Outbrain Review 2025 – Earnings vs AdSense, CPM Ads Rates …

This Outbrain review 2025, reviews key functional features and services that will answer some common Outbrain FAQs about the sign up process, Ads, payment and payout procedure, advertiser and publishers options…. At the end of this Outbrain review, you should be able to make up your mind whether to start, continue or quit publishing or advertising with Outbrain. This Outbrain review is independent and this website is not owned by Outbrain neither is this review an outright endorsement of Outbrain services but rather an analytical look into Outbrain as an advertising service.

Outbrain Ad Network Review 2025

Outbrain was founded in 2006 and is a privately held online ad network company. They have offices at their headquarters in 116 E 16th St Fl 12, New York NY 10003, United States.

Outbrain Review for Advertisers

Outbrain is considered reliable and convenient to advertisers. They are cheaper and serve only targeted Ads. Your Ads will only appear on sites with related content for the keywords and phrases you bid for. Another notable thing is that you are allowed to bid for advertising spaces on specific sites you want that display Outbrain Ads. The following are some Outbrain features for advertisers:

• Customized Ads (you can design your own ads).
• Many Ad formats and types to select including for mobile phones.
• Search and Geo-targeted Ads.
• Bid for specific sites you want your Ads to appear on.
• Get a throwback for invalid clicks and impressions.

Signing up as an advertiser on Outbrain is free. Advertising will cost you as low as $10 plus other offers available when you sign up for Outbrain.

Outbrain vs AdWords

For advertisers comparing Outbrain vs Google Adwords, you will notice different in terms of value for money. This is mainly because traffic from Google is usually high quality and conversions are higher since the audience is usually targeted with relevant ads by smart googlebots. Google’s AdSense program also accepts only websites that meet their very high standard requirements compared to alternatives like Outbrain.

Outbrain Review for Publishers

For web publishers (bloggers, website owners, …) Using Outbrain Ads is one of the great ways to monetize your website or blog. Each time a visitor to your website clicks on the Outbrain Ads, you earn some money from the clicks and also from the conversions.

There are many ad formats and types you can select from.

Many publishers that use Outbrain are either banned or were not approved by other top publisher Ad Networks like AdSense. Also if you are currently using AdSense, you can also use Outbrain to increase your revenue from advertising. This is allowed by both Google AdSense and Outbrain so long as you differentiate the two Ads appearances.

Outbrain Publisher Requirements

• Traffic Minimum: 10 million monthly US article pageviews.

• Publisher Language Requirement: None.

• Prohibited Publisher Content: None.

Outbrain Approval Process

You will be able to start promoting their ads as soon as you sign up. As long as you don’t violate any of their publisher terms listed below, you should have no problem entering and staying within the network. Website verification is required in order to prove ownership, as well as phone verification.

Outbrain vs AdSense

When it comes to advertising for publishers when we compare Outbrain vs AdSense, there is clearly a huge gap between them.

Can you use Outbrain Ads and Google AdSense Ads together? The answer is yes. You can show both Outbrain and AdSense ads on the same page. As AdSense states, if you choose to do so, then you should ensure that the two Ads are clearly distinct. How you do it depends on your ingenuity.

In terms of earnings and revenue share there is no doubt that AdSense is far much superior to Outbrain. The Outbrain CPM rates,… are lower than the AdSense rates.

Outbrain Earnings, Payout & Payment Methods

Outbrain earnings payout threshold (amount to earn before withdrawing your Outbrain earnings) is $500 for payments by Direct Deposit via Payoneer.

Signing up for Outbrain is easy. Outbrain sign up is free and takes less than 3 minutes. Outbrain reviews your website after signing up. When you get accepted into their program, you’ll need to paste the Ads HTML codes to your site for the Ads to show. There is more that you’ll learn about Outbrain when you are a publisher. Sign up as a publisher on Outbrain.

How Much Does Outbrain Pay Per Click?

