The honest ad network playbook for small publishers

If you’re a small publisher (under 50K visits/month), the ad-network landscape is confusing. MoneyTag, Adsterra, PropellerAds, Ezoic, Mediavine, Raptive — they all sound similar until you apply and learn what’s actually different.

This is the research I wish existed when I started. Eight weeks of testing, reading forums, talking to other publishers, and tracking actual revenue.

TL;DR — The stack I’d build

1. 0 - 1,000 visits/month: No ads. Affiliate links only.
2. 1,000 - 10,000 visits/month: Monetag (or none). It’s the lowest entry bar and pays a baseline.
3. 10,000 - 50,000 visits/month: Monetag + Adsterra layered, with PropellerAds as a backup fill.
4. 50,000 - 100,000 visits/month: Apply to Ezoic or Mediavine. Leave the others.
5. 100,000+ visits/month: Mediavine or Raptive. Nothing else compares.

Below: the detailed reasoning.

MoneyTag (now Monetag)

What it is: Adsterra’s sister product (same parent company), spun out as a separate brand for publishers who want a lighter ad experience.

Entry threshold: ~1,000 visits/month. Officially “no minimum,” but they don’t really accept below 1k.

Strengths:

• Easiest approval process
• Modern dashboard with clean reporting
• Web Push notifications are a unique offering (subscribers opt in, you can send them later)
• Popunders are the highest-paying format they offer

Weaknesses:

• Pay per 1k impressions (RPM) is on the lower end — $1-3 for tier 1 traffic (US/UK/CA)
• Popunders are intrusive. We get it. They pay.
• Limited ad format variety vs Adsterra

Realistic RPM (US traffic): $1.50-3.00

When to use: Your site is between 1k and 50k visits/month, you don’t qualify for premium networks yet, and you want a baseline income stream.

Verdict: Best starting network for sub-10k publishers. The popunder format is the real money, but it costs UX. Use it judiciously.

Adsterra

What it is: Established ad network (since 2013) with the broadest format catalog in the entry-level tier.

Entry threshold: Officially no minimum, practically ~3-5k visits/month.

Strengths:

• Ad format variety — popunder, social bar, native banner, push notifications, interstitials, direct links
• Higher RPMs than Monetag for the same traffic (typically 10-30% more)
• Smart CPM bidding (their algorithm optimizes per visitor)
• Self-serve platform — no account manager needed

Weaknesses:

• Approval is stricter than Monetag
• Popunders dominate revenue — 70%+ of income is usually popunders
• Less transparent about traffic quality requirements

Realistic RPM (US traffic): $2.00-4.50

When to use: You’re past 10k visits/month and want to maximize revenue per visit. Pair with Monetag so Adsterra fills what Monetag doesn’t.

Verdict: Best mid-tier network for the 10k-100k range. If you can stomach popunders, this is the real money maker.

PropellerAds

What it is: Established (since 2011) push-notification-focused ad network with growing display and native formats.

Entry threshold: ~5,000 visits/month.

Strengths:

• Best in class for push notifications (subscribers opt in, you can monetize them over time)
• Clean, modern dashboard
• Support is responsive (rare in this tier)
• Smaller minimum payout ($5 vs Adsterra’s $100)

Weaknesses:

• Lower RPMs than Adsterra for the same traffic
• Push notifications can feel spammy if not configured carefully
• Less brand-name recognition means lower CPMs

Realistic RPM (US traffic): $1.50-3.50

When to use: You want a backup fill network, or you specifically want push notifications as a channel.

Verdict: Solid backup. Not the highest paying, but the dashboard and support are best-in-class. Keep them as a fill network.

The 4-network comparison

	Monetag	Adsterra	PropellerAds
Min traffic	~1k/mo	~3-5k/mo	~5k/mo
Approval ease	Easiest	Moderate	Moderate
RPM (US traffic)	$1.50-3.00	$2.00-4.50	$1.50-3.50
Format variety	5 formats	8 formats	6 formats
Popunder impact	Low	Highest	Moderate
Push notifications	Yes	Yes	Yes (best)
Dashboard quality	Good	Good	Excellent
Min payout	$5	$100	$5
Best for	Starting out	Scaling up	Backup fill

The premium networks you should be aiming for

When you cross 50K sessions/month, apply to:

Ezoic

• AI-driven ad placement (they choose positions, you earn more)
• $20 minimum payout
• Accepts from 1k visits/month but pays meaningfully more at 10k+
• Mix of premium + backfill ads
• Realistic RPM at scale: $15-25 for US traffic

Mediavine

• Premium network, the gold standard for lifestyle/content publishers
• Requires 50K sessions/month (in last 30 days)
• 75% revenue share to publisher
• Realistic RPM: $25-40 for US traffic

Raptive (formerly AdThrive)

• Sister to Mediavine in tier, sometimes higher-paying
• Requires 100K pageviews/month
• Higher entry bar but pays the most
• Realistic RPM: $30-50 for US traffic

Google AdSense

• The default. Lower RPM than the above but easiest approval.
• Realistic RPM: $3-8 for US traffic

The math: at 50k US visits/month, Mediavine pays more in a month than Adsterra pays in a quarter. The premium tier is worth the wait.

My recommended rollout

If you’re starting from zero:

1. Today: Affiliate links only. No ads. Build content. Build trust.
2. At 1k visits/month: Apply to Monetag. Add ONE popunder per page.
3. At 10k visits/month: Apply to Adsterra. Layer their smart CPM on top.
4. At 30k visits/month: Apply to Ezoic. Run them in parallel with Adsterra as backfill.
5. At 50k visits/month: Apply to Mediavine. Sunset the others when approved.
6. At 100k visits/month: Apply to Raptive. Pick the highest payer.

What I learned the hard way

• Popunders are 60-80% of revenue. Hate them or not, this is the math. UX-conscious networks pay less.
• Traffic source matters. US/UK/CA pays 3-5x what other geos pay. Facebook/TikTok/YouTube convert better than organic search for affiliate + ads.
• Multiple networks beat one. Layering Monetag + Adsterra + Ezoic gave me 40% more revenue than any one alone.
• RPM varies month to month. Q4 (Oct-Dec) always pays the most. Q1 (Jan-Mar) always pays the least. Plan around this.

What to watch in 2026-2027

• Cookie deprecation — Chrome is killing third-party cookies. Networks that don’t pivot to first-party data (Plausible-style analytics + email list) will pay less. Privacy-first networks (Mediavine, Raptive) are positioning well.
• AI-generated content crackdown — Google is actively demoting AI-only content. Ad networks pay more for human-reviewed content. We’re riding that wave.
• Short-form video traffic — TikTok and YouTube Shorts send engaged traffic. The networks are starting to differentiate this traffic and pay premium for it.

What I’d avoid

• Networks you haven’t heard of with names like “ClickAdu” or “Ad-Network-Pro” — many are scam fronts.
• Anything requiring upfront payment — legitimate networks pay you, not the reverse.
• Aggressive popups that cover content — Google penalizes this and you lose SEO traffic.
• Auto-refresh ads — Google penalizes these too.

Final verdict

If you’re a small publisher: start with Monetag, layer in Adsterra, graduate to Mediavine. Use this article as your roadmap. Don’t settle on one approach. Re-evaluate every quarter.

And remember: ads are a complement to affiliate income, not a replacement. The publishers doing best right now are the ones with the right balance of both.

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This article is updated quarterly. Last refresh: August 2026.