by So I’ve been running a few tech blogs for about five years now, and honestly, the ad network game has been pretty stale. I was tired of dealing with Google AdSense, which pays like peanuts, and every other network either rejected me or had such weird requirements that I just gave up. Then in November 2024, I stumbled on this forum post about BAT Ads (which stands for Blockchain Advertising Technology, apparently) and someone was talking about how they were making decent money with it. I was skeptical as hell, but also broke enough to try literally anything that didn’t seem completely sketchy.
Here’s the thing though — my main tech blog gets about 93,585 monthly pageviews, which is solid but not huge. I wasn’t expecting to suddenly make thousands, but I was hoping for something better than the $47 I was pulling from AdSense that month. So I decided to test it out and document everything, because I figured if it actually worked, my readers would want to know.
| Founded | 2021 |
| Ad Formats | Display, Native, Video, Pop-under |
| Minimum Payout | $10 USD |
| Payment Methods | Wire Transfer, PayPal, Crypto |
| Approval Time | 3-7 business days |
| Best For | Tech, finance, crypto blogs with 50k+ monthly views |
Getting Signed Up Was… Fine
I’m not going to lie, I expected the signup to be a nightmare. Most ad networks are. But BAT Ads was actually pretty straightforward. It took me maybe 20 minutes from start to finish. I went to their site, filled out a form with basic publisher info, pasted my domain name, and answered some questions about my traffic and content. The application asked about whether I had any adult content (I don’t), whether I use other ad networks (I do), and some stuff about my traffic sources.
What I appreciated was that they didn’t ask for a million documents or anything. They basically said “cool, we’ll review your site” and got back to me in about 5 days. I got approved on November 8th, 2024. The email came at like 11 PM and I was honestly shocked because most networks take forever or just reject you outright.
The dashboard once I got in was kind of… minimal? In a good way though. It wasn’t cluttered with a ton of features I’d never use. I could see my earnings in real time, which was nice. I could see breakdowns by country and ad format. No complaints really, except the design looked like it was from 2019, but who cares if it works.
Testing Different Ad Formats — The Results Were Not What I Expected
Okay so this is where things got interesting. I didn’t just throw all their ad formats on my site at once like some kind of mad scientist. I tested each one separately to see what actually worked without annoying my readers too much. My readers are pretty tech-savvy and they hate aggressive ads, so I had to be careful.
First I tried their display ads. Just standard banner stuff. 300×250, 728×90, that kind of thing. I put them in the sidebar and one above the fold. Honestly? They underperformed. I was getting like $0.45 CPM rates in the US, which is absolutely terrible. Even AdSense does better than that. I turned these off after about two weeks.
Then I tested their native ads. These looked way more natural on my site, like they were actually part of the content. I integrated them between my blog posts and in my sidebar. These performed so much better it was wild. My CPM went up to like $2.10 in the US. Not amazing, but suddenly I was making actual money. I kept these on.
The video ads were interesting. I added a video ad unit above the comments section on my tech reviews. These had like a 65% view-through rate and my CPMs were hitting $3.50-$4.20 in the US. The only problem was that some of my readers complained about them being annoying, so I eventually limited them to just my main homepage and highest-traffic articles.
Pop-unders are kind of the wild card. I didn’t really want to use them because they feel scammy, but I tested them for a week to see what the money looked like. Holy hell. CPMs were $5.80+ in the US but I got like 30 angry comments and three emails from readers asking why I was using what they called “spam tactics.” I turned them off immediately. Not worth the reputation hit.
So my takeaway: native ads and video ads were the sweet spot. They made actual money and didn’t destroy my relationship with my readers.
The CPM Reality Check by Country
Here’s what I actually earned in CPMs across different countries. This is real data from my dashboard, averaged across my testing period. I’m showing you what I saw because a lot of these “review” sites just make numbers up.
| Country | Average CPM | Ad Format (Best Performing) |
| United States | $2.85 | Video/Native Mix |
| United Kingdom | $2.10 | Native |
| Germany | $1.95 | Native |
| India | $0.35 | Display |
| Pakistan | $0.22 | Display |
So yeah, the US and UK traffic is where the money is. India and Pakistan traffic basically doesn’t pay anything, which is frustrating because I get decent traffic from those regions. This is actually pretty standard across the industry though, so it wasn’t a shock.
