Why AdSense can be a better choice for a site just starting out.

So often do I get the question "How much money can you make me?" 

That never is an easy answer without any data.   There are so many variables in this industry, that it is impossible to actually guess that number accurately.    However, one thing that is a fact of advertising is that the more traffic volume you have, the more opportunity there is to increase revenue.   

I see many publishers seeking help monetizing when they have just gotten their site off the ground.   They're in a growth phase, and want to get advertising into the mix - and have hopes and dreams of growing revenue by 10-20X to make their new product into a real company that can sustain their life and their staff.    In my opinion, I think what your best bet at this time in the growth phase is to use AdSense.   The thing is, AdSense is the cleanest, least headache ad solution out there.   The "Auto Ads" feature is really slick, the payment cycle is only Net 30 so you get paid faster and you don't have to worry about much in the way of mucking about with Ad Code.

In terms of revenue, if you're only generating 250k pageviews - you won't be making much.   Maybe a few hundred bucks in a month if you're doing well.    Working with a Mediavine, Advally, Whoever - is going to take $100 and turn it into $130.   The idea that it would take $100 and turn it into $1,000 is nonsense - no matter what any sales person tries to tell you.   They are all just following a script and trying to get tags live.   

You want to dump 100% of your time into SEO, social, traffic generation, focusing on the product - anything to generate traffic.   Pour your heart and soul into those things and get that AdSense revenue into the $1,000-$3,000 per month range, and then at that point companies like Advally, Mediavine, Raptive, AdPushup, AdApex, Freestar, etc. are going to actually be able to help.   

The explanation is that Google is the ad provider that has all the Ad Demand that work great for smaller traffic sites.   The 3rd party networks and all the tools and tricks that come with them, really only start to make a big difference at the higher levels of traffic.  The approval processes behind the scenes are mostly still done through email, and the reps at these companies often ignore requests to approve small sites.   

As well, the amount of effort it takes isn't worth it for the Ad Management company when you're taking $100 and turning it into $130 - since all of them take somewhere between 15% and 20%.   If you think about that, 20% of $130 is only $26 / month.    So you can't justify the staff and time necessary to make the improvements... so even when they say their technology is going to do the work - that isn't going to do much and they're just going to ignore it.   If you're at $1,300 per month, the take is $260 so you get more effort.   $13,000 the take is $2,600 per month so you get way more effort and resources assigned.   When you have the best internal resources on your account, that is where you can take $13,000 and turn it into $20,000 or more.   

The idea that technology is what does the work behind the scenes used to be true, but it isn't anymore.  Now, there is a huge amount of manual tiny little work that goes into the optimizations of an ad stack.   That is why there is so little difference between the companies for the most part nowadays.   

We all use roughly the same ad demand, roughly the same technologies, and the fact of the matter is that when there isn't enough traffic - we're all basically just using AdX on your site because it is the only one where you can get approvals really easily for almost any type of site.   The difference between AdX and AdSense is there... but don't expect much more than 15%-30% growth if you are lucky.   

If you want to 10X your revenue, instead of contacting Ad Management companies, work to 6X your traffic and then let an Ad Management company help you get to 10X.