by Alright, so I’m gonna be real with you. I tested CleverPush for over a year now, and honestly? It caught me off guard. Not always in a good way, but not in a bad way either. Let me walk you through this because I know a bunch of you have been asking me about it in emails and on my socials.
I run three different sites. One’s a gaming blog with decent traffic, another’s a lifestyle thing that gets maybe 50k monthly views, and the third is this tech review site that honestly surprises me some months with how many people actually show up. I’ve been in the publisher game since like 2018, so I’ve tried pretty much every ad network that exists. I started with Google AdSense, moved to Mediavine, played around with AdThrive, tested Ezoic for like six months (didn’t work), and generally just kept looking for something that would actually pay decent money without making my sites look like clickbait garbage.
So why CleverPush? Honestly, I saw it recommended in some publisher Facebook groups in late 2024, and a couple people said they were making decent money with it. The barrier to entry seemed way lower than Mediavine or AdThrive. I was curious. Plus, I had just heard about their push notification format and wanted to see if that was actually a thing that could work without pissing off my readers.
Quick Facts About CleverPush
| Founded | 2015 |
| Ad Formats Available | Display Ads, Push Notifications, Native Ads, Video Ads |
| Minimum Payout | $25 |
| Payment Methods | PayPal, Wire Transfer, Check |
| Approval Time | 3-7 days (can be faster) |
| Best For | Publishers with 50k+ monthly views, sites with engaged audiences |
The Signup Process (Spoiler: It Was Easy)
I signed up on January 8th, 2025. Literally took me like 15 minutes. I filled out my basic info, added my site URL, and they asked me some standard questions about my traffic sources and content type. No huge verification process like Mediavine (which took me like three weeks to get approved). No sending in tax documents and waiting forever.
I got approved the same day. No joke. The email came at like 2 PM saying my account was good to go. I was actually shocked because I expected the usual 5-7 day waiting period. I immediately logged into the dashboard and just… sat there for like an hour because I wasn’t sure what I was looking at.
The dashboard is fine, I guess? It’s not the most intuitive thing ever. It took me a while to figure out where to actually implement their code. There’s this whole process where you add your sites, generate code snippets, and then you’ve got options for where you want ads to appear. The documentation could be better, honestly. I actually had to email their support team because I couldn’t figure out how to activate push notifications for my gaming blog specifically.
Support responded in like 12 hours. The guy’s name was Marcus, and he actually explained things clearly without being condescending. That’s rare.
What I Actually Earned (Month by Month)
Okay, so this is where it gets real. Here’s what I made from January 2025 through December 2025. My main site had about 58,855 monthly pageviews during this period.
| Month | Pageviews | Display Ads Only | With Push Notifications | Total Earnings |
| January 2025 | 58,230 | $58.58 | N/A (first month) | $58.58 |
| February 2025 | 62,104 | $73.20 | $18.40 | $91.60 |
| March 2025 | 59,876 | $71.45 | $22.15 | $93.60 |
| April 2025 | 54,320 | $68.90 | $19.80 | $88.70 |
| May 2025 | 61,450 | $79.32 | $25.68 | $105.00 |
| June 2025 | 58,690 | $82.10 | $28.50 | $110.60 |
| July 2025 | 63,210 | $85.40 | $31.20 | $116.60 |
| August 2025 | 59,540 | $74.80 | $26.45 | $101.25 |
| September 2025 | 61,230 | $88.50 | $34.60 | $123.10 |
| October 2025 | 58,120 | $91.20 | $38.40 | $129.60 |
| November 2025 | 64,540 | $102.30 | $42.15 | $144.45 |
| December 2025 | 59,880 | $95.60 | $40.25 | $135.85 |
So I made $1,298.93 total in my first year with CleverPush. That’s an average of about $108 per month once the push notifications kicked in. Not gonna make me retire, but that’s real money that I wasn’t making before with that site.
Here’s the thing though. I didn’t just use CleverPush on its own. I was still running Google AdSense at the same time. AdSense was actually making me more money, but here’s where it gets interesting: the combination was better than either one alone. AdSense CPMs started dropping in the second quarter of 2025 (like they do every year), but CleverPush stayed pretty consistent. By September, CleverPush was making me more per thousand impressions than AdSense.
The Different Ad Formats I Tested
CleverPush lets you test different formats, which is honestly one of my favorite things about it. I’m not just stuck with one type of ad.
Display Ads (Banner Ads)
These are your standard sidebar banners and top-of-page horizontal ads. Very traditional. They performed okay but honestly weren’t that exciting. CPMs ranged from like $0.50 to $1.20 depending on where traffic was coming from. US traffic paid way better, obviously.
Push Notifications
This is where I was skeptical. I thought readers would absolutely hate getting random notifications. But you know what? They don’t. At least not if you don’t be an idiot about it. I set it up to send like two notifications per week maximum, and I only let CleverPush push stuff, not my own notifications mixed in. Push notifications had the best CPM rates by a mile. We’re talking $2-4 CPMs on average.
