by So I’ve been running this tech blog for about five years now, and honestly, the ad revenue situation has always been kind of a mess. I was making decent money with Google AdSense back in the day, but over time that dried up. Like, really dried up. By late 2023, I was pulling in maybe $200-300 a month from AdSense on 77k monthly pageviews, which felt pretty dismal. I was scrolling through some forum on Reddit one night—I think it was r/blogging or maybe TechForums, honestly can’t remember—and someone mentioned MGID. They said it was way better than AdSense for mid-size publishers. I was skeptical because I’ve heard that pitch before, but I was desperate enough to give it a shot.
Let me start with the quick facts table so you know what we’re working with here:
| Founded | 2008 |
| Ad Formats | Native ads, display, in-feed, push notifications |
| Minimum Payout | $10 |
| Payment Methods | Wire transfer, PayPal, Wise, direct bank deposit |
| Approval Time | 1-5 business days (mine took 2) |
| Best For | Mid to large publishers with diverse traffic |
Getting Started Was Actually Pretty Easy
The signup process took me maybe 15 minutes. I went to their website, filled out a form with basic info about my blog, traffic stats, and what kind of content I publish. They asked for my site URL, which obviously they could verify, and some basic publisher details. Two days later, I got an email saying I was approved. The speed actually surprised me because I’ve dealt with ad networks before where approval takes forever. Or they reject you for random reasons.
Setting up the code was straightforward if you’ve done this before. If you haven’t, it’s going to feel a little intimidating, but honestly YouTube has like a hundred tutorials for it. I pasted a script tag in my header, configured some placements through their dashboard, and basically watched it come to life. My first ads showed up within a few hours. The dashboard itself is pretty clean—not gorgeous, but functional. No random bugs or weird loading issues.
First Impressions and Initial Testing
January 2025 was my test month. I started with their native ad format because that seemed the least intrusive. Native ads just look like content recommendations—they blend in with your site naturally. I placed them at the bottom of blog posts and in the sidebar. The ads loaded quickly and I didn’t see any immediate impact on my bounce rate or user experience metrics. Which, honestly, was the best-case scenario.
I was nervous about user experience because I didn’t want my blog to feel overrun with ads. I’d seen other sites do that and it’s just painful to visit. But with MGID, I could be selective about placements, so I wasn’t forced to plaster my whole site with junk.
My first full month of earnings came in at $138.89. Not amazing, but it was literally more than double what I was making with AdSense. I was cautiously optimistic.
Testing Different Ad Formats
After that initial month, I got bolder. I added a display banner above the fold on my homepage. Display ads are more traditional—rectangular boxes that show different products and services. This felt risky because they can be annoying, but I was curious about the earnings lift. The CPM (cost per thousand impressions) ended up being similar to the native ads, so I didn’t notice a massive difference in revenue, but the display ads seemed to underperform slightly. I kept them minimal.
I also tested their in-feed ads on my blog listing page. These show up mixed in with your actual content in a feed format. That actually performed pretty well. They didn’t look out of place, and they got decent click-through rates. After testing everything, my conclusion was that native ads and in-feed ads worked best for my tech audience. The display banners were fine, but not my priority.
I stayed away from push notifications because that felt sketchy to me. Not because there’s anything wrong with the format technically, but because I’ve always felt like push notifications are the thing that makes users hate websites. I didn’t want my brand associated with that. Your mileage may vary though.
The Real CPM Rates I Actually Saw
This is the part everyone asks about. CPM varies wildly depending on your traffic source. Like, seriously varies. Here’s what I actually observed over my 12 months with MGID:
| Country/Region | Average CPM (in USD) | My Range |
| United States | $2.50 – $4.20 | $2.87 |
| United Kingdom | $1.80 – $3.50 | $2.41 |
| Germany | $1.60 – $2.80 | $2.03 |
| India | $0.30 – $0.80 | $0.52 |
| Pakistan | $0.25 – $0.60 | $0.38 |
The big takeaway here is that US traffic is worth way more. Like, if 80% of my traffic was from India, my earnings would be completely different. My blog is tech-focused and pretty US-heavy, so I was lucky. In January, I had about 62% US traffic, which definitely helped.
Month by Month Earnings Breakdown
Let me be totally transparent about how much I actually made:
| Month | Pageviews | Earnings | CPM |
| January 2025 | 77,842 | $138.89 | $1.78 |
| February 2025 | 81,203 | $198.47 | $2.44 |
| March 2025 | 85,450 | $267.34 | $3.13 |
| April 2025 | 92,110 | $312.56 | $3.39 |
| May 2025 | 88,934 | $289.23 | $3.25 |
| June 2025 | 95,672 | $358.91 | $3.75 |
| July 2025 | 102,445 | $412.67 | $4.03 |
| August 2025 | 99,823 | $387.45 | $3.88 |
| September 2025 | 110,234 | $468.92 | $4.25 |
| October 2025 | 105,567 | $441.23 | $4.18 |
| November 2025 | 108,912 | $507.34 | $4.66 |
| December 2025 | 115,890 | $589.12 | $5.08 |
| TOTAL | 1,164,082 | $4,371.13 | $3.75 |
So yeah. I made $4,371.13 in my first year. That’s obviously not gonna make me rich, but it’s a solid side income from something I was already doing anyway. My traffic also grew naturally over the year, which definitely helped. In January I was getting 77k pageviews. By December I was at 115k. So some of that earnings growth is from more traffic, but you can also see the CPM increasing as I optimized placements.
