Case study: display ads on a review site — Ezoic vs Mediavine RPM

Case study: display ads on a review site — Ezoic vs Mediavine RPM

A review site debated whether display ads would cannibalize affiliate revenue. They ran a controlled test: ads on half the post types, comparing two ad managers.

Ezoic
Pros: no traffic minimum, AI ad placement, layout testing
Cons: aggressive placements can hurt UX and table visibility

Mediavine
Pros: higher RPM, cleaner placements, strong support
Cons: 50k sessions/mo requirement to even apply

Result: on informational posts, ads added $14 RPM (Mediavine) vs $9 (Ezoic) with negligible affiliate impact. But on money pages with comparison tables, ads cut affiliate clicks 12% — the display revenue didn't cover the lost commission.

Gotcha nobody mentions: Ezoic's auto-placement loved injecting ads inside the comparison table area, pushing the CTA below the fold. They had to manually exclude money-page templates.

My pick: Mediavine RPM if you clear 50k sessions; Ezoic to start. Either way — ads on info posts only, never on table money pages.

Bottom line: display ads pay on info content but tax your money pages 12% — segment by page type or you'll lose net.