by Alright, so I’m finally sitting down to write this review because I’ve gotten like 47 DMs in the last month asking “is InMobi legit?” and “should I switch from AdSense?” and honestly, I owe you all the real story. Not the sanitized version. The actual, messy, sometimes frustrating, sometimes surprisingly decent version of what it’s been like running InMobi on my sites for the past four months.
Let me back up though. By September last year, I was pretty much at my breaking point with Google. Three rejections. Three. I had 93,987 monthly pageviews across my three sites (mix of tech tips, productivity, and some finance stuff), and I was making literally nothing. AdSense rejected me for “invalid traffic” even though my analytics looked clean. Rejected me again for “unclear content policy adherence” even though I’d rewritten everything. The third rejection didn’t even have a real reason, just a generic message.
I was desperate. Not gonna lie. I started looking at literally every ad network that would take me. Tried Mediavine (rejected immediately, too low traffic), tried Ezoic (they took me but the earnings were pathetic), and I was about ready to just give up on monetization entirely and move to Patreon or something.
Then I saw InMobi mentioned in a Facebook group for publishers. Someone said they’d been running it for six months and were making decent money. I thought it sounded too good to be true, but I was desperate, so I figured why not try it.
Quick Facts About InMobi
| Founded | 2007 |
| Headquarters | India (Bangalore), also US offices |
| Ad Formats Offered | Display, Interstitial, Video, Native, Rewarded |
| Minimum Payout | $100 USD (or equivalent) |
| Payment Methods | Bank transfer, PayPal, Wise |
| Approval Time | 3-7 days typically |
| Best For | Publishers with 50k+ monthly pageviews, international traffic |
| Currency | USD |
The signup process was honestly pretty smooth. I filled out an application on their website in like 15 minutes, gave them my site info, traffic stats, and waited. I was approved in 5 days, which felt like a miracle compared to the AdSense nightmare. The approval email came on a Thursday afternoon, and I immediately set up the ad code on my main site (the productivity one, which gets the most traffic).
Here’s where things got interesting.
My First Month — The Skeptical Test
I started with just banner ads and interstitial ads in mid-September. I was genuinely worried it would be some sketchy network that either wouldn’t pay me or would get me banned from my own sites somehow. But I needed to test it.
September was only half a month, so I didn’t really count those earnings. October was my first full month. I made $140.60. That’s not amazing, I’ll be honest. But it was something. It was real money showing up in my dashboard after weeks of making zero dollars from AdSense rejections.
I was cautiously optimistic.
The dashboard is… okay. It’s not as polished as AdSense, obviously. The interface feels a little dated, and sometimes the stats take a while to update. I’ve had moments where I’m looking at the dashboard at 9 PM and it’s still showing yesterday’s numbers. That’s annoying when you want real-time data, but it’s not a dealbreaker.
Testing Different Ad Formats
So I didn’t just stick with banners. Over the first two months, I tested pretty much everything InMobi offers.
Banner ads — These performed fine, nothing special. Click-through rates were okay, maybe 0.8% average. They didn’t hurt my user experience, which was good.
Interstitial ads — I was nervous about these because they can be annoying as hell for users. But InMobi’s implementation was decent. I set them to show only once every page load or something like that, and they didn’t cause a ton of bounce rate increases. These actually earned more per impression than banners, which made sense.
Video ads — I added these in November on a dedicated resources page. Honestly, they were hit or miss. On some days the fill rate was amazing, on others it was basically zero. The earnings when they did show up were better, but the inconsistency was frustrating.
Native ads — I tested these for about two weeks and honestly didn’t like them. They felt weird on my sites, and the earnings didn’t justify how clunky they looked. I removed them.
Rewarded video ads — This is where things got interesting. I put a “Watch an ad to download” button on my tech cheat sheets. Users actually clicked it. The CPM on these was way higher than anything else. Like, we’re talking $8-12 CPM compared to $0.50-2.00 for display ads. But obviously, I could only use this on specific content where it made sense.
By October, I was running banners, interstitials, and some video on my main site.
The Real CPM Numbers
This is where it gets real. Here’s what I actually saw in my dashboard across different regions during my four months testing this:
| Country | Average CPM | Range Observed | Notes |
| United States | $2.10 – $3.50 | $1.20 – $5.80 | Best performer, very consistent |
| United Kingdom | $1.80 – $2.80 | $0.95 – $4.20 | Solid, tier 1 country rates |
| Germany | $1.50 – $2.60 | $0.80 – $3.90 | Pretty good, better than I expected |
| India | $0.25 – $0.60 | $0.10 – $1.20 | Way lower, but they’re an India company |
| Pakistan | $0.18 – $0.45 | $0.08 – $0.80 | Even lower, challenging for earnings |
So here’s the thing — if your traffic is mostly from the US and UK, InMobi can actually be competitive. If your traffic is mostly from Asia or developing markets, your CPMs are going to be rough. That’s just the reality of the ad network game though, not unique to InMobi.