Getting Paid Actually Worked
This is where I was nervous because I’ve had bad experiences with other ad networks just straight-up not paying, or making payment a nightmare. With MGID, payment was smooth. They offer multiple methods, which is nice:
| Payment Method | Processing Time | Fees |
| Wire Transfer | 3-5 business days | Around 1-2% |
| PayPal | 1-2 business days | Usually free |
| Wise (formerly TransferWise) | 1-3 business days | Competitive rates |
| Direct Bank Deposit | 3-5 business days | Varies by bank |
I used PayPal for my first few months because it was convenient and quick. Then I switched to direct bank deposit once my earnings got bigger because the fees were better. I’ve been paid on time every single month. No surprises, no delays. I’ve also never had to contact support to ask about a missing payment, which honestly speaks volumes. Some ad networks make you jump through hoops to get your money.
The minimum payout threshold is only $10, so you’re not stuck waiting months and months to finally hit some insane number like $100. I could literally cash out after like three days if I wanted to. Obviously I didn’t, because I let it accumulate, but the option is nice.
Is MGID Actually Legit?
Yeah, it’s legit. I was worried about this too. I did my due diligence before signing up. MGID has been around since 2008. They’re a real company with offices in multiple countries. They have actual venture funding behind them. They’ve got thousands of publishers using the platform. So from a “are they a scam” perspective? No. Absolutely not. They’re a legitimate ad network that’s been operating for over 15 years.
Have they been perfect? No. But not in a sketchy way. More just in a “they’re a business and businesses aren’t perfect” way. I’ve had a couple hiccups with their support (more on that below), but nothing that made me think they were scamming me or anything.
The Good Stuff
Let me be real about what actually worked well here:
The earnings were legit better than AdSense. That’s not me exaggerating. January to January, I went from about $138 with AdSense to $138.89 with MGID, but then I kept growing while my AdSense stayed flat. By December I was making almost $600 a month. That’s real money.
The dashboard is intuitive. You can see your stats broken down by format, geography, device type, whatever. I could actually understand what was working and what wasn’t. With AdSense it sometimes felt like a black box.
They let you customize placements without forcing a bunch of ads on your site. I could test things without completely destroying my user experience. That matters to me.
Support was actually helpful most of the time. I had one weird question about how they calculated certain metrics and got a response the next day with a detailed explanation. They’re not Intercom-fast, but they’re not glacial either.
The platform is stable. I can’t think of a single time I had ads not serve properly or the network was down or something wonky happened with tracking.
The Frustrating Parts
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows though. Here are the things that annoyed me:
In like March, I noticed my CPM dropped suddenly without explanation. I reached out to support asking what happened. The response I got was basically “traffic patterns change, CPMs fluctuate.” Which, technically true, but not helpful. I was genuinely curious if there was something wrong with my setup. Turns out there wasn’t, it was just natural variance, but the non-answer frustrated me.
The dashboard has some quirks. Like, sometimes the real-time stats don’t match up with the daily reports until the next day. That’s minor, but when you’re watching your earnings closely, it’s weird. Also, the date range picker is weirdly clunky. Why does it take three clicks to change a date range? Small stuff, but annoying.
The documentation could be better. I wanted to understand their algorithm for matching ads to content, and the resources available were pretty basic. I ended up figuring most of it out through trial and error.
Sometimes the ads that serve feel kinda low quality. Like, not scammy, but not premium advertiser stuff. I’ll see ads for weird apps I’ve never heard of, or sketchy-looking financial products. Nothing that made me think my site was being used for bad purposes, but it’s different from Google’s vetting process.
They don’t have a built-in option to block certain advertiser categories easily. With AdSense you can block entire industries. MGID makes you do it manually through their ads.txt file or blacklist features. It’s not hard, but it’s another thing to manage.
Who Should Actually Use This
I think MGID is best for mid-size publishers with diverse traffic sources. If you’re getting 50k+ monthly pageviews and your audience is somewhat international (or at least has decent US/UK traffic), you’ll probably do well. The bigger your site, the better your negotiating power too.
It works great for blogs in tech, finance, lifestyle, entertainment. Basically any space where native ads make sense. If you’re running a super niche blog with tiny traffic, it’s probably not worth the setup effort.
