How to Configure Your Mediavine Ad Settings to Optimize RPM
Written by Casey Botticello
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Mediavine is arguably the top display ad network for most bloggers. But once you are accepted into Mediavine, many publishers are unsure of which ad settings they should use in order to optimize their earnings.
This article will explore the best strategies for increasing you blog’s RPMs on Mediavine, based on my experience as a Mediavine publisher with several sites.
Specifically, I’ll walk you through the various Mediavine ad settings, placement of in-content ads, video ads, Grow, and Mediavine Uplift.
Need personalized help with Mediavine? Schedule a site consultation with me! I’ve helped countless site owners figure out the precise reason for their blog rejection (& how to fix it). I can also offer advice to help you increase your RPMs based on my own personal data.
Mediavine Dashboard Menu
When you first get approved for Mediavine (or purchase a Mediavine site), you’ll be given access to the Mediavine Dashboard:
Mediavine Ad Settings in Menu
There are a number of detailed settings you can adjust in your Mediavine dashboard. But for the purposes of optimizing RPM, there are 5 main sections you should review:
1. Ad Settings
2. In-Content Ads
3. Video Ads
4. Opt-Out Settings
5. Grow Integration Settings
1. Ad Settings
Generally, when it comes to Mediavine ad settings, if you see that Mediavine recommends a setting (seen in the recommended text in green beside some options), this is almost always the right option for you.
For this first screen, two of the last three options should be enabled (optimizing for Core web Vitals). The first button is optional, but will give you access to new Mediavine features automatically. I generally keep all three of these settings turned on.
An adhesion ad is a display ad that sticks to the bottom of the browser window as a reader scrolls through your site. These ads are lucrative and should typically be enabled.
In this next section, I would enable all the options except for the “Advertisement” label (does not affect RPM much either way) and the Optimize Sticky Sidebar CLS.
Turning on Optimize Sticky Sidebar CLS will fix your CLS problems with the sticky sidebar with a simple toggle.
However, if you are OK taking a slight hit on site speed, I’d keep this option turned off.
Why?
Whenever you add “white space” or padding between ads and the content with which your readers are engaged, ad performance will decrease slightly.
I use Grow on pretty much all of my sites, so it makes sense to enable the Grow Slidebar Ad. If you don’t use grow on your Mediavine site, you won’t see this option.
Skylight ads generally pay more than standard ads due to their size, so I’d also enable this setting.
I keep all of the Mediavine PSA options enabled.
You may be worried that by enabling these “unpaid ads” you will be decreasing your RPM every time one of these ads is shown.
However, these ads are essentially risk free to you, and can even improve secondary ad metrics like your ad fill rate.
PSA ads only show in any slots that aren’t filled by your normal paid inventory, and would otherwise not show an ad at all.
PSAs can also help publishers solve CLS issues!
2. In-Content Ads
With Mediavine’s script wrapper, in-content ads are automatically inserted into your posts and spaced throughout your content per ad policy guidelines using CBA In-Content Logic.
I run my in content ads at the highest frequency/density level possible.
However, you should experiment with different layouts, especially if you feel like your in content ads are too obtrusive.
3. Video Ads
There are a number of other reasons publishers can be rejected by Mediavine. While these are far less common, some of ).
When the Universal Player setting is enabled in your Mediavine Dashboard, the Player will run an outstream ad on any page on your website that does not contain a video, maximizing your revenue opportunities.
When you turn the player on — Mediavine’s recommended setting — it will automatically optimize any web page, with or without a content video, for video revenue.
Some other miscellaneous settings worth enabling in video ads: the Mobile Sticky Player Location should generally be in the Bottom-Left of the screen and if you have a YouTube channel, you should enter your YouTube Channel ID.
This encourages users to subscribe to your YouTube channel after watching a video!
4. Opt-Out Settings
Generally, I’d suggest allowing every category on this list. Each category you opt out of in the opt out settings will negatively impact your ad earnings.
5. Grow Plugin
By collecting more first party data, Grow allows Mediavine publishers to increase their earnings. It also helps future proof publishers from the impact of the deprecation of third party cookies.
Once you’ve added Grow to your site, make sure it’s connected here in your settings section of your Mediavine dashboard.
Conclusion
Optimizing your RPM with Mediavine can be tricky. There are many nuances and ad settings that are confusing even for experienced bloggers. Luckily, Mediavine does allow publishers to adjust ad settings yourself, which means you can test each one and see what works best for you.
If you are unsure of what your default Mediavine ad settings should be, this article should be useful. I’ve used these settings on 5 Mediavine sites, and generally have $30-$60 RPMs.