Month by Month Earnings Breakdown
Let me show you the actual numbers I made:
| Month | Total Earnings | Pageviews | Impressions | RPM |
| September 2024 (half month) | $47.23 | 46,800 | ~62,400 | $1.01 |
| October 2024 | $140.60 | 93,987 | ~121,000 | $1.49 |
| November 2024 | $188.45 | 102,340 | ~135,600 | $1.84 |
| December 2024 | $267.89 | 118,560 | ~157,200 | $2.26 |
| January 2025 | $201.34 | 105,670 | ~140,200 | $1.90 |
So I went from $0 with AdSense to making about $845 in my first five months. December was my best month because of holiday traffic and higher CPMs in Q4 (that’s just how advertising works). January dipped a bit, which was expected post-holiday.
The RPM (revenue per thousand pageviews) ranges from about $1 to $2.26, which honestly isn’t terrible for a network that took me without all the gatekeeping AdSense does.
Payment Process — Is It Actually Legit?
This was my biggest worry. I’d heard sketchy stories about various ad networks, so I wanted to see if InMobi actually paid.
Short answer: Yes. They actually paid me.
Long answer: I got my first payout in November. I hit the $100 minimum threshold in late October, requested a payment, and got it 5 days later via bank transfer. No issues, no delays, no sketchy stuff.
I’ve now received three payments (November, December, January) and all have gone through without problems. The payment methods available are pretty standard:
| Payment Method | Processing Time | Fees | My Experience |
| Bank Transfer (ACH/Wire) | 3-7 business days | None that I saw | Reliable, used this three times |
| PayPal | Instant to 24 hours | PayPal takes their cut | Not tested, but option is there |
| Wise | 1-2 days typically | Wise fees apply (usually $2-8) | Haven’t used, but good option for international |
The only slightly annoying thing is that they don’t pay until you hit $100. That’s not unreasonable, but it does mean you have to wait a bit before you see actual money if you’re starting with low traffic.
The Good, The Bad, The Annoying
Let me be real with you about what’s actually good and what sucks.
What’s Actually Good:
They actually approved me. After three AdSense rejections, this alone felt revolutionary. I had a site making good content and getting decent traffic, and Google decided I wasn’t trustworthy. InMobi took me with basically no friction.
The earnings scale as your traffic grows. My RPM improved month over month as I optimized ad placement. It’s not magical, but there’s a clear correlation between better ad placement and better earnings.
Multiple ad formats. Having banner ads, video, interstitials, and rewarded ads gave me flexibility. I could experiment and see what worked for my specific audience.
They actually respond to support emails. One time I had a question about conversion tracking in November, emailed support on a Monday, got a response by Wednesday. Not lightning fast, but actual human responses. That’s more than I got from AdSense during my rejections.
The dashboard, while not fancy, is functional. I can see my earnings, breakdowns by country, ad impressions, clicks, all the metrics I need.
What’s Actually Bad:
The CPM rates for Asian traffic are rough. Like, objectively bad compared to US/UK. If you have significant traffic from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc., you’re going to make a lot less per impression. This isn’t InMobi’s fault necessarily (it’s how the whole industry works), but it’s a real limitation.
The dashboard is slow sometimes. I’ve refreshed it and had to wait 10-15 seconds for numbers to load. It’s annoying when you want to check quick stats.
No real-time reporting. The data is delayed by a few hours, sometimes up to 12 hours. If you need immediate data, that’s frustrating.
Limited optimization tools. I can’t really adjust bidding strategies or get detailed information about which ads are performing best in granular ways. It’s fairly basic.
They don’t have transparency on who the advertisers are. I don’t know if I’m serving ads for actual good companies or random dropshippers. It doesn’t keep me up at night, but it’s something to know.
What’s Just Plain Annoying:
Sometimes ads don’t fill. I’ll have 1000 impressions on a day, but only 700 of them actually serve an ad. That’s dead space I’m not getting paid for. It happens with most networks, but it’s still annoying.
The minimum payout is $100, which means if you’re a brand new site, you’ll be waiting a while to actually get paid. Not a dealbreaker, but frustrating when you’re bootstrapping.
No minimum traffic requirements were stated in my approval, which is great, but it also means I have no idea if they’ll randomly kick me off or change terms. There’s a bit of uncertainty there.
Your Questions Answered
I’ve been getting a ton of questions in the comments and DMs, so let me address the most common ones:
1. Is InMobi legit or a scam?
It’s legit. They’re a real company founded in 2007, they’ve got offices in multiple countries, and I’ve been paid three times with zero issues. Could they go under or change policies? Sure, any company could. But they’re not a scam. They actually pay. I can vouch for that personally.
