Native Advertising & Content Recommendation Easy
Sponsored article widgets and in-feed units that look like your own content and fill where display will not.
- Typical earnings
- $1-5 RPM on top of display
- Per 1,000 visitors
- $1-5 (US, general niche)
- Traffic needed
- From 20k/mo
- Cost to start
- $0
- First payout
- 1-2 months
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Effort
- Mostly passive
- Family
- Advertising revenue
- Metrics
- Widget RPM, Click-through rate, Bounce rate change, Reader complaints
Estimate native advertising & content recommendation earnings for your traffic →
Who pays for native advertising & content recommendation
Networks and programs that send the money, platforms you run it on, and marketplaces where you sell it directly.
📡 Native advertising & content recommendation networks
Media.net#335🧰 Native advertising & content recommendation platforms
🛒 Native advertising & content recommendation marketplaces
Nothing listed yet. Know one?
Native advertising & content recommendation: networks with no traffic minimum
Every minimum compared →Accept new sites from day one; terms improve as you grow
What is Native advertising & content recommendation?
What it is
Native advertising is paid content designed to look like the surrounding page: the "recommended for you" widget under an article, the promoted story in a feed, the sponsored listing among organic ones. Content recommendation networks (Taboola, Outbrain, MGID, Revcontent) supply the widget and the advertisers; you place it and earn per click or per thousand impressions.
How the money flows
Advertisers (often other publishers, e-commerce brands and lead-gen funnels) pay per click for placement in the widget. The network keeps a share and pays you the rest, typically monthly on NET-30 to NET-45 terms with a $50-100 threshold. Because the widget appears after the reader has finished your content, it monetizes an impression display ads usually waste.
What it pays
Widget RPMs of $1-5 per 1,000 pageviews are normal for a US audience, on top of whatever display earns. Sites with huge, cheap traffic in entertainment, news and viral content lean on native because it fills everywhere and its buyers do not care about tier-1 geography as much as display buyers do. The premium tiers (Taboola and Outbrain direct deals) pay more but require hundreds of thousands of monthly pageviews and a clean, news-like site.
Requirements and who pays
Open networks accept sites from a few thousand pageviews after a content review. The big two want scale and brand-safe content. All of them police what advertisers can run to some degree, but the open ones are looser, which is where the clickbait reputation comes from: you can usually block categories, and you should.
Pitfalls
Native pays by sending your reader somewhere else, so it competes with your own related-posts, newsletter sign-up and affiliate calls to action. Put it below those, not above. Check the creatives that actually run on your site every week; one weight-loss ad with a doctored photo does more damage to reader trust than the widget earns in a month. Native is a supplement to display for high-volume sites, not a first method.
Properties Native advertising & content recommendation suits
Pros
- Adds revenue below the article without competing with display units
- High fill, including in countries and niches display buyers ignore
- Accepted on sites that ad management partners reject
Cons
- Low RPM per unit and a reputation for clickbait creatives
- Sends readers away at the moment they finished your article
- Premium networks want 500k+ pageviews; the open ones are less selective about advertisers
Native advertising & content recommendation: frequently asked questions
How much does Native advertising & content recommendation pay?
Typical earnings from native advertising & content recommendation are $1-5 RPM on top of display (about $1-5 per 1,000 visitors for a US-heavy audience in a general niche). Finance, insurance, software and B2B audiences earn several times more than entertainment or gaming; a mostly non-US audience earns a quarter to a half of these figures. Use the calculator on this site for your own traffic and niche.
How much traffic do I need for Native advertising & content recommendation?
It starts to be worth doing at around 20k visitors a month. Cost to start: $0.
How long until the first payout from Native advertising & content recommendation?
Expect the first money in 1-2 months. Difficulty: easy. Mostly passive.
What kind of property does Native advertising & content recommendation work for?
It suits blog / content site, free tool / utility, directory / listing site.
Which metrics should I track for Native advertising & content recommendation?
Widget RPM, Click-through rate, Bounce rate change, Reader complaints.
Who pays me for Native advertising & content recommendation?
This directory lists 7 networks and programs that pay for it, 6 platforms to run it on and 0 marketplaces where you sell it directly. Start with a network or platform that has no traffic minimum; move to the ones with minimums (and better terms) once you qualify.
Methods to combine with Native advertising & content recommendation
All alternatives →
Newsletter Sponsorships Medium
Sell the primary slot, a secondary placement or a classified in each send, priced per thousand opens.
Display Advertising Easy
Banner and responsive ad units sold by the thousand impressions: the default first dollar for any content site.
Sponsored Content & Brand Deals Medium
Brands pay for a post, video, integration or review featuring their product, sold directly or through a creator marketplace.
Podcast Sponsorships & Host-Read Ads Medium
Pre-roll, mid-roll and host-read spots priced per thousand downloads, the highest CPMs in media.
Mobile App Advertising Medium
Rewarded video, interstitials and banners inside an app, auctioned across networks by a mediation layer.
Video Advertising (Instream, Outstream & CTV) Medium
Pre-roll, mid-roll and outstream ads inside a player on your pages or channel, at CPMs several times higher than display.
Compare Native advertising & content recommendation
- Native advertising & content recommendation vs Newsletter sponsorships
- Native advertising & content recommendation vs Display advertising
- Native advertising & content recommendation vs Sponsored content & brand deals
- Native advertising & content recommendation vs Podcast sponsorships & host-read ads
- Native advertising & content recommendation vs Mobile app advertising
Verdict
Native advertising & content recommendation scores 6.4/10 in our advertising revenue ranking. Adds revenue below the article without competing with display units.
Native advertising & content recommendation networks Native advertising & content recommendation platforms Native advertising & content recommendation marketplaces