What is Ezoic?
Ezoic is an ad network, similar to Adsense and Mediavine. They serve ads on your site, share the revenue with you, and offer some additional features like Ezoic Leap, an AI Ad tester that optimizes your placements and Video Tools.
You may ask, “Nina, why do I need an ad network?”
Ad networks are a great way to create passive income.
It takes the stress out of finding sponsors and running ads yourself.
Basically, they create a bidding room for ad placements on your site, which sponsors can then buy as they feel. This is done via Google Adsense (as it is with every network I’ve encountered), but in a way that you never notice it.
You just get to notice the dollars rolling in each month.
Ezoic Ads Review
Let’s dive into my Ezoic ads review and exactly how it works. I don’t think it’s fair to just say “it’s great!” or “it’s crap!” unless you learn about all the features first.
How Does Ezoic Work?
Let’s look at the inner workings of Ezoic.
Web Monetization Features
Ezoic has a Chrome Extension that lets you try different ads in different places. It’s pretty easy to drag and drop them into a template of your site to see where you want them to go.
It can test lots of things at the same time and figure out which ones make more money or are better for your website.
You can pick goals like making more money or making sure visitors have a good experience.
Ezoic will also try thousands of ad networks and make sure you get the best deals for each visitor.
Ezoic Ad Tester
Ezoic uses an AI feature to access the Google Ad Exchange and find the best ads for each site and each visitor.
It allows the ads to run in a more personalized way, which can drive up bids from the sponsors.
This helps sponsors also figure out which spot they want to purchase on your site. They likely want the highest converting one and will pay the most for it, but if you don’t know what that is, then you can’t serve it to them.
The artificial intelligence reads your site with 8 lines of code to figure this out.
Header Bidding
Header bidding isn’t about a spot in your header. It’s a code in your header that creates a virtual auction on your site for sponsors to bid to be placed on your site.
This results in you making the highest revenue, as it’s not just a fixed fee being handed out to anyone.
According to Ezoic: “Our machine learning takes into account all of these things (fill rate, click-through rate, viewability, backfill, refresh rate, size, location, header bidding time-outs) to ensure the best balance of UX and revenue.” (UX = user experience)
Big Data Analytics
Big Data Analytics is Ezoic’s analytics portal. Unlike Google Analytics where you just see pageviews, here you can also see the revenue attached to it.
Mediavine has a similar function in their dashboard, as did SheMedia when I was with them. Essentially it lets you see which posts are getting what traffic, their revenue from ads, and sometimes extra info like time on page – depending on the platform you’re using.
With Ezoic, you can filter these by date, writer, ad sponsor, size of ad, and location of ad.
I enjoy the real time revenue reporting, which I haven’t seen in any other ad network before.
I’m not sure how this will be impacted by the change to G4.
SEO Tag Tester – DEFUNCT
With Ezoic’s SEO Tag Tester, you can use AI to maximize the page titles for your website URLs – and best of all, it is totally free!
It trials two different titles and descriptions to show to Google to see which one will convert better.
NicheIQ
NicheIQ is basically a knock off of RankIQ from what I can tell (or maybe it came first? I can’t find any data on their start dates).
Basically, NicheIQ is meant to be a keyword research tool for organic rankings, not Google ads.
It has a broken link checker, lets you test titles and descriptions on Google to see what converts better, find underperforming content to audit, get analytics, and suggests topics based on your niche.
None of these things need to be done in Ezoic in my opinion. Analytics should stay in Google Analytics. Broken links can be found at brokenlinkcheck.com for free. Testing titles and descriptions is fine but since Google often changes them it’s not hyper-relevant, and you could do this with A/B testing through your SEO plugin or blog theme.
The topics are interesting, but with AI now able to product topic maps with the click of a button, I would not get Ezoic just to use NicheIQ.
Flickify
Flixify is Ezoic’s video creator tool. It’s an AI that takes any article and turns it into a video.
This was super forward-thinking when it launched, but now there are dozens of AI softwares that offer this for free without you needing to join an ad network.
When you are ready to create a video in Flickify, you can customize everything from the narrator’s voice to the soundtrack to which style of stock photos/videos they pull. You can even upload your own media!
It’s great to have this inside Ezoic if you’re an Ezoic publisher.
If not, you can use another AI like Fliki, or Synthesia.
Humix
Humix is a lesser-known function of Ezoic.
It’s a video management tool. I kind of think of it like Youtube, except it’s hosted on Ezoic.
Similarly to something like Loom (which you’ll recognize if you’re in my Private Jet SEO membership, as it’s how I answer all questions), you get a unique video player for your site. I don’t customize my one in Loom, but you have the option, just like with Humix.
It can also import videos from Youtube.
Humix works with Ezoic to optimize your video for ads. Mediavine has a similar tool.
