Journey by Mediavine - New Ad Solution for Sites at 10k Monthly Sessions

[Ryuzaki]

Source: Official Announcement | Website: JourneyMV.com

Mediavine has been alluding to the fact that they had another "tier" of their ad network in the works for smaller sites. Once you got into Mediavine's main network with a site with 50k monthly sessions, you could not only climb up through higher tiers with better rates, but you could get your other sites into the network at lower sessions per month. This was a popular option because the sooner you can start monetizing your traffic with premium advertisers the better.

The problem was they had clearly delineated tiers above 50k but not below. They did that as a favor to publishers they had already vetted, so it was safer I suppose. But I also suppose it ate up a bunch of their time for diminishing returns. Which leads us to:

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There's a lot that's not being said, and a lot hidden behind meaningless corporate positivity jargon, but what I think is happening is some of the ad exchanges in Mediavine's core offer won't be available in the Journey network. So while some will, the CPMs will likely be a bit lower, which is fine. Getting access and the ball rolling is the key and worth it. It should lead to much faster integration into the main Mediavine network as well once you reach the threshold.

They're also being transparent that another reason to do this is the benefit that they'll have more sites roped into their Grow software, which asks people to sign up and sign in, creating a giant first-party network of sites, which will be valuable in the cookie-less advertising world. It also helps make sure these fledgling but growing sites don't run off to their competitors once they hit the big boy thresholds.

So that's the threshold it seems. You have to reach 10k sessions per month and then they force you to opt into Grow for 30 days (and keep it running I'm sure) and THEN you qualify. Sneaky and smart. Seems like a good option if you're still trying for the high traffic, high volume of content game.

 

[Darth]

This will kill Ezoic (great!) and also gives MV more emails for their email ID cookie replacement tech.

 

[chubes]

I don't like Grow unfortunately. I think it's a pretty annoying widget and removing it increased my average time on page by almost 10 seconds. This included the spotlight subscribe but not the pop up.

Also seems to point to MV needing money considering how many MV sites were hit hard by the Google updates.

Not saying it's a bad thing to launch this. I really like working with Mediavine. I'd definitely put a site on this.

Funnily enough I got another email from Ezoic yesterday. They just don't give up.

 

[secretagentdad]

I'lle just leave this here.
https://raptive.com/ (formerly king adthrive)

 

[Éowyn]

OMG. Okay. 10K. 10K. Thank you, internet heavens!

Are there any advantages to opting for Shemedia, Monumetric, or other networks in this range over MV Journey?

 

[Ryuzaki]

Monumetric has good tech. I wouldn’t say AS good as Mediavine but it’s not remotely horrid like Ezoic and Adsense AutoAds.

I think the benefit here is you’ll have the same industry leading tech that Mediavine/Raptive provides, and you’ll have access to better inventory/higher bids. It won’t be as high as the “main” Mediavine network since not all ad exchanges are going to hop on board. But I imagine already being in the ecosystem will prove beneficial as you graduate to the bigger leagues. You’ll be pre-verified into the better inventory with the more elite exchanges.

 

[Éowyn]

Thanks, Ryuzaki, for sharing your insights on this.

I think the benefit here is you’ll have the same industry leading tech that Mediavine/Raptive provides, and you’ll have access to better inventory/higher bids.

Yeah, it's hard to beat MVs tech and the ability to level up to higher bids. Monumetric's hook was their minimum requirement (not so much now) with okay RPMs. Shemedia does one-to-one deals outside their ad plugin that gives decent rates. They can be flexible with initial requirements, too. But it's not so enticing as getting your foot in the door with MV at 10K sessions and then building to better networks from there. It was a pain in the arse to get mobile speed to the 80s, too, so I'd rather avoid slow-tech shenanigans. These are indeed interesting times.

 

[bernard]

I'm finding it hard to be excited for a business model that clearly is struggling to survive here.

It's not said directly but basically Google went to war against Mediavine. They're targeting them specifically.

 

[Éowyn]

It's more adding another hammer to the toolbox that's appealing.

 

[Politico]

Anyone have any idea how the payouts might compare?

A 10k traffic site on Adsense vs. a 10k traffic site on Journey by MV?

 

[Jamaica0007]

I'm finding it hard to be excited for a business model that clearly is struggling to survive here.

It's not said directly but basically Google went to war against Mediavine. They're targeting them specifically.

I suppose all you can do is monitor payouts with a hair trigger and the moment payouts are delayed or get missed is the moment you sign up with someone else, a bit like a run on a bank, getting out and getting out first have very different outcomes.