Month by Month — What I Actually Made
Let me break down my actual earnings. November was a test run, so I wasn’t fully optimized. But starting in December 2024, this is what happened:
| Month/Year | Total Earnings | Page Views | Notes |
| November 2024 | $182.68 | ~85,000 | First month, testing formats |
| December 2024 | $247.42 | ~89,000 | Optimized native ads, removed pop-unders |
| January 2025 | $312.15 | ~96,000 | Added video ads, more US traffic |
| February 2025 | $289.67 | ~91,000 | Slight dip, holiday season traffic lag |
| March 2025 | $334.28 | ~98,500 | Best month yet |
| April 2025 | $298.55 | ~93,200 | Slight fluctuation |
| May 2025 | $315.82 | ~94,700 | Steady performance |
| June 2025 | $267.43 | ~89,000 | Summer traffic dip |
So over those seven months, I made about $2,047.80. That’s not life-changing money, but it’s also not nothing. For comparison, AdSense was giving me about $35-50 a month on the same traffic, so BAT Ads was paying me roughly 5-6x more. That matters to me.
Payment Methods and Getting Paid
This is actually where I was most nervous, because I’ve heard horror stories about weird ad networks that just don’t pay out. I tested multiple payment methods because I wanted to make sure they actually worked.
| Payment Method | Processing Time | Fees | My Experience |
| PayPal | 1-3 days | 1.5% fee | Super reliable, I use this mainly |
| Wire Transfer | 3-5 days | $2 flat fee | Tested once, worked fine but slower |
| Cryptocurrency | Instant-1 hour | Variable | Never tried, not really my thing |
I’ve requested payouts probably 7 times now and every single one has hit my PayPal account. Zero issues. The minimum payout is $10, which is pretty low and I appreciated that because I could test it quickly without waiting months to hit a $100 threshold like some networks.
One time I requested a payout on like December 22nd and I was worried it wouldn’t go through before the holidays. It actually hit my account on December 23rd. I was genuinely surprised. Their support team also replied to a random question I had about whether I could use them on multiple sites within a few hours, which was helpful.
Is It Legit? Yeah, I Think So
Look, I was paranoid about this. I’ve been burned by weird ad networks before. But after six months, I’m pretty confident BAT Ads is actually legit. They paid me on time, every time. The earnings made sense based on my traffic. The support was responsive. The dashboard is transparent. I can literally see in real-time how many impressions I got and how much I earned.
One thing that made me feel better was that they actually sent me tax documents. They sent me a 1099 form and everything, which is what a legitimate company does. I looked them up and they’ve been around since 2021, they have a real office in Singapore, and they’re not some random thing that popped up overnight.
That said, they’re definitely not Google. They don’t have unlimited advertiser money flowing in. There were a couple of random weeks where my CPMs tanked for like 3-4 days and then went back to normal. The support team was responsive but not instant. And the ad formats are honestly pretty limited compared to Google.
But as far as “is this scam” goes? Nah, I don’t think it is. I have no reason to believe they’re going to shut down and steal my money.
The Good Stuff
Real money. I can’t stress this enough. I went from $47 a month on AdSense to $300+ a month on BAT Ads. That’s a massive difference on the same exact traffic.
Fast payouts. Minimum payout is $10, payments hit my account within 1-3 days. I can literally request a payout whenever I want instead of waiting three months.
Transparent dashboard. I can see exactly what I’m earning, broken down by country, by ad format, by date. No hidden stuff.
Good support. I had a technical question about ad placement and they got back to me within hours. Not amazing, but way better than most networks.
Multiple ad formats. I got to test and optimize different formats instead of just being stuck with one thing.
No arbitrary rejections. They approved me within days. I didn’t get some cryptic rejection email with no explanation like AdSense does.
The Frustrating Stuff
CPMs are inconsistent. Some weeks I’d make $0.80 per thousand impressions, other weeks it’d be $3.50. I never really figured out why. Made it hard to predict monthly revenue.
Low traffic pays almost nothing. My traffic from India and Pakistan was basically worthless. I can’t blame them for that though, that’s how all networks work.
The dashboard is kind of ugly. It works fine but it looks like it hasn’t been updated since 2018. Not a deal-breaker, just annoying.
Ad quality is hit or miss. Some of the ads that showed up on my site were pretty garbage. I had like a weird cryptocurrency scam ad show up once. I reported it and it got removed, but yeah, they’re not super strict about advertiser vetting.
They don’t have a ton of advertisers. Sometimes the ad slots just wouldn’t fill and I’d get nothing. Probably happened like 8-10% of the time based on my logs.
Can’t use with AdSense. I had to choose between BAT Ads and AdSense. I obviously chose BAT Ads because it paid better, but it would’ve been nice to run both.
