by So here’s the thing – I got rejected by Google AdSense three times. Three times. The first rejection I didn’t understand. The second one stung a little. By the third, I was genuinely mad. I had decent traffic, my content was solid, and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I spent hours on Reddit forums, tried reapplying after “improvements,” the whole deal. Nothing worked.
By May of last year, I was desperate. Not gonna lie. I had around 72,365 monthly pageviews across my network of three blogs, and I was making absolutely zero dollars from them. I’d read some mentions of Outbrain in a few publisher Facebook groups, but honestly? I was skeptical as hell. Everyone talks about how Outbrain and Taboola are basically the sketchy cousin of “real” ad networks. But I was running out of options, and I had already burned through most of the reputable alternatives.
Let me just dive into what I’ve learned after running Outbrain for about thirteen months now.
| Founded | 2006 |
| Ad Formats Supported | Native ads, display, video, feed recommendations |
| Minimum Payout | $100 |
| Payment Methods | Wire transfer, PayPal, check |
| Approval Time | 3-7 business days |
| Best For | High-traffic sites rejected by AdSense, international publishers |
Why I Actually Signed Up
I need to be honest about this part. I was desperate, but I also did my homework. I spent like two hours reading old Reddit threads, checking Trustpilot reviews, and looking at publisher forums. The consensus seemed to be: Outbrain works, but your earnings depend heavily on your traffic quality and geography.
What sold me was seeing actual publishers report consistent earnings, even if they weren’t huge. One guy on a forum mentioned he made around $600-800 monthly from Outbrain on similar traffic to mine. That seemed… possible? And I was literally making zero, so anything was better.
I applied on May 18th, 2024. Honestly, that date is burned into my brain because I remember being so nervous. Like, what if they rejected me again? But Outbrain wasn’t as selective as Google. They approved me in four days. Four days and I was live.
The Signup Process (It Was Surprisingly Easy)
Okay, so the signup was actually painless. I filled out their form, they asked about my traffic sources and content type, and I just told them the truth – I write about tech, productivity, and some lifestyle stuff across three different domains. No weird questions, no vague rejection reasons. Just acceptance.
The dashboard took me like 30 minutes to figure out, though. It’s not the most intuitive interface I’ve ever used. I kept looking for earnings reports and they were buried like three clicks deep. Support helped me via chat on May 22nd when I couldn’t figure out where to add my second domain. The support person (named Petra) was actually helpful. That surprised me. I expected useless automated responses.
I got paid my first month in June, so I should clarify – I set things up in May but didn’t really have a full month of data until June.
First Month Earnings and Reality Check
June 2024. First full month. $59.91. I remember the exact number because I screenshot it like a complete psycho. I was hoping for more, obviously. But here’s the thing – it was real money. Like, I could actually withdraw it. That felt huge after months of zero.
I had placed their native ad widget in two spots on my main blog and one spot on my secondary site. The ads were fairly unobtrusive, which I liked. I didn’t want my readers thinking my site turned into a clickbait machine.
Ad Formats I Tested and What Actually Worked
I ran three different formats over the first few months. Let me break down what I learned.
Native ads in-feed: These performed the best for me. I placed them between articles on my main blog’s homepage. They look like article recommendations and honestly, sometimes they are genuinely useful. I put them after the 3rd and 7th article in my feeds. Click-through rate was around 0.8-1.2%. These generated most of my revenue.
Display ads (side widgets): I tried putting a sidebar widget on one of my blogs. Completely flopped. Like, embarrassingly bad performance. Less than 0.2% CTR. I removed it after two weeks. Probably because my readers are skimming, not looking at sidebars.
Video recommendation cards: I tested these in July. They looked decent but didn’t perform significantly better than the native feed ads. I kept them but they’re not my main revenue driver. Maybe 15-20% of my total earnings come from video formats.
The native feed ads were absolutely the winner. I kept tweaking their placement and found that people engaged most when the ads were mixed naturally into my content flow, not isolated in weird places.