This question is often asked by publishers opting to use Outbrain. Well, since Outbrain serves only search targeted Ads then the amount you get per click depends on the advertisers offers. The more your website attracts more valuable advertisers that compete for an Ad space the more you will earn. Earnings can start from as low as 0.05 per click or cpm Ads rates of $1 also depending on conversions.

What Constitutes a Conversion?

A completed conversion will depend on the type of ad that it originates from. In most cases, a conversion will involve the user completing a form, joining or signing up for a website, subscription, trial or service, or purchasing a product through the ad.

You will receive revenue for both the click and the conversion when the user completes both actions. If they do not complete the full requirements that the advertiser sets, you will still receive the revenue for the click but not for the partial conversion. Higher click through rates (CTR) lead to more conversions that lead to higher CPM rates which lead to more earnings. That’s basically how you earn per click or per 1000 impressions.

How does Outbrain operate?

Publisher websites generating at least a million monthly page views can display sponsored content links that may earn them incremental revenue with Outbrain. The theory behind sponsored content is simple: publishers link out to other websites, getting compensated for each click generated.

Sponsored content networks such as Outbrain, Taboola, and Adblade act as the middlemen between the publishers and advertisers (who are usually other publishers themselves in this case), with their algorithms driving the recommendations (i.e., which sponsored links are displayed on which sites).

Outbrain Pros

Here are some of the pros of Outbrain web hosting service:

• Easy to Use: Outbrain was created with the beginner in mind. The entire service, from start to finish, is intuitive. There is no learning curve. You’ll make the most of the service the first time you use it.

• Intuitive Interface: The entire design of Outbrain is pleasing. It’s easy to navigate and find the tools/information you’re looking for. The control panel is especially intuitive, allowing you to create great ads in no time at all.

• Customized Color Scheme and Ad Placement: Most displaying advertising networks don’t give many options when it comes to placing ads. Not so with Outbrain. The service allows you to customize each ads color scheme as well as its placement on your website.

• Excellent Customer Support: Our favorite aspect of Outbrain is their excellent customer support. We really can’t understand why more companies don’t follow suit. Have a question? It’s easy to contact a live representative by email or phone. And when you do reach them, they actually know what they’re talking about.

Outbrain Cons

There aren’t many cons to using Outbrain. Yet the display advertising network does have a few. These include its low earning potential and poor ad relevancy. We look at each of these cons in greater detail below:

• High Minimum Payment.

• Low Earning Potential: The fact is that the earnings per click on Outbrain are fairly low. You must have a lot of traffic or a very high click-through ratio to realize solid earnings. Unfortunately, this seems to be the case with almost every program that isn’t AdSense. So you just have to take it with a grain of salt.

Who is Outbrain Best For?

Outbrain is a decent Ads service. It’s great for:

• Large websites looking to increase advertising revenue by combining Outbrain Ads with AdSense ones.
• Sites with traffic but have been banned or suspended from Google AdSense program.

You can read this Google AdSense guide to learn more about the program

Outbrain Support

Excellent customer support is one of the factors that helps Outbrain stand out from the pack. It’s much easier to talk to a support team member than most other display advertising networks, including Google AdSense.

They can be contacted 24/7 via Phone, Twitter, and Email. Their response time is usually less than a minute.

Verdict on Outbrain

There isn’t any reason not to give Outbrain a chance. It can be very effective when used by the right person on the right website. Yet don’t expect it to be your savior if you were booted off of AdSense.

Outbrain is a smart ad network to use to complement other ad networks or to use while waiting to get approved by them. It’s quick and easy to set up so you don’t have to invest a lot of time upfront. Approval is likewise quick and just about every website will be accepted.

All in all, Outbrain is worth checking out. It’s one of the better alternatives to Google AdSense, although it still has a long way to go to catch up. It will be interesting to see how this particular ad network evolves in the future as its popularity increases. Click here to get started.

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Overall Rating  3.9/5.0 ★★★★

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