Who Should Actually Use This?
Not everyone. But if you fit some of these boxes, you should definitely test it.
You should use BAT Ads if: You have a tech, finance, crypto, or business blog. Your traffic is primarily from developed countries (US, UK, Canada, Western Europe, Australia). You get at least 50k-100k monthly pageviews. You’re currently on AdSense and frustrated with the rates. You want a secondary ad network alongside something else. You care more about money than having the absolute biggest advertiser pool.
You should NOT use BAT Ads if: Your primary traffic is from developing countries. You’re getting less than 20k monthly views. You have a niche that’s hard to monetize. You need massive advertiser liquidity. You’re worried about brand safety and want total control over ad quality. You want 24/7 live support.
Questions My Readers Keep Asking Me
1. Will using BAT Ads get me banned from Google AdSense?
No, not directly. But BAT Ads doesn’t play well with AdSense on the same page due to their policies. I had to choose one or the other. I chose BAT Ads because it paid better, but if you’re making solid money on AdSense already, don’t risk it.
2. How quickly will I see earnings?
Almost immediately. Like, within hours of putting the code on your site. Your dashboard will start showing impressions and clicks right away. But meaningful money? That depends on your traffic volume. I needed about 85k views to make $183 in my first month, so if you’re getting 5k views a month you’re probably looking at like $10-15.
3. Is the code easy to add?
Yeah, super easy. It’s literally just a script tag you paste into your site. Took me like two minutes. If you can add Google Analytics, you can add BAT Ads.
4. Do I need approval for each ad format?
No, once you’re approved for the network you can activate any ad format you want from the dashboard. You don’t need to get re-approved or anything. I just turned on native ads and video ads from the settings.
5. What’s the deal with the cryptocurrency payment option?
They offer it but I haven’t used it. Some publishers like it because the payout can be instant. I’m not that into crypto so I just use PayPal. From what I’ve read, the fees are reasonable but fluctuate based on gas prices or whatever.
6. Can I use this on multiple sites?
Yes. I asked support and they said each site needs its own separate approval, but you’re welcome to run multiple sites. I’ve only tested on one site though so I can’t speak to how well it scales.
7. What if I have traffic from multiple countries?
Your earnings will be weighted toward your highest-paying traffic. So if you’re 70% US traffic and 30% India traffic, you’re going to make way more money even though the India traffic is a third of your volume. The US stuff just pays that much better.
8. How does this compare to Mediavine or AdThrive?
Different ballgame. Those are premium networks that require like 100k+ monthly views and way higher standards. They pay better per impression but it’s harder to get approved. BAT Ads has lower barriers to entry and better rates than AdSense, but it’s not going to compete with the big players. It’s a solid middle ground.
9. What if my traffic suddenly drops?
Your earnings obviously drop too, but they won’t kick you off or anything. I saw my January earnings go down slightly in February when my traffic dipped a bit, which made sense. There’s no minimum traffic requirement once you’re approved.
10. Can I see what ads are showing on my site?
Not really in a detailed way. You can see categories and performance, but you don’t get a list of every advertiser like you might with some networks. The dashboard isn’t that granular. You can request an ad review if something inappropriate shows up though, and support will handle it.
Final Verdict: Out of 10
I’m going to give BAT Ads a 7.5 out of 10.
Here’s why. For what it is — a mid-tier ad network for publishers with solid traffic in developed countries — it absolutely delivers. The money is real, the payouts are reliable, and the experience is way better than AdSense. If you’re frustrated with your current ad network and you have the right audience, this is worth testing.
But I’m not giving it higher because it’s not perfect. The CPMs are inconsistent. The ad quality control could be better. You can’t run it alongside AdSense. The dashboard could use a design refresh. And honestly, the advertiser pool isn’t huge so sometimes ads just don’t fill.
It’s a solid option that actually works, which is honestly more than I can say for a lot of ad networks out there. If you’re in the situation I was in six months ago — frustrated with AdSense, looking for something better — you could absolutely do worse than testing BAT Ads.
My suggestion? Sign up, add it to your site for a week, see what you make. The barrier to entry is so low that there’s almost no downside to trying it.
Disclosure: Some of the links mentioned in this post may be affiliate links, meaning I could earn a commission if you click through and sign up. I’ve disclosed this because it’s the right thing to do. That said, I’m not recommending BAT Ads because I make money from referrals — I’m recommending it because I actually use it and it actually works for my site. The money I make from it is way more valuable to me than any affiliate commission would be.