Essentially, they’ll add ads into your video either mid-feed, before, or after (think of it like the ads on Youtube or in a podcast episode).
I like that it has an SEO option to add keywords and categories to help your rankings.
Since Google loves videos embedded in content, this is a great option to make some money from those videos you’re adding.
Much like Youtube, you can use other creators’ videos and they can use yours as well. Although it’s unclear to me from my research whether or not you make money off of others using your video as I use other video platforms for my sites.
This is great for vloggers.
Ezoic Leap
Ezoic is pretty notorious for wrecking pagespeed. So they came up with a solution: Ezoic Leap.
The issue is, Ezoic Leap is a cache plugin that must be used with Ezoic Cloud. So if you already have a CDN or it’s built into your hosting (like mine is with Lyrical Host now), you can’t use it.
What does Ezoic Leap do?
It caches your site, optimizes the CSS, reduces image size, and lazy loads images.
I’ve seen anecdotal evidence that it can help people’s sites; however, it seems to conflict with a large number of publishers.
My current host doesn’t work with it, although my old one did. My cache plugin doesn’t work with it. Although it optimizes images to some degree, it doesn’t seem to convert them to Webp like Shortpixel so that’s another conflict. And if you have cloud-based hosting, you’re SOL.
If you join Ezoic and complain about site speed, you’ll have hundreds of die hards jumping down your throat about how you need Ezoic Leap. That’s all well and good if it can work with your site, but it shouldn’t be a necessity.
Mediavine doesn’t break my Core Web Vitals or drop my speed significantly, and I didn’t have to install any special plugin for that to be the case.
Although Leap is free, I see a lot of issues with it being required by Ezoic for things to run smoothly.
Ezoic Gatekeeper
Get a pop up cookie consent and other consent management with this feature of Ezoic.
There are free plugins that do this, but hand on heart I use Mediavine’s auto-populated one so I totally get using the one that comes with your ad network.
Ezoic Levels
This is where Ezoic gets touchy.
So although getting into Ezoic has no minimum pageviews, there are levels to “unlocking” higher payouts and support.
This is why Ezoic gets better and better the higher your pageviews are, but at the beginning it’s pretty rough going.
Here is a breakdown of the levels and what you get with them:
| Ezoic Levels | Monthly visits | Monthly Revenue | Added Benefits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access Now | < 10,000 | Not Required | Core Ad Partners, Free Courses, Basic Support, Live Webinars, Help Community |
| Level 1 | > 10,000 | $50 | Core Ad Partners, Basic Support, Group Onboarding, Live Webinars, Live Chat, Waitlist for Premium, Help Community |
| Level 2 | 20,000 | $200 | A+ Ad Partners, Dedicated Rep, Onboarding Asst., Premium Priority, Live Webinars, Live Chat, Help Community, Book Consultation |
| Level 3 | 50,000 | $500 | A++ Ad Partners, Dedicated Rep, Onboarding Asst., Premium Access, Live Webinars, Live Chat, Help Community, Business Reviews, 1-to-1 Help, Event Invite |
| Level 4 | 250,000 | $2,500 | A++ Ad Partners, Dedicated Rep, Expert Access, Onboarding Team, Premium Eligible, Live Webinars, Live Chat, Help Community, SEO Experts, AdOps Experts, 1-to-1 Help, Event Invites, Ad Sales Team (limited) |
| VIP | Limited Availability | $10,000+ | A++ Ad Partners, Dedicated Rep, Expert Access, Onboarding Team, Premium Eligible, Live Webinars, Live Chat, Help Community, SEO Experts, AdOps Experts, Dev Experts, 1-to-1 Help, Event Invites, Ad Sales Team (limited) |
Ezoic Site Scores – NOW DEFUNCT
Ezoic Site Scores are basically tips to improve your site. You get little badges for each one you complete. The goal is to complete them all and that should (according to Ezoic) improve your pageviews so you’ll make more money.
Ezoic Cloud
Ezoic Cloud is basically a CDN like Cloudflare. Rather than having your user’s request to access your site ping from your servers where your host is based then to the ad bidding area then to javascript to pull the ad, then back to your user (gah that sounds so long!), it goes user -> Ezoic cloud -> site with ads on page.
It’s also supposed to be more secure from hackers.
Ezoic Requirements
If you want to join Ezoic, you must be approved by AdSense. That’s pretty much it in terms of requirements.
There’s no traffic requirement.
Your website must have information on it. It cannot be a place to buy things. You need to be in good standing with Google too.
Ezoic Set Up
Getting started with Ezoic was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had with a company.
I don’t remember it being nearly as hard before – and that was still crazy difficult.
Seriously, Google Adsense is better at setting up than Ezoic!
