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.

Advertising revenue · Blog YouTube Free tool

7.4editor score

Plan around it

Typical earnings: $10-35 RPM on pages with a player
Per 1,000 visitors: $10-35 (US, general niche)
Traffic needed: From 25k/mo
Cost to start: $0-100/mo (player or hosting)
First payout: 2-3 months
Difficulty: Medium
Effort: Mostly passive
Family: Advertising revenue
Metrics: Video RPM, Player viewability, Completion rate, Play rate

Estimate video advertising earnings for your traffic →

Who pays for video advertising

Networks and programs that send the money, platforms you run it on, and marketplaces where you sell it directly.

📡 Video advertising networks

Raptive (formerly AdThrive)#6.8k

Mediavine#3.3k

Journey by Mediavine#11k

Freestar#277k

Playwire#10k

Ezoic#16k All 19 →

🧰 Video advertising platforms

BigcapitalOpen source All 8 →

🛒 Video advertising marketplaces

Nothing listed yet. Know one?

Video advertising: networks with no traffic minimum

Every minimum compared →

Accept new sites from day one; terms improve as you grow

Ezoic 📡 NetworkFree

Machine-learning ad testing and header bidding for sites of any size, from zero traffic upward.

#16k web rank · no minimum

7.6 Visit ↗

ExoClick 📡 NetworkFree

The largest adult-focused ad network, also serving mainstream: banners, pops, push, video, native; weekly payouts.

#12k web rank · no minimum

7.0 Visit ↗

TrafficStars 📡 NetworkFree

Adult ad exchange with banners, pops, push, native and video; NET-7 weekly payouts.

#11k web rank · no minimum

6.6 Visit ↗

HilltopAds 📡 NetworkFree

Pop, push, video and display for mainstream and adult traffic, weekly NET-7 payouts.

#246k web rank · ▲ 11k this week · no minimum

6.1 Visit ↗

Clickadu 📡 NetworkFree

Pop-under, push, in-page push, video and banner formats with weekly payouts; strong in entertainment and utilities.

#98k web rank · no minimum

5.9 Visit ↗

What is Video advertising?

What it is

Video advertising sells ads inside or around a video player. Instream ads run before, during or after video content the reader chose to watch, and command the highest prices. Outstream units are players that appear in the text of an article, autoplay muted, and show an ad with little or no editorial video around them. Connected TV (CTV) extends the same demand to streaming apps. On YouTube the platform sells the ads and pays a share; on your own site, a video network or your ad management partner brings the demand.

How the money flows

Buyers pay per thousand completed or viewable video impressions. The network or partner takes 20-40% and pays with the rest of your ad revenue, monthly. Google's video demand, Amazon's, and the specialist SSPs are the main sources; most publishers reach them through Mediavine, Raptive, Playwire, Freestar or a video-specific network such as Primis, Vidazoo or ExMarketPlace.

What it pays

Instream video CPMs of $15-40 are normal for US audiences where display units earn $2-5, so a page with a genuinely watched player can add $10-35 per 1,000 pageviews. Outstream and content-library players (the partner supplies generic clips) earn far less per impression but require nothing from you; publishers report $3-10 RPM from them, with the cost of slower pages and irritated readers.

Requirements and who pays

Video networks generally want 25k-100k monthly pageviews and majority tier-1 traffic, though the managed ad partners include video for any site they accept. You also need somewhere to host video if it is your own: YouTube embeds do not pay you for pre-rolls on your site, only on YouTube.

Pitfalls

Most of the money is in instream, which means making video people want to watch, which is a content decision, not an ad-ops one. If you bolt an outstream player onto text articles, lazy-load it, mute it, keep it off mobile above the fold, and measure whether time on page and return visits fall. A 20% RPM lift is not worth a 20% drop in readers.

pre-roll outstream instream video player ctv

Properties Video advertising suits

Pros

Video CPMs run 3-10x display CPMs for the same audience
Managed partners provide the player and the video content if you have none
Adds a unit that does not compete with display slots

Cons

An autoplaying player with unrelated content is the most hated ad format on the web
Heavy on page weight and battery; needs lazy loading and a mute default
Instream demand wants real, watched video; outstream and "video content libraries" pay a fraction

Video advertising: frequently asked questions

How much does Video advertising pay?

Typical earnings from video advertising are $10-35 RPM on pages with a player (about $10-35 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 Video advertising?

It starts to be worth doing at around 25k visitors a month. Cost to start: $0-100/mo (player or hosting).

How long until the first payout from Video advertising?

Expect the first money in 2-3 months. Difficulty: medium. Mostly passive.

What kind of property does Video advertising work for?

It suits blog / content site, youtube / video channel, free tool / utility.

Which metrics should I track for Video advertising?

Video RPM, Player viewability, Completion rate, Play rate, Page speed impact.

Who pays me for Video advertising?

This directory lists 19 networks and programs that pay for it, 8 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.