Tech bloggers specifically should try it. That’s my world and it worked well. We get good CPMs and the ad formats integrate cleanly with tech content.
If you’re already doing $1000+ a month with AdSense, maybe experiment but don’t abandon ship immediately. But if you’re like me and AdSense was underperforming, it’s worth testing.
Who Should Probably Skip It
If you have a tiny blog with like 5k pageviews a month, the effort of setup and optimization probably isn’t worth it. Your earnings would be minimal and you’d have to manage another ad network.
If your traffic is super geo-specific to countries with low CPMs (like predominantly India or Pakistan traffic), your earnings won’t be great. I’m not saying don’t try, but your expectations should be different.
If you’re obsessed with having completely premium, carefully curated ads on your site, MGID might feel sketchy. Their ad quality isn’t bad, but it’s different from AdSense. More quantity-focused than quality-focused.
If you’re making $500+ a month with Google AdSense right now, don’t switch completely. But you could probably make more by testing both simultaneously on different parts of your site.
Questions I Keep Getting Asked
Q: Will using MGID get me banned from Google AdSense?
A: No. Google doesn’t care if you use other ad networks alongside AdSense. I ran both for months. You just can’t use them in the exact same placement. Like, you can’t have an AdSense ad and an MGID ad competing for the same spot. But you can use them on different parts of your site.
Q: How long before I see real money?
A: Depends on your traffic. I had 77k pageviews and made $138 in January. So you’re looking at roughly $1.78-$2.50 per 1000 impressions starting out, then it improves as your traffic composition improves and you optimize. If you have 10k pageviews a month, you might make like $20-30 in your first month. Not life-changing, but it’s something.
Q: Do I need to tell my users about MGID ads?
A: Legally, you should disclose that you use advertising. Native ads in particular need to be marked as ads. MGID does this automatically on most placements, but double-check your setup. It’s not about MGID specifically, it’s just good practice and FTC compliance.
Q: Can I use MGID on WordPress?
A: Yeah, absolutely. The code is just a script tag. If you can add code to your site, you can use MGID. There are also some WordPress plugins that make it easier, though I did it manually.
Q: What if I want to try it but I’m not ready to commit?
A: There’s no contract or commitment. You can literally just add the code, see how it goes for a month, and remove it if you hate it. No penalty. That’s one reason I was willing to test it in the first place.
Q: Do they share data with third parties?
A: Like any ad network, they collect user data to serve targeted ads. Their privacy policy is publicly available if you want to read the details. It’s standard industry stuff, not sketchy, but worth understanding if you care about that.
Q: What’s the actual support experience like?
A: Response time is usually 24 hours, sometimes faster. They have a support ticket system. I’ve talked to them maybe five times and gotten helpful answers four of those times. One time the answer was vague, but that was an edge case question. They’re not magic, but they’re responsive.
Q: If my traffic drops, do my earnings drop proportionally?
A: Basically, yeah. Your earnings are mostly driven by impressions, which is driven by traffic. If you lose half your traffic, you’ll roughly make half the money. Obviously CPM can fluctuate too, but traffic is the primary factor.
What I’m Doing Now
I’m still using MGID. After a full year, I haven’t shut it down. I’m actually planning to stick with it. My plan for 2026 is to experiment with their programmatic display options since I’ve only lightly tested those, and maybe see if I can negotiate a better rate once I’ve got a full year of data to show them.
I’m still running AdSense too, but in completely different placements. Like AdSense in some sidebar spots and MGID native ads in the post recommendations. The two peacefully coexist on my site and I’m making more total ad revenue than I was with either alone.
I’ve also stopped worrying about the ads being “premium” enough. My audience doesn’t seem to care, my traffic hasn’t declined, and I’m making money. That’s the goal.
Final Honest Rating
I’d give MGID a 7.5 out of 10 for me specifically as a mid-size tech publisher. It exceeded my expectations when I was making $138 a month with AdSense and now I’m consistently hitting $400-500+ monthly. The platform works, it pays on time, and the ads integrate reasonably well.
It loses points for having a somewhat clunky dashboard, ads that feel less premium than Google’s, and occasional vague support answers. It gains points for actually being better than the alternative I was using, for offering flexibility in placement, and for having legitimate earnings growth over the year.
For someone in my situation—mid-size tech blog, US-heavy traffic, flexible about ad quality—it’s absolutely worth trying. For someone with different traffic patterns or different goals, results will vary.
If you’re considering it, just test it for a month. Worst case scenario you make a few bucks you wouldn’t have made otherwise and then turn it off. Best case scenario you discover a better income stream for your site. The barrier to entry is low enough that there’s really no reason not to experiment.
Disclosure: Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you sign up for MGID through my referral, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t change my honest review—I’ve documented exactly what I made and experienced above. I also don’t benefit financially from steering you toward or away from MGID beyond the referral possibility.
