Getting Started with Journey by Mediavine

Oh, hi.

Welcome to a new era of website monetization.

The excitement we’ve witnessed since launching Journey by Mediavine — from publishers, advertisers and our internal teams — has been incredible, reinforcing our belief that we’re delivering this new ad solution right when content creators need it most.

For now we thought it would be helpful if we took some time to answer the most pressing questions about Journey: What it is, how it’s different, and why it’s important.

So let’s get into it.

What is Journey?

Journey by Mediavine is a new ad management solution for growing websites.

Powered by Mediavine’s first-in-class ad technology, it has been designed and built from the ground up as a solution for smaller publishers and those at the start of their creator career.

Why is Mediavine launching Journey?

Our mission has always been to help content creators build sustainable businesses. Now we’re helping creators start them, too. Journey is us doubling down on our mission by supporting creators even earlier in their path to success.

What is the difference between Journey and Mediavine?

We want publishers to be able to monetize their sites while growing them and advancing to the highest levels we have to offer. Journey is a starting point, not a final destination.

Journey by Mediavine will offer publishers with smaller websites full access to all of our first-party data and identity solutions, as well as ad tech that’s optimized for speed and user experience.

Publishers will have fewer controls and reporting in their Journey Dashboards. For instance, Journey publishers won’t have as much flexibility regarding certain ad placements, and they will need to embed video content hosted on another platform, like YouTube or Vimeo.

Journey is also a self-service offering with automated onboarding.

On the monetization side — and this is big — Journey is an entirely separate offering for advertisers. We’re working with many of the same great ad partners who currently buy on Mediavine sites, but by keeping Journey and Mediavine separate in the ad exchanges, brands have more choice in where to spend their money to reach their target audiences.

If I’m close to Mediavine’s threshold, do I apply to Journey now or wait?

Yes, please apply! Why wait to monetize?

When you’re running Journey ads, we’ll let you know when you’re close to the Mediavine threshold so that we can go through any additional site reviews that come with making that move. The goal is that by the time you hit that session mark, the transition will be a smooth one.

Get started by installing Grow — which can help you grow your traffic more quickly — while we accumulate the 30 days of info we need for approval. 

How do I get started with Journey?

Getting started with Journey is easy. Simply create a Grow account, install the Grow plug-in on your site, and follow the prompts to apply for Journey. You’ll need to run Grow on your site for a minimum of 30 days, so the sooner you get started, the better! We’ll use Grow to evaluate your site and reach out when you’re ready to run ads.

Curious about Grow? Advertisers pay more when they know who they’re talking to, so Grow helps identify your readers, increase your traffic and future-proof your site.

You’re welcome to run GA4, or another analytics tool of your choice, but they are not required to be considered for Journey ad management.

If you already have Grow installed on your site, simply log in to your Grow account and apply for Journey now.

How old does my site have to be to apply for Journey?

Our Mediavine ad partners require at least four months of domain history before being able to bid on a new site. Because we’re working with some of the same ad partners, we expect this to stay the same, but we’ll be sure to let you know if anything changes.

While your site ages, you can still run Grow. And we recommend that you do. 

Running Grow from the start helps increase your traffic through its suite of engagement features while gathering the information we need to evaluate your site. We can start running ads once your site is ready — and we want that to be as soon as possible — when and if Grow has been active during this four-month waiting period.

What is the revenue share for Journey?

Publishers with sites on Journey will receive a 70% revenue share, and like Mediavine will be paid on a Net 65 schedule. As your site traffic increases and you progress through our other ad management solutions, like Mediavine or PubNation, your revenue share can increase, too — all the way up to 90%!

What will Journey revenue be like?

Starting in mid-April, Journey ads will launch in beta and we’ll continuously add more sites throughout the year. Newer sites take longer to ramp up so we are expecting metrics, like revenue, to increase as we move through the beta period. We’ll be monitoring this continuously as we add more sites. 

Is Journey available for sites written in languages other than English? What’s the traffic source criteria?

Journey by Mediavine is proud to work with publishers around the world, and having an English-language site is not a requirement. If you live outside the US, this Help Article should help you better understand Journey by Mediavine as an international publisher.

We know this FAQ isn’t an exhaustive list, but we do hope it provides at least a few answers. 

For more information about Journey, check out our Help Center.