Once you apply, you basically get in no questions asked. Then they try to upsell you to their paid subscription (which might be able to get you a higher RPM but it’s unclear if it’s enough to cover the cost until you’re Mediavine level traffic).
I declined and continued setting things up.
People say “it’s great that it’s a self service publisher!” … I disagree.
I’d much rather something easy to integrate and not to have to set the ad placements or do the evaluations myself.
You have to point your nameservers to them.
Then you are also supposed to set up their Ezoic Leap CDN and cache integration. Which I couldn’t do because my host, Lyrical, has one built in – it’s faster than Ezoic’s when I did tests.
I wanted to leave that on, which means Ezoic became more complex to set up. Thank God for Lyrical actually doing the set up for me so I wouldn’t have to.
Then it came time to install the ads.
You go through a “course” of sorts to set things up. The info is vague and out of date.
And half of it doesn’t occur, then has no resources to help you fix it.
I got to the point of being able to populate my ad spaces. They have an auto-populate feature via their layout tester.
It wouldn’t work.
I tried the manual placement.
That didn’t work.
I tried for 6 weeks to get this thing set up – 6 FRICKEN WEEKS!
In the end, I needed to use the Ezoic Google Chrome extension and even then it wouldn’t fully take the ads for days. It was incredibly frustrating for something everyone says is “so easy”.
Setting the ad placements was also annoying because, to be honest, I don’t know where the best spots are for ads. I want someone to tell me these things, not have to randomly attempt it all.
You then decide if you’re going to turn off any objectionable content (aka. booze, drugs, alcohol) and toggle that off. I recommend doing this to protect your brand, even if people claim you might make more money from it (I did leave it on once and didn’t notice a difference).
Now there is also a WordPress plugin, but as SEOs know we want as few plugins as possible. However, this is common amongst ad platforms to be honest as they’re more focused on their ad units set up than on your site speed it seems.
New Feature: AccessNow
Ezoic now has an automated set up feature. I haven’t tried it myself nor do I know anyone that did.
Their email announcing it opened with: “After extensive research, we found that the number 1 reason publishers left Ezoic is the complex setup process.”
I’m glad to hear they’re listening to this – but the main issue most of us actually have are speed issues and ad population issues.
To set it up, you need the Cloud integration (so it won’t work with Lyrical Host) and then they’ll do the rest.
“Ezoic’s new automated setup takes all the hassle out of getting started on our platform. There is no more required video course and everything from ad setup to caching configuration is handled by us, to give you more time to focus on what’s more important to you!” – Ezoic Announcement Email April 18, 2023.
I’m interested to see if this helps others, but I won’t be trying it until I see a more efficient code for the ads.
Ezoic Extension
The Ezoic Chrome extension helps you decide where to put ads on your website and how big they should be. You don’t need to change any of the code on your page.
Then you can remove the extension and it’ll stay in place.
Ezoic Dashboard
Your Ezoic dashboard is where you’ll see how much money you’re making from ads, which ad networks are showing up the most, and what kind of results you’re getting from SEO Tag Tester.
You can also use the dashboard to tweak your settings for different page types, as well as adjust ad placement if needed.
The most important thing is how much money you’ve made, and this is where you’ll come for that.
Ezoic EPMV
Most ad networks run on RPMs (revenue per thousand impressions), but Ezoic uses EPMV.
EPMV is earnings per thousand visitors rather than impressions. This makes them look a lot higher than RPMs, but it’s because it’s a completely different calculation.
I do think it’s a better system as long as it’s clear it’s different – like with FB ads, you look at your conversions from clicks and from impressions separately.
Ezoic Payment Options
Unlike Google Adsense, Ezoic has a $20 USD minimum threshold. Which is SOOO much better.
I still have $83 locked in Google Adsense from 3 years with them and from a failed foray into monetized Google Web Stories.
You can get paid by check, Wise.com transfer (my #1 choice), Paypal, direct deposit to a US bank via Payoneer, or international wire transfer via Payoneer (has a conversion fee).
Select your payment method and it’ll keep pulling that info over and over again.
Ezoic Payment Date
Ezoic operates on a net-30 system (aka they pay 30 days after the money was earned). Payments typically go out on the 27th and 31st of each month.
This is when they send the money, but it can take longer to receive from a wire transfer for example.
Ezoic Earnings Calculator
Check how much you could earn with Ezoic at the EPMV revenue calculator here.
Ezoic Revenue Share
Ezoic takes a 10% revenue share.
What’s a revenue share, I hear you asking?
Basically if Sponsor X pays $100 to have some ads on your site, Ezoic takes a 10% cut of that. Think of them like your Momager taking their cut from your earnings.
This might seem like a lot but it’s actually pretty low.
Adsense takes 32%, SheMedia takes 25%, Mediavine takes 25% to start (with less when you meet certain thresholds), and Adthrive taking 25% as well. Monumetric takes 15-30%, but it’s unclear when they vary their share amounts.