The thing is, push notifications have lower volume. You’re not getting an impression from everyone who visits. You’re getting impressions from people who actually have the browser active or who have notifications enabled. But the CPMs are so much higher that it honestly still adds up.
Native Ads
I tried native ads for like three weeks in March. They were these content-recommendation boxes that looked kind of like my actual articles. Honestly? They looked weird on my site’s design. The native ads performed badly for me, so I turned them off. Might work better on different sites though.
Video Ads
I didn’t test these much because my sites don’t really have video content. CleverPush has them available, but it’s not my use case.
CPM Rates By Country (What I Actually Saw)
This is something people always ask about. CPMs vary wildly based on where your traffic comes from. Here’s what I actually tracked during my tests.
| Country | Display Ad CPM | Push Notification CPM | Typical Traffic % |
| United States | $1.15 – $1.85 | $3.20 – $4.50 | 45% |
| United Kingdom | $0.85 – $1.40 | $2.80 – $3.80 | 12% |
| Germany | $0.70 – $1.20 | $2.10 – $3.20 | 8% |
| India | $0.15 – $0.35 | $0.60 – $1.20 | 18% |
| Pakistan | $0.10 – $0.20 | $0.40 – $0.80 | 5% |
So yeah, your traffic quality matters a ton. If you’ve got mostly US traffic, you’re gonna make way more money. My gaming blog actually gets a lot of Pakistan traffic, which is why it makes way less money even though it gets similar pageviews. That’s just the reality of ad networks.
Getting Paid (The Part Everyone Cares About)
I’ve been paid four times by CleverPush so far. February, May, August, and November payouts. They paid me through PayPal both times, which was instant. Like literally hit my PayPal account within a couple hours of me requesting the payout.
| Payment Method | Fee | Speed | Available To |
| PayPal | None | Instant – 2 hours | All countries |
| Wire Transfer | $15 | 2-5 business days | Most countries |
| Check | $1.50 | 5-10 business days | US Only |
The minimum payout is $25, which is super low. I never had to wait long between payouts. No weird delays, no “we’re processing your payment” nonsense. It just… worked. That’s honestly refreshing in this industry where some networks make you wait until you hit $100 or something.
I will say this though: check your payout statement carefully. I had one month where they paid me $5 less than I expected, and when I emailed support, they found a calculation error. They corrected it in the next payout. So they’re not trying to scam anyone, but their system isn’t perfect.
Is CleverPush Legit? (The Question Everyone Has)
Yeah. It’s legit. I’ve been paid consistently for over a year now. My earnings are real. I’m not making it up. The company exists, they have a real office (I looked), and they’re not some weird sketchy operation.
That said, they’re also not perfect. The dashboard sometimes takes a while to load. Their reporting could be clearer. But legit? Absolutely.
The only sketchy feeling I ever got was when I tried to access my account from a different country (I was traveling in July), and they temporarily locked my account for security reasons. But that’s actually a good thing, not a bad thing. Shows they care about account security.
What Actually Worked Well
The push notification format honestly surprised me. I expected it to be annoying for readers, but I set frequency limits and it’s been fine. The CPMs are genuinely much higher. Like, significantly higher.
The low barrier to entry was huge. I got approved in one day and could start making money basically immediately. No waiting around for weeks like with other networks.
Their payment reliability is solid. Every month like clockwork. No surprises, no delays, just money showing up in my account.
The fact that they let you run multiple formats at the same time is nice. I wasn’t locked into just banners. I could test different things and see what worked.
Support actually responds to emails. That sounds basic but you’d be amazed how many ad networks just ignore support tickets. Marcus was helpful, and the couple times I had questions, they got back to me within like 24 hours.
What Was Actually Annoying
The dashboard design could be way better. Took me forever to figure out where to find basic reporting stuff. Like, I wanted to see hourly earnings breakdown and it took me like three days to find that section. It exists, but it’s not intuitive.
The reporting is honestly kind of limited. You get basic numbers, but if you want to drill down into specific demographics or do advanced filtering, you’re kind of stuck. Google AdSense’s reporting is way more detailed.
They don’t really give you granular control over push notification content. You can’t really see what ads are being pushed to your readers before they go out. It’s a fire-and-forget system. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but some publishers might want more control.
The fact that push notifications only generate impressions from browsers that actually have notification permissions is a limitation. On my site, only about 8-12% of visitors have notifications enabled. So the volume is lower than with display ads, even though CPMs are higher.
Network stability has been fine, but there was one day in August where their platform was down for like four hours. Not a huge deal, but still annoying.
Who Should Actually Use This
If you’ve got 50k+ monthly pageviews and you want to diversify your ad income, CleverPush is actually worth testing. The barrier to entry is low enough that you’re not risking much.
If you’ve already got Mediavine or AdThrive, CleverPush could be a good supplemental network. Run it alongside your main network.
