Best Ad Networks for Bloggers in 2025: How to Monetize with Display Ads
A long-form, narrative-driven guide exploring ad networks for bloggers, blending story, experience, and practical insight.
There’s a familiar kind of silence you hear in many Indian homes late at night, after the ceiling fans settle into their soft hum and the roads outside finally calm down. It’s the silence I used to write in. Sometimes with a cup of chai next to me, sometimes with the dim yellow light of a study lamp, sometimes while waiting for a late-night power cut to end so I could continue working on my blog.
I remember one of those nights particularly well—the night I applied for my first ad network. The blog was still new, held together by a handful of posts I had written between work, family routines, and the everyday rhythms of life that most of us juggle here. It didn’t feel like a project worth monetizing yet, but something inside me insisted that I take the first step.
The approval came quietly the next morning. No fanfare. No dramatic change. But it meant something. It felt like the internet’s way of saying, “Alright, let’s see where this goes.”
And in that small but powerful way, monetization became my next chapter.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably somewhere along that same path—wondering which ad network makes sense, which one pays well, and which one aligns with where your blog stands right now. The truth is that ad networks aren’t ladders you climb—they’re milestones in your growth as a writer and creator.
Before we go deeper, if you’re still piecing together your blog’s foundation, this might help:
How to Create a Blog
Once your basics are set, the journey usually begins the same way it began for me.
Google AdSense: The Quiet Beginning Most of Us Start With
AdSense rarely feels impressive when you first encounter it. Especially if you’re in India, where early earnings can feel tiny—sometimes so tiny that you wonder if something is wrong. But that’s the thing: AdSense isn’t meant to impress you in the beginning. It’s meant to teach you.
When my site was approved, I saw my first ad tucked between two paragraphs. It reminded me of those small classified ads in local newspapers—humble, almost shy. Yet I stared at it longer than I expected, because it represented something real: my words were now connected to a system larger than me.
AdSense teaches you about your audience:
- where they come from
- which posts they stay on
- which countries influence RPM
- how your formatting affects impressions
It teaches you patience. It teaches you rhythm.
And eventually, it teaches you that beginnings aren’t meant to be profitable—they’re meant to be grounding.
But as you grow, you begin sensing that your blog wants more. That’s usually when Ezoic enters the picture.
Ezoic: When Your Blog Starts Showing Momentum
I still remember the first time I opened Ezoic’s dashboard. It felt like entering the control room of a railway station—so many switches, graphs, and moving parts. A little overwhelming at first, but also strangely thrilling.
Unlike AdSense, Ezoic doesn’t just place ads. It experiments. It adjusts to your audience like a system that is paying close attention. It runs tests quietly in the background, learning how different visitors interact with your pages. If AdSense is a polite neighbor, Ezoic is the curious engineer trying to optimize your home.
And if you’re in India, you’ll quickly notice something interesting:
Indian traffic earns modestly everywhere, but Ezoic helps squeeze more value than AdSense ever could.
There were evenings when my site felt slow because I toggled something I didn’t fully understand—any Indian blogger using Ezoic has gone through this pain at least once. But with patience came clarity. My earnings became more meaningful. My audience insights became sharper.
Ezoic is the stage where your blog stops being a hobby and becomes a system.
And once you reach a certain point, you begin hearing whispers of a network with bigger possibilities.
Mediavine.
Mediavine: The Moment Your Blog Feels Like a Real Publication
You know how some Indian cafés have this unspoken charm—wooden tables, old fans turning lazily, the mid-evening aroma of coffee filling the room? I once sat at such a café with a blogger who had just joined Mediavine. She talked about it not as a business upgrade, but as a quiet validation that her work had matured.
Her traffic had crossed the fifty-thousand-sessions mark, most of it coming during odd hours when her readers were looking for recipes before dinner or searching for parenting tips after their kids slept. She described the Mediavine approval email the way someone describes reaching the last page of a long-awaited book.
When I eventually reached that threshold myself, I understood the emotional weight behind her story.
Mediavine feels different.
Subtle ads.
Cleaner layouts.
A sense of partnership.
Better RPMs, especially if you have US or global readers alongside Indian traffic.
This is the stage where your blog stops feeling fragile. It begins to feel sturdy—like something you can invest in long term.
And once you’re there, one final peak eventually appears on the horizon.
Raptive: The High Plateau That Many Bloggers Dream Of
Raptive is the network that feels like a quiet summit. Not loud. Not flashy. Just… earned.
By the time bloggers join Raptive, they’ve already experienced seasons of growth, slowdown, frustration, and renewal. They’ve written during lunch breaks, during late-night moments when the rest of the house is asleep, during monsoon afternoons when power fluctuations interrupt everything except their determination.
I once spoke with a blogger who reached Raptive after nearly a decade of writing. Her blog had grown slowly but steadily, surviving algorithm changes, content rewrites, and a thousand small adjustments that only she truly understood. When her acceptance arrived, she didn’t celebrate loudly. She just smiled the way someone smiles when a long, patient journey finally finds its destination.
Raptive is not just about money. It’s about maturity. It’s about writing that has grown roots.
But even at this level, one truth remains—the reader is the heart of everything.
The Turning Point Most Bloggers Miss
There’s a moment in every blogger’s life that doesn’t come with fireworks. It’s when you open your analytics one random evening—maybe while sipping chai, maybe while the house feels unusually quiet—and you see something steady. Not a spike. Not a viral moment.
Just… steadiness.
Readers returning.
Visitors staying.
Sessions rising gently like the early morning light.
This is the moment most bloggers underestimate. It’s the first real sign that your blog is maturing. And ad networks respond to that maturity.
Your earnings rise because:
- readers scroll more
- readers trust you
- your writing has rhythm
- your posts guide people naturally
This is the magic that no technical tweak can replicate.
A Visual Glimpse of How Monetization Grows
This simple Chart.js graph reflects a pattern that many Indian bloggers eventually see—growth is slow, then suddenly steep once content begins to flow consistently.
Internal Links for Your Next Steps
Build Your Foundation
Set up your blog correctly from day one. It makes monetization smoother and faster.
Start Your Blog →Understand Monetization
Ads are just one part of blogging income. Explore deeper, sustainable methods.
Explore Strategies →Final Thoughts
Ad networks are not trophies. They’re companions that join you at the stage you’re ready for.
AdSense joins you in your earliest, most uncertain nights—the ones where you write quietly while the world sleeps.
Ezoic joins you when your blog starts showing signs of life, when you’re experimenting and learning.
Mediavine joins you when your blog becomes a place readers trust.
Raptive joins you when your blog becomes a part of your life’s rhythm.
In the end, monetization doesn’t come from settings or networks.
It comes from consistency, clarity, and the willingness to keep writing—
even on the quiet nights when only the ceiling fan is awake.