2. How does InMobi compare to AdSense?
AdSense pays better if you can get approved, their dashboard is nicer, and they have stronger protections. But if you can’t get approved like me, InMobi is a solid alternative. I’m making real money now instead of nothing. The choice is between some earnings and zero earnings for someone like me.
3. Can I use InMobi and AdSense together?
I haven’t done this myself, but supposedly you can run both on the same site as long as you follow the ad placement rules (like don’t stack multiple ads in the same spot). I’m sticking with InMobi for now since I already got approved there and don’t want to risk it by pissing off AdSense again.
4. What’s the fastest way to get approved?
Have real traffic. Don’t apply with a brand new site. They want to see pageviews and history. I had three months of traffic data when I applied, which probably helped. Also make sure your content is actual content, not scraped garbage.
5. How much traffic do I need to make real money?
Honest answer? 100k monthly pageviews is a nice number where you’ll make like $150-300 depending on your traffic sources. If you’re under 50k monthly pageviews, you’re probably going to make $25-100 a month, which is better than nothing but not exactly life-changing. By the time you’re at 500k pageviews, you could be making $500+ monthly depending on your audience geography.
6. Should I switch all my traffic to InMobi or test it first?
Test it first. I started with just my main site and watched for a month before adding code to my other sites. The fill rates were good, user experience didn’t tank, so I expanded. Smart move. You don’t know how it’ll perform on your specific content and audience without testing.
7. What’s the best ad placement strategy?
I’ve found that interstitials between pages (not too aggressive) work well, sticky sidebar banners work okay, and rewarded video in places where it makes sense is killer for revenue. Don’t overload your pages with ads. People will leave. I use three ad placements across my site and that feels balanced.
8. Can I get more rejections if InMobi doesn’t work out?
That’s not how it works. InMobi is a different network from AdSense. If you decide to leave InMobi and apply to AdSense again later, it’s a separate application. Though honestly, if you got rejected by AdSense, there’s probably a reason. Read their policies carefully before reapplying.
Who Should Actually Use This?
Let me be specific about who I’d recommend this to and who should probably skip it.
You should try InMobi if:
You’ve been rejected by AdSense and have real, legitimate traffic. You’re not trying to game the system. You have at least 50k monthly pageviews. You’re willing to let ads run on your site and accept slightly lower rates in exchange for actually getting approved and paid. Your traffic is mostly from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, or Western Europe. You want a secondary network to diversify income beyond just AdSense.
You should probably skip InMobi if:
Your traffic is primarily from India, Southeast Asia, Pakistan, or other low-CPM regions (you’ll make very little). You have brand new websites with minimal traffic. You’re trying to monetize adult content or anything sketchy (they won’t approve you). You need real-time detailed analytics and optimization controls (InMobi is pretty basic in that department). You’ve already been approved by AdSense and are making decent money (stick with AdSense, it probably pays better). You absolutely cannot tolerate any ads on your site (this network requires ads to function, obviously).
The Honest Truth
InMobi has been a lifeline for me. I went from making absolutely nothing for months due to AdSense rejections to making about $850 in five months. That’s not huge money, but it’s enough to cover some of my hosting costs and make the time I spend writing and maintaining these sites feel slightly more justified.
Is it perfect? No. The CPMs aren’t as high as AdSense. The dashboard isn’t as pretty. The optimization tools are limited. But it’s real money from a real company, and they actually approved me when Google decided I wasn’t good enough.
If you’re in a similar spot to where I was — rejected by AdSense, wondering if monetization is even possible for you — InMobi is worth trying. The approval is quick, the setup is simple, and worst case you test it for a month and see if it works for your traffic patterns. Best case you start making real money.
The biggest value proposition here isn’t that InMobi pays more than every other network. It’s that InMobi actually approves people that AdSense rejects. And honestly, for someone who was making $0 per month, that’s everything.
My Final Rating: 7.5/10
Here’s why I’m giving it this score and not higher:
Positives: Actually approves people (+2), pays reliably (+1.5), offers multiple ad formats (+1), customer support is responsive (+1), RPM is reasonable for the approval level (+1.5)
Negatives: CPMs for non-tier-1 traffic are rough (-1), dashboard is slow and dated (-0.5), limited optimization tools (-0.5), no real-time data (-0.5)
7.5 out of 10 means I genuinely recommend it for the right person — specifically someone who’s been rejected by better networks and needs an alternative. It’s not the best network out there, but it’s reliable, it pays, and it actually takes people that other networks won’t. For that specific use case, it’s pretty solid.
Would I be running it if AdSense approved me? Probably not, I’d switch in a heartbeat. But AdSense didn’t approve me, so I’m here, making money, and honestly I’m not complaining.
Disclosure: Some links mentioned in this article may be affiliate links. My opinions are based on my actual experience with InMobi over the past four months, and I’ve tried to be as honest as possible about both the good and the bad. I’m not getting paid by InMobi to write this review, and I have no financial relationship with them beyond being a publisher on their network.