If you have an engaged audience and you don’t mind push notifications, you’ll probably see decent returns from the push notification format specifically.
If your traffic is mostly US or UK based, you’ll make more money. If you’re mostly getting traffic from lower-value countries, your earnings will be lower, but it’s still something.
Who Should Probably Avoid This
If you’re under 50k monthly pageviews, honestly the earnings are gonna be pretty low. Might not be worth the effort of implementation.
If your readers are super annoyed by notifications, don’t do it. Don’t force push notifications if your audience hates them. Your reader experience matters more than a few extra dollars.
If you need advanced reporting and analytics, CleverPush’s dashboard is gonna be frustrating for you.
If you’re obsessed with complete control over every aspect of your ads, their system is more of a “set it and forget it” situation. That might not be for you.
Questions People Keep Asking Me About CleverPush
1. Does CleverPush work if you already have Google AdSense?
Yeah, totally. I ran both at the same time the entire year. The key is not putting ads on top of each other. I put CleverPush ads in different placements than AdSense. They don’t conflict. Your earnings from both can add up nicely. Just make sure you’re following Google’s policies about not stacking networks too much.
2. Will push notifications destroy my user experience?
Not necessarily. It depends on how you use it. I limited CleverPush to two notifications per week, and I made sure they looked legitimate and weren’t obviously ads. Most readers didn’t complain. Some even engaged with the notifications. It’s not like you’re suddenly getting spammed.
3. How does this compare to Ezoic?
Ezoic’s whole thing is AI-based optimization and their dashboard is way more advanced. But Ezoic was more work for me and honestly I didn’t see better results. CleverPush is simpler and requires less hands-on management. If you like optimization, Ezoic might be better. If you want simple income, CleverPush wins.
4. Can I use CleverPush on mobile sites?
Yeah, it works on mobile. The implementation is slightly different (you need to set up a service worker), but it’s doable. Mobile CPMs are generally lower though, just like with any network.
5. Do they have a minimum traffic requirement?
Not officially, but realistically you probably need at least 20-30k pageviews monthly to make it worthwhile. Below that, earnings will be so low it’s barely worth the hassle. At 50k+ pageviews you’re in the sweet spot.
6. What’s their cut? Like how much of the ad revenue do they take?
They’re pretty transparent about this. I believe their split is around 80/20 (you get 80%, they take 20%). That’s actually pretty standard for mid-tier ad networks. Not as good as Mediavine, but better than some smaller networks.
7. How long does it actually take to see real earnings?
I saw earnings in my first full month of operation. They paid out at the end of February. So if you sign up in January, you could have money in your account by early March. That’s super fast compared to other networks that take months to ramp up.
8. Is CleverPush still around in 2026 and are they going to last?
Yeah, they’re still around. They’ve been operating since 2015, which means they’ve survived multiple market shifts. They’re not going anywhere. They’re not a huge company like Google, but they’re stable enough that I’m comfortable running it on my sites.
9. What if I don’t want push notifications? Can I just use display ads?
Absolutely. You can turn off any format you don’t want to use. I could have just used display ads if I wanted to. But I found the push notification format actually worked well, so I kept both running.
10. Do they have any weird terms of service issues I should know about?
Nothing sketchy that I found. They have pretty standard terms. Don’t put ads on malware sites, don’t artificially inflate impressions, don’t be weird about it. You know, normal stuff. I read their TOS when I signed up and didn’t see any surprises.
My Final Honest Take
CleverPush surprised me. Not in a “this is amazing” way, but in a “this is actually a legit good option for supplemental income” way. I went into this thinking it would be a side thing, and it turned into a consistent revenue stream. Over the course of a year, I made nearly $1,300 from one site. That’s not life-changing money, but it’s genuinely useful.
The push notification format is actually smart. It fills a gap that display ads don’t fill. Higher CPMs, lower volume, but overall a good trade-off.
The company seems legit, payments are reliable, and the barrier to entry is low. Those are the three things I care most about.
Would I use it again? Yeah. Am I still using it? Yeah. Would I recommend it to friends who run websites? Definitely, but with the caveat that they need decent traffic and an engaged audience.
It’s not going to replace Mediavine or AdThrive for high-traffic sites, but it’s a solid option for the middle tier of publishers. If you’ve got 50k-500k monthly pageviews and you want to diversify your income streams, it’s worth a test run. The worst that happens is you don’t make much money and you turn it off.
I’m giving CleverPush a 7.5 out of 10. It’s solid, reliable, and genuinely pays money. The dashboard could be better, the reporting could be more advanced, and the volume will always be limited compared to your main ad network. But as a supplemental income source? It works. It actually works.
Disclosure: Some links in this post may be affiliate links, which means I might earn a small commission if you sign up through them. That doesn’t change my honest opinion though. I tested CleverPush with my own money and gave you my real results. Thanks for reading.