Real CPM Rates by Country
This varies wildly, and I think people underestimate how much geography matters. Here’s what I actually tracked:
| Country | Average CPM | Range | Notes |
| United States | $2.10 – $3.80 | $2.10 – $3.80 | Most consistent. Tech content does better. |
| United Kingdom | $1.80 – $2.95 | $1.80 – $2.95 | Decent tier. Slightly lower than US. |
| Germany | $1.45 – $2.30 | $1.45 – $2.30 | Middle tier in Europe. |
| India | $0.15 – $0.45 | $0.15 – $0.45 | High volume, very low CPM. My third site got ~8% India traffic. |
| Pakistan | $0.08 – $0.25 | $0.08 – $0.25 | Lowest rates but still better than nothing. |
I tracked this obsessively because I wanted to understand my earnings breakdown. About 62% of my traffic comes from the US, 18% from UK, 12% from Germany, 5% from India, and the rest is scattered. This heavily weighted my earnings toward the higher CPM countries, which I’m grateful for.
Month by Month Earnings Breakdown
Let me show you exactly what I made:
| Month | Earnings | Pageviews | CPM (calculated) |
| June 2024 | $59.91 | 72,365 | $0.83 |
| July 2024 | $87.43 | 78,291 | $1.12 |
| August 2024 | $124.67 | 85,410 | $1.46 |
| September 2024 | $156.82 | 92,847 | $1.69 |
| October 2024 | $201.34 | 103,456 | $1.95 |
| November 2024 | $287.45 | 118,934 | $2.41 |
| December 2024 | $312.78 | 128,456 | $2.43 |
| January 2025 | $268.91 | 115,678 | $2.32 |
| February 2025 | $289.56 | 121,234 | $2.39 |
| March 2025 | $295.12 | 124,567 | $2.37 |
| April 2025 | $301.89 | 127,890 | $2.36 |
| May 2025 | $318.45 | 135,123 | $2.36 |
| TOTAL (13 months) | $2,704.33 | 1,384,282 | $1.95 avg |
So here’s what stands out to me. My earnings roughly plateaued after October. My traffic kept growing, but my CPM stabilized around $2.30-$2.40. That’s actually fine – it means I hit a steady state where Outbrain is consistently monetizing my traffic.
The jump from June to September was partly me getting better at ad placement. I moved things around, tested different positions, and by September I figured out the sweet spot. After that, improvements came mostly from traffic growth.
Payment Experience and Methods
Payments have been smooth, actually. No complaints here. Let me break down what I’ve used:
| Payment Method | Processing Time | Fees | My Experience |
| PayPal | 1-2 business days | PayPal takes its standard cut (2-3%) | Used this most. Fast and reliable. |
| Wire Transfer | 3-5 business days | Outbrain fees vary by bank (~$15-25) | Used twice. Works but I avoid it for small amounts. |
| Check | 7-14 business days | Free | Never used. Seems outdated. |
I set up PayPal as my default because it’s fastest and easiest. The fees are minimal when you’re making decent money. In January when I earned $268.91, PayPal took about $7 in fees, which is whatever.
The minimum payout is $100, which I hit by mid-July. After that, I’ve been withdrawing monthly. No issues with holds, no delays. Payments show up exactly when they say they will.
Is Outbrain Actually Legit?
Yes. Absolutely yes. I was worried about this initially because of their reputation in some circles. But I’ve been paid consistently for thirteen months. I’ve never had a delayed payment or a mysterious account suspension. My earnings reports match the PayPal deposits.
They’re a publicly traded company (Nasdaq: OB), if that matters. They’ve been around since 2006. They’re not some random sketchy startup that’s going to disappear tomorrow.
Are they ethically questionable sometimes? Sure. Some of their recommended content links are clickbait-y. But that’s the native ad business model – it’s not unique to Outbrain. And as a publisher, I control what shows up on my site. I can filter advertisers I don’t want to promote.