Ezoic Core Web Vitals and Site Speed
The first thing I checked after ads were running on my site was site speed.
This site had a speed of 1.6 seconds for new users, passed core web vitals, and has 98/100 on pagespeed insights before I added Ezoic.
Then I added Ezoic, and speed PLUMMETED.
It’s current stats are:
Speed = 8.4 seconds
Core Web Vitals = Failed
Pagespeed Rating = 32/100
(Tools used: Pagespeed Insights and Webpagetest.org – both free)
This is a site with literally a basic Kadence theme that I customized with few blocks. It has a lightning fast CDN and a great cache. It has 5 plugins, all optimized for speed. And all images have been compressed (I think there are 5 on the homepage).
It has 0 reason to be loading that slowly.
When I checked the code issues, it was all coming from CSS and Javascript, etc. running from Ezoic.
It seems like from the code that they place the bidding center for your ads on your site, and then connect publishers regardless of whether or not they bid so that their code runs too. They even host the video processor in your coding so any video ads are basically loading like you’ve uploaded them to your backend.
It’s a NIGHTMARE of slow speeds.
And seriously sloppy coding.
Ezoic Support
Why did it take 6 weeks to try to get ads running on this site?
Because Ezoic has 0 customer support unless you’re on the paid plan.
There is a community forum that is impossible to post on. And that will only get you the wisdom of the masses – not actual Ezoic tech help.
Their help section is woefully lacking of actually helpful articles.
It was so frustrating I wanted to give up so many times.
But at this point, I was in it for the experiment.
And I’m not good at letting anything go – it’s why I’m still calling embassies in the UK to try to figure out their service dog travel laws to go to Europe with my dog this summer.
Eventually, I managed to get Lyrical’s help getting the ads to show and then had to manually place the ad locations on my site. It had to be done on soooo many pages.
I will never take the set-it and forget-it beauty of Mediavine’s ads for granted ever again!! Their customer service should inspire Ezoic. I hate that you need a certain traffic level for an account manager.
Ezoic Premium Program
Ezoic Premium is a paid subscription program that is available to customers who are Level 2+.
You will be able to get higher CPM rates for ads sold, better ad reports, a quarterly site review with an expert, 100 free videos monthly with Flickify, and unlimited NicheIQ topic suggestions.
There’s a Pro subscription that basically just gets you support for $5.99 per month. Premium on the other hand costs a lot more.
It’s a weird pricing structure that is not clearly stated anywhere.
It looks like there are three levels: Starter (starts at $14/mo), Growth (starts at $28/mo), and 3 Star (starts at $70/mo).
You can pay monthly or annually.
The best review I found of this is from Fat Stacks here. In 2020, he was paying over $9k (usually $14k) per month, leaving a profit from ads of just $3,150 (I’m nearing that on Mediavine with one site and I pay $0).
You can get a free trial of it though to see if the higher revenue does increase your ad earnings or if you’d end up paying more than you’d earn.
Ezoic Affiliate Program
Total transparency, I’m using Ezoic affiliate links in this post.
Why? Because it exists and if I’m driving you to them, then I’ll share the link. However, I am not writing this for the affiliate commission (it’d legit be the worst post if I was pushing for affiliate commissions when it’s pretty clear my view of this program).
Affiliates with Ezoic earn 3% of the ad revenue from the people they referred for life.
I think this is why so many bloggers share this program so extensively.
Yes, it has some pros. Like the fact that it’s not location specific and has no barrier to entry. But the number of people who hype it over Mediavine confuse the shit out of me – especially when I know their sites and know they can get into Mediavine.
It often feels like people promote it to others just so they will get the commission, and not because they actually believe in it.
I find it a bit weird for an ad network to have an affiliate for this reason, to be honest.
Like share your links, but let’s be up front about why we’re pushing stuff.
It reminds me a bit of the Elementor and Divi craze. A great affiliate program meant everyone pushed it out there, and it wrecked thousands of sites.
I’m still unraveling that damage with many of my clients.
My Ezoic Review: Earnings for 3 Months
I first tried Ezoic in my 2nd (maybe crossing into my 3rd?) year of blogging (I’m on year 6 right now).
It was CRAP.
The site speed was terrible. The ads made no money and they broke the entire site structure. And it was nearly impossible to get paid.
I kept it on longer than I should have – a couple months – before kicking it to the curb.
From there, I became ad celibate as I waited to hit the Mediavine 25k sessions goal.
You might be saying, “25k sessions? Nina, it’s 50k!”
Yeah that’s how long ago this was. Back when Mediavine seemed to let anyone in (jk, 25k sessions is still hard to get).
In 2022, people started talking about Ezoic again in a positive way.