AdsOptimal Review – Best Google AdSense Alternative

AdsOptimal Review – I will start this review by making a very controversial statement that a lot of people may or may not agree with. Often people wonder about the best ad network that can help them earn money from their website or their blog. While it has been heavily criticized for several reasons, the fact remains that the answer to that question is still Google AdSense. They are still the best paying ad network due to multiple reasons which I will cover in a different article but the next big question then is; what if you are not able to get an AdSense account? What if every time you tried, Google ended up rejecting your application? What if you were accepted before but your account got banned later? It happens with a lot of people, happened with me as well the first time I tried. It is hard to get accepted by Google and if you too are among the rejected lot, then you got to try some other ad network. So which is the best Google AdSense alternative? The answer to that question is AdsOptimal.

What is AdsOptimal?

AdsOptimal is an online ad network based out of San Francisco, California. Established in 2012, they claim to be the best solution for monetizing your content on mobile platforms. This publisher program is great for mobile publishers to monetize their apps and sites. AdsOptimal is designed and optimized for mobile sites. They make the ad load faster and make it easier to read on various smart device screens. Why this is important is because web traffic now is no longer limited to desktop users and actually in some cases, mobile traffic is even more than the desktop traffic. You cannot just work towards optimizing your website for desktop users anymore and got to pay a close attention towards monetizing mobile traffic as well. AdsOptimal optimizes your traditional banner to look more suitable on a mobile device, either a mobile phone or a tablet. The ads can fit any mobile device irrespective of template.

Why are they the best Google AdSense alternative?

To answer this question, I will go back to my statement of Google AdSense still being the best online ad network. The reason why I say this, agree or not, is because they still have the largest pool of advertisers so chances of seeing a relevant ad in a contextual ad banner are still highest with them. AdsOptimal is the best AdSense alternative because they are partners with AdSense, DFP (Double click for publishers) by Google. So once you start working with AdsOptimal, the ads appearing on your blog will be of Google AdSense itself. They are also partners with many other reputed ad networks like with Criteo so depending on your content, you can rest assured that people will only see high quality and relevant ads on your WebPages.

Do their ads only work on Mobile devices?

While their repeated claims and statements related to mobile platforms can create this confusion, the fact is that they work equally well for both desktop and mobile users. It is true though that their ad strategy is more towards monetizing the mobile traffic but their inline ads work equally well for desktop users too. They in my opinion work pretty much on the same lines as Google AdSense.

AdsOptimal Pros

• Easy Signup: Their approval process is quite an easy one as long as your website is complying with their terms and conditions. There is no minimum page views each month, certain age of the domain name etc required so if you have just started a new website and not quite getting a heavy traffic already, AdsOptimal is perfect for you. Their only requirement is that your website must have legal, objection free & non porn related content.
• Joining Bonus: This is definitely a great add on that not many ad networks offer. Based on the approval status, your account receives $5 for non-premium websites, additional $10 for a premium website and an additional $5 as soon as you implement their ad code on your website. I will cover the premium and non-premium websites status further in this article.
• No change in website layout required: Since they pride themselves in targeting the mobile users more, one would think that there maybe a change involved in website theme or layout but rest assured there is none. There is no responsive layout requirement for re-formatting your current website into a mobile-optimized form. Their ads will work well with your current theme or layout.
• Premium Traffic: There is no high criteria as such for accessing the premium traffic. Unlike some other ad networks, AdsOptimal will run Premium ads on your website as long as you have a decent enough traffic.
• Easy Plug-In: This is another great feature for people who are not well versed with WordPress coding or changing the templates. They have a plug in much like AdSense which after installing will automatically insert the ads on your websites in a matter of few clicks and a few seconds.
• Low Payout Threshold: Their minimum payout threshold is only $50 as compared to $100 for AdSense and several other reputed ad networks.
• High Quality Ads: Their ads are very safe, always non-porn related, no redirects and malware free.
• Ad Sizes: Supports multiple ad sizes, optimized for both mobile devices and desktop.
• Referral Program: A competitive referral program. Earn 10% revenues of your referrals for one year. A 30 days cookie window applies and you will be notified on email when your referrals sign up.
• Good CPM Rates: I will just break this into numbers. If your account stats is Gold and you are getting 1000 visitors each day, you can easily make at least $1 for this amount of traffic. More the traffic, more the money.

Well this was on the Pros side. Let us take a look at a few cons as well.

• Account Break Up: They have a certain criteria for breaking the accounts in Bronze, Silver and Gold that publishers are not made aware of. I believe this criteria is based on Alexa ranking, daily traffic etc but Whatever it is, the premium and high paying ads are mostly available to Gold accounts only. Access to premium content is severely limited for Bronze account holders.

• Payout: They will tell you that they have a bi-monthly payout but this sometimes can get extended to 30 days.
• Long approval process: They can take several days, and sometimes even weeks, to review and approve your application. In my case, they took good 3 weeks before finally accepting my website.
• Terrible Customer Service: This is the worst part. Their customer service is terribly terrible. My account status is “Gold” and even then, so far I haven’t received a response from them even once, on any of my queries. I tried following up a few times but they simply just do not respond, at all.

Let us cover some basics as well about AdsOptimal before you decide whether or not to join, or click on the link below to go to AdsOptimal to sign up.

Sign Up With AdsOptimal

Commission Type: CPM, Mobile
Minimum Payout: $ 50
Payment Frequency:   Request
Payment Method:  Paypal, Check

Requirements for sites or apps to join AdsOptimal ad network

• The sites must not host any objectionable content like adult or spam.
• Only site owners are eligible to apply for the publisher program.
• The publishers must not use bots or software to generate fake traffic.

Don’ts

• The publishers must not modify the ad code.
• The publishers must not click on their own ads or encourage others.
• The publishers must not use bots to manipulate clicks and impressions.

Ad Formats

The publishers have access to the following ad formats : 360° virtual reality ads, page-level ads, inline ads, smart bottom ads and video ads.

Payment

The publishers get paid on request basis. The minimum payout is $50 when paid via PayPal and check.

Referral Program

The publishers can make 10% referral commission referring others. The publishers can share the referral links on social channels or mail potential users.

My final verdict would be that AdsOptimal is a great ad network that you must give a try. If you were not accepted by Google AdSense or your account got banned later, sign up for AdsOptimal. It is a great AdSense alternative and you would be surprised to know that even though they run AdSense ads, you will get paid more with them than AdSense.

I hope this information was helpful. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in comments section below and I would be glad to respond. If you have worked with with AdsOptimal or know of a network that is better, you are most welcome to share feedback.