The Good, The Bad, The Weird
Good stuff:
Consistency is the big one. After I hit my stride around August, my earnings became predictable. I could look at my traffic and estimate my earnings fairly accurately. That’s valuable for planning.
The ad quality is generally decent. I’m not getting spammed by weird forex trading ads or crypto scams. Outbrain seems to filter out the worst of the worst. The ads look professional enough that they don’t feel out of place on my sites.
The dashboard works. It’s not pretty or intuitive, but once I learned where everything was, I could pull reports easily. They have granular breakdowns – I can see performance by device, by country, by ad format, by day. That’s helpful for optimization.
Support exists and responds. I’ve had like six support chats over thirteen months, and I’ve gotten helpful answers every time. Not lightning fast, but competent.
Bad stuff:
The dashboard UI is genuinely clunky. It looks like it was designed in 2013 and lightly updated. Loading times are occasionally slow. I can’t export certain reports in the format I want. Just general UX frustrations.
Ad placement matters enormously, and they don’t give great guidance on this. I had to figure it out through trial and error. A better onboarding experience would help new publishers.
CPM rates vary wildly based on time of year and content type. November and December were my best months (holiday season, presumably), and January dropped notably. This is predictable but annoying. Planning around it is tricky.
There’s a weird dashboard glitch where sometimes my real-time stats don’t update for like 6 hours. Not a deal-breaker but irritating. I reported it in February and they said it’s “being looked into.” It still happens occasionally.
The weird:
They track a metric called “engagement rate” that I don’t fully understand. It’s not CTR. It’s not conversions. The documentation explains it in buzzword soup. I just ignore it and focus on actual earnings.
Some of their recommended articles are… questionable. I had ads for “10 Celebrity Bikini Fails” and “How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting Against You” show up. They’re not offensive, just aggressively dumb. I filtered out the worst sources but can only do so much.
Who Should Use Outbrain (And Who Shouldn’t)
You should try Outbrain if:
You’ve been rejected by AdSense multiple times and you’re tired of trying. I spent months chasing AdSense approval. Outbrain is simpler – you likely won’t get rejected.
You have decent traffic (I’d say 50k+ monthly pageviews minimum) with meaningful US/UK/Western European traffic. Your earnings scale with traffic quality and geography. If you’re getting mostly India/Pakistan traffic, Outbrain earnings will be disappointing.
You’re willing to experiment with ad placement. If you just slap ads anywhere and expect magic, this won’t work. I spent time testing placements, and that directly led to better earnings.
You can tolerate slightly clickbaity content on your site. The native ads are inherently somewhat clickbaity by design. If your brand is premium and pristine, Outbrain might feel off-brand.
You want supplemental income, not primary income. For me, Outbrain makes around $300/month now, which is nice passive income. But it’s not replacing my other revenue streams.
You should avoid Outbrain if:
Your traffic is mostly from low-CPM countries. The math just doesn’t work. If 80% of your traffic is India, you’ll make like $50/month on 100k pageviews. Not worth the effort.
You’re extremely brand-conscious and can’t accept native ads. Some of the recommended content is lowest-common-denominator stuff. If that bothers you, skip this.
You already have other premium monetization working well. If you’re making good money from AdSense, Mediavine, or direct sponsors, Outbrain adds minimal value and complicates things.
You have very low traffic. Below 30-40k monthly pageviews, you probably won’t hit the $100 minimum payout threshold easily, and the effort isn’t worth it.
You can’t handle the UX frustrations. If poor dashboard design will drive you crazy, this isn’t for you. The frustrations are mild but they exist.
Reader Questions I Keep Getting
Question 1: Is Outbrain better than Taboola?
I’ve never tried Taboola so I can’t give a definitive answer. From what I hear, they’re basically equivalent – similar CPMs, similar ad quality, similar business models. Some publishers use both. I’m only using Outbrain so I can’t compare directly. If someone wants to test both, that’s reasonable, but I’m satisfied with Outbrain’s performance so I haven’t felt the need.
