sources, who all bid on your ad inventory. In theory, the higher number of bids helps you secure higher CPMs, as more competition encourages higher bids.

In reality, it’s not that simple. A higher quantity of demand sources doesn’t necessarily mean higher revenue. You might find that some demand sources don’t often win bids, so they’re just slowing your site down without increasing your earnings. So, choosing which SSPs to connect to is crucial for maximizing your revenue.

The trouble with Ezoic is that you won’t get an ad tech expert to help you with this. So, if you want to A/B test different combinations and really optimize your list of SSPs for every webpage, you’ll have to do it yourself.

But doing it yourself is complex. Firstly, you need to assess which you’re eligible for and then negotiate a revenue share deal with them. Then, you’ll need to monitor them to see which are actually winning bids.

What’s more, your Ezoic “level” or plan 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.

Snigel Connects You to Your Most Profitable Demand Sources

Snigel’s AdEngine can connect you to all the major demand sources, including Google AdX, OpenX, Amazon, Index Exchange, ConnectAd, and many more. Having access to these demand sources means you can take advantage of the highest CPMs that advertisers are willing to pay.

Simply connecting to as many demand sources as possible slows down the bidding process and therefore page load speeds. So, we’ll select the best SSPs and ad networks for your GEO and vertical.

Snigel also offers server-side (S2S) header bidding, in which the header bidding auction takes place on an external server. It lets publishers access the many SSPs that are only available through S2S bidding, while helping to speed up the page load process.

5. Ad Layout

It’s tempting to think that more ads on your site equals more revenue, but that’s not the case. Instead, if you have too many ads on a page, it can reduce your UX and your site’s core web vitals.

In turn, this means that users may be more likely to bounce, which can reduce ad impressions. Additionally, poor core web vitals can also affect your SEO rankings on Google, which will impact your traffic.

With Ezoic, you can manage your ad layouts all by yourself. But this requires continual testing and optimization to ensure you get the best results for your unique site.

For instance, you might find that:

• Having ads higher up the page increases your ad impressions and your CPMs.

• Your audience can tolerate more ads than you’re currently using. Younger audiences typically tolerate more ads than older demographics.

• Different page layouts perform better on different devices.

You won’t know the impact these will have on your earnings in advance, so you’ll need to continually monitor and test your setup to see what gets the best results.

If you don’t want to test and optimize your ad layout yourself, you can use Ezoic’s artificial intelligence (AI) tool, Ezoic Ad Tester, which will implement ad placements for you. However, this tool tends to use a “cookie cutter” approach, meaning that it’ll implement very similar ad layouts for every single site. Plus, a commonly cited concern with Ezoic’s AI is that it overloads pages with too many ads, which can negatively affect your UX.

To learn more, you can read this article on where to place ads on your website.

Snigel Implements, Tests & Optimizes Your Ad Setup to Balance High CPMs with Optimal UX

Snigel’s ad ops specialists help determine the optimal ad layout for your site based on your needs and goals. We’ll help you build an ad strategy based on those goals and then implement it. Then, our ad ops specialists will identify where to place each and every ad unit to maximize revenue, without compromising the user experience.

While other ad monetization partners use a “cookie cutter” approach, we’ll choose the right ad tech and ad placements specifically for your site’s setup and perform A/B testing to ensure you’re not missing out on revenue. We’ll also continually monitor your site for any technical bugs or revenue opportunities.

6. Ad Formats and Ad Tech

Each ad monetization partner supports different ad technologies and formats. Often, different ad formats can increase impressions and engagement, which is typically something advertisers are willing to pay more for.

However, not every ad format is right for every site. Take the example of video ads. While they can increase ad revenue by 23% for some publishers, they’re not appropriate for everyone. Many web pages don’t have space for effective video ads, for instance, while some audiences don’t tolerate video ads.

To achieve the highest ad earnings, you’ll need to understand which ad formats work best for your site. Again, with Ezoic, you either have to do this entirely by yourself or rely on the platform’s AI.

Snigel Offers AI-Powered Ad Tech to Boost Your Earnings

Snigel offers site owners both innovative ad formats and bid optimization technology, including:

• Adaptive ads. Snigel’s AI fills designated ad spaces with whatever size and number of ads produce the highest revenue. Adaptive ads can increase revenue by 10–30%.

• Super adhesive formats. These let you display larger ads (which typically earn higher CPMs) in smaller spaces by having the ad move to follow the user’s scrolling. Super adhesive formats can increase revenue by 20+%.

• Interactive ad units engage users by inviting them to take a quiz, fill out a poll, or interact with the ad in another way. Interactive ad units tend to have more views and higher CPMs. Interactive ad units can increase revenue by 3%.

• Smart Refresh refreshes the ad in an ad space after certain intervals if a user stays on the page. Smart Refresh can increase revenue by 6%. 

• Adblock recovery enables you to find ads that are compliant with a user’s adblock settings, so you always get some revenue from your traffic. Adblock recovery can increase your revenue by 10+%.

• AdStream lets you display high-quality native video ads on your website in a variety of formats. AdStream can increase revenue by 23%. 

• Dynamic floor pricing automatically adjusts floor prices every hour to combat bid shading, which means you get higher CPMs. Dynamic floor pricing can increase revenue by 5%. 

• AI bidder optimization switches bidders between client- and server-side header bidding, alongside matching users with the best bidders for their country, device, and browser. AI bidder optimization improves load speeds and revenue potential and can increase revenue by 7+%.

Ezoic: Payouts and Revenue Share

When calculating how much you’ll earn from an ad platform like Ezoic, you also need to consider its payment terms, payouts, and fees.

For publishers in its standard plan, Ezoic operates on a 90/10 revenue share model — meaning Ezoic takes 10% of your revenue. The share Ezoic takes changes at higher plans, however, they don’t publicize what share you can expect.

Plus, many publishers say that Ezoic charges additional fees for additional services.

Moreover, the Ezoic Premium plan 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.

Snigel Has a Competitive Revenue Share Model for a Completely Managed Service

At Snigel, we use an 80/20 revenue share model, in which you keep 80% of your revenue.

You’ll receive a fully customized service, which can increase your ad revenue by an average of 57%. We also have no lock-in period or contract commitments, meaning that you can walk away at any time if Snigel isn’t working for you. You can also A/B test Snigel against Ezoic to see which solution delivers the most ad revenue.

It’s easy to try Snigel before you sign up. We can test our technology on just 10% of your traffic, so you can see the results before using Snigel for your entire website.

Maximize Your Ad Revenue with Snigel

In this guide, we’ve explored how different factors affect how much Ezoic pays. As you can see, there’s no specific sum — it depends on how you set up your ads, the demand sources you connect to, and more.

In contrast to Ezoic, Snigel takes care of optimizing all of these factors for you. This way, we’ll help maximize your revenue while you can focus on the rest of your site.

Get in touch with us for a free assessment.