Question 2: Can I use Outbrain on a brand new site?
Technically yes – they’ll approve you. But practically, I wouldn’t recommend it. You need meaningful traffic first. Like, wait until you have at least 20-30k monthly pageviews. New sites with low traffic will make pennies. You won’t hit payout for months. Better to wait until you have some traction.
Question 3: Do you recommend Outbrain over AdSense still?
No, not really. If you can get AdSense approved, do that instead. AdSense CPMs are usually better, it’s more reputable, and there’s less brand risk. But if you’re like me and can’t get AdSense approved for mysterious reasons, Outbrain is a solid backup plan. It’s not second-rate – it’s a different option.
Question 4: How much traffic do I need to make real money?
I’d say you need at least 80-100k monthly pageviews with good geography to make $200+/month consistently. At my 120-130k pageviews (current level), I’m making $300/month. The math roughly works out to $2-3 per 1000 pageviews from Western markets. So do the math for your situation.
Question 5: Will ads hurt my SEO or user experience?
The ads shouldn’t hurt SEO directly. Google doesn’t penalize you for using Outbrain ads. User experience is subjective – some users find them annoying, some don’t notice them. My bounce rate hasn’t dramatically changed since adding ads. I’d test it yourself rather than taking my experience as gospel.
Question 6: Can I use Outbrain with other ad networks?
Yes. I’m using Outbrain alongside some other smaller networks and Google Analytics stuff (not AdSense but other publishers do). There’s no exclusivity clause. You can stack multiple ad networks on one site. Just don’t go crazy and cover your entire page in ads – that’s bad UX and might actually violate the terms of multiple networks.
Question 7: What’s the approval time really like?
I got approved in four days. Some people report 3 days, some report 7. I’d budget for up to two weeks to be safe, but most people approve within a week. The process is automated mostly – they’re checking traffic sources and content type, not doing deep analysis like AdSense does.
Question 8: Are there any hidden fees I should know about?
Not that I’ve found. They take a cut of the revenue (they keep the advertiser cut and pay you the publisher cut), which is standard. Payment processing has minor fees depending on method. But nothing deceptive or hidden. Read the terms and you’ll understand the split.
Question 9: Can I optimize earnings by doing anything special?
Ad placement is huge – I’ve said this multiple times but it’s true. Also, content quality matters. If your content attracts engaged readers, they’re more likely to click ads and Outbrain’s algorithm learns to serve higher-value ads. Writing better content = better CPMs over time. It’s not just about volume.
Is It Worth Your Time?
For me, absolutely. I’m making $300+ per month, passive income. That’s not life-changing money, but it covers hosting costs for all three sites and then some. Setup took like an hour, and ongoing management is just checking in weekly to see if anything needs tweaking.
The real time investment was the first two months, figuring out ad placement and optimization. After that, it’s mostly hands-off.
If you’re in a similar situation to me – good traffic, western audience, and rejected by AdSense – I genuinely think Outbrain is worth testing. Worst case scenario, you make a few dollars and learn something. Best case, you find a consistent revenue stream.
Final Rating
Out of 10? I’d give Outbrain a 7.5 out of 10.
It does what it promises. Payments are reliable. The earnings are real. The experience has been straightforward. But the dashboard is clunky, onboarding could be better, and I feel slightly uncomfortable with some of the clickbaity content. It’s not perfect, but it’s legitimately useful for publishers in my situation.
If you’re desperate for monetization, try it. If you’re curious about alternative ad networks, try it. If you already have good solutions working, you probably don’t need it. That’s honest.
Disclosure: Some links in this article may be affiliate links, and I may receive a commission if you click through and sign up for Outbrain. This doesn’t change my honest assessment – I’ve been paid nothing to write this review, and I’ve reported my actual earnings accurately.
